Do Sanctifying Grace

I have often said the two most common things a pastor fixes are toilets (I jiggle a lot of chains!) and a limited view of possibilities.  Perhaps, it is the volume of people in a church or the way we act in a church, there is a high percentage of toilet talk and repair in church.  We also find ourselves needing to be reminded to rely on the movement of the Holy Spirit. So, I have often been heard to say, “I wish I talked as much about sanctification as I do about toilets!  So, here is my chance!”

Two weeks ago, I shared with you that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, described the three kinds of graces as parts of a house.  Prevenient grace is the porch.  God goes before us, inviting us and preparing us, long before we join God in relationship.  Justifying grace is “just-as-if-I-never” bringing us into the rooms of the house and fully into relationship with God.  And I thank Janice, Joan, Melanie, and the whole VBS gang for the wonderful sharing last Sunday!  As promised this Sunday, we finish our tour of the house with the attic, winding up in the houses with sanctifying grace that urges us onto perfection.

Lest you and I begin to daydream, some confusion between sanctifying grace that leads us towards being perfected in love and perfectionism.  Let me squelch our unhealthy impulses quickly and head us to that which leads to life.  Perfectionism is not being perfected in God’s love and does not come from sanctification, but from a different place.  I would urge you towards the health of yourself and others.

Paul urged the church at Ephesus to a grace that could not be obtained as a set of good works, items on a check list.  This portion of the vital letter to Ephesus is a theological treatise on grace loaded with methodical and pragmatic nooks and crannies one might point to illustrate a dependence on God.  Grace is not human achieved, but rather God-gifted.  Wesley in his sermon, Scripture Way of Salvation, described it this way: “Do you believe we are sanctified by faith? Be true then to your principle; and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse; as a poor sinner that has still nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but “Christ died.” And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. Stay for nothing: why should you? Christ is ready; and He is all you want. He is waiting for you: He is at the door! Let your inmost soul cry out,” (1)

Part of our role in sanctification is to pattern our life in a method or a model, so we invite God’s presence regularly. God is reflected through us.  How is your life a story of grace for your neighbors?

Methodist itinerant preachers on the frontiers carried copies of the autobiography of Hester Ann Rogers with them, like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa in their saddle bags as they traveled from town to town.  Hester Ann was the daughter of a Church of England priest, who became the servant of a Church of England priest, who married a Church of England priest.  Her spiritual journals of methodical care of tending to others, visiting the sick in the midst of leading classes and bands and having children of her own, as well as caring for her stepchildren.  She writes of her desire to be perfected in love and how earnestly, sometimes living is harder than dying as you are urged on towards perfection.  This is sanctifying grace. (2)

You and I are seeking the same kind of life each and every day of our lives.   As we are writing the memoirs of our lives, we too are living day in and day out with trials and tribulations, opportunities for sanctification and perfecting grace.  As we move from our navigating our professional trials and challenges to personal relationship pitfall, prayerfully grace urges you from challenge to challenge.  When your health and the sting of loss, may the gentleness of loss grant you respite and rest.

The woman with the issue of blood had suffered for many years.  Many scholars believe today we would have diagnosed her with endometriosis or infertility.  She could have been you or me, bounced from rheumatologist to oncologist, neurologist or acupuncturist, hematologist to nutritionist as she sought healing from them all.  Maybe we would call it autoimmune today, or certainly gynecological, of some sort.

But, somehow, she had heard about Jesus.  And she thought if she could just touch his robes, not even talk to him, she would be healed.  Relieved of being ostracized, no longer drained and exhausted – restored to health, wholeness, and community.  She reaches out to Jesus to touch him for healing and is healed, restored, and whole.

We, like the woman with the issue with the blood, find ourselves looking for Jesus.  We know that if we just touch his garment, if we just spend some time with Jesus, if we just reach out and touch him, if we fashion our lives to include Jesus, we too will know wholeness and restoration.  We will know sanctification and be perfected in love.  We will more and more find ourselves thinking about the community of Jesus rather than ourselves.

As a clergyperson is ordained, the bishop asks historic questions ceremoniously, which have already been reviewed previously.  There are 19 and they date back to 1773 with the first Methodist preachers.  The questions vary from “do you have faith in Christ?” to “Will you visit from house to house?” and “Are you in debt as to embarrass yourself?” as well as others including “Will you observe the following directions? a) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary. b) Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake.”  These historic questions intend to instruct and focus clergy on the vows they will take to care for the church and people.

But for today’s focus on sanctifying grace, there are these three questions:

  • Are you going on to perfection?
  • Do you expect to be made perfect in love?
  • Are you earnestly striving after it?

While these are explicitly questions for elders and deacons who will be ordained later that day in full connection, these three questions I have pulled out about sanctifying grace are for all of us.  In your daily life, are you going onto perfection?  Not just when you are dressed up and all seems right with the world, but on an ordinary taco Tuesday when work is particularly arduous, the kids are pushing your buttons, money is tight, your bones are aching, and you are feeling discouraged, are you depending on God for grace and going on to perfection then?

Do you expect to be made perfect in love?  Not are you the perfect parent!  Not are you the perfect spouse!  Not are you the perfect sibling! Not are you the perfect neighbor!  Or employer/employee/friend.  Do you expect in the midst of foibles and struggles to depend on God in each and every grace and to be made perfect in love?  Where have you been depending on God?  Where have you been leaning on the grace of God?

Are you earnestly striving after it?  Sanctification does not happen to you by accident!  One does not wake up one morning sanctified and surprised, wondering how it happened!  It is not like a pocket dial or surprise purchase.  I have recently learned well how to lock my cell phone!

Sanctification is that lifelong process that you and I work on and at every day of our lives that make us more Christ-like.  It is the work we do when we understand that we affect the relationship with our difficult neighbor.  It is methodical and daily life choices in which our lives become encounters for us and others with Christ.

Sanctification is the work of here and now in this life, as well as then and there.  It is not something that we achieve and check off the list as we are frozen and chosen.  It is the life long process of drawing nearer, reaching towards the hem of Jesus’ hem.  It is the means of grace, where we dependably find God, that we turn to: go to Sunday School, join the Book of the month club, read the Bible regularly, take the challenge of reading the gospel of reading the book of Mark this year, visit the sick.  Give food the food insecure.  This year marks our highest need for the emergency food pantry – help us feed our hungry neighbors.

Wesley consistently used the imagery of the house to describe the types of graces.  As we walk into our own homes, we meet God afresh where God has always been waiting for us, preparing a way for us just as if we hadn’t fallen away from relationship, and then urging us towards perfection in love.  Instead of bats in the belfry, may you know your paths of peace in serving and seeking God and God’s people, here and now as well as then and there.

This, my friends, is the gospel, the good news of our Lord, Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

(1) Wesley, John. Forty-Four Sermons: “The Scripture Way of Salvation”

(2) Schmidt, Jean Miller. Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in American Methodism: 1760-1939.Abingdon, 1999. 13-36

New Testament Lesson:  Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Gospel Lesson:  Mark 5:25-34

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, July 22 ~ Saturday, July 28

Sunday: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.  Grace is a gift of God.  Through no work of your doing, thanks be to God!

Monday: “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Ephesians 2:10. 
Where can you give thanks to God for how you are prepared for today’s events?

Tuesday: “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.”   Mark 5:25-26.  Pray for those who seek healing from medical professionals and are no better.

 Wednesday: “Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?” Mark 5:29-30.  Consider the awareness of Jesus to know when power left him.

Thursday: “And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ‘He looked all round to see who had done it.” Mark 5:31-32.  Pray for those who feel lost in a crowd.

Friday: “But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.” Mark 5:33.  Consider how Jesus is calling you to come and tell you the full truth about your life.  Jesus wants to be in relationship with you.

 Saturday: “Jesus said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.’” Mark 5:34. Where are you in need of healing today?