For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.“
Romans 8:19-24a
Greetings Wild & Spicy Lutherans & Friends!
It was in reading Paul’s letter to the Romans that Martin Luther had a breakthrough about grace. Rather than constantly striving to earn God’s grace, this letter shares that God’s grace is a free gift for us humans who cannot free ourselves from sin and brokenness. However, taking Luther’s phrase “grace alone” out of context can lead to a theology of cheap grace that requires nothing of us. Rather than this “cheap grace,” Luther’s understanding of grace was extraordinarily costly.
Costly grace requires that we are completely honest about being bound to brokenness and sin that keeps us from earning right relationship with God, ourselves, and others. Such honesty is the only way to have hearts ready to receive God’s grace as a truly free gift offered to us out of deep love. Thus received, the gift then demands more of us. It demands that we see God’s Spirit of love flowing through all creation, that we see the forces of injustice and pain working against God’s love, and that we partner with the Spirit to enact justice, love, and peace in the name of Christ. This is costly grace – honesty and action.
We live in a world that groans for redemption and restoration of lives and relationships. Days before my writing this, our country experienced another example of how the racism and bigotry that moved underground or to the margins since the Civil Rights Movement has bubbled up to the surface and is now shouted out load in the name of free speech. Charlottesville joins history in exposing the truth that violent, hate-filled words lead to the fatal act of plowing a vehicle into a crowd you disagree with, lynching people for the color of their skin, committing genocide against a community of people who are of a different religion. Our words matter; they lead to action. In these cases, words of hatred lead to evil acts that defy God’s will. This evil is not some embodied devil but rather normal human emotions taken to extreme such as desire turning to greed, fear turning to hatred, anger turning to violence.
It is these realities that reveal how desperately our world needs Luther’s costly grace. This costly grace is revealed in Jesus Christ who put his life at risk to heal those contagious with leprosy, crossed boundaries to have relationship with people of different religions and cultures, and challenged political and religious authorities in charge of systems that oppressed people. The grace of God led Jesus to respond to the world’s groans and it led to his death on the cross. It is this costly grace that we are given as a free gift.
And this costly grace calls us to join Christ in risking our lives for healing, crossing boundaries to have relationship with people of different religions and cultures, and challenging oppressive political and religious authorities. This sounds daunting but we have hope because it is God’s Spirit that empowers us and guides us in acting out costly grace in little and big ways every day. We are in tune with this Spirit of grace when we stand up and say that hatred and bigotry are wrong; when we development friendships with people of other faiths; when we demand healthcare for all people; when we are willing to pay more so all may have an affordable home; when we care about the rights of people who are black, indigenous, people of color, disabled, homeless, transgendered, or different from us in any way; and when we care about preserving the resources and environments God created.
My prayer as pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church is that we will intentionally find ways to speak and enact God’s love. Over the years we have done this by: celebrating our renovations with music from our First Nations siblings; worshipping with God’s creation and re-committing to caring for the environment; getting to know our Muslim siblings in the community; learning more about immigration rights; becoming Reconciling in Christ; engaging in racial equity work; and above all listening to God, one another, and our neighbors.
May God’s loving Spirit guide us now and always!
Pr. Adrienne