Wednesday, December 2, 2015

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Amazing Grace

Perhaps you remember the parable told by Jesus in which he describes a father and his prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).

One day the son asked his father to give him the son's share of the father's estate, even though the father was still alive.  The father complied.  Soon after, the son gathered all his wealth and set off for a distant country, where he squandered his fortune in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.  So he hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  The son longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he realized his father's hired servants had food to spare, and here he was starving.  He decided to go back to his father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants."  So he got up and went to his father.

But while the son was a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.  The father ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But, the father said to his servants "Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."  So they began to celebrate.

Was this father rewarding irresponsible behavior?  What kind of "family values" would this father communicate by throwing a party for such a renegade?  What kind of virtue would that encourage?  There was no solemn lecture, no "I hope you've learned your lesson!"

Instead, Jesus tells of the father's exhilaration ---- "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" ---- and then Jesus adds the buoyant phrase, "they began to make merry."

The Webster Dictionary's definition of grace is "the unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification."

The story of the prodigal son delivers an astonishing message.  We realize how thickly the veil of "ungrace" obscures our view of God.  Every human institution seems to run on "ungrace" ---- it's insistence that we earn our way.  All this helps us prepare for the real world with it's relentless ranking of who is greatest.  Secular culture tells us we must look good, feel good and make good.

From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of "ungrace".  The early bird gets the worm.  No pain, no gain.  There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights.  Get what you pay for.  We know these rules well because we live by them.  We work for what we earn.  We like to win.  We insist on our rights.  We want people to get what they deserve ---- nothing more, nothing less.

Yet if we care to listen, we hear a loud whisper from the Gospel that we did not get what we deserved.  We deserved punishment and got forgiveness.  We deserved wrath and got love.  We deserved debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history.

But, the world runs on "ungrace".  Everything depends on what I do.  But, Jesus' kingdom calls us to another way, one that depends not on our own performance, but God's.  We do not have to achieve, but merely follow.  On the Cross, Jesus has already earned for us the costly victory of God's acceptance.

Author Philip Yancy asks:  "What belief is unique to the Christian faith? ---- GRACE.  The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seeming to go against every instinct of humanity.  Other religions offer a way, a path, to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional."

So, grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it.  Grace comes from outside, as a gift and not as achievement.  How easily it vanishes from our dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, look-out-for-number-one world.

Grace does not depend on what we have done for God, but rather on what God has done for us.  Grace comes undeserved, at God's initiative and not our own.  God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.  Grace baffles us because it goes against the intuition everyone has that in the face of injustice, some price must be paid. Grace makes its appearance in many forms.  Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more ---- and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this year at CPC.
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