Romans 3:21-26

²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

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We all like to get gifts!

So basic to the human condition is this desire, that we have built a commericial system that prods us to give gifts

In walmart yesterday (pu meds!) I heard the first Xmas music

Our society now pretty much has obscured the meaning of Advent and Christmas by overlaying it with a desire for commercial success…

…exploiting human nature for economic advantage

This passage takes us to the very center of Christian experience, theology, and hope: the real gift

Here we find the greatest theme of Xn history, the radical uniqueness that attracted ancient people to this fledgling religion:

That the relationship between the human and divine was an interactive one, one for which both sides had responsibility

that God instead of leaving humans beings to their own fate, desired to restore the relationship and heal the fractures rather than extend the punishment that was due

That God the creator God, desired to overlook, to forgive past transgressions and open the future

In this passage Paul helps us understand the nature of God and the nature of humans

Human nature was flawed: sinful

Not just a few, but everyone, every human person

Not just Jews, but Romans, Barbarians, Scythians

There was “no distinction”

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

All were self concerned and vulnerable to bad behavior, morally ethically, personally and socially

Divine nature in contrast

Was involved, and purposeful

That God intended to restore what humans had broken

God was an encompassingly compassionate God who kept prompting the people of the creation to change their minds, to be concerned with justice and seek peace while humbly walking with The Creator

God was taking the initiative to make whole what humans had broken

God was faithful and righteous when humans were unfaithful and unrighteous

Paul here is dealing with two ways that humans might restore the broken relationship: The Law and Grace

Law was the popular response

The Jewish community, particularly the Pharisees, understood the Law (the Penteteuch, the original story!) indicated behaviors which were expected by God

They tried and tried to follow those expectations only, as Paul observed later, to find they couldn’t meet up: the law served only to confirm their inclination to sin/break relationships

God had sent prophets like Isaiah and Amos etc. to call the people to repentence, to reclaim justice and proper worship, but alas…God was still disappointed

Grace on the other hand was the experience that was new

God graciously entered into the human realm fully present in the person of Jesus, recognized after his death as Son of God and Messiah, the one truly obedient human

In Jesus life, his teachings, healings and relationships, God revealed his grace and called all humans to faith

As Jesus died, defeating not only the fear of death, but death itself, God delivered the message of divine grace, that God, the creator, and humans, the creature, were at one with each other

Obviously here we have entered a dense pack of theological complexities

Here the great minds/hearts of our Tradition have found depth:

Martin Luther began the Reformation by pondering these words: “…justified by his grace”,… “effective through faith”

Human history changed as new insight emerged from Paul’s gospel

The legalisms that had crept back into Xnty were challenged; Xn faith motivated by an experience of God’s grace led to new social and political freedoms

New understandings of the practice of faith changed the polities of churches and leveled the heirarchies: all people became faithful priests and ministers (just like we put on our bulletin)

Here today we can find new insight and understandings

I think the gift here is subtle but radical (??!!)

In vs. 25 it says “in his divine forbearance, he passed over sins previously committed” [a phrase the commentator says is very difficult to interpret]

For me, this means that we are not bounded by the past, that even though we have not met God’s expectations previously, even though we have been guilty of many transgressions, God is willing to create a totally new relationship with us, one based in faith

This brings us to a place where we need to ask ourselves…just what is this faith that is prompted by God’s willing compassion, by God graciousness?

Faith, I believe, is our response to Jesus physical and very human death, a death implemented by those who would destroy the Good News that God loves and wants to restore human/divine realtionships

Faith is not knowledge…we know (the epistemological problem!) partially (as through a mirror dimly). We are limited by our own perceptions, cultural experiences, education and intentions to knowing only some things

Faith is the behavior that is prompted by realizing that in order for God’s Kingdom to be established, that is for the world of real time people to be in right relationship with each other (peace/justice etc), we must be as brave and as trusting as Jesus was in our pursuit of creating a just community in which the healing of body, mind and spirit is formost.

Faith is seen fruitful in good works, not in defining doctrine.

This faith in Jesus, in his teaching, his ministry and in his death that reveals the most HOLY, brings us to the right relationship with God

So what?

So here we are gathered in our little white church, we love each other, and we would invite others here that we might love them too…and hope that they begin to love us

But faith in Jesus means that we are not content to simply gather and love each other, we, like Jesus, should feel compelled to go forth to where the human hurt is the most prevelant, to where the most unlovable of folks are scattered in their miseries and touch them, and feed them and offer them the same gift we have come to enjoy

Jim’s report that the meal site in Fall River is in need of helping hands, weighs heavy on my heart

Here is an opportunity for us to move from simple belief to faithful practice, to let the grace that we have received as a gift, be the gift that we give graciously

This is a response that is simple, effective, and helpful

It is not the blather of theologizing, it is the profound presence of God acting in us, through us to bring GRACe as a gift to those about whom Jesus is concerned

It is an opportunity to let our past shortcomings reside in the past, while God empowers us for a meaningful and visible future

If we want God to continue to grace us with the gifts of redemption and liberation from sin, we must take this gracious gift and make it effective through faithful ministry.

Some gifts come to simply satisfy ourselves; some gifts are meant to be shared

God’s gift of grace, God’s compassion on us, is a gift that must be shared through our compassionate deeds!

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

¹⁰According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. ¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—¹³the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. ¹⁴If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

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Grace reviewed

We remember from last week that grace is a gift…

It is the experience of being liberated from our past limitations and empowered for a future that opens before us

Such grace was experienced by the Hebrew children, by the Babylonian exiles and by the early Christians

Paul talks about this grace as that powerful experience that frees us from our disposition to sin…that is our inclination to NOT do what God calls us to do

…and he is quite able to share with his his audiences that moment when he experienced life changing grace

Grace in all of these instances is initiated by God, for God’s purposes of reclaiming and renewing the creation, the creation with all its people, all its creatures and all its marvelous potential

We remember this morning that it is the experience of Grace that was the key to the formation of the early Baptist congregations like our own

…that, emerging out of a moribund church, that expected infant baptism, and legalistic behavior, those who were later to be known as “Baptists” required the expression of that experience of grace before they became “settled” members of the congregation

Our own records are very clear (in 1667) that people who were proposed for membership, when brought before the congregation, could clearly and to the satisfaction of all, articulate how Grace had changed them

Our covenant, talks about how we are “wrought on” shaped and formed by grace

And so we understand grace to be one of the essential experiences that builds up the church

Yet today we are not as likely to ask people about that life changing experience…

We are challenged to talk about it, much less share it beyond the narrow circle of our church family

But it still remains a central tenet in our belief and should still be understood as the dynamic which leads us toward our future

Paul as architect/construction manager?

Paul wrote in this pericope which we have taken for our lesson this morning that he was gifted to become the architect of congregations

He related in other letters the moment his life changed: on that road to Damascus, blinded he began to see what God had laid out for him as his life mission

He claimed the Gentile world as his special focus and went from village to city proclaiming Good News and God’s grace

In Corinth he gathered those who received God’s grace into a congregation…and traveled on his way

Corinth was as we have often said, a community of many voices and many points of view…and many traveling missionaries came through each with their own point of view on God’s grace and the consequent behavior it promoted.

When Paul heard about the controversies he wrote back to remind them of the original plan…the gospel as he presented it…the death of Jesus, the resurrection of the Christ…the willingness to each to put personal convictions aside to keep the community strong and vital, to resist the encroachments of a corrupting culture and to live according to the law of Christ love

Here Paul followed his “architectural” skills with “construction management skills (did you know know that there is now a college major in construction management?)

Diversity of voices/materials

In the interim while Paul was continuing his missionary journies, others came to Corinth: Apollos, Steven, Cephas

There were many that were enthused by the radical gospel of Jesus Christ; but many encorporated their own previous religious experiences

Many there in Corinth thought that worship in religious ecstasy was the highest form of faith: speaking in tongues, having visions, being spiritually transported beyond the mundane of their existence

Others felt they were free from any law, already “saved” and could indulge in sketchy sexual practices, come to worship drunk, ignore those who were unfed at the agape meals

Paul was of course horrified: these other quote unquote “gospels” were to be identified, examined and eliminated

Paul knew that there were many gifted builders in the congregation, there were many gifts graciously to be applied, but they all had to be consistent and congruent with the original plan which he had brought: faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, a bond of love and holy affection for each other and a willingness to be a servant people to the world about them

The test: the Day

…because Paul knew there would be a test…God did not simply put things into motion and step back, God would again act to reveal his purposes, move human history toward his purposed end: the establishment of the heavenly Kingdom

In this day, there would be crises, insubstantial work would be destroyed; solid work would hold and be rewarded

Each worker was to be responsible; each worker would use the diversity of materials, graciously applied, to build up, to edify the community of believers…and if it was good work: it would pass the test

Each worker, Paul encouraged, was to think of his/her own work not for the sake of themselves, but for the sake of the church, the ecclesia, salvation, the passing of the test, was a communal experience, a people gathered to be ready for the revealing

Which brings us to a consideration of our future

If our history has allowed us any insight and wisdom, it is that a church, a congregation faces many challenges, a multitude of tests and a consequential series of revealings.

As cultural forces batter the gathering, as individuals bring viral behavior, the church is torn and frayed

But as each person, pastor and member, finds within him/herself the Grace to build, as each claims the gifts God gives, the damage is repaired, the structures are strengthened and the community is built up

When I was called to be the pastor 10 years ago, I was asked to “tell the Swansea story”

It is a remarkable story, as you all well know, that has lasted into its fourth century

It is clearly a story of grace, God’s grace poured out into the hearts and minds of so many through test after test after test

The church has been up and it has been down (almost gone in the 1880’s!) but the plan it was built on, the architectural structures given by Myles, and Luther, and Wheaton and all the subsequent pastors, has allowed it to continue with its unique ministry

All is based on this clearly Baptist conviction that we are to experience God’s grace and in sharing that grace with each other and those beyond the borders of our spiritual family, demonstrate in word and deed that God’s power is still within us and available to all who would hear and believe the Gospel

That that grace changes lives, changes communities and changes the contextual world

Our tasks, our challenge at this point is to move each of our members (all you out there in the pews) to feel the Grace that God gives you daily, the grace that sustains and empowers you, the grace that gifts you with compassion and talents and motivates you to join together in upbuilding us as a congregation, as a spiritual family

Soon we will experience a change of pastoral leadership

Other voices will sound the call, an intern, a learner

But key to our meeting the Day of revealing will be that each of us, as members, will understand our own responsibilities as teachers, deacons, worshippers, seekers, committee members, helpers with projects and festivals to be the builders who own Gods given grace, the grace to build!

2 Corinthians 4:15-18

¹⁵All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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Well here we are again…getting ready for Thanksgiving

I imagin most of us have the turkey in the freezer just about to be removed to be unfrozen

The menu is planned, there might be some last minute shopping for the parsnips and brocolli…

The time for making pies is scheduled

The anticipation of family gathered around a table laden with festive foods is growing….

Maybe the football games will have a slightly darker tinge to them…when we think about the Penn state scandal…

..but TV’s will still be tuned to the epic struggles of huge men smacking into each other and falling down

all while chasing a small egg shaped leather object…

…a prelude to the great nap that happens when such excitement is paired with the consumuption of turkey laden with triptophans…

Yes, we are standing at the top of the week when images of our native people appear…sitting along side the tall black hatted Pilgrims…

…and we tell again the flawed tale of our national beginnings, how the cooperation of the native peoples secured the survival of those dauntless seekers of religious freedom

I have a New Yorker cartoon on my refridgerator that depicts those with feathers and robes walking away from the Puritan camp saying: “Well it was nice by I don’t want to make a regular thing”

This is perhaps a retro view of the growing perception amongst the Wampanoag and Narragansetts and other peoples of that time, that the English settlers posed a life threat to them

And indeed, just one generation after Massasoit, with whom the Puritan settlers had had such a beneficial relationship, they were displaying the severed head of his son Metacom (King Philip) on a pole in Plimoth and selling his grandchildren into slavery

Today, as we prepare for this week of thanksgiving we can’t really afford to remember only what is pleasant, or what makes us feel self satisfied

Today as we prepare to think about our gratitude toward Almight God, we have to remain clear through our critical memory to understand that success is tempered with failure, that moments of celebration are balanced with moments of despair

We must, if we are to have a better and more successful future, understand the wrongs and wounds of the past

If we are to truly be thankful, we have to see that GRACE was operative not only when there was food on the table, but when when our bellies were empty

Several years ago, when I was still at the Berean Church, some of the people who had gone to Oklahoma to work with one of our native American congregations there, came back with a grand idea

They wanted to do a vacation bible school for them; but had been told that the facility there in Ok was not capable of such an event

So they went to work, raised over $5k and brought 20 folks from that church to RI, where we housed them in our building, toured them about the state, told them about Canonicus and celebrated their heritage

One of the questions that arose was: given the history of the relationships between the native peoples of north America and the Euro-american settlers, how can you not be angry, how can you want to retaliate with the same kind of violence?

The answer caught me way off guard and surprised, I think, everyone who heard it.

Because you brought us the gospel of Jesus Christ

While I’m sure this is not a position that all native peoples would hold, those who came to share those two weeks with us held such a view because, I believe, of the GRACE that they found then, operating in their lives

Their faith, their thankfulness, those of the Commanche, Apache, Kiowa and Cherokee nations, made us thankful

Their witness to God’s grace caused and still causes as Paul said in our lesson, “thanksgiving to overflow”

Those visitors from the south west saw not what was visible (the ugly history) but that which is unseen, the movement of God’s grace and mercy

While they had every right to be cast down, they “did not lose heart” but were renewed inwardly, day by day, and then generation by generation.

Paul’s letter to those Corinthian early believers has guided the Xn faithful for 2k years.

Paul had been beaten, arrested, shipwrecked, driven out of town, rejected betrayed and abused

He knew that the faith he proclaimed and to which he invited others to share, was radically different than all religions that had previously been known

He knew that underneath it was God’s grace, a merciful power of transformation that would take us out of the myopic moment and allow an eternal perspective that saw from beginning to end how God was present and how God called us into the divine presence

When we see the unseen, we see the necessity for forgiveness, mercy, justice, right relationship and peace

We see the need for compassionate community and courage to love the unlovable.

When we see from the eternal point of view, we see our noble attributes and our ignoble sins together

We see thankfully the good we have done

And ask forgiveness for our shortcomings

If we are to fully understand the story of the Pilgrims

We can claim, in our own church, that story

And in reading our history as it was written on paper by our founding pastor, we discover that we balanced days of thanksgiving with days of humility

Yes there were days of feasting and gratitude

But they were in balance with days of fasting and prayer

Our congregation was founded in a context of persecution, of illegal practices (not having your children baptized) and public whippings (Obadiah Holmes on Boston’s common)

Myles himself had escaped execution by fleeing to Rehoboth

And as he gathered our first families together, the dominant word that he used in the covenant that drew us together as a spiritual family was GRACE,

grace that transformed us and allowed that early band of believer not to loose heart, but to continue to be faithful, to allow God to “employ and improve us in his service to his praise to whom be all glory and honour now and for ever”

Visible gratitude is not a seasonal thing

While our society surrounds us with such seductive satisfactions, we should not succumb

If we are full while others are empty, we need to beg for grace and mercy

If we are comfortable when others are distressed, we should cry out and proclaim the needs of our society, rallying others to the cause

If we are tempted to exalt ourselves in our prosperity and freedom, we also remind ourselves to be humble and willingly put off the abundance for the insight of willing want

When we are truly thankful, it won’t be for a day or a week

It will be every day as we take on a thankfulness that renews not only our inward spirits but also the spirits of those who waste away

It will be when we tell the whole story and own, in ourselves,

Then we will recommit ourselves thankfully “Being also constrained, by the matchless love and wonderful distinguishing mercies that we abundantly enjoy from his most free grace, to serve him according to our utmost capacities”

For it is in these great words, which bind us together, that we find the benefit for us in God’s eternal grace!

Background:

• The themes of Ephesians focus on the life of the early church, a unique community established by God through the work and revelation of Jesus Christ. In this letter Jesus is understood as both the head of the church and the head of the whole creation. Within the church, believers are united with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit as the result of the eternal purpose of God.

• It is the reconciliation of humans to God through the death of Jesus that allows the church to be inclusive of not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles (all non-Jewish peoples). It is the mission to the Gentiles that is the special calling of Paul.

• Ephesians is regarded as a “circular” letter written by a close associate or student of Paul’s that addresses the concerns of many of the churches in Asia Minor. The language differs from Paul’s letters in sentence structure and vocabulary. The letter often incorporates other Pauline material in a poetic and inspiring fashion. It is especially dependent on Colossians and was probably written about the same time.

• Sometimes other religious groups in the ancient world, shared their “mystery” with initiates, a secret knowledge that assured them of “being saved.” Paul often used the language of his adversaries to promote the Christian gospel.

The Text: Ephesians 3:1-7 NRSV

¹This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—²for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁴a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. ⁵In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

⁷Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.

Initial reactions...images, words, ideas... => four groups address two questions each???

1. How many of us feel like “prisoners” or “servants” for the Gospel? If there was not an extraordinary feeling of commitment to the Gospel in the first days, would we be Christians now?

2. How can we use Advent to increase the commitment of people to telling the Gospel story?

3. Paul felt a particular calling to the Gentiles, is there a group that would be analogous to “Gentiles” today? Are there any people that we see that working with “non-Christians” or unchurched?

4. Why does Paul, in Ephesians, connect mystery, revelation and grace? Can we still connect these? Do we still have revelations about our faith? Could we share them? Is grace & mystery a part of Advent?

5. What things about our faith are mysterious today? Can we explain them? Has science eliminated mystery? Why is “mystery” important? Has “Christmas” become too familiar? Should we move it to another season?

6. What is unique about Jesus and the church that should attract people today? Does grace empower us to be a community of reconciliation in a world full of conflict? Is Advent a good time to attempt this?

7. Pauline theology emphasizes the death of Jesus more than his birth; is it appropriate that we begin Advent with such an emphasis? Does this passage provide a “critique” of our consumer culture?

8. In this season of “gift giving” how can we give the mysterious gift of grace? Does Advent help us understand or explain “salvation”?