Monday, October 1, 2012

Spanking God's Children

"God's justice gives people not what they deserve, but what they need." - Shirley Guthrie, Christian Doctrine

I used the above line in my sermon yesterday. After worship, during the handshaking period, a congregant came up to me and asked me a question:

"What if what we need and we deserve are the same thing?"

My answer: "Then that's what we get."

I used the Guthrie quotation in the context of receiving grace, rather than punishment for our sins. I think that's a large part of the good news of God. We deserve death, but in Jesus Christ, we are given life instead. That grace empowers us to encounter a world that is still tainted by its own limitations and sins. We can go boldly into the world and know that no matter what happens, God will not give up on us. Grace is a huge part of my theology, and I think it's one of the central traits of Christianity.

But I think from time to time we need a wake-up call.

Just as a loving parent will discipline their children, God's loving judgement is visited upon us. Sometimes, what we need is a taste of what we deserve. We receive that wake up call because we need it, and the fact that it's what we deserve is a coincidence, not a cause. In the same passage on which I preached, Jesus asserts that those who lift themselves up will be brought low. My interpretation of that statement is a warning that from time to time, when we forget that we need God, we will find ourselves faced with a harsh reminder.

I'm not sure of the source, but I have heard it said that the task of preaching is to "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." It is not my place to judge who is whom, but I think that both are necessary.

I wonder, Does the Church spoil God's children when it preaches only grace, and omits how badly we need it?

11 comments:

  1. I love the title...you are the man.

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  2. I think we have to talk about justice....we can use grace as an excuse to do what we want to do and dismiss serious justice issues.

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    1. Thanks Dr. Watkins, I appreciate the feedback. I also think that we can use "cheap grace" to get out of doing the hard parts of the Christian life. The good news of God's grace should empower us to do justice, not excuse us from it.

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  3. Even though we dismiss our sin from Jesus, some people didn't realize current days that Jesus die for us. We keep in mind on every single day for Christian.

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    1. Sungyuhn, I totally agree that we have to look at the cross and resurrection as singular historical events that have not only lasting consequences, but continuing effects as well.

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    2. Been thinking about this and here's what I think. ;~>

      All too often, we translate Grace directly as "forgiveness." Also all too often, we take that forgiveness as a given, even a right. "We're not perfect, just forgiven," we proudly proclaim. We live, it seems, in a state of perpetual forgiveness.

      I once heard someone justify the idea of perpetual forgiveness by a misinterpretation of the field worker's parable; the last guy, the guy who does the least work, floats along until the very end of the work day and gets the same pay as the guy who worked all day. That interpretation ignores the fact that there was a contract offered and accepted...no one was paid for doing nothing. Once the workers accepted the contract, they all worked in obedience, under the owner's authority and to the owner's purposes, which were beyond their own understandings.

      Grace is not a guarantee of forgiveness, but an undeserved, unearnable offer. But we have to accept the offer. That acceptance requires repentance and at the very least, an attempt at obedience from that point onward. Being imperfect, we have do this over and over again. I think that's where the danger comes in; familiarity breeds contempt...or at least complacency. If we're not careful, we turn it into a bumper-sticker philosophy.

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    3. Thanks for sharing David, I think you have the right of it on a lot of points. Have you read any of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work? I think you may enjoy "The Cost of Discipleship."

      The idea that "we're forgiven now, so we can do whatever we want" is at least as old as Paul's letter to the Romans. Romans 6:1 asks if we should "go on sinning, that grace may abound?" The answer is, "By no means!" The aforementioned Bonhoeffer calls this effect "Cheap Grace," and it creeps into any tradition that places a high value on God's sovereignty over human agency.

      I am such a person, but we also have to remember, I think, that the free gift of God's grace does not free us from the law, but rather frees us from the sin that distances us from our loving and righteous God. Because we have been given grace, we are able to respond in faith. If you choose not to respond, that is your decision, and God will still love you. But choosing to change our hearts and minds and reorient them towards God is a more faithful, grateful, and truly human way to live.

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    4. Just bought the Kindle version of "The Cost of Discipleship" a few weeks ago. I'm still working on Tom Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus," and Reynolds Price's "Three Gospels" comes next so it'll be a while.

      I'm in complete agreement with your last paragraph. Thing is, few people talk about the Law these days. I think an understanding (as difficult as it may be to come to) of the Law and Christ's relationship/embodiment with/of is essential. It's a tough slog, though.

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    5. Absolutely it's a tough slog. The hardest part of it is that everybody is at a different point. Some folks need to hear that grace more than anything else, others have the grace, but need to be challenged to make that change. There's no one-size-fits-all solution.

      It is indeed a tough slog.

      Good thing there's grace for when we get it wrong.

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  4. I love the question you raise....we have to preach that it is out of God's grace that God administers and calls us to justice....continue to preach. My question, is can they hear you in this role as prophet? How do you know?

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    1. I don't know, I can just hope for grace as I try to puzzle out where I fall here. God's role in this kind of change and this kind of discernment cannot be understated. If God is active in what I say, it will be heard.

      My goal is to present it as faithfully as possible, which takes some attention to effectiveness, but efficacy is not the goal.

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