Rev Gav
How does God mediate grace to us?
The idea that we have to make up for our mistakes is embedded in our culture, whether it is in the classroom or the judicial system. If you flick paint at your teacher in art class, you can be sure you will be staying behind to clean up the sinks! And those who have committed crimes often serve some kind of community service where they can give back to the society from which they have taken. When someone pays a penalty in this way, through some kind of act of service, we say they have atoned for their sins. The word atonement was coined in the 16th Century and literally means ‘at-one-ment’, where an imbalance has been restored and you become reconciled and at peace with something or somebody.
The Apostle Paul had been a piece of work, and you do not need to take my word for it but his. He described himself as one who had persecuted the followers of Jesus to their death (Acts 22:4) and as the worst of sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Surely, therefore, it would only be right and proper that he make amends for his mistakes and atone for his crimes; that when he also became a follower of Jesus, he should serve God, redress the balance, and give back to the community from which he had so cruelly and mercilessly taken?
The thing is that Paul knew there was nothing he could do to make up for what he had done because the very gospel he proclaimed, the good news of salvation that was at work in him, and the Christ whom he encountered, had already completed that work, justified him, redressed the balance, and atoned for his sins. There was nothing he needed to do, and nothing he could do that would further his cause. And this, my friends, is called grace.
Let us dig a little deeper. How did Paul experience God’s grace, for it was not just an intellectual exercise. It was not that Paul only rationalised it in his head, but that the grace had been mediated in a very real and present way. To understand how this happened we need to appreciate Paul’s story. He had previously been a persecutor and enemy of the church. He had the followers of Jesus dragged away, imprisoned, tortured, and was even complicit in their executions. When he himself became a Christian, can you even begin to imagine how he felt? He had to stand before those whom he had persecuted, and those whose families he had destroyed and torn apart. And what did those Christians do? Yes, they were, at first, suspicious and wary, but they loved him. They forgave him. They welcomed him. They ate with him. Those Christians demonstrated God’s love and mercy. To sum it up, they extended God’s grace.
You see, the truth is that the grace of God was mediated to Paul through other Christians. Filled with God’s Holy Spirit, they were the vessels of God’s love and acceptance. God worked in and through them to reach Paul with an everlasting forgiveness.
And the leader of this group of Christians? Peter. We do not know what Peter had done in his past, what crime he had committed, but notice how he described himself as ‘sinful’. I do not think I am reading too much into the text when I think there was something specific about Peter’s declaration. Yes, we are all sinful, but there was something more going on here, so how and why did Peter respond the way he did?
In our retelling of the story, we tend to focus on the miraculous catch of fish and forget that Jesus had spent much of the day teaching from Simon Peter’s boat, but it was not Jesus’ words that led Simon Peter to fall down at Jesus’ knees and declare, “Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” but Jesus’ actions. What was it about the miraculous catch of fish that so affected Simon Peter?
Sure, it was sign — the whole catching fish in the middle of the day instead of night and the builder-turned-rabbi telling accomplished fishermen how to do their job, and so on — but, and I think this is key, it was the sheer generosity of the act. Fisherman on the lake lived by their catch. No fish meant no income, so an extraordinarily large catch — a net-breaking and boat-sinking haul — would have been like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. It meant financial security, at least in the short term, for Simon Peter, James, John, and their families.
Jesus then called Peter to fish for people, and both Peter and the other early Christians would do this by extending God’s grace to others — including Paul.
This miracle recorded by Luke points to the superabundance of a God who seeks to bless us, and in the same way that Simon Peter was called to ‘fish for people’, it is a salient reminder that we too are called to be fishers of people, and that our actions speak way louder than words. We are called to be ambassadors or agents in the world for God — to see the world with God’s eyes, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and to speak with God’s voice. And we do not do this on our own for we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is not love alone that we share but God’s love — a love imbued with divine power, and a power that can change and transform lives.
We, like Paul, cannot earn our salvation, but like him, we serve in God’s ministry and mission because of the awesome power of love expressed towards us by God, and mediated through human beings.
We bear the weighty responsibility of a divinely appointed mandate, for you and I hold the key to letting someone know they are loved by God. We can extend God’s grace to others, even when they do not ‘deserve’ it, and, because we are so inspired by the Holy Spirit, there is divine power in doing so.
Jesus said to Peter, “Do not fear.” Do not fear that you are sinful and undeserving, for my grace is enough, in fact it is more than enough. It is superabundant and it is for you and for all.
Amen.
and then