Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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"It is finished," Jesus said upon the cross. What is finished? No less than the salvation of all mankind. Nothing more need be done. It is accomplished. Finis. When we forget that fundamental truth (which is an earthquake of an idea!) -- when we slip off the point and begin to think, as inevitably we do, that we have a part to play in our own saving (even the tiniest part), we deny the power of the gospel and board that endless train of frustrated and desperate souls who are trying to curry God's favor. Don't you hear the message? We already have God's favor. And it was not by anything we did. "He loved me 'ere I knew him." Animal sacrifice ended with Jesus, not because of animal rights activists, but because there simply was no longer a need. Jesus had made "a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world." Our role is only to believe, "to faith." (In Greek "belief" and "faith" are the same word, but English has no verb for "faith.".) And even if we don't "faith" God's love and forgiveness, it's just as real. We simply don't benefit from it, which is a sad tragedy. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel," Paul wrote, "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith." And we can do nothing to make ourselves right with God. "That old account was settled years ago." What can we say except, "Thank you?" You may remember, some years ago, the country of Bangladesh experienced a terrible drought. Crops failed. Livestock perished. Famine ruled the land. Hundreds of thousands died -- one of the worst human disasters of our time. When missionaries and other humanitarians arrived on the scene, they soon discovered that, just below the surface of the earth there was a thin layer of rock, and beneath that, about thirty feet down, was water: millions and millions of gallons of fresh, clean water. That rock layer had prevented the people, with their crude equipment, from drilling. The missionaries brought in a new kind of drill, called "hammer in the hole," which not only turned but also moved up and down, breaking through the rock. There need never be another famine in Bangladesh. It is a parable, is it not? God's love is there in wonderful abundance, but a thin layer of heart rock (our pride, our greed, our self-importance) keeps us from reaching it. And we die of thirst for the water of life, when all the while it is so near!

Mary and I were speaking, this week, of how God, in his marvelous grace (and responding to the prayers of many) brought her back from the very edge of death. She said, "What else is there to say except, "Thank you?" In this life, this "vale of tears" as the Bible calls it, whether we are prepared to recognize it or not, everyone stands on the edge of death. If God has granted us life for a while; if God has promised us salvation, what else is there to say except, "Thank you?" We didn't earn it and we didn't make it. The old hymn writers knew that truth: "Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know; these for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone." "In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling." What else it there to say except, "Thank you?"

At the center of every communion service, from the earliest days of the church, there has been a long prayer called, "The Great Thanksgiving." That name should tell us something: that when we honestly and most seriously consider the meaning of Christ's life, death and resurrection for us (as we do at the communion table), we realize there is nothing more to say -- just, "Thank you." O, it leads to more - much more. But God's grace, his love for us (unconditional, unearned, and certainly undeserved) came first and still comes first. Faith is our response to God's grace, and not the other way around.

This letter that Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome deeply influenced St. Augustine who, in turn, deeply influenced all subsequent Western thought. It was Paul's letter to the Romans that Martin Luther was reading (in fact it was this very passage, "…the just shall live by faith") when he decided to speak out against the abuses of medieval Catholicism - and turned the world on its ear with the Protestant Reformation. It was the letter to the Romans that John Wesley was hearing expounded upon, at a little prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, when he felt his "heart strangely warmed," and the Methodist movement, so important in the history of England and America, was on its way.

Romans is a powerful letter. It states the good news of Jesus in such a way that the world is forced to sit up and take notice. And that "good news," when we notice, is wonderful but it is also a body blow. It means thinking just the opposite of the way the world thinks, and we usually think. We are doers. We are accomplishers. And, in that, we are prideful. But the Gospel says we will never find salvation (or satisfaction, or peace, or self-fulfillment, or happiness) by our own efforts. We will not find these things by good works, nor by satisfying some set of religious duties. We will not find them even by being good. We will find these blessings by "faithing," by "faithing" God's promises, God's Word and God's grace. And living by our faith.

Everyone is equal at the communion table, and perhaps only at the communion table. Differences of wealth, or status, or education mean nothing here. We all need the grace of God. We all want salvation. And it is given to us all as a free gift. That message short-sheets our pride and removes from us any boasting or self-righteousness. I ask you, what else is there to say but, "Thank you?"