LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Epiphany VI + 2/12/06 + St. Paul’s, Morganton

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In the collect for today, we affirmed the Christian understanding of what humans are like by saying that that, “in our weakness, we can do nothing good without God” and then added this request: “give us the help of your grace…”

This morning, I offer you three things, more or less intertwined with each other: a history lesson, a lecture on theology, and a sermon based on the Collect for Today. That Collect has been around for quite a while, first appearing in a 6^th century Sacramentary, that is, a book containing the Collects and other prayers used throughout the year together with the Canon or Prayer for the consecration of the bread and wine at the Eucharist. Today’s Collect was originally appointed for use on the 1^st Sunday after Trinity. It passed into the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and has been retained in every revision of the Prayer Book up to the present day. Our 1979 American Book of Common Prayer moved it to this date, the 6^th Sunday after the Epiphany. And that’s the history lesson!

Now, for the lecture on theology. As I mentioned, in the Collect for today, we prayed for God’s grace. We Christians are used to that word. We use it in prayers and hymns, we even use it to name churches and people. But what is “grace?” Technically, grace is defined as “the spiritual assistance God bestows on rational beings to aid in their sanctification.” Theologians have traditionally identified three forms of grace: Prevenient grace is God’s gift to us which enables us to turn to Him in the first place. It is what makes possible our first reaching out to God, no matter how we do that. “Prevenient” simply means “that which precedes” so that form of grace is where it all starts. St. John’s Gospel puts it clearly where Jesus says “You did not choose me but first, I chose you” – words which apply not only to the original disciples, but to every one of us.

Habitual or sanctifying grace is the form with which we are apt to be most familiar – it is the grace we receive through such normative and always dependable channels as the sacraments of the Church.

Actual grace is the gift God gives for specific situations, often (but not always) quite apart from the sacraments. It is not in any way limited to Christians, but is what enables people who may be Jewish, Moslems, Agnostics, or even Atheists to think, say, and do good things, although they may be quite unaware of the presence of that actual grace in them.

And that’s the end of my lecture on theology.

To begin the sermon, I turn to a collection of letters written to God by children ages 6 to 9. Here is one in its entirety: “To God: Dear Sir: The reason I am writing is this. My mommy and I are going to visit my Aunt Beatrice. My daddy can’t come. We are supposed to fly, but mommy is scared, so maybe you better come with us. Signed, Morton.” While little Morton’s theology, which permits him to ask God to go on the plane with his family may need the correction of being reminded that we are always and everywhere in the presence of God, still, he is surely right when he appeals to God for specific help at a moment of need. Although the language of the Book of Common Prayer may be more elegant than Morton’s prose, the kind of help he asked for is exactly the same kind we asked for in today’s Collect.

Again, but perhaps in less technical language, what is grace?

Grace is God’s gift of supernatural strength which enables people to do things we could not do on our own. That gift – grace - has a specific purpose, namely the sanctification, the making holy, of the person to whom the grace is given. If that still sounds as if it belongs more in a lecture to seminarians than in a parish church, let me offer an analogy. An automobile jack is a physical tool which, if used properly, enables one to do a physical thing which we could not do on our own, namely, lift a car off the ground. So, we could say that grace is to the spiritual realm what an automobile jack is to the physical order of things.

Let me add some things that grace is not. Grace is not irresistible. It is not something forced down our throats by a well-meaning but tyrannical God. Also, grace is neither automatic nor is it magic. It is not a kind of religious science fiction pill which, when ingested, transforms us into perfect beings. For example, it is true that, on the one hand, whenever we receive a sacrament, we are given grace, but whether that grace does us much good or not is up to us. We have to make use of it if it is to accomplish its purpose. Imagine someone whose car has a flat tire, and, although there is a jack in the car’s trunk, makes no use of that tool. The presence of the jack is important, but by itself, not the whole story. The jack won’t jump out of the trunk, run around to the flat tire, and lift the car all by itself. One has to use the jack, and use it the way it was designed. On the other hand, if there is no jack in the trunk, all our wishing and positive thinking won’t make up for its absence. Like a jack, grace is objectively real, not just a way of thinking or hoping. Like a jack, grace is given for a purpose and is only useful if we use it for that purpose. Grace is a gift God gives us to use in the work of spiritual growth and the living of a Christian life. Grace is something each of us needs to fulfill our calling as Christians, for doing so is anything but easy at best! I am rather sure that everyone here this morning has, on many occasions, found the truth of Saint Paul’s famous outburst: “The good I should do, I don’t do, but the bad things I don’t want to do, I do so often!”

The gift of grace is not the gift of some sort of esoteric holiness important only to people who are very religious. Grace is the basic strength without which we ordinary people cannot do anything that is good. That’s why we need God’s grace. It’s as simple as that. The good news is that God knows we need grace, and provides it over and over again. That’s why coming to God’s Altar week by week to receive Holy Communion, and through that sacrament, divine grace, is so important. What we do – or fail to do – with that gift of grace is up to us. [But that, I think, is another sermon for another day.]

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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