Proclamation
of the Word
The phrase that stood out to me in the
Galatians passage this week is: I refuse to reject the grace of God.
I refuse to reject the grace of God.
That may sound a little strange – why would
anyone reject the grace of God?
The grace of God is a gift, and like
all gifts, we need to acknowledge, accept and use the gift.
This passage from Paul is focussing on
the place of faith in salvation. It is easy for us to think of sin as something
with grades. We talk about ‘a little sin’, or an ‘unforgivable sin’, but we
know that sin is sin. We may say we are all sinners, but we act as if there is
a ranking for sins, from minor to really serious.
“ … for Paul the tragedy of sin is not
measured by infringements of the law but by rejecting Christ and by denying the
meaning of his death as the saving act of God.” [i]
Paul writes about salvation,
justification, being made right with God. The means of our salvation is faith
in Christ or the faith of Christ.
While we genrally talk about faith in
Christ, some scholars translate the Greek as the faith of Christ that saves us.
We are justified through the faith of Jesus. [ii]
“Either we effect justification by believing
in Jesus or Jesus effects justification by his own righteous obedience.” [iii]
This might all seem a bit complicated J and it is. The
message Paul was trying to get across to the people of Galatia is that salvation
is not about following a set of Jewish laws, but about our relationship with
God through Jesus Christ. A free gift.
In the reading from Luke: Jesus said
to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
He said this to a woman who is named
as a ’sinner’, one of those sinners, a ‘big’ sinner. But she is the one
who is free. Have you ever met anyone who could be truly comfortable in their
own skin, who acted as they wished because they had nothing to lose? This woman
is looked down upon by the people in the community – or the people in the
community who think they count. [iv]
“You cannot determine your worth to
Jesus by a calculation of your sins. That is not how God works.
Because faith, you see, is also
the belief that you are worthy of salvation. You are worthy to sit at the
table. You are worthy of touching, and being touched by, God. You are worthy of
belonging. You are worthy of being called a disciple.” [v]
Remember where
I started: I refuse to reject the grace of God.
This woman
is an example of someone who accepts the grace of God. She says no to those who
would try and prevent her from seeing Jesus, she says no to those who try and
make her shamed of her life and her actions. She says to herself and yes to
Jesus.[vi]
I wonder in what ways we have rejected
the grace of God.
I can remember times when I felt
worthless and not good enough – as if I had to make a certain level of bible knowledge
or trust or something before God’s grace would be available to me.
I have had people tell me that they
are not good enough, or they have done something bad, as if we need some gold
stars before God will love us.
I have had people tell me they can’t
come to church because they don’t have the right clothes or they live in the wrong
part of town. One place we lived a person who attended church each week told me
she didn’t stay for morning tea, because if people knew she was divorced she
wouldn’t be welcome. I doubt that the church involved would have cast her out, but
that was a concern to this person.
Maybe it is because I am a Minister, but
I find many people I speak with are ashamed about something in their life, or
guilty about something they have done or not done. I understand that. But we
are justified/ saved/ put right with God by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – not
by anything we do or don’t do. And with salvation comes peace and freedom.
We are then free to be ourselves, our
true selves, the person God created us to be. That doesn’t mean we do whatever
we want, it isn’t license to hurt or destroy people or creation.
[a box with ‘grace’ written on it,
some tags attached]
See this box, for some people it has
tags on it saying –
if you are good enough,
if you are bright enough,
if you pay enough money,
if you follow certain rules,
if you believe certain doctrinal statements…
[Remove tags]
if you are good enough,
if you are bright enough,
if you pay enough money,
if you follow certain rules,
if you believe certain doctrinal statements…
[Remove tags]
The gospel, the good news, is that grace
is gift from God - free of “if’s”
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a
consequence to this amazing gift, a consequence of accepting that we are fully known
by God, fully and completely loved, that God’s love knows no boundaries – not even
the boundaries we would like to place on God’s love and grace. This grace
includes everyone. I can remember an article I read years ago, and the person writing
it talked of the people of God as being like a family, and just as you don’t get
to choose your family members, you don’t get to choose who else is in the family
with you.
I wonder in what ways we have rejected
the grace of God for ourselves or for someone else.
