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March 26, 2006

Anne Jensen - Lent 4B Ephesians 2:4-10, John 6:4-15

Lent 4B Ephesians 2:4-10, John 6:4-15
Trinity Parish - March 26, 2006

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

If you grew up in the Lutheran or Reformed tradition, these words probably took hold of you at a very young age. I’ll have to confess I don’t remember hearing them in any way that made an impact on me until I was in my thirties. We were in the basement of the church for the adult forum. The wife of one of the clergy, a theologian in her own right, was teaching a series on Paul, and she was not going to let us out of that room until we understood the truth and the importance of this sentence. Grace is a gift of God; we do not earn it. Period. Grace originates in God’s love for us.

Presbyterian minister Jim Davis suggests that as you consider this passage from Ephesians, you think of a symphony with four different movements. Think about the verses we just read together from Ephesians chapter 2 as if they were a symphony—a masterwork scored with artistry by the skilled composer the apostle Paul. The theme is grace, but it does not stand alone. We start out in a minor key. In the first three verses of that chapter Paul reminds the people that they were spiritually dead; they were caught up in the surrounding culture and lived according to their own desires and pleasures, and were “by nature children of wrath. He says, “All of us were like this.”

Then changing the key for the second movement, Paul says, “But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loves us even when we were dead through our trespasses…made us alive together in Christ.” In truth when we are separated from God, we are shells of human beings; the center is missing and we walk around like zombies. That’s what it means when he says, “even when we were dead from our trespasses.” Through the grace which Jesus Christ made known to them and to us, we have new life, not because we are good or because we deserve it, but because God loves us. God decided not to abandon us to being stuck in our own stubborn ways; God will not abandon us, even when we want to die.

In her autobiography, The Whisper Test, Mary Ann Bird writes about her childhood. Born with a cleft palate, she had a difficult childhood. She was always afraid of how other children looked at her. “I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me,” she remembers.

But her life changed when she was given a hearing test by her second grade teacher, Mrs. Leonard. This test consisted of standing by the door, covering one ear and listening for what the teacher—seated at her desk—would whisper. The child would repeat what he or she hear, phrases such as “the sky is blue.”

Mary Ann Bird writes, “I waited there that day for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said in her whisper, “I wish you were my little girl.”

God, my friends, is whispering that same message this morning. God is whispering to all of us whose lives have been deformed by the power of sin. “I wish you were my daughter, …my son.” Will you let God’s grace touch you, and turn you, and change your life?


One dimension of God’s grace is forgiveness, and it is here that I want to focus this morning. God forgives our trespasses out of love, out of grace. Forgiveness is God’s starting place, and accepting it is a life-changing experience.

So why does God choose to deal with us by means of forgiveness? William Countryman, who teaches at CDSP, says in his excellent book Forgiven and Forgiving there are two reasons: One is that God’s forgiveness undercuts the worst temptation of good people: self-righteousness. It saves us from getting stuck on ourselves in ways that can ultimately stifle our own souls and perhaps hurt others.

He says there is another important reason that God chooses to deal with us by forgiving us rather than by rewarding our virtues. Forgiveness gives us the breathing room we need to live and grow. If God’s goodness to us is based on forgiveness, that leaves room to make some mistakes in life—room actually to be human. Mistakes are inevitable; they are part of the way human beings grow and mature. We wander off the path and find ourselves on dead-ends, wandering in the forest. Then when we find a new sense of direction, we discover that our off-road misadventure has become part of us in unexpected ways. It has given us new insight, new courage, new humility and new life. Forgiveness gives us space.

We tend to assume that the basic thing in life is commandments and rules: be good, do the right thing; love one another. And the world would be better if we did that. However, there’s something more basic that undergirds even these commandments, and that is God’s love. This love that began by creating us now spills over and reclaims us. The only useful response to this love is to let it assume its rightful place at the center of our world.


Why is this important? Because if we really believe this and live into it, we will discover new life. Right now this congregation is discerning what God is calling it to do and be. The Town Hall Meetings two weeks ago were part of this process. I was struck by some of the comments, particularly the comments that said that the congregation didn’t know its purpose and that the next rector needed to be a reconciler.



First of all I want to say that the work of reconciliation is at the heart of the church’s mission. This is the work we should be doing now to prepare for the ministry of the new rector. Secondly reconciliation involves seeing everyone as loved and as forgiven by God. Forgiveness doesn’t wipe out the past. What it does is put the past into a new context, a new perspective. It asks, “How can this past wrong now become part of the ongoing history of redemption?”

There has been conflict here; friendships have been broken; mistrust has floated around, feelings have been hurt deeply. I know this because from the first week I was here, people have come to share their stories.
What steps do we need to take? Knowing that God has already forgiven us, we need to forgive ourselves and each other. I think we have made a good beginning at the Telling Our Story evenings—because what we did was to name honestly the issues of the last six years. Naming the feelings and the issues is the first step to reconciliation.

Forgiving is easier said than done. We all know that. This isn’t a matter of saying, “Oh, forget it; it doesn’t matter.” That is denial. No, we are called to join with God in envisioning a future characterized by love and communion with one another. This is true at all levels in our lives—in our families, our church, our communities and our world.

How do we go about this? William Countryman suggests four steps: first, prayer regarding the one who wronged us. You can use the psalms to uncover your true feelings if you have been in the habit of stuffing those feelings; you can pray for those who hurt you and ask God to turn their hearts.

The second suggestion is to reflect on the universality of God’s forgiveness. We can hold back from receiving it, but God doesn’t hold back. We can pray for God’s help in learning this same amazing and powerful generosity. Even if it seems impossible, we can live “as if” we already have that gift.

The third suggestion is to reflect on God’s forgiveness of you. Such forgiveness and acceptance of God’s love is life-changing. And don’t get stuck on not forgiving yourself. Are your standards higher than God’s? What kind of arrogance is that? I personally have been stuck here; let it go.

The fourth suggestion is to pray for God to lead you into the future. Countryman says “The end of the story that began with the harm done to you is still unknown.” God may know, but we can’t see it. Only confidence in God can give us the hope and the courage we need to move forward. Because God desires for us what is good, we trust that even our hard experiences can lead to something of value. (pp. 54-56)

I invite you to reflect on where in your life you need to make amends and seek forgiveness. A good apology takes ownership of the fault and doesn’t make excuses. It opens the window for the future. Reconciliation doesn’t come all at once; it is a process and it is God’s gift working in you.

Next week as part of our services we will have a rite of reconciliation. Think about what in your life you would like to let go…forgiving yourself or someone else, asking forgiveness, letting go of a resentment that keeps you from being fully human and fully open to seeing the world with God’s eyes of love and forgiveness. Take some time to write about it if that will be helpful. It often is for me. Then on Sunday we will have paper and pencils in the pews. I will ask you to write down what you want to leave here and give to God. No one will read what you write, and the papers will be burned in the new fire of the Easter Vigil, when we celebrate new life.

Paul wrote that God made us alive together with Christ. Together is an important word. Forgiveness and the spirit of generosity it generates, affect others; it changes the dynamics and tone of our life together.

Remember that symphony I mentioned at the beginning? The third movement of the symphony restates the centrality of grace, and we can slip in the word forgiveness…you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Grace hs no boundaries; in the future we will keep on discovering the riches of grace.

And finally the fourth movement: it is significant because it answers the question of purpose, and it is expansive. We are created for the good works God has prepared for us to be our way of life. We will walk that way in faith.

The heart of forgiveness is this: it is God’s free gift to us and to everyone else. Open your hearts to accept it. Live into this truth: Forgiveness looks to the future.