Gracious
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Baby Dedication
Prayer - Eash’s?
Intro
The English language has some great words.
Defenestrate - to throw someone out a window.
Malfeasance
Onomatopoeia - 10 points if you can spell it.
Flub. Such a great word. Flub.
In his book, What’s so Amazing about Grace? Philip Yancey proposes that the last truly great word is not any of those, but it’s grace.
Grace, it’s a word for Sunday mornings, but it’s beloved any day of the week.
The ballerina was graceful.
You add beauty to a song by playing grace notes.
We tip a barista and it’s called gratuity.
No one wants to be without grace, then you’re an ingrate, or we might call them a persona non grata.
What’s so great about grace?
There’s a chance that we hear it so much in church, sing about it so much, use it so much in conversation, that it loses its greatness.
And then we come upon Exodus 34:6-7 and God reveals himself to Moses and says I am Yahweh, a God merciful - or compassionate - and gracious.
And we go yeah yeah yeah I know.
What does it mean that God is gracious?
How is that good news?
How is God’s graciousness truly great?
This morning, we are in our third Sunday of our character of God series.
We are looking at Exodus 34:6-7 and asking, “What is God like?”
Getting to know God is even more important than getting to know myself. Because in getting to know God’s character, I have a lens with which to see myself and the world.
If I misjudge you, I will misunderstand your words and actions towards me. That affects any relationship. How much more so our relationship with God?
Much like Dave Waller said last week, much of what I will share today is thanks to the Bible Project word study on grace, as well as Philip Yancey’s book, “What’s so amazing about grace” which is available on our lending library.
First, what does grace mean?
The word gracious in Ex. 34 stems from a root word that appears many times in the Old Testament and, in part, it means delightful.
Precious. Charming.
We use it similarly when we say something or someone is graceful.
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
Wisdom and teaching are so delightful, precious, and charming, they’re like a beautiful necklace. So grace, when we look at it, is aesthetically beautiful, or pleasing.
21 My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
That word adornment is our word for grace.
God’s graciousness isn’t just something he does, it’s something he is. Precious. Beautiful. Amazing.
This word is often used to describe a gift given in delight or favor.
If I see someone as delightful, I’m likely to show them favor or grace. This is seen in the story of Esther.
Esther, the one in whom the King finds delight, comes before the king to ask a favor - another meaning of our word for grace
5 And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight…
The King grants her request because he delights in her.
So grace is a gift we can give to people we enjoy.
It makes sense to show grace to those in whom we delight.
In the ANE, it was seen as irresponsible to show grace to someone who doesn’t deserve it.
But in the Bible, we see this kind of grace to be the most incredible form.
In Genesis, we have the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob cheats Esau, and Esau wants to kill Jacob. They haven’t seen each other in years, but Jacob finally comes to Esau and says -
8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”
If Esau did what was fair, he would harm his brother. But instead Jacob asks for favor, and Esau graciously gives it.
Transition - Grace means delight, or favor. People can sometimes show grace - you’ve experienced that in your life. But the one who shows the most grace in Scripture is God.
We see God’s grace on full display in the context of our passage in Ex. 34:6-7.
Exodus is all about God revealing himself to Israel, Egypt, and the world through his gracious redemption of Israel, and choosing to live with them as covenant partners.
God rescues Israel - a worthless and tiny slave nation - from big bad Egypt, as he parts the Red Sea.
He leads them to Mt. Sinai and holds in essence a marriage ceremony saying I am your God, you are my people.
Through Moses, God gives the Law - or the guidelines for how to have a thriving relationship with this God who has saved them.
In Ex. 24, Moses goes up on the mountain to be with God and continue the marriage ceremony.
But in Exodus 32, the people get antsy. They say, you know, Moses has been gone a while, he’s probably dead. Aaron, make for us a god that we can worship!
Yeah, God showed us grace in saving us from Egypt, but based on where I’m at this month, it seems like he’s changed. Let’s worship another god.
So Israel essentially cheats on their spouse - YHWH - while their guests are drinking punch during the wedding reception.
What would be fair is for God to leave.
What would be wise on a human leave is for God to find a different partner.
But, God’s servant, Moses, intercedes. He asks God to show favor - grace - on His people. Don’t give them what’s fair, show us your delight, even though we are the most undelightful people on the planet.
And God says yes.
Not only that, but God promises to remain with his people and to forgive their sin.
What’s so great about God’s grace?
God is delightful, beyond comparison. And that beauty is seen in his consistent willingness to show favor to golden calf worshipers.
In the Ancient Near East, it was deemed unwise, irresponsible, and lacking judgment to show favor to the poor, needy, and outcasts. God does it all the time.
God says to humans stuck worshiping false gods - You are precious. I know your darkness. Let me heal you. You are covered in the filth of sin, feeling unworthy and unlovable. You are my favorite. I love you.
Do you believe that today?
Transition -
Grace means delight or gift, even to undeserving people.
God shows his grace in our passage by choosing to forgive and remain with his covenant partners who flub it, big time.
And if we continue in the biblical story, we see God’s grace become human.
God’s Grace in Jesus
In the New Testament, we see the Greek word for grace, charis.
It’s where Karissa Bachman gets her name. Anyone know any Charis’?
In Charis, we see the power of grace.
Grace is a nice word. Charity has some punch.
We say, I don’t need your charity! Why? Because I’m fine on my own! I don’t need you!
And to broken humans who say I don’t need your charity, God sends Jesus.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is grace incarnate.
God’s grace is not an idea, it’s a person.
It’s not even something he gives, it’s himself.
Jesus is grace.
His life, death, and resurrection, are offered to golden calf worshipers, who can freely receive his very life by faith. Free of charge. On the house.
One of my favorite songs we sing on Sundays now says
What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer, there is no more for heaven now to give, he is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace.
Jesus commissions Paul to be his ambassador of grace.
Paul was a golden calf worshiper if there ever was one. He denied that Jesus was the Son of God and he sought to kill Christians. But Jesus saved Paul, and so Paul preached about grace. Why? Because he experienced the grace of God for him.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Paul knew grace was a gift. He himself received it. Not by working for it, but by simply receiving.
We have an American Pope now. Pretty crazy.
The reason you and I do not revere the Pope the way our Catholic friends do is because Martin Luther read Romans and discovered the bombshell of charis.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Do you know how Paul started most of his letters?
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is the best Paul can wish them, because grace is the best thing he has received. - Frederick Buechner
What’s so great about grace?
If something is gracious, it’s delightful.
And a gift given in delight is grace. But grace in its purest form is a gift given to someone who doesn’t deserve it.
And the being who shows this grace over and over and over and its embedded in their very character is God.
And this character trait isn’t just an idea, it’s a person, shown in Jesus who gave himself for us, free of charge, and commissioned Paul to be an ambassador of grace, writing all about grace, not knowing that 1500 years later the world would change because of grace rediscovered by Martin Luther, and then preached to you, Gateway Chapel.
But like Israel, who experienced God’s grace firsthand, we also experience things that make us question his grace.
Unbearable stress at home, at work, in our hearts, can lead us to question his grace.
When our health is in question, when we’re worried about our kids.
When we don’t have enough money
When our health is declining and all we see ahead is suffering
When people hurt us, disgrace us, when the church hurts us, disgraces us.
When we live life for so long trying to earn God’s grace because we have come to believe he will bless me only when I do better.
When our sin makes us question if God could love us.
God is gracious? Not to me.
God is gracious? I’m not so sure.
The counselor David Seamands once wrote -
“Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people.” - What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey, 15
What would change in your life if you saw God as gracious?
In the book I’ve referenced a few times now, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey retells a story called written by Karen Blixen and made into a movie in 1987 called Babette’s feast.
In a small, impoverished fishing town in Norway, there was a little Lutheran church.
This church renounced the ways of the world. They held tight to God’s law. They tolerated life now to make it to heaven one day. Everyone wore black on Sundays.
The old Dean had two daughters, Martine and Philippa. People in the town would come on Sundays just to look at these two beautiful daughters.
Martine caught the eye of a young dashing calvary officer, but she rejected his advances because, who would take care of her aging father? He rode away and married someone else.
Philippa was equally beautiful but also had an incredible voice. One day a man from France, Achille Papin, who was on the coast for his health, was walking along the water when he heard Philippa singing. He found her and told her that if she would take singing lessons with him he would turn her into a proper singer and she would be the most famous singer in all of France, she would even dine at the Cafe Anglais. She began taking lessons, but when his romantic interest was known, she saw no other option but to reject his love, and her father the dean wrote a letter renouncing all future lessons.
15 years passed and not much changed in the village. The sisters became old spinsters but sought to carry on the legacy of their deceased father. But the church was splitting. Two old women hadn’t talked in a decade. Rumors swirled of a sexual affair from 30 years ago. The church had dwindled to 11 members. Despite this the sisters still organized church events and brought boiled bread to the toothless aged members of the community.
One rainy night, a woman showed up on their doorstep. She spoke no Danish, and she carried with her a letter from Achille Papin, the letter made Philippa flush. The letter said her name was Babette she had to flee france during the civil war and lost her husband and son. The letter also said, “Babette can cook.”
Babette endeared herself to the community. The first time Martine showed her how to boil a cod Babette’s eyebrow rose. She helped the town, cooked meals, helped clean, she brought new life to the stagnant community.
One night, a letter came to Babette and told her that every year her friend in France had renewed her name int he French lottery, and she had won 10,000 francs. The sisters felt sad to think that their new friend would be heading home soon.
As it happened, the letter coincided with an upcoming 100th anniversary for the sister’s father’s birthday. Babette came to the sisters and said in twelve years here I have never asked anything of you. But I ask this favor: let me cook the meal for the anniversary. What choice did they have but to agree?
Well the people of the town were soon surprised when boxes of all kinds of things arrived in Norre Vosburg, workman pushed boxes of rare birs, there was champagne and wine, and even a giant tortoise, still alive showed up in town.
All 11 church members were a little leery - Tongues were meant for praising God, not for indulging in exotic tastes. Even so, they would eat the meal quietly for Babette.
December 15 arrived and the night of the anniversary dinner was blanketed with a beautiful coat of snow.
An unexpected guest joined them, ninety year old Ms. Loinheim would be joined by her nephew, the calvary officer who had courted Martine so many years ago.
Babette decorated the dining room beautifully with crystal, china, candles and evergreens. The general was amazed at the meal. He loved the champagne so much that when Babette saw, she told the server to keep his glass full at all times. Church members laughed, the old women who hadn’t talked in 10 years were chatting. When the final course came out, the general was shocked to see it was a dish that he had only seen once in paris, at the famous Cafe Anglais, the restaurant with the famed woman chef. The church flooded out to the streets and held hands around the town fountain and sang songs of faith.
When the meal ended, the kitched was piled high with empty dishes and unwashed dishes. Babette looked as wasted as the day she arrived on the doorstep.
The church had kept to their promise no one said a word to Babette about the meal. Martine came up and said, “It was a fine meal, Babette.”
Babette replied, “I was once the chef at Cafe Anglais.”
Martine, almost as though she didn’t hear, said, “ We will all remember this dinner when you have gone home to Paris.”
Babette tells them that she will not be going home to Paris. Everyone she knew was either killed or imprisoned. Besides, it was too expensive.
What do you mean, said the sisters, what about the lottery money? THe 10,000 francs?
Babette dropped the bombshell. She had spent her winnings, every last franc on the meal they had just devoured. Don’t be shocked she said, that’s what it costs for a group of 12 at the cafe anglais.
“We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness we imagine divine grace to be finite…But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude.” What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey, 26
This little Lutheran church had heard sermons about grace, but on this night they ate a meal of grace.
Grace costs everything for the giver, and nothing for the recipient.
“Grace came to Norre Vosburg as it always comes: free of charge, no strings attached, on the house.” What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey, 26
