living in grace house

from my sermon on 11/08/09 from Romans 8:28-30

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables.-Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.

I have been preaching a series of sermons on basic UM beliefs. Here is one foundation stone; we build on God's grace. Here is a definition: justice--you get what you deserve, mercy--you don't get what you deserve, grace--you get what you don't deserve.
As UM's we believe there is one grace that is known in 3 movements. John Wesley who started the reform movement that later became the UM denomination used the analogy of a house when it came to understanding grace.
We start on the porch which relates to prevenient grace. That's a strange word to many of you, a uniquely Methodist word. It sounds a lot like prevent, doesn't it? That is one way to think of it, the love of God that prevents us from moving so far away we can't respond to God. It tries to keep us on the porch.
We also see the "pre" part of the word. It reminds us of the passage from Romans where God "pre"knows us and "pre"destines us. Now, don't get all Calvinist on me with predestination. What we claim is that God has a destiny for each of us and all creation. God is "pre", out in front of us, drawing us into God's future. We are not fated. We can refuse, but that does not keep God from wooing us, inviting us into God's plans for us. Prevenient grace is the love that God has before us, before we are even aware that we are loved.
We see prevenient grace in baptism, especially that of a child like we have in worship today. We write these prayers and blessings for Natasha today. Someday when she makes her own profession of faith, we can say to her, "You have been loved all along."
We see prevenient grace in marriage. Sometimes, the couple will be standing before me and the congregation all nervous. I will have them turn around and look at the family and friends who have come. I will say, "You didn't get here all by yourself. You have been loved all along."
We see prevenient grace sometimes most clearly when we look backwards. Sometimes I will be with a person in hospice care, and we will do a life review. They will say, "Now I know that that even was a God moment."
Prevenient grace is the love that goes before us. It is the porch.
The door to the house is justifying grace. It is represented in words like conversion, being born again, entering the new life in Christ, being saved. God cannot make us enter the house; it is our decision, but justifying grace is there helping us to accept our acceptance.
To make this more nuanced, I must admit that I have had several conversion experiences in my life. I knew justifying grace when I went through confirmation at age 13. I had an emotional conversion at a revival in my senior year in high school. In seminary, I learned to read the scriptures in their original languages of Greek and Hebrew and had an intellectual experience. Your moments of justifying grace may be emotional or not, come quickly or be drawn out.
Justifying grace feels like "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. We are washed clean. We are made right.
Some well-intentioned folks will try to nail you down by saying, "Are you saved? Tell me the exact moment and place of your salvation." You can reply, "I was saved about the year 30 A.D. on a hill just outside of Jerusalem, when my Lord said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Justifying grace is the love God has for us. It is the door to the house.
Once we enter the house, enter salvation, we never do anything again, right? No! Living in the house is sanctifying grace. Sanctifying sounds like sanctuary, like holy. That's what it means, to grow in holiness and wholeness for the rest of our lives. Romans talks about us being glorified. That is code language in the New Testament for the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. We are to become Christian, "Christ-like", "little Christs." The passage talks about us growing into the likeness, literally the icon, of His Son. When people see us, they may see Christ.
Every UM pastor goes before the bishop who asks the question, "Are you going onto perfection?" You are supposed to answer "Yes." I like it when the bishop explains, "If you are not going onto perfection, then where are you going?" Every Christian is called to go onto perfection. This is our thank you back to God. This is sanctifying grace. This is living in grace house.
So today we come to worship to grow in relationship with Christ. We go to Sunday School and Bible studies and prayer groups to grow our souls. We serve on mission projects like Imagine No Malaria. And during this past week when what happened at Ft. Hood, we are mature, and we don't demonize a whole race of people or whole religion like Islam for the actions of one man. In fact we stand with people of other faiths or no faith and say, "This is not what God intends for us."
So grace is always going before us, helping us enter salvation, and calling us to grow in holiness. Grace is always before us, for us, and in us. Where are you today? On the porch, at the door, or in the house? Maybe your experience is like mine as I have wandered in and out of the house many times.
I have know several realtors over the years. I remember asking Joslin once how she knew what was the right house for her clients. She said, "I can tell you of my own experience. My daughter and I were looking for our house. I had all the facts and figures, the demographics, the square feet, the prices. We looked at a lot of houses. My daughter finally said, 'This is the one.' How do you know? She said, 'This house is just hugging me."
I hope the grace house of God is hugging you. That's the good news I have to share today.