HAVING A WIDE AND GENEROUS UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S GRACE
This Sermon was preached on 16th Feb by Rev'd Dr James Grenfell, who we are proud to call one of us here at St Mark's.
Last week, in his sermon Tom shared with us the first of those ten marks of an authentic church - a community which reflects Jesus’ priority for the poor and sick. We thought about how St Mark’s can be salt and light in the community here and celebrated the many ways in which this happens, not least through the cafe.
Today we’re going to think about the second mark of an authentic church: a community that has a wide and generous understanding of God’s grace. What does it mean to be a community that is profoundly shaped by God’s grace? What difference does it make? How could you tell?
I think that a good place to start is to remind ourselves what God’s grace is like. And the bible, Old and New Testaments, is full of images which help us to see what God’s grace looks like. In fact the entire bible is really an account of the unfolding story of God’s grace in our world.
I’ve got three things for you this morning which I think are characteristics of God’s grace which are important to remember.
First of all, God’s grace is first of all: it comes before everything else - and it starts at the very beginning of Israel’s life. We’re told in the book of Deuteronomy that God didn’t choose Israel because they were the greatest or the most numerous nation, in fact they were the least and the smallest. God chose them, we’re told, because he loved them. God’s love, his grace, comes first.
Think too of the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus told - a magnificent image of God’s grace. The father who watches out for his son and when he sees him still far off he runs out to meet him. The one thing that any self-respecting head of a Jewish household would avoid doing at virtually any cost was to break into a run. The father in the parable gave it not a second thought - he embraced his son, forgave him, assured him of his place in the family and was planning the party before the prodigal son had even managed to stammer out his apology. It’s a powerful image of God’s grace running to meet us, embracing us, forgiving us and assuring us of our identity as his beloved children.
God’s grace comes first. We need to hear that for ourselves as individuals and as a community. God doesn’t love us because we’re important or powerful or clever or good looking or musical (though the vicar is all those things!). God doesn’t love us because of anything we could do to please him. He doesn’t love us because we’re good at serving others, or we’re particularly holy, or we go to church a lot. God just loves us - and he loves us from before we were born.
And what does God’s grace look like? How much is God’s grace. Remember the story of when Jesus went to a wedding in Cana in Galilee and the hosts were put in a hugely embarrassing position when the wine ran out. What did Jesus do? He turned six huge water containers full of filthy river water, used for washing feet in, into the finest wine. Each container we’re told, held 20-30 gallons, that’s 180 gallons of wine, that’s over 5,000 bottles. Or what about the woman who responded to God’s grace by anointing Jesus with that whole flask of oil that she broke and poured over Jesus - about twenty thousand pounds worth. Time and again we see God’s grace as extravagant, far more than was ever asked for or imagined. An almost reckless generosity that risks everything.
Thirdly, God’s grace creates thankfulness and celebration wherever it is present. Remember Jesus going to celebrate with Zachaeus who realised when he met Jesus that here was the chance to turn his life around, pay back those he’d cheated, and begin again. Jesus shocked all the religious types by announcing he was going to go and stay with Zachaeus. One of the complaints that Jesus’ opponents made about him was that he celebrated too much: that he wasn’t like John the Baptist who drank no wine and ate no bread, instead Jesus was a drunkard and a glutton and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
If those are some of images and stories of God’s grace, what difference should that make to our lives as a community?
If God’s grace comes first, as a gift and not something we’ve earned, then all that we’ve received from God isn’t just for our benefit but to serve others too. Remember in the Old Testament when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and they’d run out of food. God gave them manna from heaven. They gathered it each morning and they had strict instructions not to hoard it or store it up for themselves. They had to share it and to eat all of it, trusting that the following morning there would be more. There’s a message for us about how we are to mirror God’s grace - we’re not to be a community which tries to hoard or store up the grace or blessing we have received from God. Rather, we’re to share them with others - trusting in a generous God from whom there will always be more. So whether that’s our support of the food banks here in Portsmouth or our support for the Diocese of Ho, we’re to share our blessing with others near and far.
Second, we’re reminded again and again in the bible about the magnificent extravagance of God’s grace; how much richer and deeper it is than we can ever imagine. God’s grace isn’t limited by rules and traditions and cultures or any other human invention. If we’ve begun to understand the richness of God’s grace, we’ll be pretty sceptical about any traditions which seek to write off people as second-class citizens in God’s kingdom. So whether that’s people on benefits who are getting a hard time at the moment, or gay and lesbian Christians, or whoever it is. There is no one who is not included in that outpouring of God’s grace, just as there was no one at the wedding in Cana who didn’t taste that wonderful wine. And so our call to be an inclusive church, one which welcomes everyone whoever they are - reflecting that anarchic, relentless, endless grace of God.
Last, a hallmark of any church that’s understood the reality of God’s grace will be one that knows how to celebrate. Because in the presence of God’s grace, we are all of us called into fullness of life and is to be celebrated. From the liturgical celebration of the Mass each week to the celebration of relationships over coffee afterwards, at quiz nights, in choir practices, in the many ways in which we seek to serve others. Our life as a church is to be a continual celebration, in thanksgiving for the grace which we have received from God.
We need more than anything a wide and generous understanding of God’s grace and as that understanding deepens in us it will call us to serve and trust more fully, to love and include one another more fulsomely, and to celebrate God’s presence with us more joyfully.
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Sermons in this series:
1) Introduction
1a) Reflecting Jesus' priority for the poor and the sick.
2) Having a wide and generous understanding of God's grace - Jesus poured out grace and forgiveness to everyone he met. Are we the same?
3) Understanding Sin as the absence of Love - How should we understand Sin? Breaking Rules? Who decides what is Sin anyway?
4) Encouraging Christ-ians to be producers, not consumers - We live in a consumer society. Is there a danger that some of us ‘consume’ Christianity?
6) Blending the scientific with the mystical - Was the world created in six days? How did Noah get all those animals onto the Ark?!
7) Being tolerant and open to all - How do we connect with other human beings?
8) Embracing tradition while being open to the contemporary - How can we honour the old and embrace the new?
9) Understanding that forgiveness is How the World is Set Right - Is forgiveness the answer to the World’s problems?
10) Being a Eucharistic Community - How does taking Jesus into ourselves help us?
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