Based on Genesis 12:1-8, Romans 4:13-21, Matthew 9: 9, 18-25
Growing up, we often said “grace” before our meal – especially if it was a gathering of more than just my nuclear family members. The version that we were taught to repeat was “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food for us be blessed. Bless this food, amen!” I suspect that many of you had your own version of a blessing before meals. For many decades, I thought that this is what was meant by the word grace – it was a blessing before eating. It wasn’t until I became serious about my spiritual journey in my late-30s that I learned about Wesleyan teachings on grace. John Wesley believed that grace was God’s freely given gift of unconditional love poured out abundantly and unceasingly on humans and all of creation. We cannot earn more of God’s love, and we can never lose even the tiniest amount of it. It abides with us and continues to transform us into the mind and heart of Jesus which is truly a gracious blessing!
We have now entered the season after Pentecost which is known as “Ordinary Time”. Ordinary Time is that season covering the months between Pentecost and the beginning of Advent. From Advent to Pentecost we tell the stories of Jesus. During Ordinary Time we tell the stories of God and God’s people, of the original covenants between God and humans, of the ups and downs of the human-God relationship as recorded in the First Testament. We will spend all but the final three weeks of this season in the Torah and primarily with the first two Books of Genesis and Exodus – two foundational and formative texts of our faith.
In the First Testament, God’s gracious blessings are everywhere. From continuing to care for Adam and Eve after they broke the only Commandment that existed, through the saving of Noah and his family from the Flood, and to the Patriarch Abram who became Abraham – the Father of Many Nations. Today’s reading from Genesis is narrating the call of Abram. God is moving in the world and identifies Abram of Ur to be the next human in line for God’s gracious blessings. God calls to Abram and tells him to leave all that he knew and follow God into the wilderness. If Abram did this, then God would bless him and make of him a great nation, a nation that will become a blessing to the whole world.
Paul, writing to the believers in Rome, is teaching them about the gracious blessings of God that came to Abraham through faith and not by works. Paul notes that “…God’s [the] promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have faith in Abraham….” Thus, the blessings of the covenant promise to Abram continue down to each of us solely through the grace of God.
Jesus is at work in the world healing, reconciling and spreading God’s gracious blessings. The first verse is the calling of the much-reviled tax collector, Matthew. Like Abram long before him, Matthew responds immediately to God’s call to follow into the unknown. Jesus goes on in our reading to heal two others, a young girl and a woman who had been suffering for 12 years. The healings were accomplished by faith alone – the first from the father of the girl and the second from the woman who believed that if she just touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe, she would be healed. Gracious blessings through faith in God, indeed!
The gracious blessings that God provides to us are blessings that are meant to be shared – to be passed on to others. None of God’s gracious blessings are parsed out according to merit, status or other identifiers. Rather, they are freely and fully given as gifts of God’s unconditional love for all. Abram’s faithful response to God’s call resulted in the blessing that for the rest of his long life, Abram would speak with, be guided and be blessed by God. Likewise, his sons, Isaac and Ishmael and grandsons Jacob and Esau would continue to bring blessings – Isaac and Jacob directly to the people who would become the Israelites.
The reason that we have multiple readings from the Bible each week in worship is to bring the fullness of the experience of God into our lives; to catch a glimpse of the ever-evolving relationship between God and God’s people. We heard again today that God is always finding people to move God’s plans forward – people we might never expect like a guy from Ur and a Jewish tax collector who had sold himself to the Roman occupiers. We then are moved to wonder about and begin to look for how God is still active in our lives and world.
The Bible provides us with the understanding and guidance to encourage us to look around at our lives and world to see where God is at work. It helps us to listen for God’s call on our lives – because if God can call “disreputable” people like tax collectors, murderers, prostitutes, and every-day folk, then God can call us too. When we consider how God’s covenant with Abram set the stage for all that was to follow – all the way to Jesus many thousands of years later – then we see how we are still being blessed as descendants of Abram and Sarai.
How have God’s gracious blessings been poured out on your life? What are the blessings that have come to you from following God’s call? It might be careers that have not only blessed you but have been a blessing for others. It might be relationships that have flourished and become fruitful, friendships that abide and nurture, missional work that has brought out the best in you and blessings for others. For me it has been the steady deepening of my relationship with God and God’s people that continue to bless me and shower blessings on others.
If no instances of God’s gracious blessings come easily to your mind, then I invite you to look around the Sanctuary. I want you to look at the people who have been led to this church during your time here. The blessings of people who are no longer surrounding you, but whose witness lives on. Those memories and present realities ARE God’s gracious blessings to you. The missional work that is ongoing and that has been done over the years, the ability to gather together as children of God are all due to God’s gracious blessings.
God’s blessings are not just meant to be counted and taken for granted – they are meant to be poured out into our community so that all God’s children might be blessed. What will you do differently this week in response to all the blessings God has given, is giving and will continue to pour out on you? Because as United Methodists we are disciples who are called to do more than say grace, we are called to be gracious as God is gracious to us. Amen and amen!