Grace will lead me home

I want to go home.

I’m not even really sure where that is, or what I’m homesick for.

And then this familiar phrase becomes a revelation spiraling its way down deep inside

Grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home

It’s all grace. Everything is gift. There are no rights. Nothing is earned or deserved. All is gift.

The thing with gifts is that you can’t make them happen.  Most of the time you don’t even realize they are coming.

Someone else chooses what you would like. Someone else does the work to find exactly the right thing. Someone else pays the price…

The best gifts are not earned or expected. They are given out of love and generosity. The are sacrificial and personal.  They are a widow’s mite, a child’s affection, a cello. They are everyone who knows all your junk and still loves you. They are eternity wrapped up in an infant. They are an Only Son, given and given and given. They are pure grace.

All we do is receive, with gratitude.

I want to go home and that’s exactly where Grace is leading me. The journey is all gift. I can stop worrying about the details and stop trying to plan the route. I can trust the how and the who, the what and the where, the why and the when, to Grace. All is gift. He has brought me safe this far, and will surely lead me all the way home.

 

 

Life Together

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis on April 9, 1945 for his role in the resistance. He was a man who lived and died by what he believed. The historical context he found himself in required that ideas be matched by actions. You can’t keep your Christianity theoretical in the midst of Nazi Germany.

Words carry weight when their author has been willing to die for the ideas they convey. Written during the prelude to the Second World War, Life Together is Bonhoeffer’s account of what a communal Christian life looks like when the call of Jesus Christ to discipleship is taken seriously. Its theology stands in sharp contrast to that of the state controlled church of Germany during the 1930s.

Gifts of Grace

The first thing Bonhoeffer points out is that

It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing (1954:8).

Some days it is so easy for me to remember this. Life is exciting, the world is full of beautiful people and I am full of love and appreciation and grace for every last one of them.

Other days, it is so easy for me to forget this.  I’m impatient and selfish and exhausted. I don’t want to entertain the least of these, I just want to hang out with my friends.

Stanley Hauerwas has this to say on the subject

I take the body image in Corinthians to be extremely important. We are interconnected in a way that some of us have gifts that others do not. And the gifts that the others have that we do not, we need. One of the problems that the so-called ‘weakest’ present is that many of us think that is an invitation for us to be very strong, where we can take care of the weak, rather than to see how the weak offer us gifts, that doesn’t make it imperative for us to always be strong. That’s part of what it means to learn to live as a body.

The Politics of Gentleness: Vanier and Hauerwas

Maybe exhaustion is the point I have to reach before I can discover what gifts lie inside those I perceive as weak. Maybe then I can exchange griping for gratitude and truly appreciate the gifts of others that make up for my lack.

In The Politics of Gentleness, Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, communities for disabled adults,  comments that these are places

where we learn to appreciate people different, to love that and then to grow together and to become a sign that our world is not just a world where we have to live in rivalry, competition, in a sort of tyranny of normality, but it is possible to create places where we can learn to celebrate our differences.

I love the idea of living as a community who is a sign of peace, a sign that we don’t have to live in competition with each other, a sign that we can enjoy, rather than get bitter over our differences. I think this is the kind of grace we can receive as God’s family and the kind of grace Bonhoeffer envisions as being part of our life together.

Advent: in anticipation of the sunrise

Because of the tender mercy of our God,

the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79

(Photo by Gretchen Burkhart)

The promise of dawn casts hopeful rays across the earth.

I’m reminded of the first ever sunrise. The Holy Spirit broods over the deep, God divides night from day, the morning stars sing together for joy.

I think about how the Spirit is still here, still fashioning order from chaos, still separating light from dark.

After creation four thousand years ensue when night seems to engulf Israel. Rebellion swallows her up in darkness and the people of God stagger around in mourning and exile.

And yet day continues to follow night, mercy comes fresh in the morning, promises of a new dawn punctuate holes in the dark.

Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear. Hosea 6:3

The Word is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, Immanuel, who did appear, who became flesh and dwelt among us, showing us the radiance of God’s glory and the full extent of His grace.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new a glorious morn

We live in a new day when Jesus is still with us and is still coming to us, calling us to live as children of the light, “awake to God and to other people” (Ratzinger, p 27).

I think about the thrill of hope that doesn’t leave me in the dark but promises me a new dawn to look forward to.  I think about how even though weeping endures for the night,  joy comes in the morning.

I think about how every single sunrise is a foretaste of the glorious Sunrise to come, where night will be banished and we will awake for the final time into an eternity of daylight.

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:3-4

We press on to acknowledge the One who was, who is, and who is to come and we cry out with the angel, to tell the whole world of the tender mercy of our God:

Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! Luke 2:10-14

Advent: waiting with joy

The Magnificat is Mary’s glorious song of praise to God the Father.

In spite of the whole unwed-mother-gives-birth-in-a-stable-and-is-told-a-sword-will-pierce-her-soul thing, a profound resonance of joy permeates her story.

Mary understands the big picture of what Gabriel’s message means for her people.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring.

She not only  knows God’s promises, but also understands His character.

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts

There are a lot people with political and violent expectations of how the Messiah will rescue his people, but Mary isn’t one of them. There’s a purity about her relationship with God. She’s not tainted by her own preconceived ideas. So when an angel shows up and announces the arrival of God’s Son by conception in her virgin womb she has the imagination, insight and faith to accept it. She has a big enough view of the Creator to understand He can fashion anything, anywhere He wants to (a perspective which has been sadly lacking in those who have subsequently doubted her story).

She also has insight into God’s heart for the humble and the hungry.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty.

I think Mary’s hope and joy are rooted in the reassurance Gabriel gives her:

Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.

No word from God will ever fail

For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If if seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Habakkuk 3:2

God is also kind to Mary and gives her a means of grace: a friend who is also experiencing a miraculous pregnancy and will understand her and believe in her.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promise to her

His Word is our anchor, our hope, our joy. In the Word we find the reassurance we need and the grace that comes from friends who have faith with us and for us.  And we are strengthened to believe and trust that the Lord will fulfill his promises to us.

 

I am nearly through writing about Advent. You can catch up on previous posts here.

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Advent: toward the Light

Today is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. As we have waited through Advent the nights have gotten longer and longer.

“Four more sleeps til Christmas Day!” my seven-year-old nephew informs me.

We’re almost there and yet it has never been so dark, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

The southern hemisphere is a different story. I think about my friend in South Africa who will see the longest hours of sun on the day we see the least. There, Advent has been a steady journey toward increasing illumination.

I am the Light of the World…

Two halves of the globe intersect; darkest moment and brightest day collide at the same point in history.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

In this season we celebrate the God of gods, the Light of lights who kept his promise and gave His Word.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We have seen His glory. We see in part. We see dimly, as through a mirror. We catch glimpses. We peer through the pages of Scripture and our own history. But we have seen. We are children of the Light, we belong to the resplendent radiance of the glory of God.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy…

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:1-3; 6-7

I have nearly finished writing about Advent. You can read previous posts here.

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• Advent VIII: ‘Advent’, by Trygve David Johnson (cruciality.wordpress.com)