The Free Gift of Grace

“The Free Gift of Grace”

Psalm 32, Romans 5:12-19

First Presbyterian Church

The Reverend Dr. Bruce Archibald

March 9, 2014

The First Sunday in Lent

OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: The song we read together expounds on the joy of forgiveness. It opens with the declaration, “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,” and ends with, “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous and shout for joy, all you upright in the heart.” In between the opening and ending of this Psalm, we are reminded of the burden of sin and guilt. So, I raise two questions for this morning, can we find forgiveness from sin and guilt and does the grace of God require us to feel guilty?

NEW TESTAMENT LESSON: The Apostle Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans in about 58 in the Christian era. The theological letter focuses on the need for the Christian community to be in a right relationship with God. He called it “to be righteous.” In the following chapter, we hear Paul comparing or contrasting the sin of Adam with the grace of Jesus the Christ. The teaching of the Biblical tradition is that Adam sinned first, and in doing so, it fell on all humanity for all time. Paul taught that, in contrast, Jesus offers God’s grace and forgiveness to humanity once and for all.

Read Romans 5:12-19

I would like to believe and report to you that “all is well.” Everything is as it should be. We will always be happy, productive and generally perfect specimens. If we just love God and one another and do the right stuff, everything will be fine. I would like to but it would be an insult to your intelligence. Some preachers preach that, you know. They will promise us a positive outcome with the obstacles of our lives. On the other hand, I will not tell you that we are all sinners doomed to suffer unless we do something to get in a good relationship with God, for example, to take the sacraments in a proper manner or say the right words entreating Jesus to save us. That too would be an insult. You know better. We do not live in a Garden of Eden and we all know that. So, let’s do some theology, beginning with the realities of living. What I will do this morning is talk about “Grace,” the unmerited, unlimited and unconditional love of God. Please understand the theological concept of grace is central to my whole understanding of Christianity and our faith.

We live in a culture in which grace is difficult to understand. We thrive in a social order in which being first is everything. Anything less doesn’t count for much. “Work hard enough and long enough and you will find success in life.” Then comes the problem of how to define success. It is possible to be successful in business and fail to participate in the life of the family. How do you explain a 20-something digital genius who is worth billions? How about the person who simply inherited the amassed wealth of generations long past? Was Mother Teresa a success? For that matter, how about Jesus? Are the criteria for achievement the same for all? For example, consider the last few generations of women and the expectations placed on them. (Speaking to those women) Did you know that you are expected to be successful students, athletic, wives, mothers, homemakers as well as becoming competitors in the professional world without seeming “bossy”? By the way, if you managed to meet all the criteria, you still make less than your male counterparts. Brothers, we are expected to be successful also, true, but, the expectation is different for us. We don’t even have to look good, at least not on the weekends. Is it fair? Is the definition of equality the same for a person of color the same as it is for a Caucasian?

How can we fully comprehend unmerited unconditional love - grace - when to be poor, physically challenged or unattractive is almost like a failure or a social sin? The graceful (wealthy, healthy and beautiful) are defined as those who have the right connections, proper status and power. The graceful are modeled by those men and women you may have seen posturing on the red carpet at the Oscars last week. Are they real? In truth, we don’t really know or understand their lives. In fact, most of us doubt the persona poised in front of the crowds on the red carpets of life. Still, so many want to identify with actors, political figures and sports heroes.

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, addressed similar phenomena. In the first century, it was believed that failure or affliction came to those who failed to follow the law. The poor and the afflicted were less than second class. They were the “unclean.” To teach the concept of grace, Paul offered the tradition of original sin. He compared grace experienced in Jesus to the sin of Adam, the first person. Now, to understand this comparison, it helps to know that in the first century it was natural to identify with the tradition, nation or tribe. The sin of one was reflected in all following generations. Whether these first century Christians believed in a literal Adam, I don’t know, but they would have understood that Adam represented human race and the potential to sin. Sin meant separation from God and no longer under God’s protection. Just as Adam was separated from the wonder of the Garden of Eden, so is all human kind in Adam’s sin.

While this may be difficult to understand, there are contemporary examples of this phenomenon to help us. For example, none of us played hockey in the winter Olympics. Many of us cheered “We Won!” when the US beat Russia, but then we felt a sense of communal failure when Canada beat us. In the same way, Paul could speak about the sin of Adam from the Hebrew tradition in reference to the Church in Rome. We may identify with the failure or success of our culture and our society. Some guilt is deserved. Without malice, we do participate in the pollution of the atmosphere, share in the disparity between the 1% and the 99%, and sometimes, fail to love our neighbor. When the Dow Jones goes over 250 points in a day, we are relieved. When it drops the same number, we begin to worry. We are a part of the whole. We do not mean to sin - it just happens. We do not cause wars but if you listen to the pundits, depending on who you listen to, either the present Democrat or past RepublicanPresidents are responsible for Putin’s actions. Since you elect them, about half of you should feel guilty for what is happening in the Ukraine.

Paul wanted his generation to know that sin or success is not the focus of Christian faith. It is grace by which we find salvation and hope. It is the unmerited and unconditional love that God has for us that offers promise of peace. Grace is not dependent on whether we are sinner or saints, rich or poor, successful or average. We are not lovable because we are lovable but because God loves us. The theological issue for Paul, and for us today, is not human action, success or failure. It is God’s action. When Paul said; “Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” Jesus trumped sin with grace. No strings- no hooks - no small print; in a world in which the conventional wisdom is “There is no free lunch, nothing is for free and ‘ya get what ‘ya pay for.” In contrast, there is grace. On this contradiction hangs the whole of Christian faith.

Today is the first Sunday in Lent. This is the opening of the time in which we remember the temptation and challenge for Jesus. It is a time of comparison between culture and faith and a time of contradictions,but, as Don reminded us on Ash Wednesday, it is the time of transformation. It is a time to review the potential for grace in our lives. Today, as we sit at the Lord’s Table and the bread and wine together. Let us renew our faith that Jesus brings the transformation to our lives and the life within the church. We are transformed not by the merits of our action or by the identification with our culture. We are transformed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the unconditional unmerited love of God.

Today, the first Sunday in Lent, and as we take the Lord’s Supper, let us remember Jesus; his life, death and resurrection, with the sure and certain knowledge that we are loved and therefore lovable because of grace.

Will you say it with me? “May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God be with us all.”

Amen.