I've been working on a paper for my undergrad degree on John Wesley--as I look at this passage from Romans--I can't help but get caught up in the age old struggle over faith and works. Wesly emphasized the justification that comes through faith, but he alos did not negate the importance of works. How can we preach this passage without also thiking of James chapter 2? Clearly its is faith tghat saves us--but we must accept that grace of God to be saved (acceptance--a WORK?) What does anyone else think? This doesn't seem to be a popular text for this week, but it does stress the theme of faith--which is the theme for this week's lectionary passage for this week D.D in N. Ala.
D.D. in N. Ala A new friend just gave me a copy of Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, saying it changed his life. It IS powerful! p. 73: Repentance is not what we do to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven.
How quickly we clergy types and other religious people get into religious legalism, phariseeism, whether from the right or the left. We forget that God's grace is absolutely free. Yes, we must believe it before we can receive it. But if we have a hard time believing it, we can even ask God for that! Be blessed! Anne in Providence
It is such a powerful realization to discover that nothing I can do can earn me God's approval and love. That truth breaks down my defenses, frees me to live less judgementally (I'm far from able to be non-judgemental. Faith - the great risk of thanking and loving and following - lets me see and receive the gift of God's love. It is the work and will of God - revealed by Jesus, the Christ - to accept us and call us to respond by keeping the new covenant written in our hearts, to live as new creations, in a new land - the kingdom of God. Jim in CT.
A poet once wrote, “Oh Lord, you hammer on my tin soul... .” How is it we become righteous? In faith? Yes, but what about doubt? Isn't doubt part of faith? Doesn't doubt bring us to reconcile the people we are with the people God calls us to be? Doesn't this passage tempt us to proffer cheap grace? Shouldn't we struggle with our "righteousness, " and remain humbled by our human/fallen potentials? "Oh, God you hammer on my tin soul." While I certainly appreciate Isaiah’s potter and clay image, I also understand the perspective of the poet. Sometimes I certainly feel less pliable than clay. Sometimes I feel like a piece of cold, stiff tin. A potter’s hand will not do. “Oh Lord, you hammer on my tin soul.” I was thinking just the other day about some of the things I’ve done. I don’t mean things I’ve accomplished. I mean, things I have done, done to others, done to myself. I recall David’s Psalm, 51, and his declaration, “My sin is ever before me.” Now, I am quite aware and trusting of God’s Grace to forgive my sin, but does God’s forgiveness mean we simply dismiss our sin? I don’t think it’s that easy. I think simple dismissal is cheap grace and illusion. Cheap grace devalues the sacrifice of Christ. Illusion prevents us from seeing the true depth of our constant need. As a sophomore in high school I once hung my head out the window of my friend’s truck and shouted a cruel name at a handicapped girl in our school as we left the school parking lot. It was a vicious and unconscionable thing to do, but I did it–on a whim, for no really good reason that I can think of. It was simple impulse. Now, I could pass it off as youthful ignorance, over-exuberance, and/or plain stupidity, but the fact remains that I did it, and here 30 years later that five-second indiscretion still haunts me, hurts me, because once committed, I could not un-commit it. It’s still before me because I am human, full of free will and ever-capable of doing evil. I was born this way–I know I have the potential inside me to hurt others, to put myself first, and it is only by the Grace and presence of Christ in my life that I don’t do it more often than I already do. “Oh Lord, you hammer on my tin soul.” I believe we should struggle with the implications of our actions. Although we are forgiven; forgetting should take longer. Even forgiven sins teach us lessons, and remind us of our potential to do evil apart from Christ. The Lenten season is a time for us to ponder God’s amazing Grace, to ponder our distance from our Savior, and to ponder our own potentials–good and evil. Perhaps too, to ponder our concept of grace and see if the value we give it is just a little too cheap. After all, “GOD gave his only begotten son.” Such a precious price he paid for us.
Grace and Peace, Rev. D.