Worship > Sermon Archive

The Reverend Beth Fain

December 30, 2007
Christmas One, 2007: Touched by Grace
From John 1
Verse 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
Verse 14: And the Word became flesh and lived among us. . . full of grace and truth.

Verse 16: From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

I always like the Sunday after Christmas Day.
The world's Christmas is pretty much over-the decorations are coming down and there's no more Christmas music on the radio or in the stores.
But in the Church, it's the sixth day of Christmas, and our Christmas celebrations are pared down to what's really important.
So we get the story of Jesus' birth, John the Gospel-style.
Today we hear John's version of the nativity of Jesus.
Instead of a baby in a manger we have God's grace in the flesh.
In John, it's as if God says, "Let me speak and I will come to earth not as a spirit but as a man.
Let me speak, and I will become a man who will be among my people.
I will pitch my tent and live with them."
God comes to us as Jesus as our next door neighbor. But kinder and more generous.
God continues, "As I live with them, I will be full of truth, of course, being God.
I will also be full of grace."
[Grace as the gift that we can never get but can only be given (Frederick Buechner)]
God continues, "When I live with my people as truth and grace, I will give them grace."
On this final Sunday of 2007, we come together to remind us that God came to live with us as a constant giver of Grace.
We bring our calendars and watches and timekeepers to this last Eucharist of 2007 to ask God to do what the God of Grace wants to do-to bless our time.
How many of you brought your calendars, watches, timekeepers to be blessed last year?
Blessing isn't luck-it doesn't mean things will turn out well, but it does mean that God will be with us.
The blessing bonus is when we know that God is with us. I call that grace, too.
Knowing God is with us no matter what.
Take a moment right now and think about this past year-can you recall a time when you were blessed by God?
Review the seasons and months and days-where do you see God in your life in 2007?
In a good and not so good moment that you know without a doubt that God is with you?
(silence for reflection)
Some people go their whole lives not knowing that God is their next door neighbor. Only better. Imagine! Christmas means that we don't have to.
Today, as we do each year, we will ask God of Grace to bless our calendars and watches and timekeepers.
If you look at our blessing prayer printed in your announcement booklet on page 7 and continued on page 8, I want to point out two changes from how we've prayed before.
At the top of page 8, we're praying for 366 days not 365. It is leap year.

Second, at the very bottom of page 7, there's a word we've added to the last sentence:
May they [our timekeepers] remind us of birth days and other gift-days,
As they teach us the secret that all life is meant for celebration, contemplation [and this is new] and serving you.
When we are blessed by the God's grace, we can hold onto our blessing.
However, holding onto our blessing it stays smushed in our hand.
Give our blessing to someone else, we get to keep our blessing, someone else gets a blessing, and our own blessing grows.

That's grace, too.
Blessed to be a blessing. Graced to share grace.
I know that there are some of you who find it easy to know God's grace.
I know that there are some of you who find it difficult to see God's grace.
I know that there are some of you here who find it simple to share God's grace.
I know there are some of you who are afraid that if you share God's gift of grace to you there won't be enough left for you. Or at least act like it sometimes.
Today, this sixth day of Christmas, I am here to remind us all.

Wherever we are on the continuum of knowing, receiving, and sharing God's grace:
God spoke and Jesus was and is and ever will be, and moved in next door to us.
Jesus, our God and our neighbor is full of truth and grace.
And gives us that gift of grace.
I think of this as being touched by God's grace. To share God's grace.
To help us remember the truth of grace upon grace, Celeste and I are going to teach us a song.
That I've sung to you before.
It's a song that we sing each time I go with the Women Touched by Grace to the Monastery in Indiana (we sang it when we went to Italy, too).

Touched by grace. We are people touched by grace.
From the hand of God From the heart of God.
Who sends us forth, who sends us forth. To serve.
(© Sr. Mary Sue Freiberger, Sisters of St. Benedict, Beech Grove, In. 46107)

May you know the truth of living in God's grace this year.
May you be willing to share that gift of God's grace, too.
AMEN

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