For full disclosure, I want to say up front that
this was inspired by a talk that is part of series of talks for the Walk
to Emmaus. The talk is always given by
clergy and is titled Obstacles to Grace.
This is not that talk, but it is somewhat inspired by it.
I thought I’d share a bit about the obstacles to grace that
we sometimes put between us and God and between us and others.
First I want to say that God’s grace is
free.
It is endless.
It is for everyone.
It is amazing to me that we are even extended God’s
grace, because we certainly don’t deserve it!
It is amazing to me that He provides us with
anything at all, especially His Grace.
What is grace?
Unmerited favor…. It is a gift freely given - the recipient having done nothing
to deserve it, and no expectation of paying it back or requirement for paying
it forward. Several years ago, we did a
lock in for the youth where Pastor Gil Hubbard was tasked with getting the youth
to understand a bit of what grace is. He
asked for a volunteer. A few hands went
up. He reached in his pocket, pulled out
a $20 bill and handed it to a volunteer.
Suddenly all hands shot up hoping to get a $20. Unlike God, Pastor Hubbard’s grace did have a
limit. He asked the group if the
volunteer deserved the $20. He asked if the
volunteer was more special than any of the others. Of course, the answer was no. All the volunteer did was to remove the
obstacle to the pastor’s grace by trusting him enough to say yes.
I wonder what bits of God’s grace I miss when I
don’t trust enough to say yes. There
have been times when I was given the opportunity to volunteer for something
when I didn’t raise my hand. What
moments of grace did I miss then? Did I
miss a hug from someone? Did I miss a
special feeling of accomplishment for obeying God’s call? Did I miss an opportunity to share a bond
with a potential new friend?
The Bible is full of stories of obstacles to
grace. In the parable of the Good
Samaritan, the priest and the Levite missed an opportunity to extend God’s grace
to the injured man. We don’t know their
obstacles to grace, perhaps selfishness or fear. We do know that they themselves were
obstacles to grace for the injured man who had to suffer even longer because
they did not respond. The Samaritan enjoyed God’s grace as he offered God’s
grace by helping the injured man. And what a great witness to the innkeeper.
Martha’s obstacle to grace may have been pride as
she complained to Jesus when she chose not to sit at the feet of Jesus with her
sister, Mary.
Jonah’s obstacles were disobedience and prejudice
while fleeing from God’s call to go to Ninevah when ended him up inside a fish.
Fear was the obstacle that prevented King Saul
and the rest of the Israelite army from slaying Goliath, the giant of the
Philistine army. Their fear allowed the
shepherd boy named David to enjoy God’s grace when David slew Goliath with a
single stone. This gift of God’s grace
extends all the way through history as we continue to talk about it.
In the parable of the prodigal son, we see
several obstacles to grace. In the
younger son we see his greed and selfishness and his pride before it gave way
to humility. The older son’s attitude
prevented him enjoying his father’s grace when he refused to attend the welcome
home party. Was his obstacle to grace an
attitude of jealousy or maybe he resented being left behind when his brother
left?
Like the older son, we sometimes miss out on
God’s grace because of some misplaced boulders between us and others. We have hurt feelings so we add a rock to
that protective wall around us so THAT person can’t hurt us again. We misinterpret
someone’s bad day as a personal attack.
How insensitive to assume their attitude is about us!
Another obstacle is gossip – now there is a
boulder we all share at one point or another during our lives. We pass along some tidbit of information,
which may or may not be true, or even if it is true, adds no value to a relationship. Gossip puts the obstacle of mistrust between us.
If you will gossip to me you will likely gossip about me.
I’ve already touched on pride. For me personally, I find that when I let someone
hurt my feelings, it is because of my pride. Why would I put that obstacle
between us? I’ve really been trying of late to err on the side of grace. When my feelings get hurt, I decide that it was
not intentional; it was not meant to hurt me. I’m trying to not let it mess
with the grace-filled day that God has given me. I prefer to err on the side of grace. Expect the best from someone, even when they
don’t live up to it. This is something I
have been practicing with varying degrees of success. Err on the side of grace.
What other obstacles to God’s grace do we fall
victim to? How about un-forgiveness? Someone does something that they should
apologize for but they don’t. When we
harbor un-forgiveness for that person, we are certainly restricting God’s grace
to us. We may also be restricting God’s
grace through us by the way we treat them. Not only do we hold onto the baggage of un-forgiveness,
we chuck rocks at offender too, in prideful un-forgiveness.
Another type of un-forgiveness is when we do not
forgive ourselves. We feel guilty about
something we’ve done, or think we’ve done, or should have done but didn’t.
If God can forgive me, no matter what I’ve done,
and God can forgive everyone else no matter what they’ve done, even those I’m
harboring un-forgiveness for, shouldn’t I do the same and forgive?
Even forgive the one who won’t apologize, who
cheated me or lied to me or slandered me or hurt me-
You fill in the blank……… I must even forgive the
one who did [blank] to me or my loved one.
Another nearly universal obstacle is
preventing someone else from giving to us, or helping us. Oftentimes God places someone in our lives to
show us His grace in personal ways. If
we don’t allow those personal ways to be demonstrated, we are denying God’s
grace to us and preventing another
person to show God’s grace to us.
Has the obstacle of fear prevented
you from fully enjoying God’s gift of grace? Maybe you didn’t go on that
mission trip or visit the hospital or walk on water. We sometimes almost make fun of Peter.
Matthew 14:28 -29 says “Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you,
tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
“Yes, come,” Jesus said.
So Peter went over the side of the
boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
Peter WALKED ON THE WATER. He walked on the water….. just like Jesus
did.
Then fear took over – verse 30…….”But
when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to
sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
Instead of the gospel writer saying that Peter
had a chat with Jesus while they walked along on the water, scripture says “he
was terrified and began to sink.”
Typically that is the part we remember, almost like it is funny. Yeah, He sank; Peter sank like a rock. Good thing Jesus was there to save him!
Instead we should be talking about the grace that
Jesus extended to Peter, “come walk on the water with me”. Fear prevented Peter from fully enjoying
Jesus’ gift of grace. We tend to more identify
with the Peter who sank than the Peter who walked on the water. Fear is that kind of obstacle.
One of the biggest obstacles to grace is me, myself and I. The I
in SIN. I read a book called War of Gods by Kyle Idleman. He has a chapter for various gods we may or
may not know we worship in some fashion. The last chapter is about the god of
ME. a focus on me; how am I hurting; how do I feel; who cares about me; what
about me? Or I don’t want to do that.
I can’t do that. I
won’t do that….. Or…. if I can’t, then I don’t want you to. I
want the focus on me. How can I look good?
To be honest, it would come as a complete shock
to most of us we were told that we sometimes behave that way. Oftentimes we hear a sermon and we are sure
the pastor is talking about us, but other times we are certain the pastor is
talking about that person, or this person, anyone but me, thinking “I wish so
and so would get the message.”
Another obstacle to grace is ignoring God and
Resisting God. Jonah is a perfect
example of disobeying God, trying to ignore Him. Moses begged to resist God. Saul started out ignoring God but being
struck blind brought him around to receive the grace of God in his conversion
to become Paul, God’s voice to the Gentiles.
If God calls us to service, whether that means
serving others or serving in the church but we choose to ignore it, we are
disobeying God.
If God calls us to spend more time with Him in
prayer or study and we resist it, we are disobeying God.
In each case that we are presented with an
opportunity to serve, pray, study and are called by God to do so, God is
extending to us the gift of Grace.
If a person is called to be a pastor but never
pursues it, what gifts of God’s grace does that person miss?
A person is called to go on a mission trip but doesn’t
go. Which Grace-filled gifts were poured
out on the ones who did go?
We are not called by God to be perfect. We are not called to have all the
answers.
We are called to obey, to let God work on us
…and in us
…..and through us.
When we resist that, or ignore that we are
rejecting the many gifts of God’s grace that He has for us. We are in effect telling Him we don’t need or
want His Grace-filled gift.
Jesus calls each of us to “go”. He calls us to go to different places and do
different things, but we are all called for something.
We should not disobey, ignore or resist when the
Spirit works to move us.
When we disobey, ignore or resist, we block an
avenue of receiving or giving the gift of grace from God, in whatever form that
grace might take. – making a new friend? Receiving a God-pat on the back?
Feeling like we accomplished something in God’s name?
God freely gives us His grace. It is a gift that we must receive – receive
is a verb, an action word. We must take hold of it with both hands and
continually say, Thank you for this marvelous Gift of grace, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
Receiving God’s grace is free from God.
We are the ones who stand in the way. We must stop throwing up roadblocks for
ourselves and for others.
I am not saying that every time someone asks us
to do something for a charity, or for a church project or program that we are
supposed to say yes. When we say yes to
things we are not called by God to do, we are actually taking the gift
of grace from someone else, who might actually WANT to do that thing we don’t
want to do. AND we do not receive the grace because we don’t really want to do
it – so our heart is not in the right place.
We are to say yes to those things that God places
in our hearts to do. Sometimes those
things are scary (like giving a message or being liturgist or praying out loud
or going on a mission trip, or doing something to meet new people). Sometimes they just take time. (like sending
cards to people who need encouragement or taking communion to shut-ins.) Sometimes it might be to give the gift of
grace to someone who has wronged you or hurt you in some way by forgiving them,
or erring on the side of grace in case YOU are the one who has misinterpreted
the situation. Remember to depend on the
Power of the Holy Spirit as the disciples did after Jesus ascension.
If you are not experiencing joy or peace in the
degree that you think you should;
if you are holding onto any negative thoughts or
feelings about someone or something, maybe, just maybe, you have put an
obstacle between you and your ability to receive God’s gift of grace.
Do some praying about that. Ask Jesus to show you what your obstacles
are, then ask him to help you remove those obstacles. He’d love to help.