1 Timothy 1: 12-17 (links validated 8/3/22)

God remained startlingly patient with John Newton who penned the most familiar of all hymns about God’s mercy, Amazing Grace. After all, though he’d received God’s grace with his faith when he was twenty-three years old, he remained a slave trader until he was nearly twenty-eight. Newton did not, in other words, immediately renounce the slave trade of which he was integral part as soon as he became a Christian. Years later he penned his testimony in a book. After describing slaves’ “masters’” horrendous treatment of them, Newton wrote “The reader may perhaps wonder, as I now do myself, that knowing the state of this vile traffic as I have described, and abounding with enormities which I have not mentioned, I did not at the time start with horror at my own employment as an agent in promoting it. Custom, example [of others], and interest [i.e., personal financial gain] had blinded my eyes. I did it ignorantly, for I am sure had I thought of the slave trade then as I have thought of it since, no considerations would have induced me to continue in it”

Around the year 200, "purely Christian images began to appear." The catacombs in and around Rome, along with the discovery of a house church at Dura Europos in Syria dated to 240 AD, show how the earliest Christian art was not merely decorative but intentionally devotional; its purpose was not "objective beauty" but an "expression of faith."This early Christian art appears on seal rings, tombs, clay lamps, engraved gems, and in one instance a marble statuette. A hundred years after that, Christian art adorns belt buckles and Bible covers, plates and coins, intricate mosaics and ornate crosses. Eventually, Christian art under Constantine changed radically, as images and even architecture became "imperialized."

Most of us can sing “Amazing Grace” by heart. The famous hymn was written by John Newton, many years after his conversion and entry into the ministry following a career in the slave trade. Newton had a conversion experience during a dangerous storm on a slave ship in 1748, but he didn’t leave the business until his health forced him to retire in 1754. He was eventually ordained, and shortly after that wrote “Faith’s Review and Expectation” (“Amazing Grace’s” original name) in 1772. Like Paul’s text today, this song is Newton’s praise and thanks to God for his abundant and undeserved mercy and grace. Newton sings of God’s grace being the constant agent at work to sustain him, a wretch! But it isn’t just in the famous hymn that Newton exhibited such similar sentiments to Paul’s about his own past. His tract, “Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade,” published in 1788, Newton uses the same sort of language as Paul to describe the work of Jesus in his life...

In Frederick Buechner’s memorable framing of it, Saul of Tarsus set out as a hatchet man for the Pharisees and returned a fool for Christ. He went from being convinced that eternal life was bought on an installment plan of good works to believing that God is about as wildly loose with his saving grace as Crazy Eddie the used car salesman whose TV ads feature Eddie hopping up and down like a mad man in promising that he’ll do ANYTHING to make you a good deal. It ends up being all grace, all undeserving. That whole thing about God’s grading on the curve? Forget about it.

The story – and I have it on good authority that this one is true – is told of a woman whose life was coming apart at the seams. One of her friends told her about a silent retreat being held at a local convent, and she decided to try it even though she had never done anything like that before. After her arrival, she received her room assignment and was standing in the dormitory elevator with her suitcase in hand when a short, plump nun stepped in beside her. The woman pressed the elevator button for the fourth floor, the nun pressed hers for the third. Then the nun asked, "What brings you to us, my dear?" The woman began spilling her guts. "My mother has just died, I think my father may be an alcoholic, my marriage is falling apart, and I feel like I am going crazy." Before she could say anymore, the elevator dinged and the door opened to the third floor. As she was exiting to go to her room, the nun gave the woman a funny little smile. "God must love you very much," she said, and then the door closed...

This week we are reeling from the news of Beslan and Jakarta - the terrible suffering of parents and communities who have lost children and loved ones in sieges and bombings. The tragedy and devastation is beyond description. Some of the parents of Beslan are still searching for their children and waiting for news of family members. The Baptist World Alliance has informed us that the Baptist pastor of the church in that town has lost three of his five children and his brother, a church elder, four of his children. One of Pastor Sergei Totijev’s surviving children is severely injured and the other has lost his sight. Four of the elder’s children are still missing. Their experience is the reality for many people in the world - loss, searching and often, little joy in the outcome...After the memorial service for his children, Beslan Pastor, Sergey Totiev said he would not seek revenge on the killers of his children; others in the crowd started to curse and vowed to take revenge against the terrorists but Pastor Totiev said: “Yes we have an irreplaceable loss, but we cannot take revenge. As Christians the Bible teaches us that we must forgive. Vengeance is in God’s hands”.

John Newton is a living example of grace. John Newton was the captain of a slave ship. A lot of people are not aware of the horrors of the slave trade. The crossing from Africa was perhaps the most deadly part of the slave trade. The newly enslaved Africans were treated like cargo. They were packed in as closely as possible. Many died and their bodies were unceremoniously thrown overboard. The shipping company considered them acceptable losses. When John Newton realized his sin, he saw himself as he really was. He was a man with the blood of thousands on his hands...

("One day a wealthy city man took his son on a trip to the country, supposedly to visit a relative; in actuality, however, the trip was to show his son how poor country folks live....")

("A large prosperous downtown church had three mission churches under its care that it had started. On the first Sunday of the New Year all the members of the mission churches came to the city church for a combined Communion service....")

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