Grace in Time of Need

Texts: Hebrews 4: 12 – 16 & John 14:15 - 21

It has been a long hard winter. Even with spring here according to the calendar we are feeling more of winter's chill. At least the days are getting longer. But we began our Lenten time of reflection early in the year while there was more night than day. And with the cold dragging on we may find ourselves more challenged to complete the course of Lent than if we had begun it in warmer weather with longer daylight hours.

My relationship with Lent is not without tension regardless of what time of year it begins. I believe that an intentional time of reflection is good – it's healthy for our spirits. I also believe that remembering Jesus' suffering on our behalf is good. But then the conflict begins for me. I do not believe that we should remember Jesus' suffering so that we walk with our head hung down and our spirits in shame. Giving up something in our lives or adding something to our lives for 40 days can be a useful tool toward intentional reflection and gratitude. It is, I believe, a tool. We don't perform ritual because the ritual needs us to. We perform ritual for us. It may expand our understanding of a spiritual concept by using physical resources. It might help lead us in the direction toward God that we feel we need to go. Still other times ritual reflects back to us what it is we are doing in the spirit.

According to the scripture passage in the book of Hebrews, we don't have to give up or add anything to our lives for our vulnerabilities to be known by God in Christ. We are all "naked and laid bare" before the Spirit. Our vulnerabilities are already known. The essence of who we are is not hid from God – our strengths and our weaknesses alike. This is meant as an encouragement but so often it inspires fear in our hearts. The encouragement comes in understanding that we are not known to a hateful God but to a loving God. The passage continues in telling us that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are." We are looked upon and known, and then compassion – no, not just compassion, but empathy flows from the heart of Christ. Our Lenten rituals can help to remind us that Christ, through his suffering, knows us and reaches out toward us.

The next line of that passage sometimes brings us back to feeling guilty and shamed. It goes on to say that Jesus endured his testing but without sinning. "Ahhh", you might say,"but I have sinned." How can Jesus sympathize with us? He overcame sin when he was tested and we still sin. Herein lies a mystery. Humans are apt to look down upon someone whose weakness shows when tested. Jesus, though fully human, is not like that. Instead of being wary of the wrath of Jesus because we are weak, we are told to "approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Jesus knows it's hard. Jesus knows that sometimes everything in life falls apart and it's scary, painful and infuriating. The turmoil, suffering, and testing that Jesus endured elicited compassion and sympathy toward us. Praise be to God! We have a high priest – a Messiah – who not only understands us but who offers us grace at the hardest and weakest times in our lives.

Here's the tricky part – we have to believe it, and believe it strong enough to make that approach to the throne of grace with boldness. Do we really believe that we will "receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need?" Do we? Do you? How can we find that strength when we are at our weakest to approach the throne of grace boldly? The only way I know to find this strength is through the one Jesus calls the Advocate, the abiding Holy Spirit. This "other Advocate," as Jesus calls the Spirit, was given to us so that we would not be left alone, fulfilling Jesus' promise that he would not leave us orphaned.

The Spirit doesn't just hang around us. The Spirit lives within us. The passage in The Gospel of John reads, "In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." The Spirit lives amoung us and lives within us. There is an integration between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and us. We are like woven threads worked together to make a whole piece of cloth. Separate one and you unravel the many. We can come boldly to the throne of grace because we are strengthened by the bond between all the threads Spirit has woven within our soul.

There is another thing mentioned in the Gospel of John – the need to keep the commandments of Jesus. Once again we may feel discouraged. Keeping the commandments sounds very hard. I hope that I can encourage you by telling you that there are only two commandments. Very soon we will be addressing these in Sunday morning Bible Study. They are simple commandments, but intense and challenging. In the Gospel of Mark we read, "One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked Jesus, 'Which commandment is the first of all?' Jesus answered, "The first is, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.’"

These are the commandments that Jesus wants us to obey. All other rules and rituals are to be in line with these two. Love God with everything that you are and love others as you love yourself. The question that needs to be asked, which we will be asking in Bible study, is how can we better love ourselves so that we can better love others?

Love God. Love yourself. Love others. The more you live into these commandments the more you will recognize the Advocate who lives in you as well as the strength of the woven threads of the Spirit, Jesus, and Divine Parent with your very soul.

As we move day by day and week by week through Lent, reflecting on the suffering of Christ and our own humanness, let us do so in the strength of Christ's compassion. When you feel weak, either due to the testing of this Lenten season or just because it’s been a hard day ... or a hard winter ... take a deep breath and remember the promised Holy Spirit. Lean back on the woven threads within your soul and approach the throne of grace with boldness. Life can be hard. We don't often have the answers that we want, but at the throne of grace we can breathe in mercy and grace.