GRACE

 The scene is Wembley Stadium in London England. (early 90's) Various musical groups, mostly rock bands, had gathered for the celebration of the changes in South Africa. For twelve hours groups like "Guns and Roses" had blasted the crowd through banks of speakers riling up fans already high on booze and drugs. The crowd yells for more curtain calls and the rock groups oblige. For some reason, the promoters had scheduled Jessye Norman, a black opera singer, as the closing act.

The time comes for her to sing. A single circle of light follows Jessye, a majestic African American woman wearing a flowing African dress, as she strolls on stage. Few recognize her. A voice yells for more "Guns and Roses". Others take up the cry. The scene is getting ugly.

Alone, “a capella" Jessye Norman begins to sing, very slowly....

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I'm found---­Was blind but now I see."

 A remarkable thing happened in Wembley Stadium that night! Seventy thousand raucous fans fell silent before her aria of Grace.

By the time Jessye reaches the second verse,

                                       "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved”

Soprano has the crowd in her hands. As she reaches the third verse, "T'is grace has brought me safe this far, And grace will lead me home," several thousand fans are singing along, digging far back into nearly lost memories for words they heard long ago.

"When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God's praise

Then when we first begun."

Jessye later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembley Stadium that night, but I think I know!

The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.

What is this thing that is called GRACE?

When we thought about this morning's meditation we thought about this complex, vast subject of God's GRACE.

The words that generally come to mind when thinking of God's Grace, are: LOVE, FAITH, COMPASSION, HOPE, FORGIVENESS, just to name a few.

The apostle Paul wrote extensively about this subject in the 13 epistles he wrote and specifically made it part of the greetings in each of these letters in the New Testament.

When we look at the Webster's Dictionary, we find that there are 12 meanings of the word GRACE. When referring to God's grace it is defined as:

"A virtue coming from GOD, freedom of Sin through divine grace. APPROVAL or ACCEPTANCE.

 If we take it one step further and look at the bible dictionary, GRACE is defined as "Unmerited favor, unearned benefit, undeserved kindness, God's amazing gift of forgiveness of sins and power to live with dignity in the present and with hope for the future."

One of the main reasons for talking on this subject today was due to the fact that we have read a number of interesting books on GRACE recently. So we thought it would be interesting to share some of the thoughts with you today.

The one book we based much of our meditation upon is Philip Yancey's - "What's so amazing About Grace?"

Philip Yancey is a Christian who is an award winning author and editor of number of books.

"Grace means there is nothing we can do to make GOD love us more and Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less."

"It is an undeserved gift that is there for the taking, Yancey writes, we decide whether we want to take it and live under in or lives."

Two very important readings in the New Testament we believe help to best explain the fundamental aspect of God's Grace:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." - John 3:16

And,

“For it is by grace you are saved, through faith - and this not of yourselves. It is a gift of God --not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8,9

Further to this there are so many fine examples taught to us by Jesus about Grace.

This morning's first scripture reading in Matthew 20 where the workers in the vineyard are shown how God provides his Grace equally, to all of us.

If we think of our society, how would we like it if someone got paid the same as the next person for working far less hours? Wouldn't the unions have a heyday with this one?

But God's grace is unbiased; he loves us all.... EQUALLY.

And his love is unconditional.

Think, if you will of the famous parable of "The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15.

We all remember the story I'm sure, where the youngest son said to his father;" give me my share of your estate, now I'm leaving for bigger and better things," and his father obliges. Off he goes to a distant country and squanders his money as he "parties his life away.

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One day he hits bottom, with money gone, body probably wasted from his sinful lifestyle, and finds himself sitting among the pigs.

At this point it hits home to him, he's wasted his life and his money, and the dreams of a better life has vanished right before his eyes.

Above all, he misses his Dad. So he" bits the bullet” and heads for home, planning what he would say to his father when he gets there.

But, he doesn't get a chance to say a thing. His father is filled with compassion and ran to meet him, not walked... but ran to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son tried to express his sorrow and to ask for forgiveness but he couldn't get a word in edgeways because his father was too busy kissing him, putting a robe on him, sandals on his feet and a ring on his finger. He was celebrating the return of his beloved one, who was ....LOST but was now FOUND.

PA USE

That is GRACE, God's own special kind of grace, granted to all of us.

Let's look for a moment at how Grace has affected some others parts of the World:

Consider Russia over a half century ago, the Communist government attacked Russia's once rich religious heritage and they stripped it with an unrighteous fury. It was an anti­religious fury that was unprecedented in human history.

They razed churches, mosques, and synagogues, banned religious instruction to children, closed seminaries and monasteries, imprisoned and killed priests.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian Nobel Peace prize novelist and author, said: I recall hearing a number of the older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia; "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then he spent many years working on the history of their revolution, in the process reading hundreds of books, and collecting hundreds of personal testimonies. If I were asked today the main cause of that ruinous revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

To me this reminds me of many stories told in the Old Testament where when the Jewish people disobeyed God their cities and country fell to the nations around them. And when they came back to God He restored them and made them invincible! Russia had forgotten GOD!

But now there has been a significant change in Russia. By 1991 people in Russia were starved for GOD.

Yancey in his book writes that "Most blamed each other for the poor economy; die hard Communists blamed America, reformers blamed the communists, and foreigners blamed the Mafia. Ordinary citizens had the demeanor of a battered child: head lowered, halting speech, eyes darting back and forth. Whom could they trust?"

 Just as a battered child finds it hard to believe in order and trust, these people find it hard to believe in a God who sovereignly controls the universe and who passionately loves them.

Yet without GRACE, what will end the cycle of ungrace in Russia or elsewhere in the world where "Men have forgotten God?"

The answer was a wide sweep back to their religious roots. The so-called forgotten generations that had silently kept the faith of a half-century before taught the younger generations. They shared and encouraged the younger people. A significant amount of Grace had been shared and it fueled resurgence in the church so much so that Boris Yeltsin said in 1991.., “The Christian's faith outlasted any ideology. The church is now resurging in a way unlike I have ever witnessed before."

It demonstrates the fact that unless Grace is shown the ungraceful cycle will continue on and on.                 

In other parts of the world large measures of GRACE have occurred in non-Christian nations, which provides great HOPE to all of us as Christians. In China in 1940, over six thousand Christian missionaries were expelled from the country and there was an estimated 750,000 Christians living in China at that time.

Many commented that without their seminaries and bible colleges they could not possibly survive.

However by 1980 when things opened up again in China an astounding thing had taken place... an estimated 35 million professing Christians had grown through this time period in Communist China.

God's Grace had surely been at work, "how sweet the sound". Apparently the Holy Spirit had fared quite well during this time!

China is now the 2^°d largest evangelistic community in the world exceeded only by the United States.

Yancy writes that the Chinese Christian who has shut out of the power structures in the country have devoted themselves to worship and evangelism, the original mission of the Christian church as spoken extensively by apostle Paul in the epistles of the New Testament.

They simply concentrated on changing lives, not changing laws. And isn't this the most Important message of God's Grace?

When we study the gospels we find that Jesus asked us in John 13:34 & 35... to LOVE one another as I have loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Who are we to give this Grace to....... One Another and that means literally... everyone. One of the most difficult things that I find as a Christian to do is to FOREGIVE.

Think for a moment of some of the extreme cases in our society's history ...the brutal deaths caused by the likes of serial killers: Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz or Jeffery Dahlmer.

Would we as the families of the victims of these brutal killings be able to forgive these murders so easily, especially when the killers have shown little remorse?

It takes a lot to do this.

But our Christian faith asked us to do this.  

If I ever get in tough situations in my life I always ask myself, "What would Jesus have done in this situation?"

Then the echoing of the verses of the bible speaks out to me: "we must forgive others, otherwise how can we be forgiven by our heavenly father", or how Jesus taught us to be servants to one another rather than be served.

And of course, Luke 6.^-27 to 36 where he tells not only Love One Another but to Love our ENEMIES.

WOW.... that sure is something .... LOVE OUR ENEMIES

I don't know about you folks but this statement has been hard for me to follow in my Christian journey ... but let's think about this for a moment.

I mean this is truly God's Grace at work, is it not?

 It is easy to love those who we like or who are kind to us.

What we must try and do is change our hearts to see people as GOD does... an unconditional love that he shows for each one of us...this is GODS' wonderful GRACE.

By doing good to those who Hate us, bless those curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, give to those who ask of us, we release the hate and overcome our sorrows with joy of the grace of God.

This brings peace not only to ourselves but also to one another, releasing the uugrace that the world may present us with each and everyday.

As Nazi refugee Karl Barth once commented, Jesus miracles as told in the gospels broke the physical laws of the universe; Forgiveness or his Grace broke the moral rules. Good in the midst of Bad always prevails!

When I think of the great gift of the Grace of God I think of a story that Tony Campolo once told. Now Tony is a Christian professor of sociology at Eastern College in Pennsylvania and founder of the Evangelical Association for Promotion of Education.

One day Tony was walking in a very busy street in Philadelphia. Tony is a very large, jovial type of man. That day he was dressed in a suit and he happened to came upon a Bum.

Now this was ordinary Bum or vagrant.

This bum was someone who looked like he had been in the streets all his life.

He had "sot" from head to toe, and a beard down to his mid-drift which had in it a number meals contained in it from days gone by.

It was a hot July day, but he wore an overcoat from an era long time passed.

As Tony approached him he, the Bum loudly belted out "Son... please come here." Hoping for a second that he wasn't talking to him, Tony replied are you talking to me sir? "Yes son I would like to give you something."

At this point Tony noticed that he was holding a cup of coffee which he had been drinking.

When Tony got up to him he said, "I would like to give you some of my coffee."

Tony looked at him feeling puzzled and wondering what to say next ..." No, no I couldn't, I mean all you have is your coffee, I don't want to take any of it Sir."

The Bum then said, "Son when you have something that God has given to you ...you just want to share it with others.

That answer really jolted Tony as you can imagine. So after accepting a sip of the coffee Tony said, "So what can I do for you sir, thinking maybe he'd ask for 5 or 10 dollars?"

The Bum thought for a second and then replied, "I would like a hug SON." Tony thought to himself, "I sure was hoping for the 5 or 10 dollars at that point.

So as he reached forward in full view of all those who were around him on this busy street, and embraced this Bum, he realized the fellow did not want to let him go.

Tony explained that he felt a little embarrassed for a second, but something very powerful happened at that moment... it was Matthew 25:31-36 that came to his mind, "When I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was a stranger you invited me in, when I needed clothes you clothed me, when I was sick you looked after me, when I was in prison you visited me.

When you did the least of this to my brothers of mine, you did this to me.

Tony felt God's Grace so very strongly at that very moment that he became very emotional, because he had stepped out of his comfort zone to try and give this gift of Grace he had received it in abundance.

Many of us, I am sure have experienced similar stories to this of Tony's.

Probably not the way his occurred, but maybe in a similar way you have experienced the touch of God's Grace in one way or another.

And when you have felt God's amazing grace touch you, it is seems so powerful... a very special time that makes life... so rich, so meaningful!

For us to experience this we believe that we must embrace a close personal relationship with GOD.

Then we can truly accept it, experience it, embrace it and then share it with others so that our commission as Christian's can be better fulfilled, in this world.

All PRAISE be to GOD  AMEN

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