What Grace Looks Like
As I watched The Empire Strikes Back again, I felt like a kid hearing Yoda tell Luke, "For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us." Then I had a disturbing thought. Isn't this how we often talk about God's grace? "For my ally is God's grace, and a powerful ally it is. God gives it, makes it grow. His grace surrounds us and binds us." What is God's grace? And how is it different from science fiction?
I named my ministry Uncommon Pursuit because I never wanted to forget that even though I started the ministry, all my work is a response to God's uncommon pursuit. Paul knew he wouldn't be talking about Jesus as the Messiah unless God had intervened in his life and called him to serve as an apostle. In the same way, he explained that God called the Christians in Rome to be saints. Paul positions both himself and his readers as recipients of God's work. When I worked as a campus minister on Harvard's campus, I would mention it to impress people with who I was or what I had done. But Paul doesn't separate God's grace to him and his role as an apostle, as if God got him started as a Christian and then Paul worked his way up to a special role. Instead, he says that God's grace was for him to be an apostle. It's the pattern for every Christian. In Romans 12:6 he explains, "According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts..." The word Paul uses for 'gift' is built on the word for 'grace'; literally, they're grace-gifts. Paul's gift is to be an apostle, but Jesus gives all of us gifts to serve one another. I'm also tempted to think that faith is one thing and obedience is another. The way I've heard it taught is that first we put our faith in God, and then after we've been Christians for a while, we start to obey him. But Paul says that God's purpose is "to bring about the obedience of faith." It's like when I'm driving and my wife says, "Turn left," I hear her and I start to turn the car. To hear what she says and act on it happen together (unless I'm being stubborn). When Jesus graciously calls us, we hear and obey. The social media algorithms know that I can't look away from photos of so-called apostles decked out with gold necklaces, Lamborghinis, and private planes. But Paul didn't use his apostleship to get wealthy. About forty years after he wrote this letter, the church in Rome sent a letter known as 1 Clement. It says that Paul was imprisoned, stoned, and martyred. Paul's goal was to glorify Jesus. Paul says that what's true of him is true of the church in Rome. They are loved by God, called as saints, and given grace and peace by "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." To be a saint is to be saved by God and set apart for his purposes. Grace isn't a supernatural power that we wield. Grace is God generously loving us, calling us his own, giving us gifts, and commissioning us to live as his representatives.
What's the difference between praying to Jesus and drawing on the Force?
What would change if you thought of yourself as a saint?
What's one gift God gave you to serve others?
Open up your calendar. As you look at it, pray, "God, give me the grace to do this work in a way that glorifies Jesus. Thank you for loving me and calling me yours."