Means of Grace III: Fellowship

3 February 2019

1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 6:32-38

As we continue our series on the means of grace, it is important at this point to stop for a moment and understand what grace is really about.  It’s a churchy word not well understood outside the Church – not because church folk cannot define it but because we often have trouble conveying it in a way by which those outside our churchy circle can comprehend it. 

Our textbook definition of grace = unmerited favor; unmerited because we cannot earn it, and favor because of the nature of our Heavenly Father.  Call it the capacity for “mercy”.

We can pray, we can fast, we can worship, we can tithe, we can receive the Sacraments, and we can do all sorts of religious acts that will sustain us as individuals; but until we understand grace always involves others, our personal religion will always fall short.

Being religious and having a strong sense of religion are important.  However, it can also be a two-edged sword.  Religion can feed us and strengthen us in our faith, but it can also destroy us – and others! - if we become too “holier than thou” in self-righteousness; believing ourselves to be so “saved” that we can do no wrong.  Being solely focused on “me and Jesus” while neglecting the well-being of our neighbor – or believing the well-being of a stranger to be unimportant to our need to “go on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1) - misses altogether the essential component of our religion in all Jesus has taught us. 

Just as St. John wrote, we cannot claim to love The Lord while hating someone else (1 John 4:20).  John’s context of “hate” does not necessarily mean only that fiery passion we sometimes feel against someone who has wronged us.  It can also include those we deliberately neglect; those we have deemed innocuous, unimportant to us.  In sharp contrast, the depth of Divine love, as Jesus teaches, goes beyond loving only those who will surely love us back and includes those we would step over.

Thus understanding the nature and the depth of mercy is necessary before we can effectively use any means of grace for ourselves.  This is what Jesus is talking about; “Love only those who love you”?  Meh.  “Lend only to those who will pay you back?”  Meh.  “Do a favor only for those who will return the favor?”  Meh.  Those are the easy things that require no real effort because they are primarily self-serving.

Like love itself, mercy is hard for us.  Like love itself, mercy is not dependent on how we may be feeling at any given time.  The reason grace is so difficult for us to extend and offer is because we have not yet learned how to receive it.  For if we think we have received it only for our own soul’s sake, we have received it wrongly – assuming we have received it at all.

So there is a reason fellowship – interacting with others – is considered a means of grace as important as worship and prayer, fasting and Scripture study.  Whether we’re gathering on Sunday evening with food and Bible study, or Sunday morning in small group Bible study, or helping out in the Mission House, interacting with others is as much a way to receive AND convey grace as is Sunday worship or private Bible study.  It is never either/or when it comes to the several means of grace; it is always “and”.

For instance, if we are diligent in our personal devotions and Bible study but will not participate in small group study with others, we get little because we give even less.  This is the principle behind St. Paul’s so-called “love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13.  It matters not how awesome we may believe ourselves to be in our personal piety; if we lack love, we lack everything else which is given meaning through love.

Couple Paul’s words with our Shepherd’s words, and then we can see what “love” really means.  Because “love” itself is the very source of grace, then, we should be able to see that, while giving of ourselves to those who love us is still important (as it is so easy to do with our own children), giving of ourselves to those who infuriate us, to those who offend us, to those who oppose us, is all the more important – because it is where grace is needed most.

When grace itself is so poorly understood, we become defined by these many so-called “hot-button” social issues that are so easy to get caught up in.  Beyond “hot-button” this week, however, abortion has become a social lightning rod.  Outside the political rhetoric which narrowly defines us as pro-life or pro-choice, there are much deeper issues at stake.  We lose sight of these issues because we choose sides, we demonize those who do not agree with us, and we forget what we’re supposed to be about; what we are “saved” for and called to do.

What we are willing to give to others outside our family and social circles is the truest measure of what we have received from Above because we cannot give what we do not have.  As our Lord has taught us, those who offer mercy will themselves be offered mercy (Matthew 5:7), and those who forgive will themselves be forgiven (Matthew 6:14-15).  By this we can easily see grace always – ALWAYS – involves others.

There can be no small moments in grace; for when we offer mercy, we open the very Gates of Heaven; so that which we had formerly declared impossible will suddenly become possible: reconciliation and, ultimately, peace.  This is our religion, for this is our Savior; this is our Father’s Heart.  Amen.