(A theological reflection in 2 parts)
Washed up on the shores of heaven
Part 1: We live and move and breathe within the grace of God
In a recent sermon, I made this comment:
“Somewhere at the centre of our souls – something that we cannot see, but that God can, is a drop of baptismal water that has made us clean, which is continually refreshing us, and which will, one day, wash us up on the shores of heaven.”
There is something about this final phrase: “will wash us up on the shores of heaven” that strikes chords with people, for a few people at the end of the service have delayed going directly to the tea-trolley to come and tell me how much they appreciated it. So, I thought I would explore what I understand about the image a bit more.
The main reason I am a Christian is that I am overwhelmed by the grace of God. I tangibly feel that I am surrounded by the undeserved, loving kindness of God. His grace upholds me in all things: through disappointment and failure, despite my weaknesses and lack of trust and faithfulness to God. His grace directs me in paths of goodness, truth and love. He protects me from vanity, selfishness and unkindness (to a remarkable degree). He enables me to achieve good things, and to take pleasure in the goodness of them while being guarded against the delusion that I am anything without God. God’s grace is, and will be always, and particularly at the end will be, all sufficient for me. I never can – and neither do I have to worry about being able to do this – present myself before God with a record of my achievements and an expectation, or even a demand, that I deserve entry into heaven, or now, that I deserve recognition as a good person. As Paul so wisely notes: the word of the Lord came to me saying that my grace is made perfect in your weakness. Of the many paradoxes in the life of faith, this is one of the most profound. It is not that our weaknesses or failures do not matter – they do, intensely! The well-being or harm of others, and the state of our own souls depends on whether we do good or evil. Nor is it simply that our weaknesses leave more scope for God’s grace – as though, if we could somehow be very good people, we would hardly need God at all. The point is that God, in his loving kindness, understands what we lack, and has the willingness and ability to make up for that, so that, by grace, we are able to achieve, not simply, what we could not do without him, but we are able to achieve God’s gracious purposes which are – without God – totally out for reach, for without God we neither know, nor are willing, nor have the power to achieve God’s transforming will. But when we “lean on God”, allow our weakness – and our strong desire to serve him, along with the gifts that he has bestowed on us -to be infused with God’s grace then we see his grace triumphant in achieving what he wanted, and clearly in a way where our weakness has become a strength, precisely because, in that weakness we called on God to help us, and so our weakness became not simply something that didn’t get in the way of God’s action, but became a partner in God and us together achieving the good that we both desire.
Spiritual Devotion 