In a Mirror Dimly...

My message given in church on Sunday, July 25, 2021

The readings for the day:

• Psalm 136:1-9
• Genesis 9:8-17 
• Ephesians 3:14-21 
• Mark 6:45-56 

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In 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12 we read,

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Sit with this verse for a moment while I tell a story.

Some years ago, while going through a pretty serious life upheaval, I became acquainted with a Jewish man who was struggling as well.  He was the grandson of people who had perished in the Holocaust, the son of survivors who had outlived their early trauma but certainly not outrun it.  The pain and horror carried into the next generation, (my acquaintance,) and the one after that (his children,) and he felt it deeply.

Then he had the further trauma of losing his beloved wife in a car accident when they were on vacation with their three children.  In an instant, his life completely changed.  From a family of five, where he worked long hours and his wife did most of the hands on parenting, he was required to cut work short and be present, truly present, for three grieving children every day.  (This is where I came in.  Having lost my dad early in life, I was a resource as he sought ways to help his children cope with their loss.)  He was having some trouble making sense of the events of his life, and in particular,  he was struggling with how his faith, nominal at best by that point, was relevant to a life that felt out of control, with no real end in sight.

He was almost resentful as we talked about our different faith journeys - he didn’t understand how I found peace in the face of the trials I was going through, and had gone through in my life.  Then he asked me outright, “Is your faith for real, or is it just a crutch to get you by?”

I (this is an important word here) felt great pressure to give him the “right” answer to his very serious question.  Yes, indeed.  My first response was that it was all on me.  I totally forgot about God - I had to come up with the perfect answer to this tricky question, even though I frequently had my own doubts, but obviously I couldn’t let him know THAT, because this was MY chance to evangelize.  (Was Satan knocking at the door of my own self-importance?  I’m afraid so….)

I failed, needless to say.  Lutherans make poor evangelists, based on my personal experience.  Hiding in the back pew is not an ideal training ground for mission work!

But we continued to talk, and we came back to faith conversation several times.  Some time later, after a wide ranging discussion on Jewish theology, he tried a different question.  This time, I waited for God to put the words in my mouth, and it turned out to be very simple indeed.  His question was, “What exactly is the basis of YOUR theology?”  I paused for a moment and then said, “I can answer that question with one word.  Grace.”

Last Sunday, Pastor Shannon asked a thought provoking question - What is the cost of being a Christian?  Upon reflection, I felt the word “cost” was exactly right, because every single decision we make in life has a cost, and we weigh it against the benefit, whether the outcome is priceless or insignificant.  Sometimes, even when the cost is high, the benefit is great, and therefore worthwhile.  Sometimes the cost is low, and yet you still have regrets when it is all over, because it just wasn’t worth it.

So, taken in that context, what IS the cost of being a Christian?  I am sure everyone has their own answer, but my answer is total surrender to God’s will, no matter what life throws in our path.  But I think it is important to go a little further.  Taking that to its logical conclusion, on the flip side, what is the benefit?  My answer is grace.  Through our utter surrender, we receive the grace of God and will spend eternity with him.  That is an easy equation for me to balance in my head, even if its not easy to act upon.

Through every lesson read this morning, we see the ever present grace God has offered us.

In Genesis 9, God made a covenant with Noah and every living thing on earth.  The covenant, a contract really with Noah and all his descendents, was never again to destroy the earth with another flood.  But the language is evocative of something deeper, more spiritual, as well.  No matter how much the earth and its inhabitants deserved it, in verse 11, he makes the promise that “...never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  We know that humans will continue to sin, willfully and egregiously; it is the human condition.  So this promise is deeper than simply water and flesh.  We will not get what we deserve, but rather, what God gifts to us.   The spiritual promise was one of redemption - grace.   

What was the cost to us?  We heard it in Psalm 136 - In Hebrew it is the command Hodu(hoe-da), which means Give thanks. He asks us to surrender ourselves to him, the one who commands even the heavens and the earth and everything on it, because, as it goes on to say, His love endures forever.  Once again, that promise that despite our sinful natures, God will not withdraw from us, but rather remain present, no matter what we do.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, in Chapter 3 expands on this theme.  From his prison cell, a high cost for his faith by anyone’s standards, he prays that they grasp the full power of God’s love, high and long and wide and deep which surpasses all earthly knowledge.  But he doesn’t stop there.  He ends that chapter in verse 21 with the words, “...to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”  Once again, we have the theme of our surrender to God, and he, in turn, fulfilling his covenant of grace, remaining present and ever available, to all generations, for all time.  There are no qualifiers here.  There is no demand for righteousness or saving ourselves.  This is all about God and the grace he is bestowing, regardless of our actions.

Even when our hearts are hardened, as the hearts of the disciples were in Mark 6, (even his own disciples didn’t really or fully understand the role of Jesus,) he is present and available to us.  In verse 50, he speaks the reassuring words, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”  His grace is ever present, all knowing, and fully available, even before we know we are in need.

I have struggled throughout my life with answering the why questions.  Why does God allow “fill in your own blank”?  How can this event possibly be part of God’s plan?  What good can ever come of this tragedy or that circumstance?  These are questions that torture even the most faithful of Christians, because there is no eartly answer to them that satisfies, especially when we see suffering and berevement.

We are all weak.  We all have doubts and questions and hidden rebellions, moments when God is seen only in a mirror dimly.  When the cost is high, when the here and now is painful and hard, it is easy to question the benefits of an unrealized eternity.   Humans are notoriously short sighted, going back to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit.

But we are not required to have all the answers (or any answers) in order to avail ourselves of the grace of God. We aren’t required to understand every circumstance.  We don’t need to have control or understanding to realize that God is present in all our lives, all the time.  It isn’t all on us.  In fact, none of it is on us.  God has already done everything required, everything we cannot do, through the greatest act of grace and love in all of humankind - sending his Son to die for our failures and mistakes and misdeeds, and through the power of the resurrection, to bring us back to him.

When people touched the cloak of Jesus, whether it was the woman hemorrhaging or the people in the marketplace,  they were healed, not through their own knowledge or understanding, but because they had a simple faith that healing would occur through God’s grace.  They surrendered their illness to him, and trusted that they would be healed, and they were.

Whatever our circumstances, God’s grace has it covered.  What we only know in part in this human world, will someday be clear when we are face to face with God.  We may not fully know God in the harshness of this life, no one can, but he knows us completely from now through eternity.  God’s grace is sufficient, now and forever.

Let us pray.

God, we surrender our willfulness and accept the grace freely offered.  We give thanks for your covenant of redemption.  We give thanks, because your love endures forever.  We give thanks, because you have rescued us from the width and length and height and depth of our sinfulness by your grace.  Gracious God, dwell in us, and through us, allow your healing grace to be known to all.  In Jesus' name we ask this.  Amen.