In the centuries before the Reformation, there were only two institutions with claims to Christian faith and tradition:  the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.  They held exclusive access to orthodox Christianity – sole access to the sacraments, the only means to receive the grace of Christ.  They also taught that there was salvation through no one but them – and that receiving God’s grace was a much a matter of what you did – repentance, good works, church attendance, tithes and offerings to the church and obedience to the church’s teachings as it was a matter of faith.

            We like to think that the Reformation changed all that.  After all, don’t we remember Martin Luther for his stand that it was not good works that earned us a spot in heaven but that it was grace alone, ‘sola gratia’, that got us to the throne of grace and not any works of our own?

            This week, as we celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin – whose Reformed Theology is the basis for our own beliefs – don’t we understand that God loves and chooses us and that there is nothing so wonderful about any of us that makes us worthy of God’s redeeming love?

            We like to think that when we separated from the Catholic and Orthodox churches we separated from the need for rituals that made us acceptable to God, but at the same time, the idea of grace is a hard pill to swallow.  We want to be worthy.  We want our good works to help us earn our way to Heaven.  We still want rituals to make us worthy of God’s love and care.  We want to justify ourselves by our good thoughts, our good deeds, and even our good intentions.

            In just over 2 weeks, my niece Katy will be coming to visit.  She has been coming to visit almost every summer since she was 6 years old and every summer and while she is here there is a whirlwind of trips to the pool, impromptu slumber parties, a living room strewn with various crafts and paints, and oh yes, a time when the dogs learn more new tricks.

            Katy is not my real niece.  Her mother is my best friend.  But before Katy was born, I loved her already.  Before I ever knew her name of saw her face, I loved her.  Before she could ever say that she lived me, I loved her.

            In many ways, this is an image of the way God loves us.  In the first seven verses of this morning’s scripture portion Paul writes to the church and declares all the God has done to reconcile the world to the Holy Self.

• God blessed us in Christ.  With every spiritual blessing.  Redemption is part of God’s plan, not our plan.  God sent Jesus down to live among us.  To live a sinless life.  To show us what a life in tune with God looked like – even to the point of letting us kill him so that our own sinfulness could be forgiven.

• God chose us in Christ.  Even before we were born, God loved us and chose to offer us love and forgiveness through Christ.  God chose us.  It was not required that we choose God before God would love us – If God had not first reached out to us, we would not even know enough to reach out to God.

• God destined us for adoption.  We were destined for adoption.  A lot has been written about being destined – being pre-destined in the will of God.  Some have written that God decided in the beginning who would receive grace and who wouldn’t – Some teach that some of us are going to heaven no matter what and that others of us are headed for eternal darkness – no matter what.  But this morning’s scripture portion points out that all of us were destined for adoption – it’s just that some of us refuse the offer.  Going back to my niece Katy – I offered her unconditional love – but could not force her to accept that love or to love me back.  That is her choice.  Likewise God gave human kind the gift of free will – the ability to make choices and will not force us into an eternity with God against our will.

• God freely bestowed grace on us.  The definition of grace is that it is a blessing, The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible puts it this way:

‘Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless.  God is gracious in action.’[1]

God was already acting in grace in the Garden of Eden when God promised redemption for those who chose disobedience.  This promise was finally fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ.

• God lavished grace and forgiveness on us.  Lavished.  I love that word.  Just the sound of it conveys the idea of abundance, of plenty and of gifts riches without measure.  God does not dole out forgiveness as if it was a limited substance and he does not to run out.  God does not practice portion control where we each get the same amount.  God is willing to dish out, to bestow as much as is needed on all who will ask.

• God has made known to us the mystery of his will.  Of all the religious books in the world, the Bible is the only one that claims that God came to us.  Ours is the only one that claims to have been initiated by God and sustained by the Holy Spirit who leads us into the truth about God and makes clear to us the mysteries of the Holy.  Ours is the only one that claims the guiding hand of God intervening in human history to redeem God’s people.

God freely shares with us some knowledge of the infinite, bestows some light into the divine being and the eternal plan.  Just imagine the awesome privilege this is to us!  It’s better than the president calling us on the phone and sharing the secret plans for Iraq!

            In all of these first verses, Paul writes in the first person plural.  He talks about ‘we’ and ‘us’ as if all those who were with him ‘over there’ where he was writing his letter were the ones who received the Word of God and the grace of redemption.  If Paul had stopped writing there, we might think that we had no part in all of this.  But in verse 13, Paul stops talking about himself and his companions and turns to address those who were hearing the words of the letter.  As contemporary hearers of Paul’s letter, he writes to us as well.

            ‘You also’, he writes, ‘heard the word of truth’  just as Paul did, and ‘believed in him’ just as Paul did and because of this we also ‘were marked’ (again this is God at work) ‘were marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit’ just like Paul and his companions.  We, all of us, each and every one of us, who heard and who believed, have received from God the seal, the mark of the Holy Spirit on our lives. 

            The good news for us this day is that no one can earn adoption.  No one can be worthy of inheriting the riches of God.  No one can ascend to the heavens and know the will of God.

            And we don’t have to.  God, in amazing love, in amazing charity, in amazing grace, has given us as a gift the riches of eternity, the divine adoption into the family of God, access to heavenly realms and a vision of the nature and will of God.

            Probably, if you are reading or hearing this message, you have already experienced the call of God in your life. Probably you have already accepted the free gift of God’s grace, your adoption as a child of God.  But if you haven’t, or you’re not sure, I invite you to receive that grace, to accept the love, forgiveness, redemption and acceptance of God.  To rejoice in the assurance that it is ‘sola gratia’.

            Go in peace.

Amen.