= illest! 8

a es Ee. tee

As I prepared this sermon it became increasingly apparent that it needed a
story to introduce it. The arory ought to be real, immediate, but most of all it
ought to relate in a very personal way to Phoces experience of those who would hear
it. I thought of several incidents in 5 my own experience that did the job beautifully
for myself, but they were extremely personal, and probably would lose their impact
.in the retelling. And so I'm going to ask you, to help me get this sermon off the
ground by thinking of your very own introductory illustration.

Here are the ground rules. Think of a situation in your own past when you were
guilty of hurting someone you loved, a wife or husband, your children, your parents,
a dear friend. Recall how lousy you felt about it — your anxiety, your fear of the
inevitable confrontation, your suspicion that some irreparable harm may have been
done to the relationship of love. And then recall that when the confrontation
occurred you discovered that you were forgiven, the other you hurt still accepted
you, love was not destroyed. Mpnguess=ie—thet-everyone-here-can-play..back-—a-mmmber
cinakdmaone—qeimecntiaeee It's an amazing experience + almost unbelievable. Itts
exhilarating to be free of guilt ~ to be free of the anxiety and the feeling that
somehow we've got to make amends. It's a beautiful experience to know that we are
aocepted in spite of ourselves: that we are forgiven even before we say "I'm
sorry", that we are loved just as we are.

Now, if my suppositions are correct, everyone here has an illustration - |
perhaps a whole list; and allow me now to tell you what you have an illustration — ee

an sdeq wiick (+ exseutial *eo an unde staxdi

of. The word is "Grace's : ;
Gospes 1 OW weed | when misun hers hood Luens CMristianiha in Neo some tlin 4

Wolett Glien to the We, Trenkainenk. | x
a s SO gsi

cos

“Grare is what is "good" about the good news. Itudensentrai-even~toegerudimentary-under—
Stending-of-Ghréstfait ty. It is a profoundly simple concept = so simple, in fact,
that it is difficult to explain and even more difficult to believe,

ase

The Interpreters’ Dictionary of the Bible @efines grace as "Godtg unnerited,
free, spontaneous love for ey aes Seeeree and made effective in Jesus Christ."
Karl Barth put it personally, in a*sermon to the prisoners in the city jail of Basel,
Switzerland. *Christmas is for you. You, regardless ef who you are, whether or
not you understand the message, whether or not you are good and pious people. The
news is meant for you. For your benefit the Christmas story happened" [Deliverance
to the Captives p. BR vee CaP He a * \Gel |

Grace is the one word which interprets Jesus Christ ~ his birth, life, death
and resurrection. Jesus Christ was an act of divine grace; that is, his coming into
the world, in Bethlehem of Judea, was an expression of the grace of God, Beyond
that < or becanse of that - his ministry was punotuated by object lessons in grace -
or unmerited love. A prostitute came to him once, and he accepted her, forgave her,
loved her. He made no demands = he tied no strings to hig acceptance ~ he did not
require her, or anyone else for that matter, to conform to any Samak restrictions
as a condition for his love. The love was there ~ it came first: it depended on
nothing in its object. That is, it was grace.

He told stories in order to teach the grace of God, “Aman had two sons. One
claimed his inheritance, ran away and squandered every pentiey in another country.
When he returned to his fathers’ house - penitent, defeated, humiliated, to ask
permission to work as a servant - to ask forgiveness, he discovered that his father's
love had not diminished. He was forgiven - even before he asked forgiveness. In
fact, the father saw him coming, and ran out to meet him, and embraced him. That's
grace.

On another ocassion he told a story about workers in a vineyard. Some labored
all day in the sweltering heat. Others came late, near quitting time. At the end
of the day the master of the vineyard paid them all the same. That's grace ~ not
dependent on performance; not conditional; not a reward for work well done; but the
free gift of one who loves in spite of anything a man has or has not done.

Several decades after Jesus, a man by the name of Paul emerged as the interpreter

and expositor of grace. Time and time again he wrote to the early Christians that
the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that God's love is a gift, a free gift
that cannot be earned or deserved. Men used to be under the law - that is, they
jived with the assumption that God's acceptance of them could be earned by unflagging
adherence to the rules and regulations which constituted the religious law. No
more, said Paul. You are end in a state of grace. God loves you apart from anything
you have done: you are free from the law, arid the anxiety of continually attempting
to prove yourself. You are Sie to live joyful lives in response to that. Having
faith, for Paul, was what a man did $n: Seiascinas to God's undeserved love ~ and it was
a radically and gloriously new approach to the whole question of man's relationship :
with his creator. fs
The Church of Jesus Christ exists to proclaim and celebrate the good news. Our
worship is not an undefined reach toward the heavens by men searching for God, but

the response of a group of very happy people who know they are loved. Every week <
The new Bock of Comme Werskie prcitrsbes a gederat Conlescin

the Gospel is announced .”\ Benya heniifieQeiaL ith Seblibaen titra at the end of tir wich
exercise the good news is PEWS "God shows his love for us, in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for aciesee If aman is in Christ, he is a new
creation: the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.",.... In the name of
Jesus Christ, we are Soneinins® Nothing “iffy" or conditional about that, Regardless
of what else happens in worship ~ or in the sermon = the good news of God's grace
is here announced and celebrated. And the happiest moment of our worship ought to
be as we respond ~ " 0 Lord, open thou our lips

And our mouths shall show forth thy praise.

Praise ye the Lord.

The Lord's name be praised......-Glory be to the Father, and

to the Son and to the Holy Ghost."

n Corpo we
And why? Because the very essence of our being mgge is all tied up in that little
ke be veri Aded oF ad Lo celerote
liturgical exercise, God's grace - God's love - God's forgiveness.
Thus far we have been thinking in terms that might be called “very basic

Theology". And there comes a time in every theological discourse when we must ask

alu

the rude but necessary question = "So what? What has that got to do with me, here
and now? What difference does it make?" Jgimmmmmey Ghe of the most important
tasks of the minister is to answer that rude "So what?" Sunday after Sunday, and so
it is not a new goal to which we now mst turn. (gt I discovered, Pepe a new
approach, a new oe very helpful framework in which to discuss what it means to be
aware of the grace of God. I discovered it in a book entitled "I'm OK - You're OK",

Ha-per+ Rew
written by Doctor Thomas A. Harris, a California psychiatrist, and an associate of

Anon ot 7
Dr. Eric Berne Wiewease the best seller "Games People Play". om <n :
7 28 a

—_—

Harris, Berne and their associates have established a new school of psychiatric
thought called Transactional Analysis, andwwhilesdmeqntainiquamnot=aspeyehtadmeis t
lubaieeeaeanewrerreteene 2 very practical way to understand human behavior, and

. 40 the pon*, and creakive ; &
more #pewtentiy 2 new approach to thg question of @meesOcr need fer love pEaULe’.

reqartiem

Harris sees the human personality in terms of three "ego states". Every person,‘ ane
. ?

has a "Parent " ego state, ang "Adult" and a "Child". When we are operating as 4

Parent we are expressing our values, making moral judgements, taking care of others,

discipliningand judging. When we are operating as an Adult we are transmitting or

receiving information, doing jobs, getting work accomplished. When we are operating

as a Child we are having fum, experiencing pleasure, playing, asking to be cared for

and loved. The~idend—pomsonst-tyims=2-peniect-balance-between-the threamagemmtate 5.

The healthy person can be parent, child or adult depending on the situation.

, Trouble is, not many of us are totally healthy, and none of us is perfect, We cgerake

O> a “cdal®” Glen un shedld we “adetk*, or “parent whe ae eration calls Son <lilda.

tai One of our problems, says Harris, is that while we are developing our "child",

in the earliest days of infancy, .the data we are receiving leads us to conclude

"Itm not OK = youtre OK". Psychiatrists generally agree that this happens to all

of us - inevitably. Freud called it the "Birth Trauma", the experience of the new

born infant having emerged from ultimate security into a hostile world of loud

—

noises, bright light, cold air and rough handling. We know that ess someone makes
physical contact with that baby, unless he is stroked and fondled” there is a good
possibility he will die.
ww
oe

After one year of life the ‘person has received all the data he needs to conclude -

"I'm not OK = you (the parents) are OK" He hia learned to walk alone, that is he's ve
Guls Kaowing We SNe

not carried and therefore not fondled enough, he's continually smelling bad, stumbling
and falling, and now being hit for crawling out of his crib =- or knocking over vases.
Something is radically wrong = "I'm not at all OK = but those other people must be."

Harris proposes that that data is recorded permanently, carried into childhood Z
and adulthood; and that many people, perhaps most of us live out our lives +e
be OK to earn the love and acceptance of others.

Reuel Howe, another man who has worked extensively in the area of religion and
psychology notes that “Anyone who works with people knows how common it is for men
and women to have predominantly disparaging feelings toward themselves. They

cannot believe in themselves, or that other men or even God accept them.: [ ps 104

Man's Need and God's Action ] Sealbury Yess, Creemuach, Coun. 145%

Howe, and others, have said that this need for love and acceptance is the deepest
yearning in the human heart - the deepest need we have. And they have said,
unequivocally, that this need is largely unmet for most of us.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ ought £5 be the answer. The Gospel of grace and love
and forgiveness. That's a "preacher" statement if there ever was one. But Thomas
Harris, the psychiatrist, is the one who said it. "The central message of Christ's
ministry was, the concept of gracessesseee.The concept of grace..esesis a theological
way of saying ‘I'm OK — ia 'e5 OK. It is not you can be OK, if, - or — you will
be coven dy, prommaitiomatiz ter POT ORNS ts fp 201 |

The child mst know that he is loved, unconditionally, The child mst experience

— Bo ses when he crawls out of the crib, dirties his pants and breaks the best

we are +o be ae Porsors, eke woreda Ne peter: a Sane agg so. ek , aus
ae dew te Wwe ho “Ourselves gt
vase. es §omehwere along the line you and I must mow that we are Yoveds accepted,

forgiven - not on the basis of what good lives we've lead — but unconditionally.

That in an ultimate sense, we are acceptable to the one who created us, and the one
with whom we ultimately have to do.

And yet, isn't it strange, the way:-we are able to take the “sik news of the
onpal; this grace beni says "I'm OK = You're OK", and alter it, and tie strings

enseu ike Aknclogy and eXlics 2

to it, and make ie on all kinds of things® Isn't it sad, the way we
have forced our religion to become a mechanism by which we can onan an "OK" feeling?
Isn't it too bad, the way we can turn the grace of God inside out until it sounds
like a reward for piety and clean living rather than the joyful, unconditional
demain that it is in fact? |

Jesus Christ came into the world for that - to reverse this religiosity in us
that makes us feel we must earm God's favor: this anxiety that we are not doing
enough: this nagging self doubt which stems from our unmet need to be accepted.
Jesus Christ came into the world to free men from all of that - +» literally*liberate
coe from the oppressive despair that accompanies our sense of not being OK: | be
free men to live lives of joy in the ultimate security of God's Sagrace. olein

That's the Gospel. You and I are loved = unconditionally. In God's oe
are "OK", That's what Christmas means underneath all the tinsel and the commercial

bribery.
"To you this day is born in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the

Lord." sis
To you = to us - a savior. Not because we deserve that - not because we've
somehow earned that but because God's love is unconditional. That's very
much worth being happy and celebrating.
The lovely Advent Hymn says it best -
"Come, Thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free
From our fears and sins realease us};

Let us find our rest in Thee.”
a Amen.