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Each day this month we’re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible – exploring what we can learn from chapter one / verse one of various Old and New Testament books.
“Paul, Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.”
Paul mentions grace at the beginning of all 13 of the New Testament letters that are attributed to him. He also mentions grace at the end of all 13 of the letters attributed to him.
Grace must be an incredibly important component of the Jesus Story.
It is.
Grace is the notion that God’s presence, God’s love, and God’s forgiveness cannot be earned. They cannot be deserved. They can only be received.
That idea goes so strongly against the grain of human instinct that most of us are strongly tempted to believe that God will favor us only if we are good, or if we perform, or if we love God first.
Jesus turns all that on its head. According to Jesus, God lovesus. Period. And right now he’s making the offer of a lifetime. Deal or No Deal: You can be in a transforming relationship with God in which he provides all the power, all the meaning, and all the resources – if you will abandon all your efforts to win God over according to some kind of performance plan. That’s grace.
One of my friends calls his mother every Sunday evening. Their conversations always end the same way. He says, “Love you, Mom.” And she always answers, “I loved you first.” God loved us first. This truth is so incredible that if we choose to believe it, our lives will begin to change.
In his book Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner writes: “After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason…
“A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you.
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”
Buechner concludes, “There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.”
Marjorie Kitchell was leading a church service several years ago just before Christmas and decided to use a beautiful poinsettia at the front of the sanctuary to illustrate her message. She announced, “Whoever wants this poinsettia may have it. All you have to do is take it.”
Everyone in the congregation stared at her. Marjorie waited. Then she waited some more.
Finally, a mother timidly raised her hand and said, “I’ll take it.” “Great! It’s yours,” said Marjorie. That’s what she wanted. A quick and easy illustration that God’s love is both available and free. To her astonishment, however, the mother nudged her son and said, “Go get it for me.”
“No,” said Marjorie, “whoever wants this gift has to come and get it personally. You can’t send a substitute.” The mother shook her head, not willing to risk embarrassment.
More time went by. It was a gorgeous plant, unusually large, wrapped in red cellophane with gold satin ribbon. Several people had already commented on its beauty. Now it was free for the taking. Someone snickered, “What’s the catch?” “There is no catch!” she replied.
Still, no one moved. “Can I take it after the service?” asked a teenager. Marjorie almost gave in, but then said, “You have to come and get it now.”
She was at the point of regretting the whole affair when suddenly a woman she had never seen before stood up at the back. She came forward quickly, as if she were afraid she might change her mind. “I’ll take it,” she said, and quickly returned to her seat.
Marjorie then declared the Good News that God’s gift of eternal life is absolutely free – to those who will receive it. When the service came to an end and most of the worshippers had already left, the woman who had taken the poinsettia stepped forward. “Here,” she said, thrusting something into Marjorie’s hand. “This flower is too pretty to take home for free. I couldn’t do that with a clear conscience.”
Marjorie looked down at what was crumpled in her hand. It was a ten-dollar bill.
Something inside every one of us says, “God’s best stuff can’t possibly be free. I have to pay for this. There’s no free lunch. There’s no free heaven.”
But the reason gift-giving became associated with Christmas in the first place is that it is God’s inherent nature to give. What does he ask for in return? Open hands – and an ever-growing grateful conviction that there really is no catch.
No wonder Paul chose to open his letter to the Thessalonians – as well as all of his other letters – with a reminder of the centrality of grace.
There is, however, one final word that must be spoken – an important tension on the pages of Scripture that needs to be noted. God’s grace is free. But it comes with responsibility. We’re given both a gift and a task.
But they always come in that order.
First we are called by grace to become members of God’s family. After we receive our place at God’s table by trusting Jesus, our lives must change. We cannot keep on living the way we have always lived.
As the apostle John puts it in I John 4:10, “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The gift of grace, in other words, must always prompt us to go through life as grace-providers.
Which is really a way of saying to God – every day of the year, and not just during Thanksgiving week:
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.