This weeks Glee feature: Season 1, Episode 10 "The Power of Ballad
In this country, life as we know it, is largely based on performance. As kids, we are taught that if you really want something, you have to earn it. See if any of these ring a bell. Sit still on the way to grandpa and grandma’s house and you’ll get…(a cookie). If you study hard, do your homework, you’ll get … (an “A” on your report card). Run your sprints, work out in the weight room, practice your lay-ups and … (you’ll make the team). As adults we know the same rules apply (more or less). If you want a promotion, you have to …(put in the long hours proving yourself). If you want to lose a few pounds … (cut out the desserts and hit the gym). If you want to succeed – be it vocationally, athletically, financially -- you’ve got to work hard … make it happen.
Unfortunately, many of us bring the rules of those games into other areas of our lives where perhaps the fit is not so good … when we come to church, as we think about our faith, as we share in a relationship with God. It’s almost as if we say to our selves, “If we can please mom and dad, teachers and coaches, bosses and co-workers by being good … then surely we ought to be able to please God by being good and doing good.’ I say that’s unfortunate because that line of thinking … that approach to our spirituality … inevitably puts us on a never-ending treadmill … the treadmill of good words (moral self-improvement). And in the end, we get nothing from that treadmill but some serious blisters …
So, today, we’re going to flip things upside down a bit … As we continue our series on “Getting to Know God” we’re going to celebrate the GRACE of God.
Bound up in who God is, is an inclination to bestow benefits on undeserving people. Ephesians 2:8-9 say "You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God's gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own."
In order to fully understand and appreciate that idea…to see grace for what it really is. To move us toward that end, look with me a “hypo-thetical situation.” (from Bill Hybels "The God You're Looking For").
Let’s say tomorrow morning you’re getting ready to leave your house. You walk out your front door and you notice something a tad bit unusual…You notice the 15 year old kid who lives a couple of houses down from you… it’s not so much that he is weird, but his actions are a bit unusual. You see, he doesn’t have his license yet. But you watch as he illegally gets in the family car, backs out of the driveway like a madman, and starts to drive away. You’re concerned not only because you know what he’s doing is not legal, but you’re also concerned because you know there’s trouble in that household. You’re not sure what it is, but you’ve heard the rumors … the parents aren’t getting along, a break-up is probably going to happen soon, and the kids are caught in the middle. There’s trouble there. Then you see the kids coming down the street. He’s driving faster than he ought to drive, and he’s sitting low in the seat, and his steering is kind of out of control. And when he gets by your house, the car suddenly veers off to the side and he mows down your mailbox, he drives through your bushes and he crunches the fence you finally got up last week. The car stops. The kid’s okay.
Now, you’ve got a decision to make. Think about it. What are you going to say to this kid? How are you going to treat him? You have three choices:
You might treat him with justice Justice means you give somebody exactly what they deserve. You get exactly what you deserve. Some of you might go up to the kid and say “You messed up, so I’m going to treat with you justice. I’m going to call the police, the police are going to come, you’re going to get arrested, you’re going to be cited for driving without a license and driving carelessly. And then I’m going to take you to my mailbox and show you the damage you did and I’m going to take you bushes, and the fence … and you’re going to pay. And I’m going to call your parents and tell them to come and get you.” If you treated that boy with justice, you’re not a bad person. You’re treating him exactly as he deserved, no more, no less. You’re just a person who knows justice.
SEASON 1, EPISODE 10 Quinn’s parents respond to her pregnancy (31:25 – 34:21)
However, some of you might choose another option. You might choose for whatever reason to treat the kid with mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is when you know what someone deserves, but you give them a little less punishment than what they deserve. You take a bit of the sting away. You give them a little less than they deserve. So what you say to the kid is this: “I’m not going to call the police because I don’t want to get you in trouble with the law and all that. But I am going to call your parents and we are going to establish the cost of the damages and you’re going to pay me back”. If you did that, you would be merciful. And the kid ought to be grateful that you were merciful because you could have been just.
SEASON 1, EPISODE 10 Finn’s Mom responds (34:28-34:50)
Now it’s possible that some of you would choose a third option – an option that doesn’t make much sense … it’s radical. You might decide to treat the kid with grace. You might help the kid out of the car and say, “OK, you messed up. I mean you mowed down my mailbox, you ruined my bushes, you destroyed my fence that it took me half the summer to build. But I’m not going to call the police because I don’t want to you have a record at 15 years old. And you know what, I’m not even sure that I want to get you in a whole lot of trouble with your parents. And well, I guess the mailbox, the bushes, the fence … I can fix all those. I can pay for them and I will. But how about you and me go inside and find a place where we can sit down, get something to eat, and I can find out a little more about you, what’s going on in your life, what the future holds for you. Would you do that with me?” That’s GRACE. Giving people what they don’t deserve. And that’s how God relates to each of us each and every day. Grace is an outrageous blessing freely bestowed on a totally undeserving people.
You see, when we accept that grace, take it from God … it has real power in our life … not only in the way we relate to God, but also the way we relate to others … you see we want to in turn start spreading grace because of what it might accomplish in other people’s lives. All day every day we walk around and we’re pretty good at justice. “You bump me and I’ll bump you back” Every once in a while when we’re in an extraordinarily good mood we might be merciful to someone. “I’ll give you a break today.” “You bump me and I’ll bump you back a little less forcefully.” But what God would like for us to do, is for US to act out of grace as well. God wants us to release outrageous acts of random graciousness.
It's not unlike the parable, guarding what we have, watching to see that someone doesn't have it better than we do…doesn't get more of a break. In the parable the landowner replies, “I just wanted to be gracious. I just wanted to perform a random, senseless act of grace. To have them say "Do you believe this. I worked only one hour. I don’t deserve this and yet here it is.” If we treat each other around this church, in our families, in our workplace, in our neighborhoods with justice, we’re just being square with each other. It’s kind of the status quo. If we’re occasionally merciful with each other, that’ll warm things up a bit. But it tell you, if every once in a while you perform a random, senseless act of grace-giving where you.
Are you open to grace? Will you open your heart up and take it in for it’s richness and its fullness.? And will you commit yourself in response to receiving that grace to sharing that grace through senseless acts of graciousness? Will you receive and give the Touch of Grace? I invite you to a time of reflection as we listen to the Glee Clubs response to Quinn and Finn ...
Song of Reflection: SEASON 1, EPISODE 10 (38:49-42:10) “Lean On”
Closing Prayer:
For being a God of Graciousness we offer up our prayer of thanksgiving. Move us now and touch us with your grace. Help us to acknowledge that it is true and it is real. Help us by faith to receive it and spread it. Help us to live in it, be liberated by it and motivated by your grace – that grace which is nothing short of amazing. Amen.
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