July 28, 2006 (David Hyers)

“My grace is sufficient for you.” Man those are difficult words to take seriously. Taken alone and out of context from the rest of the text, it’s hard. But in the midst of Paul’s writings, it’s harder still. I am still trying to get my finger on Paul. I’ll let you know when I do, but don’t hold your breath.

Still, they are great, compelling words, “my grace is sufficient.” Being as much as is needed, competent; qualified, God’s grace is just right.

But we don’t trust the words. We don’t believe them, not completely. We don’t live in the sufficiency of Grace. We can’t. Weak are the walls of our hearts. Weak are the walls that hold the image of grace, the image of God. The failings of our humanity can’t hold such good news too long. We begin to forget, forget to trust, forget to risk.

Broken and battered, we begin to trust ourselves. We begin to trust more in power, more in might, more in money and guns--all those things that seem to make us feel safer and yet leave us emptier.

I found leftover fireworks in my desk, and they reminded of childhood when I would set off a whole pack. I think we set off those fireworks of culture. We giggle at the flash-bang satisfaction of TV and movies. We breathe in the acidic smoke of an escapism that smells so good even as it burns our noses. Yet the seduction of that black powder is the seduction of an ultimately empty power.

Yet Paul is proclaiming the sufficiency of God’s grace in the midst of our forgetfulness. And so, too, it is in our forgetfulness, our brokenness that Christ calls the disciples, calls us from right where we are. Christ is calling us out of our waning trust with no bread, no bag, no money belt.
Christ calls us to go out, to leave behind those things that pull our trust away. Christ calls us to go out as broken and flawed persons to live the good news with our words, with our lives to go from right where we are!

We aren’t called once we get it all right. I’ll go once I have all the answers, once I have all my fears controlled, once I have filled that aching empty. Rather we are called out in the sufficiency of God’s grace.

I won’t be arrogant enough to tell you what it means for you to be called out. There are days I struggle enough with my own calling to know better than tell you what yours must be. There are plenty of folk, including me, who would love to talk with you about where you might feel God is calling if you have the need. I for one won’t tell you where God is calling. I will say God is calling you just where you are, just as you are.

We are called to grow, to search and learn and reach out in trust. God’s call reaches us just where we are. It might be to hold someone’s hand. It might be to share a kind word. It might be a call to ordained ministry. You might be called to be an elder. It might be to host pot luck dinner. We’ll be glad to help you ask. We can’t decide for you, but trust for God’s grace is surprisingly sufficient.

At MO last week after my last sermon in that thirty-second window of venerability, Allison, a little child, grabbed my hand, pulled me in close, and whispered, “You are a child of God too!” And for a while—a good while--all the worry and the doubt, the questioning were gone. I stood in a moment of grace. I felt again that’s God’s grace is sufficient.

So hear these words from two folk who were called by God. Know you are a child of God too, and God’s grace is sufficient.