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Text of Fr. Matts Sermon
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish,
but have everlasting life.” Martin Luther called this “the Gospel in miniature.” Such a declaration Martin Luther could only make after he made an amazing discovery,
a discovery we find in the 2nd chapter of Ephesians. “By grace you have been saved through faith.” It was the “discovery” of God’s grace that rescued Martin Luther from spiritual misery and compelled him to courageously proclaim the good news of God’s grace to the Church of his day, with such an effect that an entire branch of the Christian family tree bears his name. The grace of God is an important “discovery,” not just for Lutherans, but for all Christians, even Episcopalians.
Grace and Faith. Such familiar words. So familiar perhaps, that it is easy not to hear them anew. But, they are so important. We need to hear. We need to listen. We need to be renewed. So let us open our hearts and minds to a consideration of these words that altered the course of life for one of the great figures of the Church, so that they might direct the course of our lives, as well.
What is grace? It is certainly a doctrine much loved by Christians. I have served in two parishes so named.
You just don’t find that many parishes named for a doctrine. It’s usually for a saint, or some aspect of God’s nature, like the Trinity, or something with a Christological ring, like Emmanuel, God with us,
which gives us cause to “Celebrate God’s Presence,” as we say in our parish mission statement.
The Prayer Book catechism teaches us that Grace is, “God’s favor toward us, unearned and undeserved,”
by which “God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.” This wonderful thing happens, says St. Paul, because God is “rich in mercy,” mercy that rescues us from the dominance of forces beyond our control, forces that would drive us to live by pure biological passions
and unchecked egotism, leading us to be less than who God created us to be. This is a state so critical that Paul calls it, “dead through tresspasses and sins.”
The means by which God effects our rescue is the work of Christ, who was lifted up, lifted up in a suffering death on the cross, raised up in triumphant risen life at Easter, taken up to God’s presence at the Ascension, assuming his place as Head of the Church.
Because Christ was lifted up, was raised up, and was taken up, we can live with confidence and hope.
Because he was lifted up to suffer and die, we know forgiveness. Because he was raised to new life on the Third Day, we know life of a deeper quality than mere biology. Because he was taken up into the heavenly places on the 40th day, we know that we have a great high priest who intercedes for us, who guides us,
who draws us ever toward the goal of our journey, which is to be with him in the heavenly places.
We have this confidence and hope because of Grace. It is God’s gift, given freely, offered to all. There is no other way to have such confidence and hope. We cannot do enough good to earn it on our own.
We cannot get ordained in order to find it, for those in Holy Orders are just as in need of God’s grace as are all the baptized. I have a friend from Mississippi a Roman Catholic priest, a Franciscan missionary, and he stated this fact beautifully when he wrote a reflection on his ordination anniversary: “Priesthood, and my vocation as a Franciscan, has been so humbling and enriching. All I can say is: Jesus is real. He has chosen and used someone as imperfect as me to enter into the lives of so many where I have witnessed the power of His presence and love.”
We cannot find confidence and hope of new life in Christ by means of achieving a good standing in society. Martin Luther actually gave up his good standing, and nearly his life, because of his insistence
on the necessity of relying on God’s grace rather than any human effort.
We cannot find it because of family ties, something that St. Patrick, whose feast day comes later this week,
learned by the hardest. As a youth, he was not at all interested in spiritual things, even though his father was a deacon and and his grandfather a priest. It wasn’t until Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders
and taken into slavery that he discovered his need of God’s grace, learned to pray, and to put his whole trust in the grace and love of God as revealed in Christ.
Patrick’s story leads into the next theological word for today, which is Faith. While enslaved, Patrick learned to put his trust in Christ. That is what we say in the baptismal covenant, when we answer “ I do” to the question, “Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?” Faith means placing trust in someone or something. As Christian people, the sole object of our faith is Christ Jesus our Lord. We look to him who was lifted up for us as our Savior. We follow and obey him, as we promise to do in the baptismal covenant, as our Lord.
How it is that we come to believe in Christ, to put our faith in him, is something of a mystery. Those who believe will never quite understand how or why the good news of Jesus found its way into our hearts.
Was it we reaching out for God to take up residence in our hearts? Was it God breaking down the barrier
between himself and our hearts? Such questions have vexed theologians over the centuries, and sometimes led to sharp divisions in the Body of Christ. I won’t try to offer a brief on that question today,
except to say that maybe it is not so much an either/or question as it is a both/and one.
I can also say that whenever I consider the question of how I came to have faith in the Lord Jesus, I come back always to the gift quality of it. I think about the story of my life, and how there have been times when faith was solid and secure, and other times when it was hanging by the thinnest of threads. What kept the thread from snapping? My faith? I think not so much. I am inclined to believe that the faithfulness of God, whose mercy endures for ever, as the psalmist says, has kept hold of me, in times when the hand of the foe was close, when I was spiritually scattered to all points of the compass, and especially when I’ve been a fool and taken to rebellious ways. So, I give thanks to the Lord for his mercy, for the gift of faith, and for the gift of grace.
Such immeasurable grace, that God so loved the world he would give his only Son so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life, our humanity redeemed, restored, to be who God created us to be, and to accomplish the good works God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
