Psalm 37:1-5
Do not fret
because of the wicked;
do not be envious
of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade
like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.
Trust in God,
and do good;
so you will live in the land,
and enjoy security.
Take delight
in God,
who will give you the desires
of your heart.
Commit your way to God;
trust in God,
and God will act.
We’re still in our Old Testament today – finding the bible that Jesus knew. Much of what we hear in the Old Testament, especially when we read from the Prophets, is doom and gloom – always with redemption promised eventually, someday, but first, lots of doom and gloom. Last time we met I gave you an extremely brief introduction to Psalms and pointed out that this book has everything – joy, grief, hope, repentance, despair, and jubilation.
The four lectionary readings for today are an interesting mixture of all of these emotions – especially when we read them divided by which came pre-Jesus and which came after him.
The primary Old Testament reading for today is from Exodus and features God and Moses up on the mountain, with God in a fury against the people because of the golden calf they have created to worship. Here God declares to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them." God is clearly not in a good mood.
But Moses in turn responds to God: Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
The Gospel reading, from Luke, is one of the “Lost and Found” stories that Jesus told his followers – this one specifically the story of the shepherd who leaves his 99 safe sheep to go out and search for and redeem his one lost lamb.
And finally, the Epistle reading comes from 1st Timothy and gives us the Apostle Paul declaring on his own behalf that I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, a sinner, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The first is from the Exodus story, a story lived and written down centuries before Jesus. The second is a story told by Jesus himself to his followers. And the third is the testimony of one who came to follow after Jesus, while never having met him in the flesh – one who, trained by pharisees himself, would have known the Hebrew scriptures as well as Jesus did.
Every one of these, including the psalm with which we began here, is a story of grace.
Like the old story of the newspaper editor who could not clearly define pornography but who “recognized it when he saw it,” we can have a hard time trying to define grace, but sometimes we manage to recognize it when we see it or hear about it.
The dictionary definition of grace is “an unmerited divine assistance given to humans.”
How would you define it? [brief group discussion]
I pulled some famous writers’ definitions of grace. Some define what grace is, and some, what grace is not. Listen now and see what you think:
My own favorite definition come from Nadia Bolz-Weber, from Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint:
Grace is – in short – the incredible gift of love from the one who created us -- from God forgiving the Hebrew people at Moses' request, to Jesus' Good Shepherd seeking out even the least of the little ones, to God again forgiving the intolerant Saul and allowing him to become the faithful preacher, Paul. From the very beginning we have been surrounded by God’s grace, carrying us when we thought we were stumbling all alone; encouraging us when we were lost in failure; loving us enough to forgive our greed and our occasional idiocy.
Grace is the love of God. As we were told is today's psalm reading:
** My own favorite (at the moment) description also comes from Bolz-Weber in this story from her own life experience:
That’s a God one can’t help but love – and grace we can’t help but be grateful for.
The four lectionary readings for today are an interesting mixture of all of these emotions – especially when we read them divided by which came pre-Jesus and which came after him.
The primary Old Testament reading for today is from Exodus and features God and Moses up on the mountain, with God in a fury against the people because of the golden calf they have created to worship. Here God declares to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them." God is clearly not in a good mood.
But Moses in turn responds to God: Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
The Gospel reading, from Luke, is one of the “Lost and Found” stories that Jesus told his followers – this one specifically the story of the shepherd who leaves his 99 safe sheep to go out and search for and redeem his one lost lamb.
And finally, the Epistle reading comes from 1st Timothy and gives us the Apostle Paul declaring on his own behalf that I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, a sinner, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The first is from the Exodus story, a story lived and written down centuries before Jesus. The second is a story told by Jesus himself to his followers. And the third is the testimony of one who came to follow after Jesus, while never having met him in the flesh – one who, trained by pharisees himself, would have known the Hebrew scriptures as well as Jesus did.
Every one of these, including the psalm with which we began here, is a story of grace.
Like the old story of the newspaper editor who could not clearly define pornography but who “recognized it when he saw it,” we can have a hard time trying to define grace, but sometimes we manage to recognize it when we see it or hear about it.
The dictionary definition of grace is “an unmerited divine assistance given to humans.”
How would you define it? [brief group discussion]
I pulled some famous writers’ definitions of grace. Some define what grace is, and some, what grace is not. Listen now and see what you think:
- Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith:
"Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there." - Thomas Merton, 20th century
"Grace is not a strange, magic substance which is subtly filtered into our souls to act as a kind of spiritual penicillin. Grace is unity, oneness within ourselves, oneness with God." - Martin Luther, 16th century
"Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes."
My own favorite definition come from Nadia Bolz-Weber, from Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint:
- God's grace is not defined as God being forgiving to us even though we sin. Grace is when God is a source of wholeness, which makes up for my failings. My failings hurt me and others and even the planet, and God's grace to me is that my brokenness is not the final word ... it's that God makes beautiful things out of even my own s**t. Grace isn't about God creating humans and flawed beings and then acting all hurt when we inevitably fail and then stepping in like the hero to grant us grace - like saying, "Oh, it's OK, I'll be the good guy and forgive you." It's God saying, "I love the world too much to let your sin define you and be the final word. I am a God who makes all things new.”
Grace is – in short – the incredible gift of love from the one who created us -- from God forgiving the Hebrew people at Moses' request, to Jesus' Good Shepherd seeking out even the least of the little ones, to God again forgiving the intolerant Saul and allowing him to become the faithful preacher, Paul. From the very beginning we have been surrounded by God’s grace, carrying us when we thought we were stumbling all alone; encouraging us when we were lost in failure; loving us enough to forgive our greed and our occasional idiocy.
Grace is the love of God. As we were told is today's psalm reading:
- Take delight in God, who will give you the desires of your heart.
- Commit your way to God; trust in God, and God will act.
** My own favorite (at the moment) description also comes from Bolz-Weber in this story from her own life experience:
- “Getting sober never felt like I had pulled myself up by my own spiritual bootstraps. It felt instead like I was on one path toward destruction and God pulled me off of it by the scruff of my collar, me hopelessly kicking and flailing and saying, 'Screw you. I’ll take the destruction please.' God looked at tiny, little red-faced me and said, 'that’s adorable,' and then plunked me down on an entirely different path.”
That’s a God one can’t help but love – and grace we can’t help but be grateful for.
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