Amazing Grace
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 4, 2021
Ezekiel 2:1-5 • 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 • Mark 6:1-13
Imagine my surprise when, as I was prayerfully meditating on our scriptures for this Sunday, the words of the confession from the 1928 prayer book flooded into my head, words that come directly from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s 1552 prayer book. Join with me if you can:
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
Isn’t it interesting how celebrating the birthday of America has become more complicated in recent years? However, when I’m not wringing my hands in anguish about the state of things, and my seeming inability to do anything to improve the situation, I can get quite excited about the possibilities for the future.
I understand why my heart went to Cranmer’s confession: there is much to regret, much to confess. How tragic that those grand, eloquent phrases of the Declaration of Independence were only meant for some people’s ears. It didn’t cross anyone’s minds for much of this country’s history to include those people who clearly weren’t created equal: those barely human people had no unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Nothing can be addressed until it can be seen in the harsh light of day. If the status quo is so comfortably omnipresent for the majority, there is no room, no incentive to disrupt it.
But we have been disrupted, haven’t we?
The civil rights movement has been increasingly claiming its voice over the last seventy years, and the coverage of murder of George Floyd last Spring, shocked and tipped the country into a new state of awareness The threat of global climate change is been becoming more and more evident. The political divisions within America seem unreconcilable. The democratic process itself is under attack. And we’re still in a global pandemic that has led to nearly four million deaths that we know of: the actual number most certainly being higher.
What to do, what to do?
I’m sure many of you know something of the genesis of our opening hymn this morning, ‘Amazing Grace’. The words were written in 1779 by the Englishman John Newton, recalling a pivotal moment in his own life. Born in 1725, he was the only child of a sea captain and a church going mother. From his own accounts, his life as a young man was dissolute. He eventually fell prey to a press gang, and was forced into service as a crew member, working on the legal, horrific and highly profitable slave trading ships. In 1748, during a violent storm, his rackety ship began to come apart at sea. And what do we do when all seems lost? We pray. John Newton prayed as he had never done before. He prayed for forgiveness. His transformation wasn’t instantaneous, but it was unstoppable. He left the sea, became a priest, and a powerful voice in the movement to abolish slavery in England.
This July 4th, we can celebrate the birth of America. We can celebrate the grand ideals expressed in that declaration of 1776, but first we should consider grieving the limitations of the vision of those crafting those words. It is absolutely appropriate to grieve for every way that power has been used cruelly and unjustly. It is appropriate to grieve for the millions of lives crippled and lost because of the greed and misplaced sense entitlement of many.
It is also appropriate to grieve the damage we have done to our environment. How we have failed to act as good stewards, and have instead been thieves in the sheep fold, stealing and vandalizing without consideration for the future.
Grieving wrongs, confessing sins, owning that we have lost our way is a powerful route to healing, redemption, and transformation: indeed, it is the only way. Jesus, throughout the Gospels, makes this crystal clear. In almost every healing story, Jesus says something along the lines of ‘your sins are forgiven’.
Before we can be healed, we have to be able to see and articulate where we are in error, where we have separated from the love of God. When we do that, and really let ourselves feel that pain, we can at last know the love of God that has always been there for each one of us, whether we knew it or not. And then we can live into the redemptive, transformative power of God’s forgiveness.
And that, my friends, is where the party starts! A party the likes of which this country, this world has never seen. A party where everyone is welcome on an equal footing; sharing and celebrating a reverence for all of creation, with the skies putting on a light show to make our firework displays look like puny splutters.
At the core of my faith lies hope. A hope supported by prayer, scripture, church teaching and practice that not only I, but the rest of humanity will, with God’s help, increasingly acknowledge and own our errors. And my hope, no, it’s more than that, my certainty that, with God’s help, all will be well – not just for the few, but for all of creation.
We may have indeed ‘erred and strayed like lost sheep’ to turn back to the 16th century words of Thomas Cranmer, but amazing grace indeed abounds.
Let us conclude by singing together again John Newton’s words from our opening hymn, letting them comfort, nourish, and inspire us:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved: how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
The Lord has promised good to me, (God’s) word my hope secures;
(God) will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
1779