Join the Grace Party

I preached on Mother's Day at my husband's church- I thought I'd share the scripture and my sermon.

John 15:9-17
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Psalm 98
O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. The LORD has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.
Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Graceful Last Words

This is likely the last time I will preach here at this church as Jason and I prepare to move in June to a new church community. I have thought many times about what I would like to say to this community, a way of expressing my deepest gratitude for the community of love that this church has been for us. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to express it all. I have been in this season of transitions, grieving, celebrating, closing and planning. It was only appropriate when I looked at the scriptures for this Sunday that they would contain the joyous Psalm of praise and some of Jesus’ parting words to his disciples. I find myself standing here in front of this community of faith- wanting to say something profound and new... but these scripture passages tell me that the good news, the message, the gospel to be proclaimed is the same. Jesus’ command is: Love one another as I have loved you.

I was talking to a friend from seminary about this scripture and we sort of laughed about how this simple, central piece of what God is asking of humanity is so hard. We really struggle to love one another, don’t we? We struggle even to love ourselves. We compete, judge, isolate, condemn, fight, frustrate and just outright ignore one another.

Many controversial topics have hit the news nerve in this politically tense season. If you want to feel horrific about humanity- just read the comments section of any online news article. ANY. Guaranteed there is someone attacking someone else. The inability for people to walk even a few steps in another’s shoes is heartbreaking. It makes me wonder sometimes if the earth will crack open and swallow all of us with the hate and bile that gets so casually thrown around. But guess what- we all do this. I do this. I judge. I talk about being open and honest and fair and all this junk but when I see some Mom walk in the preschool with her work-out clothes and perky personality- I jump right down her throat. In my mind of course. I think- she must be on drugs to be so happy in the morning and now she gets to go work out?! Alone?! She probably has no IDEA how lucky she is! Good Lord I judge. And I know better. We all do. But we do it! WHY?

I judged the Mom because I judge myself. She is something that I am not. She is something that challenges what I am and what I wish I could be. Her very existence makes me question my own goodness, because I can’t seem to be as perky in the morning. Never was a morning person. So instead of accepting her sunny morning disposition and accepting my more subtle and coffee-driven morning personality- I judge her. So I can feel better about my own downfalls. It’s ridiculous! I refuse to offer myself grace and as a result I am quick to snatch grace from someone else. Why do you judge people? Maybe you are like I seem to be- riddled with insecurities and stingy with grace for yourself first and others as a result. Maybe you judge people because you do things well and can’t imagine why other people struggle to keep it together? If you can do it- why can’t they? You don’t *need* grace, so why should anyone else need it? Maybe you judge people because you were taught that they were less than you? You are God’s chosen one, but they certainly are not. Maybe you’re even grumpier in the morning than I am! I don’t know why we do what we do- the fact is that we all do it.

We judge one another - and yet we can’t live without each other.

As humans, we are particularly crafted with the capacity and craving for connection. We need to connect. Soul to soul. If you have no one to share with about your day - chances are you are hurting. It is astounding how many people are deeply lonely. Loneliness is not created by an absence of people or solved with a presence of friends. Loneliness is the result of a life that lacks connection. I think all of us experience loneliness at some point for different reasons. All of us know the experience of feeling odd, outcast and alone. We crave a kindred spirit. This deep desire to relate with one another is powerfully human and divinely charged. It is what I believe produces the best and worst sides of humanity. In our effort to find connection, we band together over common beliefs, common goals, common values. This can be a beautiful thing. During times of chaos and disaster- people who never spoke to each other or had anything in common are bonded by the goal of survival and the will to overcome. On the other side of the coin is when we become so infatuated with what binds us that we reject and ridicule those who disagree or flat out don’t understand. We reject the un-enlightened. We reject the political view that opposes ours. We reject the parents that discipline differently. We do worse than this- we move beyond rejecting the ideas to attacking the person for their opposing stance. We forget that the substance of real and authentic connection -what we’re going for- is a love that does not depend on an idea or policy or viewpoint. We forget that we don’t need our principles as much as we need each other. We lose sight of the very thing we are craving: to love one another as God loves us. We create a community of self-rightness and sacrifice a chance at a community of grace.

How can we begin to be a community of grace? Both of the scripture readings we read today assume a community of faith. A grouping of loved ones. The Psalmist is writing with a nation of God’s chosen children in mind. The gospel text is a man’s documentation of Christ’s parting words to his dearest friends. God has purposely created a universe that functions on the hinges of relationship. We live in God’s galaxy of connectedness. Every living thing has need for another, none can survive alone. My 3 year old son Hunter came home from preschool with a tree to be planted. I asked him what it was for and he said repeatedly: it’s a TINY tree. We have to PLANT it! He had honed in on the need for us to put this little plant in the ground and water it and watch it grow. But we know that these little plants grow to become larger than ourselves, providing the very air we breathe. We are all connected. I was thinking about the creation story and wondered if the big sin of Adam and Eve was not the act of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, but rather the pointed fingers to the only mate they had, and worse yet, hiding from God. Our greatest sin is not believing the wrong things or doing the wrong things, but hiding from one another and God. We create a community of grace by dropping the title of judge and standing before one another and God as we are.

In the psalm text you hear the voice of a poet calling on the community to praise God- use your voices, your instruments, even the earth will join in the song. For “God will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” Praise be to God! The message I found in this scripture passages is that God has taken the Judge role from our tightly clenched hands and filled the courts with grace. Overflowing, to the brim, ridiculous grace. God has made love the central theme. Forgiveness the byproducts. Grace the norm. And we can join this grace party anytime or we can live a life of pestilence and feel rotten about ourselves and everyone around us. I really really want to go to the grace party. God has told us time and again, you do not need to hide from me, I love you. And if we do not need to hide from God- than we should not hide from each other, especially not from behind a pointed finger.

This is good news for a community like us. For a grouping of people who judge. We have the freedom to let that judgment go, to accept God’s unconditional agape love for all of us. In the scripture from the gospel of John, every time love is mentioned- it is agape love. Agape love is the real deal. This is no warm feeling in your heart. It is rock solid- not just being kind- but loving every nook and cranny of our being- whole-heartedly- without reservation and with pleasure! Can we accept that God really, REALLY does love us that much? Can we embrace that and then move forward- trying to live out the command to love others in the same way?

I keep hearing this refrain in my head: “grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin.” This is what we lack. We don’t believe that God’s grace really covers our struggle to get out of bed in the morning. We think God is annoyed with us. Does God really love that fat roll? Doesn’t God know that we could have a better attitude? Isn’t God ashamed of us when we make mistakes? We don’t believe that God’s love is really greater than all our sin. We look for the punishment, cower under our own judgment and attack others and hope that no one sees us for who we really are. Because then the love will leave. The grace will deflate. We believe that grace and love are fragile feelings and will run away from the thorns of our realities. I’m here to say that I believe, though I struggle to practice... that grace is not fragile or weak. Love - agape - unconditional- lay down your life- love- is not *struggling* to like us- it delights to envelope us. Every day. We struggle to believe it. We struggle to embrace it. But it is there. God is there. God is not a small person dispensing portions of love to the deserving. God *is* love. And God- love- is everywhere, all encompassing, always present, never leaving, unconditional and available.

If you have a hard time with religion... If you have a hard time with all the controversial topics swarming the news feed... If you judge others and save the worse judgment for yourself... If you just want to know how to get through today... I want to focus it down to just this: Jesus said: love one another as I have loved you. Just let that be the word that sits in your heart each day. Love one another as Christ has loved you. Join the grace party- God’s unconditional love means that we are ALL invited to the party. Join the party and find a way to connect with one another in grace. God’s grace. Grace that is greater than everything. Grace that allows us to connect, not to hide. Grace that leads us to love and frees us to feel loved. Amen.