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Sermon December 24, 2019
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Christmas Eve, Year A
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay1_RCL.html
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all….Titus 2:11
Amazing Grace
How Sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see
The words to this favorite hymn were written by John Newton, an Anglican priest in 1772, when he was 47. That John Newton would become a priest was surprising. His father was a sea captain and John joined his father at sea when he was just 11 years old. Newton was well known for behavior that was anything but a model of the Godly life. Newton got into plenty of trouble and was even enslaved in West Africa. He also worked on ships that brought enslaved Africans to the western hemisphere.
On March 10, 1748, at the age of 23, the ship he was on nearly sank and he began to read the Bible and other religious literature. He had a conversion experience and marked this date for the remainder of his life. Yet, even after his conversion, he continued to captain ships involved in the trade of enslaved human beings. It took another 15 years for him to be ordained as a priest and to become an abolitionist.
He died on December 21, 1807, at the age of 82 and wrote this epitaph for his tomb, which includes these words:
“JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine; a servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.”
John Newton understood deeply what it meant to receive God’s grace.
What is grace? You’ll find a definition on pages 857-858 of the Book of Common Prayer. The catechism explains we have 2 sacraments in The Episcopal Church given by Christ to the church – Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
The water of baptism and the words of our service, as well as the wafer, wine and words of our Eucharist are “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.” P. 857
The catechism goes on to explain grace as “God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.”
I’ve said lots of words about grace. What I really hope you will understand, especially on this Christmas Eve, is how wonderful, beautiful and loved you are.
We all fall short. We are not perfect. And on this night, especially, we remember that we are unconditionally loved by God. Whatever our shortcomings, God still calls and uses us to spread love and justice to the world. We are loved and saved from ourselves.
Yes, life is so much better when we can admit our shortcomings. Our life is better when we take time, like we are encouraged to do in Advent and Lent, to take a good look at ourselves and at our lives…to take some steps to better align our lives with the life God is calling us to.
In the end, however, the most important and core thing is that we are loved and even when our best attempts fail, God’s grace is sufficient to see us through. God’s grace is offered to us with the purpose of accomplishing good things, which we cannot achieve for ourselves.
We cannot do anything…anything at all to earn or “deserve” this gift. It is freely given. We can reject it, because we have free will. When we reject God’s grace for ourselves, we are not only hard hearted towards ourselves, overly critical, but we also are hard hearted and overly critical of others.
When we accept God’s grace and live in God’s grace, we are compassionate with ourselves and with others. When we live in God’s grace, we also are “grace full” or full of grace for others.
When we understand the abundant, amazing grace in our lives, we are strengthened…we can live in joy…we can give the best of ourselves to the world.
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound. Let it sink into your heart and be there every day.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all….
Amen
John Newton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
