Freely Given - To Give us Freedom

Grace. I’ve always been drawn to that word. I like the way it’s almost onomatopoeia – just saying “grace” sounds graceful. I like that we call prayers before meals “grace.” I think it would be a beautiful name for a daughter. I’ve always been in awe of people who “move with grace” or “act graciously” or who are “graceful dancers.” Probably since I myself cannot claim any sort of gracefulness (any one who has seen me play broomball will agree), I’ve always wanted to understand better what grace is.

But somehow, from a very early age, I’ve always had some sense of how grace feels. I grew up in a Lutheran church, and it was definitely in my early elementary school years that I started hearing the phrase, “you’ve been saved by grace.” As a kid, I couldn’t verbalize what that phrase meant, but somehow I always felt some ‘knowledge of God’ comforting me and enveloping my life. That amorphous, enfolding cushion still remains, and I realize now that it has been God’s grace all along. But still, I haven’t ever been able to define grace precisely. I’ve known it sustains me, but I’ve never quite been able to articulate what I mean when I talk of being “saved by God’s grace.”

It seemed perfect, then, as I was trying to pick the Sunday for my sermon, when I discovered today’s reading from Ephesians. Here was the line that had so attracted me in my days of Lutheran Sunday school: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Immediately I wanted to give the sermon on this Sunday. I would have the chance to really investigate the highest form of grace – God’s grace. And then I would be able to share the power of God’s grace with all of you.

What I have found as I’ve explored God’s grace over the past few weeks is that most essentially it is a gift, and it is freely given. I’m going to be repeating that phrase a lot tonight – grace is freely given. More than just existing as a free gift, though, God’s grace has an essential power. It has the power to give us freedom. Grace is a gift that is freely given to give us freedom.

On Tuesday, The Daily Princetonian ran an opinion column entitled “100 things to be happy about.” It definitely brought a smile to my face, as I shared with the columnist happiness for things like “bathrooms that get cleaned for us,” “emails saying you have a package,” “the snow fort in front of Dillon,” “U-CALL.” My mood immediately improved as I realized what an abundance of blessings I enjoy here at Princeton. I receive so many things that I do nothing to deserve.

On Wednesday, my thoughts returned to that Prince column as I looked over my preparations for this sermon. What a great example of a free, undeserved gift is my life at Princeton! Because make only a measly contribution to all this with my on-campus job, I really feel like my overwhelmingly abundant Princeton experience is freely given to me.

Thinking of all the parts of my free gift of Princeton inspired me to come up with more examples of earthly free gifts:

§ A taste of a new flavor of ice cream at T. Sweets – freely given.

§ The chance to sleep through one exam – freely given.

§ Samples at the grocery store on Saturdays – freely given.

Have I figured out God’s grace, then? It must be a lot like the free gifts we receive today from other humans. But the Gospel reading for tonight seems to imply there’s more than that to the free gifts that God gives.

In the reading from John, we have an example of a divine free gift. Jesus gives one big meal – it’s like “Frist Fest” - imagine the whole student population of Princeton eating together. Jesus also gives one significant meal. The miraculous feeding of the crowd is mentioned in all four of the Gospels, and it is even told twice in both Matthew and Mark. What message makes such repetition necessary?

Notice that first, the disciples doubt Jesus; they can not believe that so many people will be fed and can not anticipate all that Jesus has to give. They claim, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread!” and they wonder, “How far will they go among so many?” However, in spite of the disciples’ doubt, Jesus provides abundantly. Listen to how the miracle is described: Jesus “distributed to those that were seated as much as they wanted” – as much as they wanted. Jesus fed everyone present, more than they needed. And he expected nothing from them. The meal was freely given, and it was also universally given, unexpectedly given, and abundantly given.

So this example of a divinely-given free gift helps us understand how, in addition to being free, grace is given to everyone, it is given without our anticipating it, and it is given in overwhelming abundance. Finally, then, have I figured out the nature of God’s grace? Do I now understand the source of that comforting cushion that has always seemed to enfold my life?

The Bible tells me that can’t be all there is to it. Ephesians says that the riches of God’s grace are “incomparable.” They are unrivaled by the riches of any gift we know on Earth. But how can any free gift get more abundant than something like my life at Princeton? Or more unanticipated than the miraculous feeding of a group of people the size of Princeton’s student body?

It took some digging, but finally I realized what’s different about God’s freely given gift of grace is that it gives us freedom. Its power to free us makes it completely unparalleled among humanly bestowed free gifts. It is freely given, to give us freedom. All the human free gifts I mentioned can be binding – we feel trapped after receiving the gifts. There is enormous pressure not to “waste” the Princeton education. Or we feel an obligation to buy food from the grocery store after we taste a free sample. But God gives differently. He doesn’t bind us. When he give us His grace, he gives us freedom to live and to love. That’s why it’s so powerful, why its richness is incomparable.

Freedom to live and to love. I finally figured it out. That’s what my Sunday school teachers were talking about when they told me I was “saved” by grace through faith. Verses 5 through 10 of our Ephesians reading each seem to have another way of defining the Biblical term of “salvation.” They imply that to be saved is to be living and to be loving. In verse 5, it says “God made us alive with Christ.” In verse 10, it says God created us to “do good works,” which are loving others and loving God. Grace saves us, and this saving means we are free to live and to love. We are freed from guilt, from anxiety, from worrying about anything besides sharing life and love.

What do we have to do to receive this freedom of life and love? Absolutely nothing – God’s gift of grace is free and undeserved. And how can I believe that everyone has been freely given this grace?

Being an engineer, I like to think of everything in as tangible of terms as possible. Think of grace like a free gift box placed in every human being’s heart. God designs every human heart with a box-shaped space and then fills each one. All humans do is unwrap the box and open it and discover the faith that is inside. But each box has a different number of layers of wrapping paper around the faith, and each box requires a different method of unwrapping.

Two observations – one from life and one from Scripture – convince me that God has placed this grace gift box in each person’s heart: First, life: I have never met a person who does not want to be loved, who does not hope for some meaning, who would not find joy in a completely free gift – no matter how bitter a person can be, there is room for grace in their hearts. I’ve discovered this in acquaintances, people on the street, and friends (both those that are Christians and those that are not). Second, Scripture: Just before Paul tells the Ephesians that they are saved by grace through faith, he prays for them. If he can pray for their receiving God’s grace, then he believes they can receive it, and so I am encouraged to believe that everyone can receive God’s grace. Here is what Paul says: “I keep asking that God may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparable great power for us who believe.”

After you believe that the God-given grace gift box is in you, too, then the only step left is unwrapping the grace to find your faith. The gift box is freely given, and as it gives you faith, it will give you freedom. Once you unwrap it, then you, too, will share my fascination with “grace.”