Message

Christianity is about grace. It is not about rules or requirements, it’s about grace. It is not bad news, it’s good news. The Gospel is about grace, because we seem particularly prone to forget that. What Jesus revealed to us, according to Paul, is grace. 

Paul talked about it in several ways. He defined grace as love, forgiveness, reconciliation. He defined it as adoption. We are adopted as sons and daughters of God. In each instance what he is talking about is grace. He called it grace because it is undeserved, given to us freely, without price. 

That was the most astounding thing to Paul, that God took the initiative in coming to us. Paul had been trying to reach God by reaching for perfection. He and the Pharisees tried to become perfect in order to become acceptable to God. But they discovered this wonderful paradox. It was only when they admitted that they were not perfect, that they were human beings and sinners, that they received grace, and through grace, access to God.

“We are saved by our faith in God’s grace, and not in our own efforts.” This is good news, but this is so hard for many of us to accept…

But if you have grown up in middle-class America, you are taught that you must work hard, and then you will be rewarded with success. You are given models of perfection that you have to live up to. You have been told that if you do not measure up to some expectation about your life, then you are going to be considered a failure.

“You are saved by grace, and not by anything that you must do.” Is hard to get a grasp on. IT TAKES A LOT OF FAITH! IT TAKES A NEW WAY OF THINKING! 

Paul was a Pharisee, who believed it was possible to reach perfection. He believed it was possible to reach perfection because God has given us this Law to follow. All you had to do, it was believed, was follow the Law. Now it will mean that you’ve got to get some discipline in your life, and work hard, make sacrifices, but you can do it. And if you do it, then you will find salvation. 

A Law is something that if we could only achieve it, we would find what is missing in our lives, and all these blessings would follow.

We don’t follow the Old Testament Law, but we live with something we would call a Law, Something that says if you measure up to this standard, then life will unfold for you in all its blessing and possibilities. The Law holds a great promise, only it doesn’t deliver. The Law doesn’t make us happy, nor does it make us perfect. All it does is make us self righteous. Because we cannot attain perfection, we become self-righteous in comparing ourselves to those we deem less than ourselves. 

The Bible calls it “self-righteousness” and “hypocrisy.” It says that the temptation of the righteous, the good people, who hold high standards for themselves, And they work so hard to reach those standards, And they even expect that achievement in others. The temptation, if you seek perfection for yourself, is to be obsessed with imperfection in other people. You will become an expert in other people’s mistakes. 

Jesus encountered those self-righteous people everywhere. They saw Jesus as the enemy. Do you know why? Because they expected Jesus to condemn people who made mistakes, who weren’t living up to the Law.

But instead, he forgave them. HE WELCOMED THEM INTO HIS FELLOWSHIP— THEY WERE PART OF HIS FAMILY! 

They couldn’t abide that. They said to Jesus, “How can you do that? Look at them. Look at their sins. How can you forgive them without making them pay?” 

Jesus turned to them, and said, “Why do you point out the speck in your neighbor’s eye, when you can’t even see the log in your own eye?” 

And to the crowd that was stoning the woman taken in adultery, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” 

After Pentecost a mob of self-righteous threw stones at the young man STEPHEN. Until he died Paul, “breathing threats and murder,” headed for Damascus to arrest the Christians, bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. 

BUT that’s when it hit him. It knocked him down, literally, and blinded him temporarily. PAUL was led to Damascus and ironically, housed with Christians, the very people that he was hunting. The Damascus Christians loved him, because Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” 

When he asked those Christians on his most wanted list, “Why do you do this?”, They told him about Jesus.

WE ARE TO WELCOME YOU AS CHRIST WELCOMED US…

And Paul, for the first time, experienced grace in his life. He felt he had been given an access to God, through grace. He couldn’t do it on his own. It happened when he was graced with Christ’s continuing love through the body of Christ—the church. 

Paul couldn’t get over that. He couldn’t get over that God had come to him. He had done nothing to earn this. In fact, what he had done probably should have prevented him from receiving it. 

But God didn’t turn away from him. He came to him. That is why he wrote in our text for this morning, while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man… But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious and loving God, we have so many prayers. There are so many things for which we long, things we hope for, things we are working for, and things we cannot do alone.

Give us persistence in our work of building your kingdom of love and peace and justice. Let us be coworkers with you, O God, dreaming your dreams for the world, sharing your love with the world, trusting in your faithfulness to us. We pray for all of the people who are sick and struggling with illnesses of any kind, whether it is the COVID virus or cancer or addictions or mental health challenges. We pray that your healing power would surround and support and heal all people. 

Be with all families that grieve. Draw us all together in networks of strong love and deep compassion, that we may support and help each other. Help us to remember your presence.

We pray for our schools, for teachers, principals, students and parents, as everyone works to create and learn new ways of teaching and supporting our young people. Soothe the nerves of parents who grow frustrated by all that we have lost. Give patience and perseverance to those who are overwhelmed but trying to do the best they can with new challenges.

We give you thanks, O God, for all of our volunteers, for those who give of their time and talents in our church and in the world. Their generosity is an expression of who we are as Christians, seeking to love and serve the world as Jesus loved and served the world. Fill us with the light of the resurrected Christ that we might shine that light into the world.

O God of all creation, bind us together into one human family.

As your church, we embody our unity by joining our voices with the voice of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.