I’ve had several requests to read the message I delivered last Sunday so I figured this would be as good a forum as any to share it. So here it goes. Keep in mind, this is a piece of me and I am opening myself up in many ways. If you don’t agree, that is fine, I don’t require that, but also please be gentle with comments.
We are preparing to go down to Indy tomorrow with my mom. Many of you know she has an inoperable brain tumor. However, the past few weeks have been very hard on her, with many horrific headaches. Her neurosurgeon has decided it is necessary to do another cranioscopy only this time on her right side. This is to help save her right eye (she has already lost much function) and to relieve pressure to stop or at least lessen the headaches. She goes in tomorrow at 9 for testing & then 12 for the surgery. She is not nearly as strong as what she was 3 years ago, when they did the left side. That surgery was also very rough on her. She doesn’t even remember being in the hospital, but knows she had it done. She also had severe motor skill loss that she had to re-learn. I’m praying that this one is not as traumatic, but she only has the right side left and so therefore already has diminished capacity to relearn everything. Perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a molehill….
OK, so here it is, it is a bit long…. Forgetfulness….Salvation…. Grace
Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I've become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can't do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I've become
Those are the lyrics to a Rush of Fools song that came to mind when I was working on this. But we humans are such a stubborn lot. We would rather concentrate on “doing the right thing”, “being the right thing” and “saying the right thing” that we forget our salvation isn’t dependent on our works, but on our faith. Faith in His love & grace. Instead, we rather would have our salvation be dependent on atonement and doing enough, because it somehow seems simpler – or at least easier to understand.
Of all the wondrous work in this world, and I have been privileged to see a great many of them, none of them come close to his most wondrous work, which is our salvation. I know that personal salvation is the big buzz-word, but I think there’s more to it than just what’s in it for me. While it is true that faith without works is empty & meaningless; works without faith is just as hollow. James said it best in Chapter 2 when he states: What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?... In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But the trap you can fall into is that if we are constantly focused on WHAT we are doing, instead of WHY we are doing it, then it too loses something in the translation.
Paul admonishes the Galatians to not submit again to a yoke of slavery and by that he means, do not return to the old laws. So how is it that we, after 2000 years and many generations before us from whose wisdom we have learned, still don’t get it any better than they do?
That we serve, not to earn salvation, but to share it. And in sharing salvation we are also sharing his love. We do it not because we are convicted to do it, but rather inspired to do it. Inspired by the Holy Spirit to be MORE like Christ. Challenged to do it. Because we know the awesome freedom that comes with that love & grace; how could we NOT want to share it with others? Why would we WANT to do it any other way?
Why are we still so much like them, seeking the right set of rules? Why have we still not learned? I think it’s because somehow we are afraid that it’s a gimmick, some kind of salvation-based snake oil being pandered from the infomercial channel. Sounds too good to be true. But wait, if you call within the next 10 minutes, not only will we throw in eternal life, but we’ll also shave off 2% from your yearly tithing AND you’ll get this beautiful golden fleece. And for the first 1000 callers, we’ll DOUBLE your order. Yes, you heard that right, that’s 2 eternal lives, 4% off of your tithing AND 2 golden fleece. But only if you call now! We’ve all been taught not to believe everything we hear.
So we’d rather work, work, work, sweatin’ to the oldies, Christian-style. Cause I know that works. I’m self-made, pulled myself up by my bootstraps, I take care of things. And it does work, usually. Most aspects of life, you work hard, you are rewarded. Rewarded with a harvest from your garden, clean house, clean car, clean laundry, clean dishes, good paycheck, the long-awaited promotion. But is it possible that our spiritual life is the one exception to that model?
Why do we, just like Peter did, get trapped in this? Max Lucado has an interesting thought. In his Everyday Blessings Devotional, he states:
Paul wrote in Romans “God gives us a free gift—life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
One of the hardest things to do is to be saved by grace. There’s something in us that reacts to God’s free gift. We have some weird compulsion to create laws, systems, and regulations that will make us “worthy” of our gift.
Why do we do that? The only reason I can figure is pride. To accept grace means to accept its necessity, and most folks don’t like to do that. To accept grace also means that one realizes his despair, and most people aren’t too keen on doing that either.
A friend of mine said the other night that we as a society don’t like to help each other anymore because we don’t want to owe anyone anything. Do we think the same way of God? We don’t really want salvation because we don’t want to owe him?
Somehow, we have to let go of our legalistic, Peter-like tendencies that keep pulling us back, keep changing our focus from what he’s already done for us to be free to “what is it that I need to do to be free”. That does nothing but set us up for disaster. Because we can never be enough, do enough, say enough, or give enough to get it. It’s silly really, we already have it, we have his grace, but we just don’t trust it, don’t believe it, don’t have faith in it. So much so that we keep running ourselves around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to earn it, when you just can’t. It is given through God’s love and no one else’s.
When the Jews first came out of Egypt, they were given the 10 commandments, which gave a listing of what to do & not to do to live a God-pleasing life. Eventually, those turned into books of Law. There is no way any person could keep all of them – seriously. And think about yourself, now. Have you ever driven over the speed limit? Do you want that to keep you out of heaven? But what if that’s the way it worked? I think heaven would be pretty lonely. I don’t think God wants to be lonely in heaven. I think he figured it out that we’re just not very good at living out rules.
So he sent the one man for the job. He came highly trained, schooled at all the best institutions, went on to special forces academy. He was top in his class. He was born into a poor family so he could live in the muck & the mire of humanity, in fact his own beginning was shrouded in scandal. This was so that he could understand what our pains & joys really are like. And then he lived the law. He didn’t abolish the law. He lived it. Every part fulfilled, satisfied, completed. Done, done, check, yup got that one, did that one. And then, he paid the ultimate price to seal the deal. To ensure heaven wasn’t a lonely place.
You see, when you go to the post office of heaven & check out the Most Wanted bulletin board, we’re all there hanging on it. Probably not with our best pictures either. And with a price on our head. He paid that price. But what an honor & a privilege that is. And all I had to do, all you had to do was believe.
Yes, he wants a servant’s heart, he wants us to freely give – of ourselves, of our time and possessions. But not to earn a merit badge that we can sew on our uniforms later. But because we love him. Because we love him so deeply that the only way to express that love is to have it come out in the way that we live our lives. WWJD baby.
You see, it all starts with love. His love for us. That’s what gives us the grace in the first place. Not because we loved first or thought it would be a good idea or because we had a board meeting and decided that was the most prudent action to take for 2010. But because he loves us. And it’s not a pity love. It’s the same kind of love you feel for your children. When they’ve done the wrong thing, right thing, made you proud, embarrassed, frustrated, when they come crying to you apologizing because they recognize what they’ve done. Mom, I broke the vase, dad, I accidentally hit the ball through the window. That’s what God feels.
And through that love, we are justified. Not with each other, but with God. Salvation isn’t about our relationship with our neighbors, really, but our relationship with Christ. That when we can forget ourselves in that equation and focus solely on him is when we sense the reception of the grace that has always been there.
And what happens if we are able to let go of the law and to move into a place of grace? A friend of mine answered that last week. Forgiveness & grace have power. The power to release the indebted from our persecution, yes, but we are also set free. Free from ourselves. Free from dragging the dead weight of all the wrongs committed against us. Free from having to keep track & keep score “oh no! what if I forget one!” Free from our guilt and “need to do this”-itis. And it frees that person so that they are able to free others. And in that moment we are finally at a place where we can share that forgiveness with others. And in the end, that is what he wanted us to do. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. Seems like really when you get down to the brass tacks, that is the 10 commandments all rolled up into a much neater package.
And this is what Paul is trying to impress upon the church at Galatia. That extending grace to those around you is the most extreme expression of love. That it is not about living by some rule or code but it is about love. That short, sweet 4 letter word. So simple, it’s almost too good to be true. The Quakers have a belief that we all have a piece of the light inside of us. How truly powerful would we all be to have that collective light working together in community?
So I challenge you as you leave this place, and go about your busy-ness this week. Are you serving because you can’t keep his love inside of you any longer, or are you doing it because you gotta earn one more notch this week in your punch card so you can get eternal life when you’re done here?
As a dear, dear friend of mine used to say, Jesus loves you baby & so do I. Take that love, share that love. Because you want to, because you’re inspired to, because you are too overflowing with the spirit not to.
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