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Posts Tagged ‘Grace’

P.R. Paul

Posted in Advent, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I need to lighten up about the various gospel message venues that are outside my sense of propriety or taste. If St. Paul is not concerned about motive, then shouldn’t I have more confidence in the ultimate message? God doesn’t need me as a defense attorney.

Philippians 1:18
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

I confess, I struggle with the propriety of those who promote Christ in conjunction with goofy sounding miracles like “gold dust” or body spasms or hysterical laughing. And yet, who am I to say this isn’t God too?
Maybe every miracle appears insubstantial or faked to one person or another.

But the point is that God can bring down the liars without my help. God chooses when to weed the garden, not me.

In my own church, there are people who are moved to tears and confession by the waving of flags, a procession of women in white dresses carrying gold crowns, or children carrying an array of palm branches or country flags. These symbols do not touch me but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value or power.

The conduct of worship or the method of preaching or the way of the witness will be and must be unique to the individuals who do it. The only true mistake is when others try to overlay these ideas on everyone as the best way, the only way, or the surefire way to bring people into the faith.

There is really only one surefire way: authenticity and love.

Paul was confident in his own faith and knew without a doubt that he was in the right place at the right time. God was with him and God was using him. Everything else was a by-product.

I can only know my own God arena. And all the rest is about grace.

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Doing My Part?

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here’s what happens when someone doesn’t do his/her part in a volunteer organization: other people have to work harder to pick up the slack. Even if it’s a justified slacking, the work remains. That’s the case with tasks, but what about practicing love?

Ephesians 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Paul spends a lot of time in Ephesians talking about love and unity and maturity and operating in the call of grace. And the upshot here is that this work, this practicing of God’s presence (that is what this is all about), is how the Body of Christ is “built up.” Today’s group of people who are believers and participants in the work of Christ have been asked to become a whole by doing their part: live loved and give love; live in grace and give grace.

The message has not changed over the years, only the people who are here on earth practicing, reflecting, and trusting.

I used to think that doing my part was all the “doings” of a life in Christ like evangelizing or feeding the poor or visiting the sick and imprisoned or reading the bible or praying or going to church. And certainly, these manifestations do happen. The difference is that these “doings” are better as an outgrowth of the core “being” in love and grace.

There are no tick marks for service. There is never a point at which we have “done enough” because the needs will always be greater than the workers to meet them. Even in Jesus’s time, this was true. [John 12:8] We do not get points with God by being inexhaustible Energizer bunnies.

O God, help me do my part today. And out of this part – love and grace – may a soul be touched, a heart opened, a wound healed.

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By Grace, Called to Service

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2010| 1 Comment »

Sometimes I sound like a broken record as I write these meditations. The same words keep rising to the top of my reading and writing: love, grace, others, and then more love, more grace, and so on. There is no good work, no anointed task, no Christ service, that is not first touched by grace.

Ephesians 4:7, 11-12a
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. . . . It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, . . .

Anything else I do is still, all about me. I tell my teens and now twenty-year-old that the universe does not revolve around their “sun.” But, am I any different really?

Are any of us?

There is a song from the musical, “Dreamgirls,” in which the character, Effie, is dropped from the group and she sings, in between promises from her boyfriend/promoter, “What about me?” “What about what I need?” “What about how I feel?” This song resonated with me during the performance and I know it resonated with anyone who has felt that sense of being cast aside. Where did we miss it? How did we get sucked into this path?

This is still our fear in the face of stepping out on any new trail. Will God really be there? How will I be perceived? What if I fail? What if I am wrong and cast aside again? What if I am missing God?

During today’s sermon, we were asked if we would be willing to “step into the water” while it’s still rushing (based on Joshua 3). Would we step out in faith and trust in the grace?

I have had my share of disappointments in service to God. I’m pretty sure that most of these disappointments came about because I was walking forward with one part of my body while another part was looking back (just to be sure I could get back if I needed to). I always have a fail safe. If this doesn’t work out, I can always . . . [fill in the blank].

On my recent retreat weekend, a woman shared her desire to go into ministry by attending seminary. At first, she tried to do it part-time with the security of her full-time job. But then, she needed to jump in, head to toe. She needed to abandon the way back in order to fully trust the way forward. That is a form of grace.

That is the kind of grace I want to embrace. I think.

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Reboot with the Christ

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , on October 18, 2010| 3 Comments »

Sometimes my computer is so messed up, the only thing left to do is reboot: shut it down and restart it. And I’m thinking this was God’s plan as well. Humans needed a a restart, a clear way to reboot the system, a specific point in time to begin fresh. Christ is grace personified.

Ephesians 2:4-5
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Of course, a reboot will take care of the current glitches but it doesn’t erase all the old stuff. Right now, my computer is running really slow. I kept thinking it was the Internet connection or the router, but I finally had to go poking around the “C” drive to determine what else might be the cause. Since I’m not a computer expert, this investigation is always a little daunting.

As I scrolled through the “Add/Remove programs” section, I found a number of old programs I no longer use. They were just taking up space. They weren’t hurting anything, they were just memory hogs. As a Christian, there are the same kinds of things that are no longer part of my daily life. I don’t need those rule-sets for anymore. So why hang on to them? Click on remove program.

A second place I looked for memory wasters was the files themselves. Since my family sees the desktop as a “family computer,” I have discovered they leave a bunch of unnecessary files on the hard drive. Many of those were easy to dump since they weren’t mine. However, many other files represented special times in my life. But how much is too much to carry around and store? In our basement, I still have my files from graduate school. OK, that was ten years ago. Isn’t it time to take these boxes of old homework, term papers, and dated books to the landfill? Same for the old computer files.

The biggest file folder turned out to be a music folder of my daughter’s (3.5 gigabytes). I vaguely remember trying to help her salvage her I-tunes from a damaged (trojan/virus infected) laptop. In the end, we put them on the desktop for safe keeping, a holding tank. I was reminded of the times I’ve tried to help other people emotionally and taken on their stuff. I’d forgotten that I had to pass that stuff along to the God who is willing to carry it all. Click on delete … empty the wastebasket.

After I did all this deleting and emptying, I did another reboot, a refresh. Computer is running better.

Same for me. First reboot at accepting Christ was life-changing. But I still need to refresh my system along the way. Sometimes I need a technician to help me ferret out the problems, but sometimes, I just need to delete the old stuff: prayer, confession, thanksgiving.

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Intentional Redemption

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Whatever God gives, it’s given on purpose: salvation, forgiveness, healing, anointing, power, revelation, and more. All of these gifts are given according to his understanding of what is needed, when and why. Our leap of faith is accepting the timing.

Ephesians 1:7-8
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

It’s a trust issue. Do I trust God to give me what I really need or am I always looking for God to give me what I want in the moment?

And why is it so hard for me to remember that what I already have was given in the same spirit? I was redeemed 32 years ago. I had an epiphany, a revelation of the Christ and the necessity for the veil to be taken down. I was offered a relationship with God that was unlike any other relationship I had or would ever have in this 3-D world. I was invited to partake of the universal “Body.”

I needed that moment back then. And now, along the way, oh God, help me to see the other moments. Help me to recognize the gifts you gave and to return thanks. Help me to appreciate this path instead of complaining about the conditions of the way. There are so many other ways things could have gone.

If I were totally surrendered to your wisdom and understanding, I would know true joy. I still can, right? The invitation has never been snatched away. Today is just another example of the story we are making of my life.

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Binding Contracts

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is what a lot of contract lawyers get paid to do: one to make the covenant and another to find enough loopholes to break it. What contracts or promises do we have to today that are truly binding? Partnerships? Marriage? Last Will and Testament? BFF? Pinky swear?

Galatians 3:15
Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case [between God and Abraham].

The covenant promise between God and Abraham happened 430 years before the laws were established through Moses. But we are told, it was still rock solid after all that time. In fact, of the three parts of the covenant (land, blessings & a Messianic descendant), it is the third part that created the expectation or anticipation of a savior.

There are two kinds of covenants: conditional and unconditional. In the conditional covenant, both parties must agree and both must live up to their agreement. If either side breaks the covenant, then it is no longer binding. An unconditional covenant only requires the completion or fulfillment of the covenant by one side. The Abrahamic covenant only required God’s participation. Abraham just had to “show up.”

Once this covenant was completed with the arrival of the Messiah, he entered into yet another binding, unconditional covenant: Grace, which would manifest in eternal salvation (our sins covered by the blood sacrifice of the Christ).

Like Abraham, I just have to show up. I just have to say yes to this covenant. This is the contract of redemption.

But for me, the excitement is not in showing up. It’s taking full advantage of the covenant. It’s participating in the process. It’s being present in the story. It’s having a relationship.

Like a marriage, the wedding ceremony is nice and the symbols of rings, kisses and blessings are edifying and even memorable. But it’s what happens later that really counts.

Unlike a marriage, God is willing to take me back again and again when I fall away or stray. Though I be like Gomer [Book of Hosea], my God is patient, and gracious, and loving. This, then, is the covenant of hope.

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Miracles–A Grace

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , on September 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Miracles don’t follow known rules or laws. No one can “earn” or “learn” a miracle. They happen apart from ourselves. We can’t call on one or necessarily expect a miracle. We can’t recreate the circumstances or duplicate them. They are supernatural. So, how come they don’t work faith?

Galatians 3:5
Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

It goes back to the remembering. In the moment of a miracle, everyone is astounded, in awe of what just happened. Belief is born. But then, after the miracle is over, things seem to go back to some kind of normal. The thousands fed one day are hungry the next. The blind man who could see again disappears into the crowd. The water turned into wine is consumed.

Miracles are just another form of grace. Like mercy, no one is really worthy of a miracle. It’s a gift. And like children who get loaded with presents on Christmas morning, they lose their novelty over time, and often a very short time.

Faith is built up on relationship not miracles.

When my husband and I met, that was a miracle. But our marriage could not be built on our chance meeting and whirlwind engagement. Or, when we were saved from harm in a terrible car accident, or when we received anonymous money in the mail to pay our bills, or when our children were presented to us for adoption.

All miracles are turning points and crossroads: we can choose, from that point forward, which way to go. But faith itself is in the journey that follows.

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