I want you to
think for a second about your favorite food.
Your favorite dish, whether it’s something homemade or from your
favorite restaurant. Try and remember,
if you can, the feeling you got the first time that food hit your taste
buds. The way the flavors mixed and
mingled on your tongue. The way you felt
the urge, the need to vocalize to
whoever you were eating with about how good it was. The way your brain immediately said, “give me
more!” Now think of the last time you
ate it. Did it evoke the same
reactions? Or was it now something that
was still delicious, still something you enjoyed, but perhaps just a bit too
familiar. A bit predictable. Maybe even a little more bland than it used
to be.
Think about the
first time you ever sat behind the wheel of a car as a driver. Sitting there in the driver’s seat, seatbelt
on, turning the key and feeling the rumble of the engine. Even with as many times as you’d sat in the
car with mom or dad and felt that engine hum, felt it accelerate, this time it
was completely different. This time you
weren’t just feeling the revs, they purred for
you. The car now for the first time
responded to your direction. It was your foot that was pushing down on the
accelerator, your pushing down perhaps a bit too forcefully on the brake. Perhaps you felt as though the speedometer
must surely be broken because it said you were going 30, but you were willing
to swear you were at least 85. Did you
get any of those feelings when you started up the car to come to church today?
Think about your
first girlfriend or boyfriend. Or your
first date with the person who’s now your wife or husband. Think about how you started to smile just
because they walked into the room. Think
about how your heart started racing the first time they sat down next to you,
and your knees or your shoulders happened to touch. Think about how it felt the first time they
held your hand. The electricity that
rand up your arm and throughout the rest of your body. The feeling that this, just holding their
hand in yours, might be the greatest thing in the world. When’s the last time holding their hand made
you feel that way? When’s the last time
you even held each others' hands as you watched a movie, or went for a walk?
As people, we have
an impressive capacity to make the amazing seem mundane. To make the impressive seem ordinary. To make the breath-taking
run-of-the-mill. What I mean by that is
this: we get used to stuff. However
spectacular something is, however exciting…see it or do it or taste it enough
and it stops being special. We stop
appreciating it as much as we should.
Sure, when we stop and think about it, when we take the time, when we
put in the effort, we can recapture some of the wonder. But a lot of the time, it becomes ordinary.
As Christians, I
think we’re often guilty of doing this with grace. It’s something we hear about, something we
talk about all the time. It’s something
we know in our heads is important, know in our heads is a big deal, but doesn’t
generally cause us much excitement.
Quite often we see grace as something boring. Routine.
Quite often we’re
guilty of trafficking in cheap grace.
What’s cheap grace? Cheap grace
is when we simply say, “yes, I’m a sinner, but Jesus forgives me” and just
continue on our way. If anything, grace
thought of and used that way is little more than our excuse to keep doing
whatever it was that we were doing. It
doesn’t really change anything. It just
kind of is.
But is that what
grace really is? If I’m asking the
question that way, obviously the answer is no.
So how can we better understand in the way God would have us to? Well, that’s what we’re going to spend the
next several weeks trying to do. To
start with, let’s look today at what grace is. Because before we can see it’s affect in all
the different aspects of our life, we need to understand what it’s all about.
In his book, one
of the ways Lucado describes grace is that it “has a drenching about it.” Drenching is such a great word. And it’s actually an even better descriptor
of grace than Lucado realizes or intends.
Because as Lutherans, when we think of grace and hear the word
“drenching,” what comes to mind?
Baptism.
So often when we
think of baptism, we think of it in a cute, adorable kind of way. Because that’s what we see, isn’t it? What we hear are some words being said. We see a baby, who are pretty much the
epitome of cuteness. There’s a little
water, poured over their head, gently falling back into the bowl. Then we talk about their being made a precious
child of God. It’s all very cute. But let’s look at it another way.
First, remember
that babies aren’t always cute. Their
crying can just about make your ears bleed.
People don’t coo over a baby screaming during the middle of a church
service. Their diapers…let’s just say
those aren’t always cute and leave it at that.
And as innocent as they might look, their hearts are just as full and
corrupted by sin as anyone. That cute
baby is just as guilty, just as condemned as any other sinner in the eyes of
God. But in baptism, well, those words
are spoken are the same words that brought the universe into existence. And Scripture compares the waters of baptism
to the flood of Noah. A flood which
resulted from the floodgates of heaven opening and water bursting forth from
the ground. A flood which drowned and
killed all life on the face of the earth and covered the highest
mountains. That is what baptism is compared to.
When we see a few
ounces of water poured over someone’s head, God is drenching them with his grace.
Washing away their sin. Snatching
them from the fires of hell, drowning the flames that would consume them. Baptism isn’t the cute resolution at the end
of a sitcom. It’s not just the happy, huggy
reunion at the end of a children’s movie.
Baptism is a rescue mission. It’s
seeing something new and living rising up out of what has been destroyed.
Lucado also says
that grace “Comes after you. It rewires
you.” Again, I think this is a fantastic
picture of what we see in Scripture. Due
to sin, we were far off from God. Our
sinful natures want nothing to do with him.
They run from him. Flee from
him. Try to hide from him. Out of love for us rebellious, misbehaved
runaways, he didn’t wait for us to figure things out. He didn’t wait for us to come to our
senses. He didn’t wait for us to come
back home. He knew that left to our own
devices, that would never happen.
So he set out
after us. While we were running away
from him, he came to us. He became one
of us. He sent his Son to do what we
couldn’t ever hope to do. Christ came
not for the sake of those who stayed home and did as they were told, he came
for the screw up. He came to seek and to
save the lost. Even as our sins drove
him to the cross, he endured it so that we might be made safe. The Father’s love, the Father’s forgiveness,
a welcome home and a place at the eternal feast...all of it he gives to us
freely. It’s undeserved, we have no
rightful claim to it, yet he pours it out freely upon us.
Not only does he
chase after us with grace, not only does he drench us with grace, he completely
rewires us. In baptism, his gift to us
through which he drowns our sins and makes us his child, he rewires us. He doesn’t just give us the benefits of
Christ’s death and resurrection, he joins us to it. By grace he changes us. He makes us something completely new. Unlike the promises made by politicians or
any other man, this is a change we really can believe in. It’s a change that really does change
everything.
What is the
change? As Paul put it in our reading
from Galatians today, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me. And the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me.” Grace means that Christ isn’t just
always there by our side, he doesn’t just carry us through the hard times. Grace means that Christ is IN us.
He is there working in us and through us. He is changing our hearts, turning us away
from our sinful desires and towards the will of God.
He does this,
continues to do this, because he loves us. Because he wants us to be with him
in his Father’s kingdom forever. Because
by grace not even our stupid, stubborn sinfulness can separate us from his
love.
Apart from grace,
apart from Christ’s death and resurrection we were dead. We were without hope. But now that Christ has set up shop within
us, now that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us, we have life.
We have life now, we have life tomorrow, we have life forever.
That’s what grace
means. That’s what Christ came to do. There’s a great quote from a presumably
retired Episcopalian priest from New York I saw a friend post this week that
can help us in how we view and understand grace as something dynamic and
awe-inspiring. The priest’s name is
Robert Capon, and this is what he said.
He said, “Jesus came to raise the dead.
Not teach the teachable, improve the improvable, reform the
reformable. Those things don’t
work.” Christ came to do more than to
teach us a better way of living. Christ
came to raise the dead. Christ came to restore
those who were lost. Christ came to
chase after us, to drench us, to rewire us by his grace.
This grace affects
us in every part of our lives. To quote
again from Galatians 2:20, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The grace we are given, the grace that makes
us new and makes us new creations moves us to live lives of thanks. Grace motivates us to do as God
commands. It moves us to love our
neighbor. It moves us to serve. It moves us to live not to serve ourselves,
but to serve God through service to others.
Grace leads us to do things we didn’t know were possible. Grace strengthens us and leads us to do
things that might otherwise terrify us so that others who don’t know the
greatness of grace might too be drenched in it.
Living with this
grace, living in this grace is not
only our joy in times of triumph, but it is also our strength in times of
trial. It is our peace and comfort in
times of sadness and grief. Grace is the
hope that we cling to. It is the promise
that we carry with us and remember when it might otherwise feel as though we
are surrounded by darkness. Because
Christ lives within us, when we face hardship, when we are faced with those
situations that we don’t have the strength to handle, we know that we do not
face them alone. Christ is there strengthening
us, empowering us, and yes, sometimes carrying us through.
Grace helps us see
the light at the end of the tunnel, because Jesus is the light. The same Jesus
who by grace dwells within us is the same Jesus who is the light that came into
the world, the light that pierces the darkness.
The light the darkness can never overcome. Whatever evil forces may attack us and seek
to condemn us, the victory is ours in Christ.
Now it’s true,
grace, life in general…it’s not always exciting. We don’t live with the same fire burning
within our hearts all the time. It’s
just not realistic. But don’t ever take
grace for granted. Be confident that God
won’t take it from you, but never underestimate it’s power.
I encourage you to
follow this instruction from Luther.
Each morning when you wake up, make the sign of the cross and remember
your baptism. Start each day by
remembering that by grace you have been changed. You have been made new. Along with that then, when you have the
opportunity to make use of his gifts, to come to worship or receive the Lord’s
Supper, take a moment to think about what you have been invited to
receive. Consider what took place so
that you might be assured of everlasting life.
Rejoice that his mercies really are new each and every morning. Dive into his grace, and see the difference
it makes. Amen.
