Bearing with One Another - 3. Grace First and Last

The first word for Christians is grace

The last word for Christians is grace

And every day

along the way is

grace,

grace,

grace.

This is important to remember even in Lent. Perhaps especially in Lent

when we dare to more carefully and honestly look at

the ways we fall short of the glory of God,

the ways our compassion falls short

of the perfect compassion of God,

the ways we fail to love as God has loved us,

fail to forgive as we have been forgiven,

fail to bear with one another,

fail to lead lives worthy

of the call to which we have been called.

Reciting the Great Litany yesterday, we recounted the ways we are in need of God’s grace.

I suggest there are two main aspects of grace – Delight and Mercy.

Grace = Delight

Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the meaning of life? The Christian answer to both of these age-old questions is the same – Love

As Julian of Norwich observed,

Do you wish to know the Lord’s meaning in this? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why did he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this and you will never know different, without end.

God is love.

All of creation is a gift of God’s love.

God created everything for the sheer delight of it.

And God delights in his creation.

At the end of the creation account in Genesis,

God looks at creation with delight and declares that it is “very good.”

God delights in the whole wild, three-ring circus of creation –

from sub-atomic particles to super novae

and everything in between.

And that means, on a fundamental level,

God delights in you.

God delights in me.

God delights in those we find hardest to bear.

God delights in those who find us hard to bear.

And God delights in those with whom we disagree.

As Jesus famously said of himself,

“For God so loved the world

that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not perish

but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus did not say God so love the world –

“except for you”

or “except for this person or that person.”

God’s love is the foundation of our very being

and he is forever pouring it out

like the shining of the sun or the falling rain.

There is nothing we can do to change that.

But we can choose whether or not to receive

and embrace that love

as demonstrated in Jesus

and live in in light of that love.

Julian of Norwich sums this up,

“For we are his bliss,

because he endlessly delights in us;

and so with his grace shall we delight in him.”

And with his grace we shall learn to delight in others,

however unbearable

or disagreeable they might seem.

When I remember that God endlessly delights in me

and am able to rest in the assurance of that delight,

I am better able to remember that God delights in others,

I am better able to bear with others,

I am better able to engage those with whom I disagree

with patience

and understanding

and forbearance

We are God’s bliss.

God endlessly delights in us.

That is grace. It is the word we need to hear first and last.

But, we know that while that is fundamentally true,

it is more complicated than that.

We also know that not everything about us,

not everything we do, is delightful.

We humans have made a mess of God’s good creation.

We have made a mess of ourselves.

We have fallen well short of the good pleasure of God’s delight.
Taking an honest look at that is what Lent is about.

That is why we need to know that other aspect of God’s grace – Mercy.

Next: Three Movements of Mercy

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Bearing with One Another

1. Broken Love

2. A Life Worthy of the Calling