Means of Grace: The other side of grace

Series: Wesley's Means of Grace: What is grace? (Part II)Scripture: Exodus 15:22-27 and James 1:19-27Title: The other side of GraceI come from a long line of educators. My father is a retired high school teacher. My mother is a retired elementary school teacher. My aunt was a teacher, and then got into administration. My sister is a high school math teacher. I even married a teacher. Plus, I have spent the vast majority of my life in school, getting to know a lot of teachers. One of my first jobs out of college was in the children’s department of a book store, where I worked with teachers. The position I had in Saint Louis at a church was Minister of Education, which had me working closely with the Sunday school teachers. Finally, at annual conference in June I took a vow where I promised to be a preacher and teacher of the gospel. Teaching is a big part of my life, and any good teacher knows that one of the most powerful teaching tools is repetition. So, if you’re wondering if I had made my second mistake this morning, when you heard the same Old Testament lesson as the week before, then you were wrong. We read the same Old Testament story because I believe it is an important story to learn, and we didn’t get to the second part of the story last week.You see, in these two weeks we are trying to tackle one of the greatest issues in the history of Christianity, especially since the Reformation. We talking about grace and works. Last week was all about grace. I talked about how amazing grace is because it goes against everything the world values. The world gives us death, but the grace of God gives us life. Grace is also amazing because it is free. It is given to us by God because God is a God of love. We do nothing to earn grace.This is something that we learned from this story in Exodus. The people did nothing to earn their grace. They were the least likely people for God to care about. They were slaves, the weakest of the weak. They had nothing to offer God, yet God gave them grace. The greatest military power in the world could not defeat them. The Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, was washed away, and even the powers of nature could not defeat them. The stagnant water which could kill them all, was made into sweet, drinkable water of life. In the midst of the wilderness, in the midst of death, God gave them life.That is all we talked about last week, but that was not the end of the story. In the second part of the story, God speaks to the people through Moses. God tells the people to do something - something very simple - follow God. "Listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and following his laws." This is to be our response to the grace that God has given us - to live the way God would want us to live.So here’s how the story goes: The first part is: We get into trouble and God saves us. The second part is God wants us to obey. We are saved from and also saved for. God saves us from death, and saves us for obedience.And that is what is described in our lesson from James. James uses the image of a mirror to explain the second part of the story. A mirror is something we have all used. It is the most basic of self-improvement tools. Who here looks better right now then they did when they woke up? None of us woke up this morning looking the way we do right now. Sometime this morning we looked in the mirror, assessed what was wrong, and tried to fix it. We combed or brushed our hair, shaved. Ladies, you put on some makeup. We all got dressed, and before we left we took one last look in the mirror for final adjustments. Without the mirror, we would not know the flaws to fix, but with the mirror, we can see what is wrong and do our best to fix those flaws.That is the purpose of the mirror, and according to James, that is the purpose of the laws and will of God. We look at the law of God, and then we can do one of two things. The foolish way, as James describes, is to look in the mirror and forget what we look like. We look in the mirror and forget that we can look different then what is presented. This would be waking up, looking in the mirror and thinking that my hair is supposed to be standing up, my face is supposed to be unshaven, that crust is supposed to be in my eye. This is absurd, and that is exactly the point.When we look at the mirror of the law of God, we could choose to see that nothing is wrong. If we ignore God’s will for us, we could think that we are supposed to be selfish. We are supposed to be quick to anger. We are supposed to say whatever we want to whoever we want. That is equally absurd.Instead, when we look at the law, we are to see what needs fixing, and then fix it. We are to not only be hearers of the word, but doers. It is not enough to simply hear God’s word and know what is right. We must live out our faith. Later in the book he uses the famous line, "faith without works is dead." We must believe, but we must also do. We are given grace, and we must respond with a life lived for God.The Exodus story tells us that God saves, but that God also requires a lifestyle from us. James now is telling us that we must be doers of the Word, and not just hearers. "Now wait" you might be saying. "Grace is supposed to be free, with no repayment." Aren’t we just working for God’s grace if we are required to live according to God’s will? Well, that is a good question, and the heart of the issue. But here is the thing to remember: When the people were in the wilderness, God gave them water first, and then told them to obey. You see, God’s Grace always comes first. It is always offered before we do anything to deserve it.We are called to respond to God’s grace with a life that is pleasing to God, yet we are faced with the troubling fact that we know who we are. We know that we do not always live as God would have us live. We know that we do not always do what God would have us do. Jesus summed up God’s law by saying Love God and Love Others. But we know that there are times we love neither.So here’s the problem were faced with, as we can infer from both the Exodus story, from James’s letter, and from our own knowledge of the human condition: God gives us grace, but God requires of us something more. We are to respond to God’s grace with actions, with the way we live. But we are inevitably unable to respond properly. So what do we do? God gives us grace. And we try again. We will inevitably fail, but we try again. We stray from God’s will, we act for ourselves instead of for others, we forget the orphan and the widow. This sounds like it could get tiring. God saves, God expects, we try, we fail, so God saves again. It’s a never-ending cycle. And it can get tiring.It can be a heavy burden to know that even though you try your best, you are going to fail. Is that the kind of life we want to live - where we know that no matter what we do, we will just come up short? What is there to look forward to? What kind of progress can we make? After all, if I know I am going to fail, why do I keep trying? Wouldn’t it be easier to just say, "enough - I’m through with it. There’s no point in trying anymore."That is what many people have done. Things get hard, so we give up. Things wear out, so we throw them away. We live in a disposable society. The TV repairman is an endangered species because its easier to just get a new one then to fix the one you’ve got. Landfills across America are filled with computers that are three years old and deemed unusable. A job gets difficult, quit and get a new one. A marriage becomes hard work, get a divorce and find someone new. A church isn’t perfect, you know, they sing the wrong kind of songs, or there aren’t enough people like me, or the pastor is a little weird - then go find a different one, or just don’t go. That is the way people work. People get worn out easily. The Christian life can be difficult. We are constantly faced with the mirror and see that we are flawed.But if we can stay faithful, God’s grace is there. And that truly is amazing. Grace makes us clean. Grace demands from us a response and Grace empowers us. Grace lifts our burdens, even the burden of knowing we will fall short. Grace lets us know that we are loved no matter what, and that we, with God, can persevere. We can keep going, keep trying, even in the face of insurmountable odds, we know that with God we can succeed. We know that even while we struggle, it will end with victory. God’s grace gives us the strength to keep on, and the power to overcome. No matter how great the struggle, no matter how high the hurdle, we know that God’s grace will win out.My best friend is in Israel right now. He and I were classmates at Eden, and he, his girlfriend, Sarah and I were almost inseparable for the last two years. They are the ones that gave me the toy monkey in my office, because it reminds us of a game we played together. He is in Israel now as a part of one of the oldest struggles the world has ever known. He is on a peace mission, in support of Palestinians, especially Palestinian Christians, that are being mistreated by the Israeli government. He is doing most of his work in Bethlehem, but earlier this week he was in Tiberius, a city which a few days later was hit by rocket attacks from Hezbollah.It is difficult, trying work. It would be very easy to quit. There is no way that he can change what is happening. He could come home, go back to school and be with the people that he loves. Instead he is there, in the struggle. He is in the struggle because of God’s grace. He knows that it is not enough to be a hearer of the gospel. He is there because he wants to be a doer of the gospel. Even though the obstacle seems insurmountable; even though he will inevitably come home with little, if any progress made, he remains. He remains because of his faith in God’s grace. He is encouraged by God’s grace. He is strengthened by God’s grace, and he is empowered by God’s grace. He knows that in the end, God’s grace will prevail. God’s will for peace and justice for all will prevail. It will happen because there are people who are doing the gospel. It will happen because God is a God of grace.So as we go on in our lives, as we struggle, as we succeed and as we fail, we can remember that our God is a God of grace. We celebrate our victories, we learn from our mistakes, and we always know that God will save. We will try. We will fail. God will save. And in the end, God will win.