Means of Grace - Clergy Talk #7 - Emmaus #2199

Lead the Prayer to the Holy Spirit p48

Introduction

I recently watched season 1 of The Chosen, together on Sunday evenings, episode by episode with a group at church. Holding an event like that means work for me. I make lemonade and coffee, setup the room, get the technology ready and test it, and get both nervous and excited about who is or isn’t coming. A couple of months ago, we were watching an episode where, among other things, Jesus heals a man with leprosy. As the episodes are playing, I’m usually thinking about things like…how is this being received? Is the volume loud enough? Is it too loud? Is the temperature in the room ok? Is it too dark? Is it too light? Is it too quiet? Is it too noisy? Are there enough snacks? Has the coffee run out? Is there enough creamer? Why is the sky blue? You get the idea.

Anyway, all these things are running through my head as I’m watching this episode, which I had already seen. Then, wham. As Jesus interacts and then heals with the leper, the Spirit washes over me afresh. I FEEL the love of Christ, his love, and joy, and peace. It only lasted a few moments, but I savored it. For me, in those moments, Jesus used that episode as a Means of Grace for a distracted and anxious Jim Noble. Praise Jesus!

My name is Jim Noble, and the title of this talk is Means of Grace.

Means of Grace

I was a Certified Public Accountant and Consultant until I started the process toward vocational ministry about 15 years ago. I did financial audits for a couple of years then got into technology and consulting. One of the guys I worked with in technology at Ernst & Young, Erich, was a white hat hacker. (EXPLAIN). We’re talking one day and he learns I was once a full-time auditor…Ah, he says, you were a checklist monkey. Excuse me? What? Well, he said, auditors when they’re auditing financial statements get out the checklist for cash, or accounts payable, or inventory, what have you and they go down the checklist. A monkey could do it most of the time. If something’s missing on the checklist, then you have issues. I had to laugh, because there’s enough truth in what he said to make it funny.

I don’t see Jesus as a checklist monkey...I don’t see Jesus with some checklist…did you baptize exactly this way? Did you take the sacrament just so? Oh, oops, you had a few hairs out of the water when you were baptized. INVALID…To me, at least, he’s more graceful. The grace of our triune God can appear in a bunch of different ways. How it appears to you is likely different than it is to me at times. Yet, there are certain ways Jesus has promised are ways to find grace and some other ways that people find more often than others. These ways, these events, these categories we call means of grace.

Means of grace are sacred moments where Christ is re-presented or becomes present to us anew. They can come in all sorts of forms and what is a means of grace for me might not be so much for you, and vice-versa. Now, a side note. I believe, we believe, that Christ IS present with us through the Holy Spirit. Christ is alive and Lord NOW, HERE, and all over the universe. Means of grace don’t have to deliver a memory, though they might, or a re-enactment, though that’s possible too…but can be Christ present with you where you are when you are.

Christ is free to act in any way he likes, within the will and character of God, but I’m going to cover some of these shared, lifted up by tradition and history, means of grace.

Sacraments

First, Sacraments. Sacraments are kind of the hall of fame of Means of Grace…the two that non-Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, which includes most of us, celebrate are Baptism and Holy Communion. Why do we celebrate two and RC/EO celebrate 7? Protestants removed the five other sacraments using three conditions: dominical institution, meaning, either begun or instituted by Jesus, the presence of a physical or material element or sign, and a divine promise requiring the response of faith. Not that the other five aren’t important, they are, but they don’t pass these three tests and so many churches are left with two sacraments instead of seven.

Now, don’t sweat writing down exhaustive Scripture references during this talk…I’ll have a document delivered to you with an outline of it and Scripture references, etc...

A bit about baptism: Baptism marked the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22). John the Baptizer baptized Jesus because it was the will of God for him to do so. John says in Mark 1:8, “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” He was referring to Jesus. Jesus entrusted the ministry of baptism to his disciples, and to us. Christian baptism marks our new identity in Christ. It’s an outward sign of an inward change, an inward grace, and is therefore a means of grace.

There are different modes of baptism that have been practiced, and are practiced, in Christian churches.

Immersion (put under the water) symbolizes being buried with Christ and raised with Christ to walk in a new life (Romans 6:3-4)

Pouring (when large bodies of water aren’t available) - another form of anointing.

Sprinkling - somewhere between sprinkles and pouring

The age for baptism varies among Christian traditions. When we baptize adults, we celebrate God’s love and justifying grace in one act. The baptized is cleansed and incorporated into Christ’s body.

In the baptism of children and infants, we celebrate God’s unconditional love and promise for their lives, God’s claiming of that person. That act is routinely initiated by the parents or guardians of the child and ratified by the person later at their confirmation.

Holy Communion

Now, about Holy Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed on to you: on the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. After giving thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me.” He did the same thing with the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember me.” Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until he comes.” If you know much of anything about the Corinthians, this was pretty radical. They struggled with preferring flash over faith.

Anyway, this sacrament goes by numerous names..Holy Communion, Eucharist, The Lord’s Table, The Lord’s Supper, the Divine Liturgy, or Mass. Jesus instituted this sacrament, as he did with Baptism. He commanded us to continue it. Our source Scripture for this weekend was a time when Jesus broke bread with those travelers and revealed himself. That meal was a Lord’s Supper, a Means of Grace.

I like to think of The Lord’s Supper in three main categories…we’re celebrating and remembering all God & Christ have done in salvation history, all the way back to creation. You know, he even covers all the If Only’s we carry with us with his grace. We’re also celebrating and remembering all that Christ will do…in the remainder of our earthly lives and whenever he comes in final victory. He even covers the “Some days...” of our lives with grace. We also celebrate and live into all Christ/God are doing right now, even Now, infusing our lives with grace through the power of the Holy Spirit as we face the challenges of life. Praise Jesus!

Describe TWO PICTURES…Means of Grace of the Sacraments

Sacred Moments

In addition to the sacraments, we describe many other means of grace as sacred moments. These can come as surprises, or perhaps by divine appointment. Some of these include confirmation, calling, membership, ordination, or consecration. Marriage and/or a call to singleness can and should also be avenues for sacred moments.

Sacred moments are divine appointments with God. They can be found in a multitude of ways including prayer, Scripture study, as Allen talked about, worship, fellowship with spiritual friends, fasting, or generosity.

I was eating with my family recently at Armentas, probably our favorite little mexican food joint. I ordered the New Mexico Enchiladas, which I’d never ordered before. Pulled chicken, an egg on top, delicious. As I started eating the dish, I noticed it had quite a kick to it. About half way in, I felt like my lips were numb with fire and my whole head was expanding. The last time I remember eating something with that much of a kick was at an authentic Indian food place in Lexington, KY. Whew! What is happening, I thought? I looked back at the menu on my phone and there it was…IN A JALAPENO SAUCE. Well, the sauce was green enough to know it was almost entirely jalapenos…Jalapenos grown on the surface of the sun, I believe. And that’s Scripture for me…Lord, I’m feeling this, I’m experiencing that, I’m struggling with this or that…go to Scripture, not as a checklist of something to be done but as a means of grace…a source of seeing the face of God.

Other very sacred moments come in the experience of confession, forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation. If you want to see God at work, find somewhere where these things are happening…a great place to start. The Greek word for healing in the gospels is the same word used for salvation (sozo)

We all fall short and require healing and wholeness…spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and/or relational. God is in the healing business! Throw a dart at the NT and you’re going to likely find a healing story, or stories, on the page you hit. In any legitimate healing ministry, Jesus is clearly presented as the healer. He’s still in this business!

God calls us to open ourselves to divine grace in many ways. Eternal power often comes in unexpected packaging! It takes effort to open ourselves up to things the world says are impossible. Grace can come from God in all sorts of ways…perhaps most often, it seems to me, when we need comfort. God uses angels, animals, other people, all sorts of things to give us grace…but only if we’re open to it.

I’ll tell three quick stories from my life on this topic, two related to my dad, Roger, who died in 2014, and one from another setting.

My dad wasn’t a strong churchman but he believed, very imperfectly, in Jesus and was proud of my profession after the initial shock that I’d leave such a lucrative first career. My dad cared a great deal about my moms eyes. You see, my mom has had so many eye surgeries, transplants, and the like that I’ve totally lost count. She has to use a bunch of drops every day to try and keep her eyes as imperfect as they are. Dad was always on mom about doing her drops as instructed, having enough on hand, etc. Not long after he died, maybe a couple of weeks or a month or two, mom was preparing to do some drops in her eyes again that day. One of her bottles, maybe an ounce or two, costs over $1K per bottle. She keeps her multitude of bottles in a big ziploc near her bed. She searched the ziplock, and searched it again, and again, dumped it out on her bed, went through every item by hand, and grew increasingly frustrated. She KNEW she had some more left of that expensive bottle. Massively irritated, she headed to the basement to get the new bottle of that absurdly expensive medicine she had. When she returned upstairs, as she approached the bed, she said (her voice shaking when she first told me this story), there was the bottle with the others scattered on the bed. And it was GLOWING. She looked to heaven and asked, “Roger?”

Back to dad in a minute. Another profound means of grace I witnessed happened at a weekend something like this, only called Kairos. Kairos is something like Emmaus but in prison. In this case, deep inside the French M Robertson Maximum Security State Penitentiary near Abilene. One of the elder pilgrims, brothers in white we call them, was named Ricardo, as I recall. He spoke no English. He had a zipper like scar most of the way across his head. It didn’t take a genius to know he’d DONE some stuff and he’d certainly SEEN some stuff. I doubt he’ll ever leave incarceration. He had lived primarily in Mexico but got arrested in the US and, therefore, is incarcerated here. Anyway, we had a team member who spoke some Spanish and helped translate a very small portion of the weekend for him. Mostly, he stood stoicly, and enjoyed the food. Near the end of the weekend, we were singing praise songs. He was behind me, but some team members noticed Ricardo visibly weeping. Powerfully weeping. The song was completely in English, of course. Our strongest Spanish speaking team member took Ricardo to the side of the room to see what was going on. My son, he said, my son. Que? I’ve been in prison all these years, you see, and had no contact with my son in Mexico. None. I haven’t known if he’s dead, alive, married, single, nothing. But, he said, during this worship, I FEEL his presence powerfully. I KNOW he’s ok. God has given me the gift of feeling his spirit. Praise Jesus!

Back to my dad…October 5, 2020, I was headed to Big Bend. Six years almost to the day after my dad died, I was driving by myself to meet some of the group for an annual trip there…most of them come from Austin, Corpus, or the Valley. By the way, I’d highly recommend Big Bend! And if you need a group to go with, let me know and I’ll include you in the communications…or plan our own trip. Anyway, I was somewhere past McCamey on a lonely Texas highway and my music was on shuffle…randomly moving between 4K plus songs. I was thinking about my dad and the camping and fishing we did growing up in the Ozarks, not too unlike Big Bend…the next song that came up was sung by Luciano Pavoratti, Nessun Dorma! from Turandot…powerful without any back story at all…but you see, my dads very favorite artist in the world was Pavoratti…he’d record any concerts on VHS, he had 8 tracks, tapes, CD’s of him, you name it. When that song hit my ears in that car, my dad was WITH me…I can’t explain it, ah, but God and his grace. And I wept like a baby, almost running off the road! Praise God!

Nature may be a way God infuses us with grace as well…Big Bend is a great place to experience that. But it’s even better when disciplines of the faith are backing it up.

To make room for new life in Christ, other things have to die. We prune away dead or dying branches to make way for more fruit.

What might God be calling you to prune away in your lives? What words of comfort, challenge, or confirmation are you longing to hear from Jesus? I can’t tell you how he will respond, exactly, but I can tell you if you open yourself to him, and seek him, he WILL respond. We’re going to take a short bathroom break, in silence please, and then move to a special service of Holy Communion in the chapel. I want to encourage you to focus on Jesus…and open your hearts and minds up to feeling his presence as we share in this sacramental meal where we remember his life, death, resurrection, and Lordship. We’ll go by table groups in a posture of prayer...

Please go in silence and sit with your table group. The assistants will direct us. De Colores!

Conclusion