The year has well and truly begun, and routines are almost all completely in place. I, and my family, have settled well into our new home, and are growing more and more excited by the possibilities and potential of the ministry we will be able to exercise here in Cape Town. And it doesn’t hurt to live under the shadow of Table Mountain! My prayer for us (meaning the Sacredise cyber-community) is that our worship will continue to grow deeper and more challenging throughout the year, and that our churches will become stronger reflections of the grace, compassion, challenge and reign of Christ as a result.

Epiphany 4 on January 31st is a week that can really challenge us about our views and practice of grace. What has struck me as I have reflected on this week’s readings is that grace is not just a “yes” to love and compassion and acceptance and forgiveness. Grace is also a “no” to hatred and apathy and condemnation and exclusion. The “yes” is often easy to speak and to receive, but the “no” is much harder, much more painful, and can lead us into confrontation and even conflict. Yet, the “no” is as important as the “yes”, for without either one, grace is not really grace at all.

READINGS:
Jeremiah 1:4-10: Jeremiah is called to be a prophet, and God explains God’s knowledge of Jeremiah from his conception, and God’s message for Jeremiah to preach. Note both the “yes” and the “no” in the message Jeremiah is given.

Psalm 71:1-6: A prayer for God to protect and be a refuge from one who has trusted and praised God since the womb.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13: The noble and godly characteristics of love, which lasts forever, and is the greatest of all things. Again note the “yes” (love is…) and the “no” (love is not…).

Luke 4:21-30: After reading the “yes” in Isaiah’s scroll (last week) the “no” to the people of Nazareth in Jesus’ teaching offends them, and they attempt to kill him.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The two major themes in this week’s reading stand out in clear relief:
1. God’s grace is not always a comfortable and gentle thing to experience. Integral to God’s grace is the work of justice which distresses the comfortable and self-assured (the “no”) even as it comforts the distressed (the “yes”). Jeremiah is told that his message will not only build up but break down; The psalmist reflects on his vulnerability and the threat of evil in spite of his long life of relationship with God; The love that Paul speaks about is not an easy or comfortable way to follow, but challenges our self-centredness and lethargy toward others; and finally, Jesus makes it clear that his ministry is not “friendly” and non-disruptive, but  a life-changing, all-inclusive confrontation of self-righteousness and injustice.
2. As with Jesus’ near execution in Luke, those who choose to follow Christ in his liberating work, must expect that they will find themselves in confrontation with injustice and those who propagate it. This will inevitably lead to great sacrifice and suffering.

The work of grace is not all acceptance and healing. Sometimes it is a wounding battle – not least because we are called to love even those we challenge.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
“One day, he’s here, and the next he’s not, but you mustn’t press him, after all, he’s not a tame lion.” Mr. Tumnus, speaking of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

GLOBAL APPLICATION: Like the people of Nazareth, there are still those who seek to “own” Jesus for themselves. By domesticating Jesus, and editing his message to fit our national, corporate or religious agendas, we tame the Gospel, and make it palatable, with little cost. But, as the people of Nazareth discovered, Jesus will not be tamed, and his grace, while offered to all, also challenges of all that resists grace. As Matthew Fox explains, following Jesus means embracing biophilia – loving life and all that supports it and provides joy and enjoyment – and resisting necrophilia – standing against all that robs life, oppresses and abuses. This dual-character of grace is what is revealed this week in Epiphany, and calls us to stand against any attempt to domesticate and “use” Jesus in our world – as Wilberforce, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. all did.

LOCAL APPLICATION: As preachers, worship leaders and even Christ-followers, it is all too easy to seek to bring Jesus and his Gospel into service of our own desires and agendas. It is easy to accept grace for ourselves, but deny it to others – even in Jesus’ name. It is easy to remain silent when Jesus is used as justification for abuse, oppression, greed, hatred or arrogance. But, grace does not call us to silence, or to compliance with that which hurts and destroys. The strength of grace is to resist what keeps others from grace – defending the powerless, speaking for the voiceless and lifting up the downtrodden – all while still seeking to love those against whom we stand. Inevitably, this just (justice-focused) grace, will bring us into situations of confrontation and conflict, but they can be navigated with both strength and compassion, if we will learn from Jesus. Who, in your community, needs just grace to defend and heal them (the “yes”)? Who needs just grace to confront and disturb them (the “no”)? And where, in our own hearts, do we need grace to confront and disturb us?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Wild God
Just Grace

Hymn Suggestions:
Christ For The World We Sing
Ah, Holy Jesus
O Young And Fearless Prophet
Stop The Clanging
The Church’s One Foundation
You Are (Link to YouTube video. Or download the mp3 & chord chart free from here)
History Maker (Link to YouTube video)
God Of This City (Link to YouTube video)
Everlasting God (Link to YouTube video)
Living For Your Glory (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Celebration of Sacrifice (Calls us to remember Jesus’ sacrifice and to embrace the suffering and struggle of following Christ)

Video Suggestions:
Disrupt With Mercy
Justice And The Kingdom Of God (This is different from the Brian McLaren video that I’ve featured before)
Spoken Word – His Grace
MLK – Faith Is Taking The First Step