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Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Today we have two of the most often quoted pieces of scripture. First is Paul’s unqualified description of grace: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” This concept of grace was instrumental during the age of the Reformation and helped shape the understanding of many people and traditions as to the nature of grace versus works, including our own Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker. Probably the one who stated it the clearest, however, was that frustrated Augustinian monk named Martin Luther as he explored his understanding of God’s grace and human works.
The other quote has taken on something of a cult following in American popular culture. How many of you have been watching a football game or other sporting event and there in the background is some person holding a big sign: “John 3:16?” This is it: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
This idea of grace and the love of God in sending Jesus into our world are two of the foundational pieces of Christianity. These thoughts are echoed elegantly in our Eucharistic Prayer: “…didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world…” As well as, “…beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion.”
This is one of the gifts of our Prayer Book, in it we have not just prayers to help us in our daily life, but we have prayers that hold up the theology and teaching of the church. We pray what we believe and we believe what we pray. Praying shapes believing. Our faith is formed and fed by the prayers and liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer.
We also sing our theology, our prayers, our faith. As one person noted, the one who sings prays twice. For our Offertory we will sing the great anthem to God’s grace, “Amazing Grace,” written by John Newton, a repentant English slave ship captain.
Later for the Post-Communion hymn we will sing one of my favorite hymns about grace. As you sing it listen carefully to the words of Brian Wren, one of the great hymn writers of our day. “…he calls and claims us as his friends and loves us as we are….he sees not labels but a face, a person, and a name…thus freely loved though fully known…” (Hymnal 603)
This is lived out liturgically in baptism. The person is called by name and baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and then anointed and sealed as Christ’s own forever. We are called, claimed and sealed as friends of Christ, beloved of God. We will act this out liturgically at the Great Vigil of Easter.
For me these words summarize most succinctly the essence of grace, “thus freely loved though fully known.” God knows my going out and my coming in. God knows all there is about me from noon to the midnight hour. Yet, God loves me. As was shared at WOW, God loves you and there is nothing you cannot do about it. That is the grace of God alive and animated in our life. God’s love for you is unqualified, unbounded, unrestricted and eternal.
To help understand the theology of grace, I often use this example to show what we mean by such words as justice and mercy and grace. Justice is getting what you deserve. We all want justice in our life. We want life to be fair, just, right. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. We all hope for mercy when we know we have been wrong or done something inappropriate of wrong. We know the term, to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. We all hope for mercy. Finally, grace is getting what we do not deserve. There is nothing in my life, my world, my works, my ministry or experience as a human being that makes me deserving of God’s saving grace for me. Nothing. As Paul writes so boldly, it is “…a gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” There is absolutely nothing I can boast of for the grace of God in my life. The Almighty of Heaven and Earth has stooped down and lifted up the whole of my life through the grace and love of his Son, Jesus Christ as he was lifted upon the cross.
Please remember this day what justice, mercy and grace mean to you. Justice: getting what you deserve. Mercy: not getting what you deserve. Grace: getting what you do not deserve.