“Hope: The Magnitude of Grace”    2011

Zephaniah 3:14-19                       Titus 3:3-7

 

Zephaniah 3:14-19

14Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! 15The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. 16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. 17The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing 18as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. 19I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.

 

Titus 3:3-7

3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Several years ago, at a gathering of Presbyterian pastors,

            I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen since high school.

It was a delightful surprise & it was quite a shock for both of us

            to recognize the older & grey-haired versions of each other.

 

We enjoyed reconnecting, and of course

            sharing stories and memories of our distant teen years.

     But beyond the funny stories and events of our youth,

            some went a bit deeper and were more difficult to hear …

                        … about embarrassing, painful and wounding moments,

                                    or bad decisions and mistakes of adolescence.

 

I was reminded, and seemed to relive   some of my regrettable past,

            that I had safely tucked-away trying to ignore and forget.

Like most people, not all of the choices I made in my youth

            were always wise and faithful, generous and compassionate.

 

Don’t most of us, even now   have a few old wounds and scars,

            memories, regrets and failures, --- not entirely resolved …

                                                            … that may even   still be quite painful?

 

But at the same time,

            remembering that history I preferred to forget,

                        was also

                                    an encouraging, healing and affirming experience,

                because it demonstrated ways that I have grown and changed;

                        for today, I would not still make those same bad choices.

 

Our mistakes, wounds & regrets are not necessarily all bad news,

            but can be transformed into  tokens of hope and promise.

 

I found it very hopeful and encouraging

            to realized that God   had been present,  and at work,                                      accomplishing   healing and change in me all along.

 

I also realized that it was all grace ----

            it was entirely God’s doing according to God’s good purpose;

   and definitely not

            the result of my efforts, my good works or my plans to change …

                                    … since for the most part, I hadn’t even noticed

                                                                 until I ran into someone

                                                                        who had known be way back then.

 

That experience of finding hope,  and redemption of the past

            actually raises an interesting theological inquiry:

 

**                    So what is the process,  of recovering from failure,

                           redeeming our past, and how do we get right with God?

 

That was the driving issue and question of Martin Luther’s life,

            and is a particularly appropriate consideration for today,

                        on the 494^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

 

At age 21, Martin Luther was a law student,

            but the sudden death of a friend caused

                        him to rethink more deeply about spiritual concerns---

                                    -- which drove him to become an Augustinian monk.

 

His was a rigorous life of prayer and spiritual disciplines,

            and Luther spend up to 6 hours a day confessing his sins.

 

Still fear haunted him, that he might forget some sin,

          or hadn’t done enough to placate God’s wrath toward him.

 

The medieval church of Martin Luther's time taught that

            good deeds, acts of love, obedience & devotion to the church,

                        made one worthy and deserving of God's mercy and pardon…

 

*… but how could he know for sure that his good outweighed his bad?

 

Still not certain that he really was right with God,

   and not helped much  by even rigors of Augustinian spirituality,

      Luther made a pilgrimage to Rome,  and did

            all the prescribed stuff to ease a guilty conscience.

But even that didn’t work, and Luther felt more guilty than ever.

 

For all his efforts, good deeds, confession and fervent trying,

   he still couldn’t shake the death-grip and hold of fear & sin.

 

He couldn’t cleanse & relieve his conscience of guilt and regret,

            knowing that there might always be something more

                        that offended the holiness and perfection of God.

 

 

As a teenager, during summers I worked at a biological laboratory

           where we prepared animal specimens and skeletons

                        for sale to colleges and schools for science classes.

 

One summer, one of the chest-freezers at the lab that was filled

            with animal carcasses, was left unplugged for several weeks.

To say the stuff inside rotted would be a gross understatement,

            and even wearing a gasmask,

                        there was a nasty and putrid stench beyond description.

 

Nothing we tried, not Lysol, bleach or combinations of chemicals

            could get rid of that horrible odor of decay and death…

                                    … and in the end, they had to replace the freezer.

 

Our sin, guilt, regrets and fears are something like that …

          … despite our best efforts, our hard work and all that we do,

                  we cannot overcome the putrid stench of decay and death.

**   On our own, we cannot make ourselves right with God.

 

That was the issue and struggle of Martin Luther,

            because no matter how hard he tried, he could not achieve

                        or accomplish the assurance of forgiveness he sought.

 

In the year 1515, when Martin Luther returned from Rome,

   he was appointed to teach Bible at the university in Wittenberg.

 

            As a monk, he had done meditation and spiritual exercises,

                        but the emphasis had not been on biblical studies.

So for the first time, in preparation for teaching his classes,

            Martin Luther was pushed to study Scripture for himself.

 

From his studies, particularly Romans and Paul’s other letters,

            he discovered that   forgiveness and saving-righteousness,

               don’t come through our good works or religious observances;

 

            but as God’s gift of grace, righteousness of Jesus Christ

                        accomplished when he died and rose from the dead.

Righteousness is not earned, but by grace is given through faith.

           For Martin Luther,

                        this was an overwhelming and transforming revelation,

                             that the institutional church had missed or rejected.

 

As Luther put it:

            "It was as though the gates of heaven were opened to me."

That is the same truth also proclaimed in Titus 3:4~,

            By the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, …  

 

This is the message of the Gospel, God’s Good News for sinners,

            and an entirely different picture and understanding of God

                        than that proclaimed by the medieval church,

                                    that had made the monk, Martin Luther        so fearful

                                                and feel so hopeless    about his sin and guilt.

 

But when we begin to accept and trust that the Good News is true,

            and we begin to experience for ourselves

                        how much God really does love us, even just as we are,

                                    it becomes the most significant truth of our lives

                                                that can reorient everything about how we live.

                                                    

It is not God’s intention for our lives

            to be defined by guilt and shame, or by fear and regret,

                        nor for us, through good works and religious observance

                              to try & earn God’s love or make-up for past mistakes.

                                   

Consider the gracious God that Zephaniah knows & describes:  vs. 17

            The Lord is in your midst; you shall fear no more.  … he will rejoice over you with gladness,  he will renew you in his love;  he will exult over you with loud singing.

 

This isn’t an angry God poised to pounce in fierce judgment,

          but a gracious loving God singing and rejoicing over us,

                   with loud joy and gladness celebrating that we are His.

That picture of gracious love   is according to Scripture,

            and I didn’t just make it up!

 

But we may have a little trouble believing or accepting all that.

            The world and the people around us are often critical,

                pointing out our mistakes and failures,

                        judging us and setting our worth by our accomplishments.

 

Trained, by that experience of being judged throughout our lives,

            no wonder we feel unworthy,  and find it hard to believe

                        that God actually loves us and rejoices over us…

… after all, why would God be delighted or want to sing over us?

 

In seminary we were taught to always balance our preaching

            between God’s grace and God’s demands for our efforts

                        and righteous behavior in response to God’s grace.

 

But as Americans and Presbyterians, I think we struggle more

            with guilt, hidden shame, self-righteousness and pride;

                   an ethic which puts us on a self-defeatingà

                             treadmill of human effort and  performance,

    that does not rely on God’s transforming grace,  or produce aà

       hopeful, joyful, peaceful, authentic & growing life of faith.

 

It didn’t work for Martin Luther in dealing with his guilt & fear,

            yet even today many are still trying to earn God’s approval

                        which is  a spiritually deadly and destructive heresy.

 

While we may say we believe in God’s grace alone, 

    yet our actions declare, “God helps those who help themselves.”

 

I've got a friend in Washington state who has what I consider

            one of the most difficult and demanding jobs on the planet.

 

She is an elementary school teacher who specializes

            in teaching troubled children;   the truly incorrigible ones

                   who have been expelled from other classrooms and schools.

She deals with unbelievable violence, fighting & issues of abuse.

 

And she says that she manages such a classroom of little monsters

            year after year, student by student,

                        because she loves them, and her heart breaks for them.

 

Tara explained to me one time,

      that whatever violence & abuse these kids inflict upon others,

                        it is still far less than the pain, the scars and terror

                                    that these little children   are feeling inside.

 

And that the rage   that these difficult children live & express

      comes from the terrible and overwhelming ache and suffering,

                    the rejection and graceless-cruelty that they have

                          already had to endure during their own short lifetimes.

 

Now she doesn't condone or accept their classroom violence,

          but she does see  beyond their immediate external behavior

                   by focusing on their great need for internal healing;

     and she deals with the scars causing them to lash out at others.

 

God has called and equipped this remarkable woman of compassion

       to give those kids a break by showing them unconditional love.

 

She has an amazing and insightful perspective on grace and mercy,

          that sees beyond their awful and extreme violent misbehavior

                   as loves the wounded and frightened child deep inside.

 

And somehow she brings healing & hope where there was none before.

     and sometimes, she manages to bring change into a child's life.

 

I believe that her love reflects God's attitude toward human sin

            and the hope and magnitude   of God’s gracious love for us.

As the psalmist reminds us,    Psalm 130:1-4,7

            Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.  …  If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?  But there is forgiveness with you, …

hope in the LORD!  For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is

great power to redeem.