Two Gifts

Ephesians 1:2

The Apostle tells us there are two great gifts that come from God--grace and peace. But what are they? How do we experience them in the course of a regular day? What do we do with them?

GRACE

The first experience we have of grace each day is waking up. 

Life itself is a gift of God’s grace. God created all that is in a wondrous gift of self-giving and self-emptying. Although complete in and of God’s own being, God sought relationship with something/someone outside of God. So, God created a cosmos able to bring forth creatures capable of being loved and sharing love. That is the reason for our existence--to love. So, each new day is a new opportunity to discover and explore who and what we are.

The second experience we have of grace each day is the freedom to do with that day whatever we will.

God blessed us with creative imaginations with which we make our way. Each day, we make decisions and choices about what to do, what to say, what to use, and what to be. It begins with the wardrobe--clothes do make a statement to the world of who we are. We choose how to interact (or not interact) with others. We may have fixed schedules with daily responsibilities, but we choose how to do them. We choose what to eat, how to treat our bodies, and how we treat one another. We choose not to choose. We allow others to determine our life for us, then we choose to either accept that or rail against it. All through the day, we make choices and decisions, and all of them--every single one of them--is a real and actual choice. God graced us with freedom, even the freedom to turn away. 

The third experience we have of grace each day is the presence of God’s patience with us, that includes the grace of reconciliation through forgiveness. 

In our freedom, we make bad choices and foolish decisions. We make mistakes. We misstep. We say things we wish we could immediately take back. We remain silent when we really needed to say something. We fall inactive when we could have done something. We make a mess of things. Sometimes we make a mess of things purely by accident, but there are so many times when we make a mess of things knowing--KNOWING--we are absolutely, incontrovertibly right. God abides. God does not sweep us aside with utter frustration, hoping for better with a new created being. God patiently waits. God waits with redeeming grace--i.e., the assurance of forgiveness. There will be a new day. There is the opportunity for reconciliation. There is the chance to come to our senses and wake up to the way we are truly to be. God waits for us to see what is wrong, to experience what is wrong, and to realize that things must change. That is the true nature of forgiveness--it is allowing another (or ourselves) the space to see our wrong for what it is. 

The fourth experience we have each day of grace is the grace of turning around. 

When Jesus saved the woman caught in adultery from an angry mob ready to stone her to death, he first forgave her (“neither do I condemn you”), but then he invited her to change what she was--”Go and sin no more.” That is the grace of transformation. Once someone forgives us, the next step is to change so we do not repeat the mistake. We make adjustments, alterations, and amendments to our lives. We learn from the experience--we gain wisdom. 

And now we are ready for the next gift--

PEACE

The first experience we have of peace is the moment of reconciliation. 

After an argument, after words of apology are spoken, there then comes peace as the combatants return to being people who love one another fully and can coexist again. After someone hurts someone else, sees it, offers apology, then there can come healing. There is the peace of restoration. There is the peace of reclamation--the one who erred is able to rejoin the circle. The one hurt is able to welcome the offender back into her presence. There is the peace of reconnection--the reestablishment of harmony. 

The second experience we have of peace is actualizing reconciliation in the experience of new life. 

Resurrection is not simply a doctrine for death and dying, offering hope in the face of our inescapable end. It is also a present understanding, offering hope in the daily risings of reconnection and re-commitment to a broken relationship, be it with each other or with God. Resurrection is, for example, the morning after the woman caught in adultery met Christ. She has a new day--what will she do with it? Resurrection offers her the hope of not falling back into familiar patterns and old habits. Resurrection says that we can be well and all manner of things can be well. For the Apostle, this peace led him through his ministry--a persecutor of Christ becomes Christ’s greatest advocate. John Newton Thomas can sing of amazing grace that saved a wretch like himself. So, this peace is the day after reconciliation--it is the answer to “What next?”

The third experience we have of peace is shalom.

Shalom is the total peace of the Seventh Day, that final day of creation when things were so right, so well, and so good that God could simply be with God’s creation and they could simply be with their God. Some of us, rightly, feel we are a long way from there. No, the world still seems ruled by chaos that is far from ordered. Yes, people still reveal an astounding propensity to hurt one another, reject one another, and selfishly use one another. Yet, shalom can be experienced here and now. It is momentary, but it is there. It is there in a morning sunrise blazing through woods lit by autumnal colors. It is there while holding an infant tenderly to one’s heart. It is there at a family dinner table marked by laughter, lightness, and simple fun. It is there in an hour spent reading a really good book. It is there while sitting in an auditorium while Yo Yo Ma flawlessly plays a Bach partita. It is there when a small congregation gathers for prayer and there is a silent stillness that echoes with the still, small voice of God. Fill in your own blanks of those moments when everything is just as it should be. 

So, grace leads to peace which leads to a full awareness of the presence of God.

To fully actualize them, we need to live them—so, go—be grace by being gracious; be peace by being peaceful.

All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.