August 6, 2006 (Jimmie Johnson)

Romans 1:7-12

To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

John 6:35-40

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

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I have to admit that when I read the Bible, I look for the big themes. I look for the forest and not the trees. I know that you can find a supportive Bible verse for about any point of view you have. So, I am not fond of what is called “proof texting.” It occurs when you already have your mind made up and then go to the Bible to prove your point of view. It’s why I look for the forest and not the trees when it comes to the Bible.

I look for the big picture of God disclosed in the Bible stories. But, one detail has always struck me as hugely important. All of Paul’s letters begin with the greeting: “Grace and peace to you from God and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let me say that again. “Grace and peace to you from God and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sound familiar? It’s how we begin each worship service here at First Pres, isn’t it? The water is poured, and these specific words are said! We call it the Greeting.

Not every Presbyterian minister begins worship this way. It is characteristic of the worship life that has evolved in this congregation with the Worship Committee’s guidance. Some folks went to Mo-Ranch to attend a Worship Conference years ago, and they came back saying: “We have a new idea. Are you interested?” I said, “Sure,” and the rest is history. They had seen a worship leader at Mo begin each service with the pouring of water to symbolize baptism. And as the water was poured, the Greeting was proclaimed: “Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then the worship leader added: “Welcome home, children of God.” We have been using that Greeting for years now.

It is my belief such a liturgical action has a transforming effect on all of us. Each part of the worship service is an integral step in the dance called Worship on the Lord’s Day. And if you are a regular participant in this dance, your life will be changed from the inside out. Sometimes the change will be subtle, and sometimes it will be very noticeable to you because each step in the dance is taking us into the presence of God and asking us to trust God more than we believe our fear.

The very first word that we believe most indicates the character of God is the word “Grace.” Since this is a Christian gathering, we are those who take our clue about God from the life of Jesus. Not only do his death and resurrection disclose God, but his birth does also. Because of the birth of the baby Jesus, we believe God’s “Grace” means that God has declared unilateral disarmament toward all of creation and you and me. The sending of a baby as the sign of God’s intention toward earth and us means God intends no harm. This is what “Grace” means to us. God means no harm.

“Grace” means you have a relationship with God not because of your deciding to be religious or turning over a new leaf or because you have undergone some religious experience that some call being born again. No, we are not talking about our claim on God. Rather, we are talking about “Grace” being about God’s claim on us.

When we first think of God, we join St. Paul and say, “Grace.” This is the way Presbyterians think of God. “Grace” is what makes God tick.” “Grace” means love. It is not love understood as a response to something or someone that is lovely. No, grace doesn’t respond to innate worth as when I fell in love with Sherry because I liked what I saw or how she was. That’s a form of love, but that is human love. Human love means there is something, a quality, let’s say, in the person or about the person that we want for ourselves. We want to take this quality into ourselves. Human love is about how the other person makes us feel. It’s about being in love with being in love. Human love is not really that unselfish at all.

But God’s love, God’s grace, well, now you are talking about something all together different. God’s love doesn’t see worth and then goes out and gets it. God’s love creates worth. God’s love gives value. God’s love holds God’s interest in us. God’s love establishes and maintains our relationship with God not us, not even our response. God’s freedom is the freedom to love, regardless. God’s love understood as “Grace” tells us God’s Spirit expressed in the life of Jesus creates worth in us.

How have I been saying it lately? You are probably tired of it by now. Grace is not about our decision for Jesus but about God’s decision for us in Jesus. This is what Baptism means. It’s why we pour the water and say the words from Paul’s letters in the New Testament. Baptism promises God in the experience of Jesus and takes us, takes all of us, into God’s heart which is far more important than any decision we make to take Jesus into our heart unless, of course, you want the Christian life to be about your merit badges or the Christian life being about your bragging rights.

The very first word of the Greeting, “Grace,” reminds us the miracle is God’s love, not our being loveable. Christians are people who believe God first loves us, and then we love God, then ourselves and then others. We can pass on to others only what we have first received. Yes, that is why we take communion the way we do. Later in the service, we will take communion and then pass it on to others. We can only pass on to others what we ourselves, in our neediness, have first received: God’s love, God’s grace.

It is the story of Israel in the Old Testament being retold through the life of Jesus so that we gentiles find ourselves included, too. It is really a Jewish idea. There is really nothing new in the New Testament except a sweeping notion that we gentiles, we outsiders, are also chosen.

“Grace” is the turning of God’s face upon us so that God’s face shines upon us. This is the center of the Old Testament. This is the way St. Paul understands who Jesus Christ is: the shining of God’s face upon us all. This is what is new about Christianity. It is too bad we are threatened by it and seem so interested in limiting who is in and who is out with God.

Now here is the detail that fascinates me. “Grace” comes first, and then what comes next: “Peace.” Please don’t ever forget this word order: “Grace” first and then “Peace” from God and from our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no peace with God in our hearts if we base our hope on our religious efforts. But a good night’s sleep, a sense of calm within, a feeling of being at peace are the result of God’s grace granting such peace. It is the realization that God is not out to get us but to welcome us and to challenge us to be God’s instruments of Grace toward others.

Look, the only way I think of myself as a Christian is not due to my successes at goodness or holiness. No, it is due to God’s 100-percent success in God’s mission to love the world. And Jesus is the sign of God’s love, not the cause of God’s love.

“Grace” is first in our lives because we stand with empty hands, no pretending on our part; our hands are empty before God. With an understanding of “Grace” first, then we know our empty hands can do what they do best: receive, receive the generosity, the loving kindness of God. And from this “Grace” comes the gift then of God’s peace.

This “Peace” doesn’t mean the absence of strife, death, conflict, cancer or failure. It means “Peace” understood as the assurance of God’s love being the truest thing about us. It means the promise that God’s face will always shine upon us even when we are wrong, when we are stupid, when we are selfish, when we are dead. “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” is what St. Paul preaches later in this same New Testament letter called Romans. Nothing will stop God’s face from shining upon us. That’s the miracle, the only real miracle, you have to believe: God’s love is so beyond measure. God’s love is without an end.

And when you come to trust this, when you come to believe this, then you are always at home, no matter where you are or what you have or don’t have. You know your core identity that you cannot lose even if you hit rock bottom is that you are a child of God, not because of who you are or who you have become but because of who God is. No wonder then the words of the Greeting from the New Testament letters of Paul are followed by what we Christians have come to believe: “Welcome home, children of God.”

The first words in the gathering of God’s children are the wondrous words reminding us of that Love that awakened us not only from sleep but from spiritual death and promises to see us all the way back Home.

“Grace and peace to you, from God and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” When you are about to take your last breath, remember those are the words that Heaven will be singing to you!