SERMON: Grace-full Faith

Our Grace-Full Faith

There was a New York Times reporter who was assigned to a story in New Orleans. The first morning that he arrived, he went to a local restaurant and ordered pancakes. When he received his pancakes, he noticed a glob of grayish white substance on his plate. He asked the waitress what it was. She said it was grits. He shrugged it off and went about his day. The next morning, the reporter went to another local eatery and ordered ham and eggs. Again when his plate arrived, there was that glob of grayish white substance. And again he asked the waitress what that substance was. And again she said grits. By the third morning, as he was ordering waffles, he knew what was going to happen. When the waitress brought his plate with his waffles and grits, he said, “I have eaten at many restaurants in New Orleans. Each morning despite not asking for grits with my breakfast, I still receive grits. Can you tell me why I keep getting grits?” The waitress looked at him, puzzled, and responded, “Grits just is.” Grace like grits: “just is.”

But if we can agree that grace “just is,” what is it? Grace is from the Greek work charis, which translates as favor or divine favor. People who believe in grace understand it to be much more than this one root suggests.

Most people's assumption is that grace comes from the Christian religion, but the concept appears in most, if not all, religious traditions. Within the Western Christian Church, grace refers to the process that leads from sin to redemption, although many Christians now understand grace as the many divine blessings received in their lives. Probably fewer of us are aware of the Eastern religious traditions' more modified concept of grace. Within Theravada Buddhism, enlightenment involves taking responsibility for our awareness and our understanding of grace. How are we UUs incorporating this concept of grace into our theologies?

Let us start by exploring grace thought the eyes of the Western Christian Church. Grace enters the Christian life chiefly as a New Testament term. In the many letters of Paul in the New Testament, the word "grace" is used on 101 occasions when Paul wants to express God’s relationship to “fallen” humans. In non-Pauline writings grace appears only 51 times. The non-Pauline writings emphasize the free gift of grace.

The Western Christian church of the Middle Ages held the belief that human beings could not enter into a meaningful relationship with God due to the ontological gap between God and humans; God and everything in the universe, including humans, are different substances. Something was needed to bridge the gap. Grace tended to be understood as a supernatural substance, infused by God into the human soul in order to bridge the gap between God and human and facilitate redemption. Humans needed redemption, or saving from sin, to attain eternal life with God. Catholicism came to stress that the human actor had to do something to draw down God’s favor and then had to sustain that favor by certain courses of action and expression of will.

Onto this scene walked Martin Luther, the father of the Lutheran Church. Luther had considerable difficulty coping with the church’s dictate that only by certain actions could a person be judged worthy of God’s grace. Luther came up with the belief that human beings achieve salvation (the ability to enter heaven) sola gratia, by God’s grace alone, not through human actions.

Luther wrote: “I was a good monk, and kept my rule so strictly that I could say that if ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, I was that monk. All my companions in the monastery would confirm this…and yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, 'You didn’t do that right. You weren’t contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.' The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more I daily found it more uncertain, weaker and more troubled.”

It seemed to Luther that he could not be sure if he were living a godly enough life to meet the preconditions for salvation. Luther believed God must meet the preconditions by giving humans what they require, by giving humans grace. Luther believed that the God of the Christian Gospels is not a harsh judge who rewards individuals according to their merits, but a merciful and gracious God who bestows redemption upon people as a gift.

Christians have argued not only over the notion of the infusion of grace but over whether grace can be denied or withdrawn by God, or rejected by humans. There have also been debates over how grace relates to human freedom and free will. Today, the notion of grace as a gift from God in the here and now is likely to be heard proclaimed in Catholic churches as well as Protestant.

In talking with a Catholic Deacon friend of mine, he described grace as the program operating behind the scenes protecting your computer, like a virus protection program. He says that through belief in grace you know that everything in your life will work out according to God’s plan. He feels that most of the time, this grace works beneath conscious recognition.

I remember one of my Christian clients talking about grace. He was struggling with staying sober, but he decided to go to a family wedding reception. He knew many people at the reception would be drinking, and indeed when he arrived many of his relatives and other guests were drinking beer from a keg. His throat felt dry as he became a little anxious being around all this drinking. He saw a bowl full of punch. He filled a glass full, but right before he took a sip, he heard someone say, “Man that rum punch is really good.” My client quickly put down the punch. He felt that God had given him a gift by not letting him drink that rum punch.

The Western Christian church continues to broaden its understanding of grace. However within Theravada Buddhism the concept of grace has changed little. Theravada Buddhists understand grace as the present-centered apprehension of wisdom. Theravada scriptures teach that each individual must come to realize the liberating truth of the Dharma, or Buddhist spiritual teachings. However, he or she may realize the truth from the fortuitous hearing of words spoken by the Buddha, or some other spiritual teacher. Sermons from spiritual teachers give individuals the opportunity to attain grace and eventual liberation from the otherwise ceaseless round of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. Yet the individual remains solely responsible for accepting and understanding the Truth, thus receiving grace. Without the accepting and understanding of the individual, the Dharma is ineffective. Grace is not magic; it is a matter of consciousness.

In one Buddhist story, a weaver’s daughter is intent on hearing a sermon that the Buddha is scheduled to deliver. But her father, obsessed with the mundane affairs of commerce, forces her to finish her chores. When she finally arrives at the place where the Buddha is speaking, she is late. The Buddha, sensing the lack of spiritual instruction will negatively impact her next reincarnation, talks to her privately. Through accepting and understanding his words, she is instantly blessed. She dies that night and is reborn in the realm of the Tusita gods, the most exclusive heavenly realm in Theravada cosmology. Her father awakes to find her dead and, stricken with grief, goes to the Buddha for comfort. The Buddha delivers him a sermon, and the weaver is also blessed by Buddha’s words. He becomes a monk and attains arahantship or realization of the path to nirvana.

It is important to remember that the efficacy of a Buddhist sermon doesn’t depend on the power of a supernatural donor but on the readiness of a mortal recipient. Unlike the will of an omnipotent God, the Dharma is ultimately resistible. Grace can only occur through the individual accepting and understanding the wisdom of the Dharma.

Early on in our church history, Unitarians began to explore Eastern religious traditions and began to incorporate them into their beliefs. Liberal Christians in 19th century America, many who became Unitarians, held a fairly traditional view of grace. They believed that good works and rational faith lead to grace.

Onto this scene walked Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was one of the first Americans to explore Hindu scriptures and Eastern mystics. Emerson’s view of grace did not involve an afterlife, but the effects on the person’s character of doing good or evil. He also felt grace could be found in nature. He felt we would all one day become one with the Oversoul or mind of God. He sought to find the larger relationship to spirit, which he felt could be represented by Unitarianism.

UUs continue to explore their faith by searching Eastern religious traditions as well as Western. UU minister John Rex understands grace as “Being aware of our connectedness with each other and with the universe. Being aware of the great mystery of life. Being aware of the context of our lives; living in the immediate moment.” His understanding of grace as awareness seems to have been influenced by Eastern spiritual traditions.

UU minister Peter Fleck, however, defines grace as a blessing “...that is undeserved, unsolicited, and unexpected...” “What is important is not where it comes from or why it happens. It just is.” This seems clearly in the Western spiritual tradition. The sense of grace being “undeserved” and “just happening” sounds very much like Martin Luther’s understanding of grace.

However, some UUs combine Eastern and Western religious traditions in their understanding of grace. For example, UU minister Fredric John Muir defines grace as an experience of the “consciousness or the unity in which we are embedded,” “a gift that is given,” and “a listening to life.” The Eastern influence includes conscious attention to life, while the Western influence involves a gift that is given, as if by an external force.

These UU ministers understand grace as present-centered. This grace comes from living life fully and deeply receiving blessings from our world, our communities and even from our connectedness with spirit.

Whether we see grace as salvation, enlightenment, ultimate liberation from pain and suffering, or living fully and deeply receiving the many blessing from our world, I believe that we need some understanding of grace in our lives. I choose to believe that grace is an unsolicited, unearned blessing that may come from another person or from the divine that connects us with the universe. I also believe that we need to notice experiences of grace.

I heard Rev. Dr. Davidson Loer of First Unitarian Church in Austin tell a story of one of his congregant’s reflection on the grace that he received from his grandmother. During the Communal Eulogy of his grandmother, the congregant came forward to share his favorite "grandmother" story. “Thirty years ago when I was a boy, this grandmother used to read "The Night Before Christmas" to me every Christmas Eve. She read it from a very old and tattered book, and I experienced both magic and grace every year from the woman, that book, and her reading of the story. Even after I grew up, I would sometimes call this grandmother on Christmas Eve, and she would repeat the childhood ritual by reading the story over the phone. Again, the magic flowed through the telephone wires, and the grace enveloped me.

"When I became a father, I even took my son to visit grandmother on the night before Christmas, so that she could work the old magic for the boy. The last time I saw her, she said to me that it was time, now, that I needed to take over the important task of reading the story to my son.

"After my grandmother died, I wondered about that raggedy old book. I looked for it, but it was nowhere to be found. It had been published in 1915, she’d probably had it all her life, and it had never been in great shape. Perhaps the magic would die with my grandmother.

"But no. The reason I couldn’t find the book was that she had sent it out to have it rebound, so it might last for another century. It was her parting gift to me – the book, and its implicit message that now indeed the role of Magician and Grace-dispenser was mine.”

I feel Spindletop has been a Grace-dispenser for me. Being here has allowed me to grow, becoming a better Unitarian Universalist minister. There are so many of you who have helped me grow. Rachelsarah helping me sort through the many hymns so we don’t try to sing something really difficult every Sunday. Karen supporting me as both president and now as treasurer of the board of trustees; she helps me stay grounded. Corky motivating me to grow this congregation; he continues to give me energy as we work on growth. Each and every one of you has given me many blessings since I have been here at Spindletop; I wish I could mention them all.

I do believe that our gathering here is essential to our awareness of grace. We do not gather to challenge each other’s concept of grace or to hold discussion groups about grace—even though we UUs might be tempted--but to ground each other in the significance of grace. In our world, we so often run from one event to another without taking the time to integrate our many meaningful experiences. Communal worship allows us to identify and absorb things we feel are of personal value. Our worship together is then a time to open our hearts and remember the many unsolicited, maybe undeserved, blessings in our lives. Let this be a time for that awareness and integration. Let this be a time of grace.

We come together from our isolated places and gather with others who are grateful for the many blessings in our lives.