Franklin Roosevelt was greeting guests at the White House one evening as they came through the reception line. He disliked this ritual, however, since everyone always spoke their rehearsed lines without actually listening to what was said. So, feeling mischievous that evening and to test his suspicions, as he shook hands with each person FDR said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” As expected, his guests still spoke their prepared greetings, without hearing what he’d said--until finally one man, a South American diplomat, answered, “Well, I’m sure she had it coming to her.” Roosevelt loved it: someone was listening!
A good example of our own failure to listen is found in what is the most prominent benediction of the Bible, although one that doesn’t even register with most of us. The Apostle Paul begins every one of his thirteen letters with these words of blessing: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Repeat.) Peter’s epistles and the Book of Revelation also open with the same blessings of “grace and peace.” It’s arguably the greatest of all the biblical benedictions, but it goes mostly ignored.
So, one of two things is true: either these words of benediction were simply a pious formality, or we just haven’t been listening. And since the Word of God is never a matter of mere pious formalities, let’s listen more carefully for the blessing God is speaking to us.
In modern practice, we typically reserve benedictions for a parting blessing, but what if we began our services, or our sermons, with these biblical words of assurance: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”? What better way to remember our blessedness than by celebrating the gifts of God’s grace and peace?
The Christian writer C.S. Lewis walked into a Conference of World Religions in the middle of a discussion about what belief, if any, was exclusive to the Christian faith. They agreed that it wasn’t morality, or compassion, or a belief in a Judgment and an afterlife. Other great religions included those same teachings. So, the question was whether there was anything uniquely distinctive about Christianity that set it apart. The discussion was in full force when Lewis entered the room. “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked. When they told him, he said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
He was right. In fact, grace isn’t just a unique teaching of our faith, it’s at the very heart of our salvation. We’re saved only by faith in God’s grace, not in any way by our own righteousness. Grace is love in its purest essence: unearned, undeserved, and often unexpected in its generosity. It's been said that "laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God” (Karl Barth), a perfect way of describing its wonder and surprising goodness.
We see images of God’s grace in the natural order: in the love of parents and grandparents; in the faithfulness of a marriage “for better or worse;” in the heart of a good friend, who knows us very well and loves us in spite of our faults; or in the unexpected kindness of a teacher who spares us from our fear of failure through an exceptionally generous grade. (Can anyone else relate to that experience?) I’ve often thought that God is something like a demanding teacher who always shows us mercy when we need it most.
Listen to these words from the second chapter of The Book of Ephesians, the finest discussion of grace in the New Testament:
“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (vv. 2:4-8)
Grace is the saving love we all need to lift our hearts and bring us joy. Paul speaks here of God’s great love and his rich mercy and kindness in describing this all-important grace. The author Victor Hugo has written that “the supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved,” and God’s grace is the one true source of that joyful love.
The Apostle Paul, who described himself as “the chief of sinners,” staked his entire life on the grace, kindness and mercy of God in the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation he’d found in him. As he wrote to the Corinthians, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Co. 2:2). That was the power of the Gospel he lived and preached, God’s sacrificial act of love through the death of Jesus for a world in need of rescuing. The King James Version speaks of God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies, and there really is a deep kindness, tenderness and mercy at the heart of our salvation.
Jesus shared stories that highlighted the centrality of grace in the Kingdom of God: a loving father’s joy in welcoming home a wayward son; the compassion of a lowly Samaritan; or the generosity of a vineyard owner in paying all of his workers the same, regardless of their hours worked. And Christ’s life and ministry itself were the embodiment of grace, showing kindness and mercy to those needing love the most. He even prayed from the cross for his Father’s forgiveness of those who were crucifying him. What greater example of grace could there be than that?
Robert Webber was a professor of worship at Wheaton College who had been raised in a devout, but very legalistic, Christian home. And although he had grown more broad-minded in his adult life, he still carried vestiges of his earlier conditioning--as happened one evening when attending a Communion service. While standing in line to receive the Eucharist, he detected the slightly sour, fruity smell of whisky on someone’s breath, and it didn’t take him long to trace it to the unsteadiness of the man standing in front of him.
Webber felt a strong sense of righteous indignation about this, enough so that afterwards he called the rector aside. He let him know that he was offended that the man had come to worship, and especially that he’d received the Eucharist, in such an unworthy state. He expressed himself passionately and he thought he’d made his case.
The rector saw it very differently, however, and he responded with just as much passion, even putting his finger in Webber’s chest as he told him, “You have a very important lesson to learn, my friend. You need to understand that the church isn’t a country club for saints; it’s a hospital for sinners.”
That rebuke provided one of the great epiphanies that changed Webber’s life, causing him to reexamine his theology of grace and of worship. (And to finish the story, the man eventually found help for his drinking problem and became a blessing to that parish as a devout layman. Grace prevailed, as it so often does.)
We’ve been talking so far about grace, but we’re also covered with the blessing of God’s PEACE. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
As we read in Romans: “Since we have been made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1). By faith in his saving love through Jesus Christ we have peace with God. But it can be hard for us to receive that gift of peace, and especially to forgive ourselves. Satan, called “the accuser of the brethren” in Revelation (12:10), whose very name means “Accuser,” uses guilt and shame to keep us discouraged and miserable. So we need to distinguish between the voice of the Good Shepherd from that of “the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Satan is that thief who wants to steal our peace, kill our souls and destroy our lives.
The Apostle Peter sounds a similar warning: “Be alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power, forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:8-11). An important part of “fighting the good fight” of faith is by resisting the lies and accusations of the enemy and standing our ground in faith.
A friend of mine knew a man named Daniel, a very faithful, simple-lifestyle kind of Christian in his small town in Pennsylvania. Daniel was a local handyman who lived with his family in some woods near town, in a cabin he’d built himself, surrounded by a garden, some chickens, and a goat. He also had a woodworking shop where he had carved biblical phrases into the overhead beams, short verses like “Love is kind” or “Thy will be done,” or “God is love.” It was his way of keeping those truths in front of him and in his heart as he went about his work.
I thought of this because of how important it is for us to keep the powerful blessing of God’s grace and peace impressed on our own hearts and minds. That might very well be why that benediction is included so often in the New Testament, to reinforce its significance. It’s also true, in fact, that most of the apostles’ letters not only begin, but also end, with benedictions of grace and peace. That blessing is the essence of our spiritual birthright, our rightful inheritance, as the children of God. So, let’s keep it in mind, and hold it in our hearts, with God’s help. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
