Sermon

December 3, 2006

          The word “grace” has both secular and religious meanings. You have a “grace” period on your credit card or extra “grace” issues of a magazine. A composer may add “grace notes” to a score; these notes are not essential to the melody but they add a little flourish to enhance the effect. They are gratuitous or extra. (p. 12, Yancey) We can be in someone’s “good graces,” meaning “good favor” or being well thought of. A person can be graceful or gracious and there are other meanings but they all mean something positive or good.

            A prayer before a meal is referred to as a “table grace.” The intent of such a prayer is two-fold: one is to encourage the spirit of gratefulness for the food, and another is so that the food will benefit us spiritually. Grace before the meal also takes the event of the meal out of just ordinary time and into sacred time. In this way, a simple table grace can induce the feeling of being blessed or having a sense of well being. What happens following a table grace can depend upon our religious training or upon the openness of the people to a religious experience.

            Classically, the “Grace of God” is a freely given gift of spirit that is unearned and undeserved. I have always been puzzled by what a person means when he or she says, “There but for the grace of God go I.” It implies that the person cannot take credit him- or herself for what he or she has accomplished. I regret never having asked a person what they meant by this statement. Perhaps I haven’t asked because I find it hard to believe that God intentionally breaks into someone’s life to lead them, guide them, or make things happen for them, and so on but not for another person. And I wouldn’t want to offend someone by expressing unbelief.

            Sometimes people say that God has a plan for them. Really? Does God have a plan for some people and not for others? Or, if God has a plan for everyone and a young person has a terminal illness and dies or a child is horribly abused are these God’s plans? This reasoning isn’t one I can accept. To me, “free will” means truly free will. Our decisions are made by us alone and we have to take responsibility for them and rectify them as much as possible when our decisions are not beneficial to ourselves or others. How does Grace fathom with free will? Does it really exist? I believe it does but it is subtle and in the flow of our own experience.

In the reading, Paul Tillich talks about Grace striking us: He says “Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life….Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness.” For me, “a wave of light” breaking in makes more sense and coincides with my own experiences. In dark times, after much ruminating for hours or days or weeks of feeling stuck, I have gained an insight that has moved me along to a more beneficial and creative place. I call it a restoration of “creative energy.” Would I call it “Grace”? Yes, I would. The more I have opened myself to this process of creative energy or Grace, the less time I have spent “stuck” in an unhappy place. How has Grace worked in your life?

            On beliefnet.com I read the story of a woman who was terribly abused by her father as a child. In later years, when he became ill with late stage Alzheimer’s and she had to put him in a nursing home. He was angry and abusive towards her and the nursing staff. It was extremely difficult for her to visit him. She was deeply distressed and hated going to see him. The effort was making her very ill. One day, she decided to confront him about his past behavior but she found him unconscious. She held his hand anyway and told him of the abuse and how tortured her life had been because of it. She poured out her heart to him. Finally, she told him that she forgave him. She kissed and hugged him. It seemed to her that he smiled slightly. A few days later, the nurses met her and told her of great changes in him. He had become cooperative even kind and no longer abusive. A few days later, he died peacefully. Was Grace operating in this relationship? I believe that out of her anguish “a wave of light broke in.” It began with the woman’s decision and desire to confront her father. It was a “leap of faith” that she decided to talk to him even though he was seemingly unconscious. Both she and her father undoubtedly gained from what she did and he, too, may have experienced that breaking in of light.

            Perhaps the mass of people who know most about Grace are those who go to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). AA members acknowledge that they cannot fight their demons of addiction alone. They practice “radical honesty” and “radical [inter]dependence” (p.275, Yancy) but their dependence on community can only take them so far and so they are encouraged to ask for help from their Higher Power, whatever that may mean for each of them. Many say that AA is like the early Christian House Churches in that there is great acceptance of people of all walks of life who would not normally come together otherwise. Also, their openness to the spirit of Grace is like that of the early church. Interesting, isn’t it?

            On a national level, I wonder if enough of us entering into a field of Grace are what has pulled us forward to be less prejudiced more caring of one another. In her book Everyday Grace Marianne Williamson says that we understand intellectually something long before we can embody in our behavior. We have known for decades about global warming but are only now beginning to be better stewards of the earth. I certainly see this lag in our knowing and doing something based on our intellectual knowing. She refers to grace as the co-creative force. She says that judgmental thoughts block the light (or grace). She says that we are enamored of the energy in Jesus and the Buddha for they led grace-filled, fear free lives. I believe that this is true and this is why both of them have become objects of devotion. Perhaps prayers to them help people open themselves up to Grace.

            I would like to pass on to you some useful tips from Williamson. She advises that we can live a more grace-filled life by having a thirty second grace break. If we are dashing from one meeting or class to another, we might take thirty seconds to breathe deeply and then say a prayer or affirmation like, “I dedicate this meeting to God, or to the Light of Love or the Universe,” breathe deeply again, and then go on to the next thing. It is like blessing that next thing. If we want a more grace-filled world, we must embody that energy.

            So what is this thing called Grace? It is that which is in us and yet beyond us? Is that God or God by some other name or creative force? That’s for you to decide. I think our first source from which we draw our inspiration indicates Grace. I remind us of the words of the first source: Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” 

I like to think we connect with Grace more obviously when we gather like this and we experience it in the various elements of worship—in the music and hymns, or some part of the liturgy. We experience it too in Nature and in relationship.

            You might have heard the story of the Englishman, John Newton (1725-1807), who wrote the song “Amazing Grace.” In 1748, he was the captain of a ship that conveyed slaves from Africa. The myth says that the captain was in a storm and in danger of losing the ship and his life and so in desperation he prayed for help. He, the ship, and the cargo survived the storm and he had a conversion experience that made him see how evil slavery was. That was the myth. The truth appears to be that the good Captain retired from the sea after earning plenty in the slavery business, returned to England, and became a talented preacher and eventually a Church of England priest. He also had a great talent for hymn writing and wrote hundreds of them, some in cooperation with a poet. As time went on, John Newton must have seen the error of his ways and became an abolitionist (or activist against slavery). Out of this understanding, he wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.” So here we have the subtle operating of Grace in the evolution of an individual. You might remember that the first verse of the hymn is “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” John Newton thought that he was a wretch and that at times we are all wretches. Unitarian Universalists complained about that word and you will notice in our hymnals that the authors have put an asterisk next to “wretch” to indicate an optional word, which is “soul.” Now I sing wretch for I think it is honest! We are sometimes wretches!

            Some of you may have seen the Bill Moyers film about Amazing Grace. The documentary takes us to a scene filmed in Wembley Stadium in London. “Various musical groups, mostly rock bands, had gathered together in celebration of the changes in South Africa, and for some reason the promoters scheduled a black opera singer, Jessy Norman, as the closing act….” When Jessy was ready to sing, the unruly crowd hooted and called for Guns and Roses. Alone, a capella, Jessye began to sing, Amazing Grace, very slowly:

            Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!

            I once was lost but now am found—was blind but now I see.

“A remarkable thing happened… Seventy thousand raucous fans fell silent before her aria of grace.

            By the time Norman reached the second verse, ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved…,’ the soprano had the crowd in her hands.”

            Jessye Norman later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembley Stadium that night.” (pp. 281-282, Yancy) Perhaps this was the power of that elusive concept called GRACE. May grace break into our lives like waves of light. And may we take “Grace breaks” and thus bless our activities.

References

The following have informed and inspired this sermon:

Henry, Patrick. The Ironic Christian’s Companion: Finding the Marks of God’s Grace in the World, New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.

Williamson, Marianne. Everyday Grace, New York, N.Y: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2002.

Yancy, Philip. What’s So Amazing about Grace? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997.

 The Reading is from Shaking the Foundations

by theologian Paul Tillich

 "Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when year, after year, the longed for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsion reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness. If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience, we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed."