Obstacles to a life of Grace- Cursillo Talk

Obstacles to a life of Grace

So, God has offered us His grace- the gift of Himself- his life to live within us. The work of Christ on the cross was given to us to save us. The example and teaching of Christ was given to us as an image of what human life was meant to be. The Holy Spirit was given to us, to dwell within us, and empower us to live the life that he is calling us to.

During the Grace talk, I read to you from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, where he describes what Jesus is doing within us. 

“‘Make no mistake,’ [Jesus] says, ‘if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect— until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.’”

I spoke to you about Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son, and we saw the Father wanting to return the repentant son to full sonship. One of the things this parable is about, is God wanting us to return to Him, and when we do, He graciously begins returning us to full sonship- inviting us to take the place he has designed for us.

This is a beautiful thing. But for anyone who has tried to be a serious Christian for more than 6 months, you know that you will have times when you fail at this. We all have times when we fall flat on our face. There are obstacles as we live the life of grace.

Like an addiction, sometimes old patterns will arise in us. Maybe when we are tired, or stressed, we engage in a self-soothing sin- maybe we look at things we know we shouldn’t- maybe we drink a bit more than we should. Maybe we are tired and frustrated, and we treat someone without the mercy and gentleness we know we should. Sometimes we react to someone else’s sin in a sinful way. We feel like we have to get justice for ourselves, so we react with anger and wrath and vengeance. …

Our lives are full of these temptations. Conversion doesn’t mean that we will never deal with temptations. These temptations will come from the World, the flesh, and the devil. The World has to do with societal pressures and patterns that organize themselves apart from God’s ways. We will be tempted to participate in these injustices (by default) just because that’s what everyone else is doing. Think about being a Christian in Nazi Germany. That’s an obvious example, but there are many more subtle ways our society influences us away from the way of Christ, often for the sake of some “good”. … The “flesh” refers to temptations that arise from within ourselves. Our passions, our disordered desires will tempt us to sin. One of the big things that Christ works at healing within us is our broken desires and ways of thinking. … The Devil refers to unseen personal power that is opposed to God and God’s plan to restore the creation. These creatures mainly try to influence us by whispering thoughts to us, but they don’t really have any power our lives unless we cooperate with them. … The sins we are tempted to have been systematized for us as the seven deadly sins- lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride.

It can be tempting to try to minimize some of these sins, telling ourselves that we just had a weak moment, or we “slipped”. Maybe we tell ourselves that we aren’t any different than the guy down the street. … But the core of sin is choice. It is a choice that does damage to our relationship with God and others. As much as we might want to blame being tired and stressed, the reality is that sin always come from a choice. We might be dealing with a time of stronger temptation, but the temptation only becomes sin as a result of our choice. … The temptation itself is not sin. Indulging in the temptation is when it becomes sin. A flashing lustful thought is not sin, but holding onto that thought and playing with that thought in your mind becomes sin, and obviously letting that temptation lead to an inappropriate physical action is sin. … These choices draw us away from God. They get in the way of us leading the life that God wants for us. They get in the way of the life of grace. … We become alienated to ourselves because we know this isn’t who we are meant to be. We become full of shame. … We become estranged to the people in our lives, we hurt them, we hide who we really are from them. Like Adam and Eve in the garden we try to hide from God and from each other. … If we choose to give-in to these sins, we will be led down a path that leads to emptiness, addiction, and hopelessness. … This isn’t the life God wants for us. …

In John 15 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10-11). This is the life God wants for us- full of joy. These obstacles get in the way of the life God wants for us.

So how do we deal with this? We need to have practices that strengthen us and heal us. If we are lifting a weight and our muscle gives out, we need a way to strengthen that muscle, so that we can be more reliable in lifting that weight in the future. We might need practices that will help heal that muscle if we damaged it when it gave out, so we might need to know how to use heat and cold and physiotherapy to repair it, then we might want to engage in a pattern of lifting weights that will strengthen that muscle. … Well, this is a common pattern in our lives. We need disciplines to develop us in ways that we will be able to do what we cannot do by just trying harder (Willard). If the weight is too heavy for my muscle, trying harder isn’t going to do much good. I need a discipline that will get my muscle to a place that it can handle the weight. … So lets talk about some of these disciplines.

First, when we fall into sin… or maybe more accurately, jump into sin, we should turn to God by repenting. Don’t try to justify your actions. Tell God you’re sorry and ask for help to change so you won’t do it again.

Confess your sin. In the church, we have a sacrament of reconciliation, which is really a way of returning to our baptism. The priest will hear your confession, perhaps give some council, and then declare God’s absolution over you. … But if you don’t have a priest you are comfortable going to, I would encourage you to go to a mature Christian friend you trust.

Those are sort of disciplines of healing the muscle that was damaged. There are also disciplines that build up the muscle.

Another metaphor might be a garden. We can’t lead holy lives by just picking weeds. If we just have weeds, we will have a lovely patch of dirt, but not a garden. So we also need to plant and tend the flowers of the garden, not just pull weeds.

It is important to have a “rule of life”. We might think of this as a spiritual workout plan. It will not be helpful to just pray when we feel like it. We have already talked about our desires being broken, so we need disciplines if we want to overcome obstacles and grow in grace. The two main disciplines of the Christian life are having a daily and weekly pattern for prayer and meditating of Scripture. In the Anglican Church (like others) we have Morning and Evening Prayer. They are designed to draw us into prayer and Scripture. These strengthen our relationship with God as we constantly turn to Him to learn from Him, to experience His love for us, and seek guidance for our lives.

Fellowship is also an important discipline. Being with other Christians is essential to leading the Christian life. On occasion we will find hermits, but even they will often find pilgrims coming to them, and they would often still gather with others for worship. Being a part of a Christian community has always been an important part of the Christian life. We need to be supported and encouraged, and we need to support and encourage others. We even need a few annoying people sprinkled in there so we learn to be merciful and patient.

Participating in worship will remind our egos about who our master is. Worship is also the natural state of the human being, as made by God. In some sense, we become what we worship. If we worship God then the image of God within us is enlivened. The worship of anything else will enslave us. In the context of worship it is important to receive the Sacraments, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. Baptism baptizes us into the life of Christ, and publicly declares us as being adopted by God. The Eucharist allows us to receive the life of Christ into ourselves, along with the community. We are bound to Christ and to his body, and we are promised strength for our Christian walk.

There are many other disciplines that are helpful to practice to that we can grow in a particular grace or virtue. For example, solitude, silence, observing the sabbath, service, fasting, simplicity, etc.. These are like therapies that address certain issues and temperaments. These are ways to get ourselves to the place that we are ready to receive certain graces from God. It is like a farmer planting the seed, and making sure there is enough water, and picking weeds, but the farmer has no power over the growth. The disciplines put us in a place where we are open to God acting on us is certain ways.

So yes, we will fail to live the life of grace perfectly, but God does not give up on us. He has given us ways to repair damage that has been done, and to become stronger, so we are less likely to fall in the future. Amen.