A new understanding of Grace

One of the things I have struggled with in my faith is grace. For many people grace came to them while they were at the bottom of something, and out of their darkness, the light of grace shone to them. I know people who have turned from drugs, or other destructive lifestyles because of grace. The grace that they experience is real and relevant in their lives. I would not call myself perfect, in fact I am far from perfect, but I am also very optimistic, and so my sins seem minor, and while I believe in God's grace, it has been something I desperately needed, my sins were never too much of a concern. One dichotomy that can be made is between Christ's call to salvation and Christ's call to service. At the extreme ends, the sole purpose of the Gospel is either salvation, or a call to help the least, the last, and the lost. While I would not say that I fall to an extreme, I tend to focus more on the call to service rather than salvation in the Gospel, which again can be traced back to my own mild need for salvation and my upbringing which taught me to help those in need. A few weeks ago I had an insight that helped to change that perspective. One of the texts that I have always struggled with is Matthew 25:40, "what you do unto the least of these, you do unto me." This is Jesus' reminder of how we need to see and treat each person around us as being part of God. One of the things that I have come to realize is how much I fail in this regard. It is not that I ever mistreat, but that I will never be able to do everything I can to help those in need. My sinful nature is not one of positive destructive action, it is like what Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "we will be judged in this century, not by the terrible deeds of the wicked, but by the appalling silence of the good." (I am roughly quoting here) I am not one committing the terrible deeds of the wicked, but often I am part of that appalling silence that does nothing. I am too comfortable in my lifestyle to make the radical changes that a Christ-like life calls for. Just as much as any person living a destructive life of drugs and violence, I am in need of Grace, because without it I have no hope of following Christ. At least for myself I have a better understanding of the balance between what I see as the dual message of the Gospel.

The Winnowing Fork in His Hand

I know I am a week behind in the lectionary process, but I am preparing to preach on the baptism of Jesus this Sunday rather than last Sunday as the Revised Common Lectionary would recommend. There are several really good reasons for that, one being my church celebrated Epiphany last Sunday, but also we have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday, so it all works out great. I was doing the reading from Luke and was struck by several things, one how brief the lectionary selection from Luke is, but secondly, how prominant the image of the winnowing fork is in this passage. I was at first very disturb about it. The baptism of a child seemed a very awkward time to talk about the unquenchable flames of Hell. I understand that for some it would seem most appropriate, but I prefer that people baptize out of love and not out of fear. As I thought about this more I came to something of a realization. I had assumed that the separation that the winnowing fork was doing on the wheat was breaking apart the sinners from the saints. If you were a good person you were the kernels that feel to the ground and were kept, if your were bad you were the stalk that blew away in the wind. I had a new, at least for me, insight into this whole analogy. Rather than seeing it as a sorting of individuals, it would seem better to see it as a sorting of our lives. Baptism is about separating what is good in us from what is bad, the bad is washed away by the water, blown away by the wind, and the good is left to be used for God's work. I really prefer this as a more personal reflection on what salvation is about, it is not about sorting out people as a whole, but instead sorting out the good in us from the bad in us, so that we can be in a position to enjoy our relationship with God. I do not know how this holds up over all, but it seemed an interesting thought I wanted to share. I was also intrigued by the idea that my natural assumption was that it was about some people going one way and others another. Is this simply a product of teachings, or is there also some part of my nature, of human nature that wants even salvation to be a competition, where there are winners and losers?