Thursday, January 15, 2009

AMAZING GRACE

AMAZING GRACE
"Grace Brings Hope"


      This is the title of an audio sermon at Messiah Lutheran Church.

      In this sermon are included some statements that help to demonstrate why the Church continues to become more and more confused regarding the Gospel. In this sermon, the Gospel is preached about but it is not actually preached. Jesus Christ as Savior and God’s “amazing grace” is preached about, but it is not truly preached.

      What do I mean and why is this important?

      The sermon opens with an illustration based upon the Devil’s Yard Sale. The devil is having a yard sale with many tools lying around to be sold. But one tool is especially worn and used and expensive. This tool is explained by the devil to be his most effective at bringing down his victims. It is labeled: Discouragement.

      From this illustration the connection is made regarding that God’s amazing grace brings hope.

Today is another time for you and I to rejoice, that God’s Amazing Grace brings hope, it brings us hope in our Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the babe born in Bethlehem.


      Then this paragraph is proclaimed:

One of the things that we also need to remember as we talk about God’s amazing grace . . . is that God’s grace brings us also forgiveness, just as we saw a moment ago for Olivia, that God through the water of Holy Baptism, His grace touched her and brought her forgiveness.


      Did you hear what was said?

. . . that God’s grace brings us ALSO forgiveness.


      This is the dilemma. Without even realizing it, today’s preachers are preaching that Forgiveness is One of the important blessings of God’s grace. Forgiveness is important, too!

      This is highlighted a bit further on in the sermon:

When we recognize our sinfulness, then God’s grace is so much more sweet, as it fills our hearts and lives.


      Someone should have stood up and cried out, saying, “Warning! Warning!”

      The devil’s most effective tool is not discouragement. His most effective tool is the Lie, most especially the subtle lie that makes a seemingly small modification to the truth.

      God’s grace does not bring us ALSO forgiveness, but it is the granting of forgiveness. Forgiveness IS what God’s grace imparts. As Luther so beautifully teaches regarding the benefits of eating and drinking at the Lord’s Table:

That is shown us in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sin; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.


      The abundance of life is the result of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is the source of the life that flows from God’s grace.

      A pastor can easily slip into forgetting this as many distractions pop up in a congregation, as is illustrated in the definition of grace that was given on the overhead screen:

Grace:

      “The merciful kindness of God which He uses to turn us to believe in Christ and by which He keeps, and increases us in Christian faith and moves us to live our lives for Jesus.”


      At first this sounds like the truth. At first this sounds like a true definition of grace.

      But there is one small thing not included in this definition. FORGIVENESS!

      Look carefully. This definition is not about grace whatsoever. This so-called grace is not about God’s gift of forgiveness, but about a call to good works. God’s grace is redefined not as what God does for us in the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, but as a nagging toward a more devoted life of good works.

      This trap is so subtle that one hates even to chastize the pastor for not noticing. Yet life and salvation depend upon the warning that allows for one to hear and acknowledge that forgiveness is the good news by which life and salvation are graced to us.

      The paragraph that follows this definition is very sad once one becomes aware that this is a completely false definition of grace.

I mean, we should be talking about God’s amazing grace in ever aspect of our lives on a regular basis. We should be using this word with all of its richness, as we rejoice in Jesus Christ, as we give thanks to Him, and as we declare the message of the angels on the first Christmas night, that good news that is for all people.


      Well, OK. So what IS this good news? What is this amazing message?

      FORGIVENESS! “In the city of David is born to you a Savior.” A Savior from what? From sickness? From bankruptcy? From discouragement? From SIN and the condemnation of SIN!

      Next on the overhead screen is offered a prayer that was given by Chaplain Peter Marshall on the Senate floor:

God of our fathers and our God give us the faith to believe in the ultimate triumph of righteousness. We pray for the bi-focals of faith that see the despair and the need of the hour, but also see further on, the patience of our God working out His plan in the world He has made.


      After making much to do about this prayer calling for God’s Amazing Grace, a prayer that again never mentions forgiveness nor even the name of Jesus, next this is said:

God is immutable, which is a fancy way of saying God cannot change who He is. God is love. God is grace, and in His unchangeable nature we find hope and security.


      Based upon the previous definition of Grace, God never stops giving us the chance to try harder. He keeps encouraging us to live for Jesus.

      A bit later a story is told about how at a pastors’ meeting, President Sommerfeld, the district president, shares a story over the lunchtime discussions regarding the impact of the economy on the Church.

History has shown, and especially right here in Nebraska, He said, that even in the worst economic times, even going back to the Great Depression in the 1930's and he said it was during then that when businesses were laying off and stopping future growth, kind of like what we are having today, he said that it was during htat time that the Lutheran Home was built. . .


      Other edifices and sanctuaries also were said to have been built during these hard times and this was posited as God’s economy for His people.

      Then Isaiah 42:6-7 is put up on the screen and read.

I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.


      This passage is quoted as speaking about the people of the congregation. While this can be applied indirectly to the people of God and even the local congregation, in Luke 4 the Lord Jesus says that this passage is speaking directly about Him and His ministry.

      If this were not preceded by so much other drastically misrepresented doctrine, this would be a rather small matter. But the concluding paragraph of the sermon shows that this is not a small misunderstanding at all, but is the very focus of the sermon.

What I really take from this is that God says, “I want you to get excited about it. I want you to know His amazing grace in a personal, very real way. I want you to be filled with hope and I want you to go from here and face the things that you have to face, keeping your Bifocals on and looking at what’s going on in the world around you, yet expecting that God’s Word will always prevail. And I want you to tell somebody about it. I want you to share that good news of great joy, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”


      This is not at all what was prophesied by Isaiah. The pastor says that what he really takes from Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the freedom, that is, the FORGIVENESS, that God accomplished in the suffering and death of Jesus is that this is about the congregation and what the congregation is going to do for the world and for themselves in the world.

      Warning! Warning!

      A person does get tired of shouting this continually. Yet according to this God who bestows His salvation by grace through faith in the merits of Jesus Christ, it continues to be necessary.

      Beware People! For your own sake, for the sake of your families, for the sake of the congregations, and for the sake of your pastors, beware and call out with the warning. Perhaps at least a few will hear.

      Do keep in mind that the warning is not the primary object. The warning is meant to prepare the way of the good news that by God’s grace forgiveness is granted for Jesus’ sake. With forgiveness comes life, salvation, and all the blessings of God's grace. But forgiveness is the foundation, not merely something to sweeten the pot.

No comments: