OUTWARD SIGN OF GOD'S GRACE

Two Sunday's ago most of the congregations that make up the Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene, York, PA received communion and celebrated the Lord’s Supper. And I’ve come to appreciate the risk involved in this particular act of worship. Let me try to explain.

The Wesleyan-holiness tradition, of which Stillmeadow Nazarene is a part, views the Lord’s Supper as a “means of grace.” John Wesley defined means of grace as “outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God - to be ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” For Wesley, these instituted means (grounded in Christ’s instructions) include prayer, searching the Scriptures, fasting, Christian fellowship, baptism and, of course, the Lord’s Supper.

But receiving God’s grace through these and other means is not automatic.

Take the Lord’s Supper for instance. God’s grace is available at the table. I know this from personal experience and upon the authority of God’s Word. (Matthew 26:26-29/I Corinthians 10:14-21) But it should never be considered automatic or mechanical. That’s contrary to and goes against the very nature of grace. Gerald May helped me to see this in “Addiction and Grace.”

Gerald May writes:

“Living into the mystery of grace requires encountering grace as a real gift. Grace is not earned. It is not accomplished or achieved. It is not extracted through manipulation or seduction. It is just given. Nothing in our conditioning prepares us for this radical reality. Some would say that early childhood experience with our parents is important in determining how we come to accept grace in later life. If we had loving, trustworthy parents rather than rejecting or unreliable ones, we would grow up more willing to accept God’s grace as a gift. I do not think this is so. We all have trouble accepting the radical giftedness of God’s grace, no matter what our childhood experience. God’s grace is simply not part of our conditioning. Nor can we make it so, though we are sure to try. All our attempts to control the flow of grace will be frustrated because, like God, grace will not become an object for attachment.

Because grace is a pure gift, the most meaningful of our encounters with it will probably come at unintended times, when we are caught off-guard, when our manipulative systems are at rest or otherwise occupied. But still we can pray for grace, actively seek it, and try to relax our hands to receive it.

When you come to the table, ask for His grace. Pray for His grace. You’re coming to the table is itself an act of faith. It is a way of putting yourself in a place where God can and often does grace you. Relax your hands to receive it.

May continues: “But living into grace does not depend upon simple receptivity alone. It also requires an active attempt to live life in accord with the facts of grace, even when we do not sense them directly. The facts of grace are simple: grace always exists, it is always available, it is always good, and it is always victorious. For me, living into grace, means trying to act on the basis of these facts. I do not do well at it.

My life has given me plenty of real evidence for the facts of grace, and they are certainly verified in my prayer. But whenever I try to live in accord with them it seems I am taking a risk. The risk, of course, is to my addictions; if I try to live in accord with grace, then I will be relinquishing the gods I have made of my attachments. Grace threatens all my normalities. In defense, I am likely to try to distort what I know about the facts of grace or forget them entirely. Thus I must make conscious efforts of will; I must struggle with myself if I am going to act in accord with those facts. Living into grace requires taking risks of faith.

So, the next time this outward sign of God’s grace is offered, live into it. Take the risk of faith . . . the step of faith required. Put your faith in God and the facts of grace recorded in God’s Word. It’s risky business . . . but it’s worth the risk, don’t you think?