Living Out God's Grace and Unconditional Love

 

There are many ways to hear a story.

This morning, we could listen to the Gospel with ears tuned-in listening for arrogance, pride, and self-importance. With this ear the story draws us in through the actions of the Pharisees and Herodians. We encounter the-people-who-thought-they-were-all-that wagging their fingers – it is not lawful!

Purposefully they watched to catch people up, to use power to judge others. On a sabbath the rules clearly say, you can not work, you can not pluck heads of grain, you can not cure a withered hand. With hardened hearts, pretentiousness, egotism, they pushed their understanding of the rules and conspired to thwart power. Their world view was blind to compassion and sabbath leisure.

 

Alternatively, we could listen to the Gospel tuning our ears with an intent on finding grace and compassion. Jesus and the disciples enjoying the sabbath, walking through the countryside, casually nibbling on the fruits at hand. Jesus and the disciples go to synagogue to honour God, to hear God’s word, to pray – to honour the sabbath day and keep it holy. Living from a sense of wholeness, purposefully Jesus watches to seek places where compassion and grace can be given. A man is healed. In the process Jesus does not shy away from holy angst at those who have chosen to live through hardened hearts.

 

There are many ways to live a life.

We can live from arrogance, pride, self-importance – with hard hearts- continually judging and seeking wrong-doing in others. We can do this in an attempt to make ourselves feel better, accomplished, or powerful.

Likewise, we can live from compassion and grace – with hands and hearts continually offering themselves to acknowledge and help others.

Today’s Gospel illustrates the Indigenous story of two wolves – where a person has both within – one that is self-serving and one that serves others. The person has the choice of which wolf they will feed.

The Sacred Teaching for today is humility, represented by Wolf.

 

A formative piece of literature for me was Farley Mowat’s, Never Cry Wolf.

Farley Mowat was a Canadian author and environmentalist who tells the story of his experience studying Arctic wolves in the Keewatin Barren Lands of Northern Manitoba. Never Cry Wolf was written at a time when wolves were being culled by government sanctioned culling projects (1948-1972). The book supported Mowat’s claim that it was not wolves devastating caribou populations in the North, but rather human hunters. His writing, although criticized by some as complete fiction, had great affect in changing negative perceptions of wolves.

Mowat wrote:

We have doomed the wolf not for what it is but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be: the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer – which is, in reality, not more than the reflected image of ourselves. We have made it the scapewolf for our own sins.

 

…repeat the quote….

 

What, who, have we doomed – Indigenous, BIPOC, the foreigner; the marginalized, the poor, the addict, the aged; Muslim, Jew, fluid-in-gender -- who have we made scapewolf- because of our perceptions, because of the way we choose to tune our ears when listening to stories, because of the perspective with which we approach living life? Do we operate as the Pharisees and Herodians, or as Jesus and the disciples?

 

Until a couple of weeks ago our operating mission statement was on a banner at the back of the church. It was a statement that went hand-in-hand with the National church’s tagline “in mission for others.” The banner read: God’s on a mission and we want to be part of it. We have lived that for well over a decade.

A few years ago, in Assembly, the ELCIC adopted a new mission statement. Since then work has been done to create a tagline and a new logo for the ELCIC.

The new tagline of ELCIC beautifully reflects and clearly states how the present church chooses to listen and read the world. You can see the tagline at the back. It says, Living out God’s grace and unconditional love.

Jesus, in this morning’s Gospel is living out God’s grace and unconditional love – Jesus and the disciples are enjoying sabbath in God’s garden, and along the way they have compassion for a man dismissed by others; God’s grace and unconditional love flows through them to see the man, call the man, heal the man.

 

The Apostle Paul reflects in his letter to the Corinthians a similar perspective and way to approach and address the world: We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

Most Sunday’s this congregation participates in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The meal is a tangible ritual where our hearts are softened – with humility we receive a small portion of bread and wine, and an abundance of God’s forgiveness, grace, and unconditional love. When we turn from the meal and when we leave this place, our perspective is focused; the large words on the banner remind us, who we are and what we are about --- living out God’s grace and unconditional love.

Here you are fed. Here you receive grace and unconditional love. Here you receive this treasure in clay jars. Here it is made clear that God’s power -God’s extraordinary power – comes to you and works through you in your offerings of grace and compassion.

 

Right now let us each reset our ears  – tuning them to listen, intent on finding grace and compassion; let us reset our hearts to embrace the heart of Jesus and the working of God’s extraordinary power through lives – living out God’s grace and unconditional love. 

When going into the world this week, we go - say the tagline with me -

LIVING OUT GOD'S GRACE AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE