Polk City UMC
Mar 9, 1997
Mark Haverland
Ephesians 2:1-10
2:1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2:2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 2:3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 2:7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- 2:9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 2:10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
John 3:14-21
3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 3:16 "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. 3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 3:18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 3:19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 3:20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 3:21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
The message of today’s scripture is the age-old topic of grace. The grace that saves a wretch like me, as the song says. I once was lost, but now am found.
A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There is nothing you have to do. There is nothing you ca do. There is nothing you are expected todo. The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid, I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us.
The Son came into the world not to condemn but to save, so that we will not perish - for left to our own devices, we are quick to condemn and certain to perish.
When I was the minster at Faith UMC a few years ago a few of the high school kids asked me to speak to their Fellowship of Christian Athletes group on human sexuality. Now this is always a tricky thing to do and it inevitably leads one into hot water, unless, of course, you are willing to lie. The part of the evening that startled me the most was their reaction to my question about what they would do if they got pregnant. Whom would they tell? To whom would they go for help? I think a parent or teacher was the most likely confidant. This is a very important question, because it’s easy to despair when one is in trouble and there is no one to tell. I saw the film the other day which the Dept of Public Health has produced for pregnant teenagers. This film is a labored compromise of all interested parties, and in this instance the government seems to have done it right. I liked particularly well the way the film emphasized that the teens were not alone, that there were people willing and able to help, including the ones who were showing the film. The law of course requires that they tell either a judge or one of their parents, but the film goes on to say that it is important that the teens find others who can offer them support and guidance as they make their decision.
But back to my youth group experience. When I asked what they thought about telling their minister, they rolled their eyes and hooted in derision at such an outrageous thought. Now some of the kids were members of other churches, but even those from my own church found it impossible to picture talking to their minister about being pregnant as an unmarried teen. I was stunned and hurt.
The great irony of this episode was that one of the girls in the room was pregnant. She gave birth a few months later and I visited her in the hospital, once a few members of the congregation let me in on the secret - which many of them knew. They, too, were afraid to tell me. I visited her in the hospital and helped her talk about her choice to place the child for adoption and how she was going to get back to her life as a teen.
This conversation only slightly relieved my disappointment that for most people the church has become a stern, disapproving scold- ready to condemn folks for their transgressions. I’m afraid we in the church spend far too much time judging the sins of others and making them feel unwelcome. We love to think less of those who do evil and eager to see them get their just reward. This is hardly in keeping with the God of grace who has saved even us.
In my last campaign for the legislature, my opponent supported the death penalty and used it effectively in the campaign. I have no regrets about my position, however. I have no desire to be in the legislature if you have to be willing to kill people to do so. But he claimed the death penalty was simply a matter of justice. Sadly, he represents a majority view that sees death as just punishment for egregious sinners. As I watch the legislators debate this notion, they seem so anxious to be able to kill someone that they will make whatever compromises necessary to ensure passage of a law to enact government executions. As the OT prophet said, (and to our shame) “And the people love to have it so.”
It’s really hard to square our eagerness to kill even a vicious sinner with God’s reluctance to condemn the world. For surely, we have disappointed God and fallen far shorter of God’s hopes for us, than the criminal we want to strap into an electric chair has from our legal standards. Yet many Christian people and some Christian churches lead the charge in championing the death penalty. Happily not ours, however. Our bishop and the United Methodist denomination stand clearly in opposition to state sanctioned killing. I predict that the mainline church leaders will speak with one clear voice and divert us from our sinful desires in this regard. We can be proud of these leaders and of ourselves for being loyal followers.
There are many ways in which we Methodists buck the trend to judge and condemn. We don’t join those churches who refuse to marry people who have been divorced. We grant women full participation in the ministry of the church. We place no moral hurdle in front of those invited to worship and communion. But we are not so pure on all issues. Even we can’t avoid the lure of self-righteousness entirely. We exhibit a stern judgmentalism, for instance, against homosexuals, a position difficult to justify in light of a savior who preferred the company of sinners to the self- righteous church goers of his day. I predict the issue of homosexual rights will be the next civil rights struggle that even the churches will eventually join. And we should. It’s important that we not draw lines between sheep and goats, between the people of light and the people of darkness so that people are afraid to come to the church for help. When someone is considering suicide, when a young girl gets pregnant, when a young man gets hooked on drugs, when someone contracts AIDS, should feel drawn to us for help and support. They should expect expect help from Christians not condemnation. We need to be careful that we not get too busy hating sin so that we fail to love the sinner. Yes, we should hate sin because sin causes people so much pain. But it is easy to get carried away and forget that we are all sinners. Thomas Jefferson once said, “I tremble when I think that God is just!” Which of us can stand, if justice is the measure?
This is why grace is so important to our religious faith. As W. H Auden puts it: “Nothing can save us that is possible./We who must die demand a miracle.” Grace means both that we can never deserve God’s salvation and that God has nothing to gain. God does not profit from saving us or sacrificing his Son, but God does it anyway. There is nothing you can do. And it’s a good thing! When compared to the perfection that God calls us to, we fall so far short that it is ridiculous to judge each other. Even the best of us is closer to the worst of us than to the perfection revealed in Jesus.
The paper had an article this past week reminding us of the importance of the first year in a child’s life. The love and care that a child receives during the first year makes the critical difference in a lifetime of mental and spiritual health. Imagine, the most important events in a child’s life happen while the child is largely unconscious of what is happening and clearly not responsible enough to have earned the results. This is grace. This is what John 3:16 is all about. God so loved us, that in spite of the fact that we have done nothing to deserve it, and that we are totally unaware of the sacrifice made on our behalf, God has saved us.