A few weeks ago, I preached about “Church as a School of Love,” church as a community where we learn together, get schooled together in receiving and sharing love – and not just any love, but the love of God. Now, this kind of love is different, related but different than the kind of love we can have exclusively for certain kinds of people in our lives: romantic love or love for family or love between friends. The kind of love we’re talking about here is known as Agape love, indiscriminate love, divine love that truly knows no bounds.
A key dimension to that agape Love is Grace.
So, when we talk about church as a school of love, we should also talk about Church a School of Grace.
Grace is central to the experience of walking together in the Way of Jesus, and sharing and being shaped by the kind of divine love that Jesus revealed.
What does it mean to endeavor to be a community centered on Grace?
Well, what does Grace mean?
“Accepting that you are accepted,” in the words of Richard Rohr. “Accepting that you are accepted,” in a fundamental way, by God, in God, the Source of all Being, in a way that no one can take away. “Accepting that you are accepted,” and allowing that fact, that fundamental fact, to change our hearts to be hearts of mercy. Because accepting that you are accepted has to mean that other people are accepted too – none of us are special in that regard.
A few years ago, I was talking with this guy who was a guest here at our winter warming center, and he said, “You are special, just like everybody else!” and he laughed. That’s the truth.
So now, Grace is not just a nice, naïve, wishful way of thinking. This is about ultimate reality, and the nature of our relationship with ultimate reality, in the midst of our struggles as limited human beings. The reality of Grace as a feature of divine reality can seize us and challenge us and shape us.
I remember once years I was really torn up about something, really wracked with regret and self-recrimination. It doesn’t matter the details why. It was so extreme that I fell to the ground and cried out to God, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
And immediately – immediately – a presence leaped forward and embraced me. Immediately I was filled with a force of love, that I was defenseless against. And I received the message “You don’t need to apologize to Me. Apologize to yourself. Apologize to yourself for making this so hard. It doesn’t need to be this hard.”
I was not expecting that, this embrace of love from without, and from within, it took me off guard and it released me from some chains around my heart. At least for a while. It helped me to be a little less self-absorbed, and a little more mature of heart, a little more compassionate and responsive and responsible to others.
I try to remember this experience, I forget about it a lot, but it’s part of what is so meaningful to me about the practices of our faith, which we keep returning.
A lot of people have had some kind of experience like this, through an experience with God, the Divine, with Jesus, and with other people. And a lot of us yearn for it, and trust it’s possible.
Grace is at the center of our Reformed Protestant tradition. God’s love is not earned by our righteousness or not by our unrighteousness – God does not give or withhold love based on our good works or merit badges. That’s not was Jesus was revealing and doing. God embraces us as we are, in our mess of good and bad and everything in between. Questions about our deserving it or not deserving it is the wrong kind the question.
Guilt, shame, just dissolve before this indiscriminate Love of God. This then helps us to ourselves grow in love for God and for each other and for ourselves. That’s the Good News of Jesus.
Grace can change our lives as individuals. And Grace can change our lives as communities of faith centered around the Love of God and the Way of Jesus.
Being grounded in Grace as a community helps us to be accepting and welcoming of each other, in all of our quirks and curiosities, strengths and shortcoming, helping to see and uplift the dignity of each person, and to invite out each other’s gifts.
Being grounded in Grace as a community also helps us when we are in conflict with each other. We can engage with conflict in a way that’s productive rather than destructive. A general atmosphere of Grace helps take the sting of judgment out of things when there’s disagreement. That way we can work together to address the root cause of a conflict, and trust that by God’s grace it’ll end up for the best.
Being grounded in Grace as a community also can help us to be honest in a mature way about our shortcomings and blind spots as a community. I think this is really important in the current social climate with conflict over calls for our society and institutions to be more accountable for sins such as racism. Protestant teachings about Grace has something very important to offer – Grace releases us from reactive cycles of judgment and guilt and resentment and defensiveness.
For instance, if we as a church wanted to explore together the complex history and legacy of the Congregational church’s relationship with the Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Nez Perce people in our region, and to be sure we’re accountable to that … if we do that with Grace as our guide, we could do that without fear or defensiveness or denial and triumphalism or judgement or over-simplification. Right? The experience of God’s enduring gift of Grace gives us the courage to be honest about our shadows in a mature way, as well honest about our gifts through the years.
For Christians, what’s called “Repentance” isn’t about guilt or shame – those words don’t come up in the Bible very much. It’s about Grace and the growth of our hearts that Grace inspires.
The Greek word in the Gospels that’s translated as “repentance,” is metanoia. Nouia, from Nous, meaning mind or consciousness, which for the Greeks and the Hebrews lived in the heart and included our felt awareness as well as our mental activity.
Meta means to go beyond, to move to the next level.
Metanoia means a change in heart or an expansion of consciousness.
We become aware that we are stuck in a level of being and understanding that is alienated from God and our true souls and each other. We become aware that we are stuck in a way of being that causes harm to ourselves and to others.
We cry out to God of Help. Or we say, Enough! And we surrender to the force of Grace to embrace us and lift us out of the trap of that way of being, into a more expansive realm.
This is true as individuals, and it’s true as communities.
As it says in the Gospels, Jesus didn’t come to condemn anyone, but rather came so that we may have life, and life abundantly. So that Grace may abound. And I am so grateful for how Grace does abound.
I am so grateful to be able to grow into that with you all as a Community of Grace.
Psalm 25
(Selections, version by Nan Merrill)
To You, O Holy One, I lift up my soul
O Heart within my heart,
In You I place my trust.
Let me not feel unworthy
Let not fear rule over me.
Yes! Let all who open their hearts
Savor You and bless the earth!
Compel me to know Your ways, O Love,
Instruct me upon your paths.
Lead me in your truth,
And teach me,
For through You will I know wholeness.
I shall reflect your light
Both day and night.
I know of your mercy, Compassionate One,
And of your steadfast love.
You have been with me
From the beginning.
Forgive the many times I have
Walked away from You
Choosing to walk alone.
With your steadfast love,
Once again,
Companion me along your way.
You are gracious and just
O Spirit of Truth,
Happy to guide those who miss their way;
You enjoy teaching all who are open
All who choose to live in truth.
Your paths are loving and sure,
O Holy One,
For those who give witness to You
Through their lives.
For the honor of your Name
O Beloved,
Forgive my separation from You.
I bow down before You;
Instruct me, that I might choose the way of love and truth
I would live in your abundance,
And my children as well.
Your friendship is offered to all
Whose hearts are open;
You will make known your promises to them.
My eyes are ever on You, Beloved,
Keep my feet from stumbling along the way.
“Carmo Convent and Church – Ruins – Lisbon” by Antónia Lobato is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Dandelion Way 