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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Just Accept It
By Rev. Jerry Herships
2 Corinthians 12:9
9My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"
Like so many people who create, I run into what artist call writer’s block. Every Tuesday morning I stare at a blank sheet of paper and try to figure out what I think I have to say that might be useful for all of you this week, me included. I also sit and pray and try to listen to what it is that I think God wants us to know this week. I don’t listen for a literal voice. I just try to sit quietly (as quietly as I can) and see where my thoughts take me. Sometimes it is nowhere. Sometimes it is to a song or a book or to absolutely nothing of importance.
This week I kept coming back to an idea and concept that I think God wants us to get and to get deeply. It flies in the face of a lot of churches, even though they may say it doesn’t. It is in many ways the cornerstone of what we believe here at AfterHours and I think it is central to both Methodism and to Christianity as a whole. I would also dare say it is what I would preach about if I was only given one topic to preach on for the rest of my preaching days.
It’s grace.
You have heard me speak of grace before and I am starting to realize, that whether we preachers want to admit it or not, we have favorite themes. We have thoughts and concepts that keep coming back to us. For some of us it might be social justice. For others it might be sacrifice or high commitment. For others it might be a sense of awe in the world. I realize that for me, grace seems to be a concept that keeps coming back to me again and again. Now I don’t know if that’s because I need to get it or you need to get it, but either way, it keeps coming back. It is probably because I believe that if you get the idea of grace you are pretty close to getting the whole package. I also think it is something that we desperately need more of in the world.
It is worthwhile to note that the Greek word used in the Bible for grace is Charis, pronounced khar'-ece, has an interesting definition in one of our church reference books. It says that grace is, "The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.” The Greek word charis is related to two other Greek/English words. The first one is charisma, a special spiritual endowment or influence, and the second is character, an engraving, stamp or mark indicating the genuineness of something.
In other words, grace is given by God to develop characteristics in harmony with God's character. This implies that grace is given to us to develop such God like characteristics. Another way of looking at it is that grace is given to enable such character changes to come about. The more we accept God’s grace, the more we give grace to others thereby reflecting God’s character.
I do the chapel service about every other week at St. Andrew. We take our liturgy, our order of the worship service right out of the hymnal. There is an outline of worship right on page six. One of the best things about that service is that it starts with these words: “May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” And the people say, “and also with you.” We sometimes sort of throw away those words or don’t think too deeply about them but I think they are so important and what a wonderful thing to wish for each other. Is there any better gift than THE GRACE AND PEACE OF GOD?
Grace is often defined as undeserved mercy. But I think it is bigger than that. It is mentioned 170 times in the Bible so it must be a big deal. I think of it as an unconditional love that God gives to us and in turn God wants us to give to each other. We are told to love others as God has loved us. We see it in John 13:34 when Jesus tells us to do just that. It says, “…love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” This section ends with Jesus telling us that when we do this, people will know who we are…followers of Jesus Christ.
I am amazed how hard it is for most people to believe, down to their bones, how much God loves us, me included. I think part of this reason is that so often we try to present our best selves to the world but many times we feel like the world doesn’t always see the real us. I think the thinking behind this is: “if the world saw the real me, they would run in the other direction.” I try to do my best, but none of you see all of me. Laura sees a lot more of me than just about anyone and she can tell you, it isn’t pretty. It isn’t always the well polished version of a preacher you see standing before you now. I have some serious faults. There are parts of me I am less than proud of. If you saw all of me, you wouldn’t be too impressed.
I think this is probably true for all of us to one degree or another. We all have our public side and our private side. There are parts of us that very few see. We can all be selfish and materialistic and mean and self loathing, not what one would call stellar qualities. No one gets to see ALL of us, except God.
God sees every single part of us even the times we lie and make snide remarks and are catty and self-serving. Here is what is so amazing. God sees ALL sides of us and loves us more than anyone! Everyone else has just seen the good parts and they don’t love us HALF as much! God sees and loves us in all of our imperfections. God knows we aren’t prefect and God still loves us in that imperfection.
This grace is a cornerstone of Methodist theology. It is NOT the cornerstone of every Christian theology. Maybe you were brought up in a church that focused on God’s wrath and “the fall” and Adam screwing it up for everyone in Genesis Two, instead of the God in Genesis One and God’s affirmation of human’s goodness. Remember after God created humans, God said this isn’t just good. God said this is VERY GOOD.
I am currently reading, If God is Love, by Quaker Pastor, Phil Gulley. I have mentioned some of his other books before and I think he is a great author. He makes a great statement on page 37 when he says: “When we see ourselves as God sees us, our transformation begins.”
God does not see us as perfect, but God loves us anyway. Can we learn to see ourselves as less than perfect and love ourselves anyway? We are pretty good with the first half of the equation…we can see ourselves as less than perfect. It’s usually the loving ourselves anyway part that tends to trip us up.
The Psalmist thinks pretty highly of us. There it says we have been made a little lower that God, and crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). We could do worse than being just “a little lower than God.”
The New Testament has some nice things to say about us too. In John Jesus tells us that when we believe in him we will do the works that Jesus does and in fact do GREATER works than these! (John 14:12). While this sounds incredible, haven’t we seen this in our own lives? Haven’t we seen an amazing outpouring of compassion and mercy after earthquakes and floods and hurricanes? Haven’t we seen amazing acts of love and kindness when a church family rallies around a family that has a child in the hospital? Don’t we see it every week when we gather here, not just to pray for the things that we want, but to reach out in a tangible way to help others that many of us will never meet? If we keep our eyes open, we can chose to focus on people doing Jesus’ works day in and day out. We can be amazing.
When we see ourselves as God sees us, our transformation begins.
It is easy to beat ourselves up. For some of us we came from a home where this was common place. We went to schools and had teachers that told us we weren’t good enough. We attended churches that reinforced that God was angry with us and don’t do anything to upset God any more. Some religions and Pastors have come right out and told us we are unworthy. They have shoved this divine rejection down our throats. This holy anger of God has been what some of us were raised with. NO WONDER we have a hard time loving ourselves! How do we love something that we’ve been told even GOD is having a hard time loving?
I am here to tell you that in my book that just isn’t true.
What is especially great about God’s love is that it is not earned. Can we just relax and accept it? Philip Yancey (I must like authors named Phil!) in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, states it this way, “There is nothing we can do that will make God love us more. There is nothing we can do that will make God love us less.” No amount of going to church, saying our prayers, and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. No amount of money you donate or thank you cards you write or going to Sunday School. Those things don’t add to God’s love for you because nothing can. God already loves you as much as possible.
And, by the way, all the lousy stuff you do (you know what it is, I’m not going to spell it out for you) doesn’t take away from God’s love of you. God wants you to be your very best, but that doesn’t mean when you aren’t, God holds back the love.
GOD’S LOVE DEPENDS ON NOTHING WE DO.
This is what we hear today in Paul’s message. We are told that God’s grace is sufficient. When we read, “For my power is made perfect in weakness,” God is telling us, stop relying on ourselves so much. It is often out of our weakness that we find ourselves HAVING to rely on God’s grace. Often our weakness forces us to realize that God is in control. We don’t have to “perform” for God. The Beatles told us, Love is all you need. God is telling us here that Grace is all you need! Nothing more or less will win God over or make God turn away.
So make the sandwiches, and write the thank you cards and come to church and say your prayers. But don’t do it to win God’s favor. That game is already won. Just accept it.
See yourself as God sees you and watch your transformation begin. May the Grace and Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you…Amen.