March 22, 2009
Grace Church
Rev. Robert E. Hensley

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; #ph3wiqnw 2:1-10; John 3:14-21

      Let us pray.  Holy and redeeming God, as Moses lifted high the serpent in the wilderness, so also was Jesus lifted up for the salvation of the world. We thank you for this season of Lent during which we remember anew your loving and redeeming acts toward us. We thank you for your ongoing creative energy in the world; for bestowing upon us gifts through which we may participate in your life and work; for enabling us through the power of the Holy Spirit to carry on the message and ministry of your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that in this time of worship, you will speak to us and impart again the word which we most need to hear, so that we may respond to you with love and faithfulness. Amen. 
 

      Pat Witte and I share a love of a contemporary theologian whom you have seen quoted in your bulletin fairly regularly:  Frederick Buechner.  In his book, “Wishful Thinking:  A Theological ABC” he gives us this definition of Grace.  He writes, “Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you. I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”   Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper&Row, 1973), Pp.33-34.  
 

      Some people are born "fixer-uppers."   Perhaps you know or love someone that fits that definition.  They love to buy old houses with peeling paint, leaky plumbing, tiny kitchens, too few bedrooms and no closets. They don't see any of these qualities as drawbacks – only the promise of some future project that needs to be tackled. My Michael is one of those people; and I confess to having a certain amount of that DNA in my system as well. 
 

      Something you should know about us, in case you do not have any first-hand knowledge.  Fixer-uppers are never happier than when their living rooms are full of sawdust and their bathrooms are full of holes. They love to wake up to the sound of protective roof tarps flapping in the wind. For these folks there is nothing more fun than eternally being "under construction" – at least for Michael – me not so much.  As for me, I like it when a job is completed and you can stand back and enjoy it – at least until the next thing goes horribly wrong and a stained glass window falls out of the wall or another leak opens up in another section of the roof.

      In last week's gospel text, those confronting Jesus in the temple ridiculed his intention to reconstruct the destroyed temple in three days. They suffered from what church consultant Robert Dale wittily calls "Intention Deficit Disorder." Of course, their doubt or "disorder" was based on a more well-established track record than many of our doubts and disorders – the second temple had been "under construction" for the past 46 years! Now there is a construction project to make the dedicated fixer-upper rejoice and the rest of us break down and weep. 
 

      The truth is that, like the temple, all of us human beings are continually "under construction." In the final verse of this week's epistle text, the writer insists that as men and women saved by grace, we are now called to incarnate good works. Because we are "in Christ Jesus," we can do more than build "good works." We can become a good work. We can be a good work. Turning our life into a "good work" is the ultimate fixer-upper project, the real lifelong construction project. Becoming a "good work" means reconstructing our lives into the image of Christ. 
 

      Thankfully, God is a determined and ceaseless "fixer-upper." As the epistle writer notes, God is "rich in mercy" and continues to pour out the gift of divine grace to us throughout our lives. Only this constant infusion of grace makes it possible for the construction project to continue. What is the blueprint God would have us follow? The finished project God has in mind as the goal of all our "good works"? It is the creation of the most "grace-full" structure ever conceived – the spirit-filled body of Christ, a community of disciples that we call the church. 
 

      The design for this most grace-full place is built around three main structural supports. In order to stand strong and unwavering, it must be a community where the trace of grace is threefold. The church as a household of faith in Jesus Christ is a place where (1) faith is based, (2) love is laced, (3) hope is faced.  
 

      How's that for a poetical mission statement? Only when these three foundational pillars have been erected can any safe and secure construction go forward. 
 

      Can we find the trace of grace at work in our spiritual lives and in our community of faith? When the doors are fully opened for the entrance of God's grace, the spirit revels in the richness of God's gift. Ever notice that those blocking the flow of grace in their lives are described with terms that denote poverty?  
 

      Those who find no joy are called "mean"-spirited. Those who allow physical weakness to define their being are in "poor" spirits. Those content to just get by have a "meager" spirit.  
 

      But for those open to God's grace, continually allowing it to perfect in a Christ-centered spirituality that is nevertheless always under construction, "immeasurable riches" (v.7) are part of the standard interior design.

      The trace of grace in every community of faith can be followed by examining how much progress is being made in putting together a truly faith-based, love-laced, and hope-faced spiritual home. How tall is each one of these pillars standing in our church? 
 

      Is our church Faith-based? Without the basic pillar of faith, there can be no confidence in whatever else the community may undertake to construct. Without faith, doubt and fear can creep in like termites, nibbling away at our spiritual foundations. A genuinely faith-based spirituality is buoyed up even when the ground may seem to be sinking right out from underneath everything. Faith in the power of Christ's sacrifice and in the ultimate and eternal victory Christ won for our sake keeps all other conflicts and difficulties in perspective. Even if the roof falls in, the neighborhood changes, church attendance drops, facilities molder, preachers disappoint or choirs squawk, faith endures. 
 

      Is our church Love-laced? If faith is the essential pillar that holds our spiritual community up, then love is the cross-beam that reaches between and offers support by bracing one against another. Love must be "laced" throughout Jesus spirituality, for love was the motivating force behind all that Jesus did and said. Jesus offered his love to each of us because he saw in each of us an urgent need for grace and mercy. Love is a lure that attracts our starving spirits to the richness of God's grace. 
 

      Consider Jesus' loving response to the woman taken in adultery and the crowd poised to stone her. Instead of judging her, Jesus responds with love and compassion.

Jesus' first instinct is to be compassionate. His heart reaches out to the woman. She is the one facing the death threats. The crowd wants Jesus to come over to their side. They want his endorsement so they can apply the letter of the law. But Jesus says "no" to legalism. His compassion compels him to stand with the woman. He is more concerned about giving the woman a fresh start and God's grace than he is about staining his own reputation by associating with her. In Jesus' mind, no one in the temple is innocent. Everyone in the scenario is in need of grace and mercy. (See Donald C. Posterski, True to You: Living Our Faith in Our Multi-minded World [Canada: Wood Lake Books, Inc., 1995], P.106). 
 

      Remember Greg Louganis, the Olympic gold-medal-winning diver who revealed in his book “Breaking the Surface” (New York: Random House, 1995) that he is HIV positive and gay? Wherever he goes now to sign books, he is met by "Christians" and "churches" organized to greet him with heckles and banners and signs protesting his homosexuality and mocking his personhood. When asked on a "Today" show segment how he handled such hounding and harassment, he replied, "I've learned that you can't meet hatred with hatred. I try to love them and listen to them and greet them in as good a spirit as I can." 
 

      Question for us this morning:  Are we extending a hand slap or a handshake to others in need? Are we responding to others in love and compassion or in judgment and condescension? Are we always looking for ways to inject Christ's love for others into our community? Unlike with secular corporations, the church's "bottom line" is spiritual, not material. The church's "bottom line" can never be determined by, worries about numbers, who is and who isn’t here, budgetary concerns or feasibility studies. In the end, the church's "bottom line" is this trace of grace. Are we a community building Jesus spirituality for the world? Are we asking before anything and above anything: Is this a loving response to the pain and need we face? A love-laced church takes Christ's own sacrificial love as its template to action. 
 

       Finally, is our church Hope-faced? Hope is the kind of pillar that would hold up one of those grand "flying buttresses" that protrude from ancient cathedrals. Hope supports, but it also propels us forward. Without hope, Jesus spirituality has no future – and the promise of a glorified future is integral to the gift of grace God offers. The future is something we must always be preparing for and working toward, not just waiting for. 
 

      In his extensive research on "low-hope" vs. "high-hope" people, partly funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, University of Kansas psychotherapist C. R. Snyder isolates the unique "Hope to Cope" mind/body/spirit skills of high-hopers into eight basic rules. (C. R. Snyder, The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get There from Here [New York: Free Press, 1994], 58-64). 

       
1) Minimize the negative – sense that "This too shall pass" or "It came to pass."  
2) Establish an outward, problem-solving focus.  
3) Call on friends more readily; establish intimacy and friendships.  
4) Laugh – we all need a good sense of humor!  
5) Pray – "Prayer and prayer-like mental activities thus provide a day-by-day renewal that is important when people return to the rigors of coping. In many ways this is analogous to the need we have for sleep as a time to replenish ourselves after periods of wakeful exertion" (62).  
6) Exercise. 
7) Practice healthful behaviors.  
8) Age gracefully.  
 

      Can we trace God's grace coursing through our lives? Can we feel God's grace continuing its work within and through us the entire course of our lives – expanding, remodeling, modernizing, pushing out walls, and opening up skylights?  
 

      Ultimately, will Grace Church be a household of faith that is . . . what? Faith-based, love-laced, hope-faced!  Amen.