Collect
for Lent 5C: Book of Common Prayer p 219
March 28, 2004
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
What is the unique contribution that Christianity has to offer the world? During a British conference on comparative religions, religious experts from around the world debated what, (if any), belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities such as the incarnation and resurrection since other religions had such accounts. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room and heard that his colleagues were struggling with Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded: "Oh, that's easy. It is grace."
After some discussion, the people at the conference had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, unmerited and undeserved, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path requires a disciplined lifestyle to achieve enlightenment. The Hindu doctrine of karma determines a person's future (so a person better be good in this lifetime). The Jewish covenant and Muslim code of law requires a person to follow a set of rules in order to receive God's compassion. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.* It is this subject of grace that I would like to address in my sermon. I will use today's collect as my text.
There are two dimensions of grace:
Grace transforms their personality so that they become the kind of person for whom following the path of Christ, naturally flows. Since humanity has an in-built resistance to grace, Jesus often talked about this very subject. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people- both good and bad; where birds gather seeds for free, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them.
Jesus saw grace everywhere. While he never questioned the existence of grace or defined the word, he did communicate grace through his actions and teachings. He gathered around him prostitutes, tax collectors, and the people whom no one else would associate with. Instead of judgement, he focused on forgiveness. He spoke many parables about grace including the story of the prodigal son. He spoke about the workers in the vineyard- all of whom were paid the same wages even though some worked eight hours while others worked only one hour. Jesus called on his followers to love their enemies, to turn their cheek, and to forgive 70x7. Jesus taught us these stories about grace, in order to call us, to step outside our tit-for-tat world of ungrace and enter into God's realm of infinite grace. As he was hanging on a cross, he said about his executors: "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." [Lk. 23:34]
"Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." There are a lot of people out there who do not know what they are doing! They are basically unconscious and so we hear a lot of stories about ungrace in the world. As I wrote this sermon, I flipped through Friday's newspaper and read the following stories about our ungraced world: "Whitehouse reacts to accuser. Palestinian boy found wearing explosives in his vest. High School steroid use is on the rise. Three U.S. soldiers die in Iraq in roadside bombing incidents. Ivory Coast government splits apart after 25 people died in a deadly clash between security forces and opposition supporters. A suspect, in Fresno's worst mass killing of nine people, enters plea. A woman was robbed this past Tuesday while loading groceries into her car in the Safeway parking lot. Last Wednesday night, 2 people used a bat and brass knuckles to beat up a person in front of a nightclub near Alum Rock. Jurors in the Tyco International corruption trial told the judge on Thursday that deliberations have "turned poisonous" which now threatens the outcome of a five-month trial."
It is not surprising that grace is often missing within relationships. From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of ungrace: The early bird gets the worm. No pain, no gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. You get what you pay for. People deserve what they get- nothing more, nothing less. I worked hard for what I got; why shouldn't you! An eye-for an eye-a tooth-for a tooth. It is a dog-eat-dog world.
Our major institutions, financial, political, even athletic, run on the same unrelenting principle of ungrace. What kind of bank executive forgives a loan when a person runs into financial difficulties? A nation never responds to its belligerent neighbors with: "You are right, we violated your borders. Will you please forgive us?" I've yet to hear Bush or Kerry respond to each other with: "Gee, what a great idea you have." The very taste of forgiveness seems somehow wrong. So, we nurse our sores, go to elaborate lengths to rationalize our behavior, perpetuate family feuds, punish ourselves, punish others- all to avoid the most unnatural acts of grace and forgiveness.
A grace-filled Christian is one who looks at the world through grace-tinted lenses. They break the cycle of ungrace by taking the initiative to move beyond the pain and chose instead, a life-giving path. Let me give you a wonderful example of a grace-filled act. In 1990, a woman and her fiancé went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston to plan their wedding. Over a delicious meal, the two of them poured over the menu- making choices for the wedding banquet. They made selections of china and silver and pointed to pictures of the flower arrangements they liked. They both had expensive taste and the bill came to $13,000. After leaving a check for half that amount as a down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of wedding announcements.
On the day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet. "I'm just not sure," he said. "It's a big commitment. Let's think about this a little longer." Being jilted, the woman returned to the Hyatt to get her deposit back. But since the contract was binding, the woman would have to forfeit the majority of the down payment or go ahead with the banquet. It seemed like a crazy idea, but the jilted bride decided to go ahead with the banquet. Ten years before, she had been living in a homeless shelter. She had gotten back on her feet, found a good job, and had set aside a sizable nest egg. Now she had the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of Boston to a night on the town.
And so it was that in June of 1990, the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston, hosted a party such as it had never seen before. That warm summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon blue. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to the big-band melodies late into the night.* Out of a painful situation, grace had triumphed.
Grace is Christianity's best gift to the world. It is a spiritual nova in our midst, exerting a force stronger than vengeance, stronger than racism, stronger than hate. Grace can prevent wars, restore hurting couples, reduce poverty, heal the sick, and forgive the undeserving. Weapons of grace can change the world for the better; much more effectively than weapons of mass destruction. Through grace, we release our own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. Through grace, we leave in God's hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.
And so how do we become grace-filled Christians? Through the practice of the spiritual disciplines** that we have been studying during this season of Lent, we position ourselves so that God's grace can more easily flow through the cracks of our defenses. Grace, upon grace, we gradually become the kind of person for whom following the path of Christ, naturally flows. "Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinner: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [BCP 219]
*Much of the material in this sermon was gleaned from Philip Yancey's book, What is so amazing about Grace?; Zondervan, 1997
** The spiritual disciplines are: Meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, celebration.
| Updated 3/29/04 |
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