Proper 22 Year B 10/06/2024
Genesis 2:18-24; Psalm 8; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
How we understand who we are is important.
It impacts the way we view the world…
How we view and understand each other…
And the way we believe about God…
And about God’s ways in this world.
In our day and age in the Western world some suggest that we are just the most advanced animal on the earth.
That we arrived purely by coincidence and by the right substances coming together at just the right moment.
But our readings from Holy Scripture give a different perspective.
From Genesis…
We understand that God – the one true God – is the creator of all things.
Which means he created us…
he created us male and female…
Creating us in his image.
Our Psalm further expresses who we are in relation with God and the world.
The psalm is bookended by praise and adoration to God.
But in the middle, the psalmist looks around at God’s creation and
considering the work of God…
the moon and the stars in the heavens…
Ponders why God should even be mindful of humanity…
Why would God even seek us out?
The psalmist writes that humankind has been made a little lower than the angels…
And yet God adorns people with glory and honor…
In a different way than the rest of creation.
The psalmist reflects on how we as humans have mastery over the rest of creation…
that we are to manage it…
to care for it.
Which reflects the charge from Genesis where God said:
Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
(Genesis 1.28)
In The Message paraphrase it writes the psalm this way:
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
Made us stewards of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
All of this gathers us to believe that we are very important to God.
And yet we are lower than God…
We are his creation.
In our reading from Hebrews the writer quotes from Psalm 8.
And then does something very interesting…
Explaining that Jesus – the God-Man – became this same way as we are.
The Hebrews writer says:
…we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels,
This is the Incarnation –
the Christmas story –
When God became man and dwelt among us –
that is Jesus Christ…
The author of Hebrews is using a contrast between angels and humans to point to the way that the Son – Jesus Christ –
in undertaking a full and complete humanity,
Jesus restores man’s dignity and divinely-intended place in creation. [1]
If you want to see God’s plan for humanity…
Look no further then the person of Jesus Christ.
Then the writer says:
…now (Jesus) crowned with glory
and honor because of the suffering of death,
so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
And that’s where I want to focus the rest of this homily this morning.
…by the grace of God (Jesus) might taste death for everyone.
Jesus died on the cross…
He suffered and died…
So that we would be saved…
Saved by grace.
The very act of Jesus suffering and death is the grace of God.
Grace!
Our Bishop, Justin Holcomb writes:
Grace is the most important concept in the Bible, in Christianity, and in the world.[2]
The 20th century Princeton scholar J. Gresham Machen writes:
The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God.[3]
It is probably sufficient to say that if we don’t understand grace, we probably don’t understand Christianity.
So what is grace?
The way the Bible uses the word grace is much different than our common use of the word.
We use the word to mean charm, elegance, beauty, or attractiveness.
These ideas have little to do with how Scripture uses the word.
In fact, grace isn’t a personal virtue…
Rather…
As Bishop Justin Holcomb says:
It is undeserved favor lavished on an inferior by a superior.
Grace is unmerited favor…[4]
Grace is what God has done for us in creation…
In the person of Jesus Christ…
In what God is doing in us and through us…
Even right now, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Book of Common Prayer says Grace is God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins,
enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.
(BCP, 858)
Grace is the undeserved and unmerited favor that God gives to us in salvation.
We don’t earn salvation,
nor do we deserve salvation…
God freely gives us or graces us salvation.
This is why the Gospel is good news.
Through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ…
Through his resurrection…
We can be saved…
By God’s grace!
As is written in the book of Ephesians (2.8-9):
For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God— not by works,
so that no one can boast.
Salvation is not something we earn.
Salvation is not something we deserve.
Salvation is not something we can purchase.
If it was those things then we would be faced with condemnation.
With doubt.
With anxiety about whether we are good enough…
Or if we have done enough to “get into heaven.”
Again scholar J. Gresham Machen writes:
Condemnation comes by merit; salvation comes only by grace: condemnation is earned by man; salvation is given by God.[5]
This is why Jesus said in the Gospel of John (3.17):
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him.
This is why St. Paul wrote in Romans (8.1):
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
If you are a Christian…
You have been saved by the grace of God.
Not because you chose to be a Christian.
Not because you thought it would be a good idea.
You are a Christian – saved by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus – because God graciously lavishes his favor on you.
And by faith we believe in this good news.
This truly is great news!
In fact, it is overwhelmingly good news.
Salvation is not based on my work or my merit.
It is based on Jesus Christ.
Because of sin we deserve death.
But instead, God has given us life… life eternal!
And I don’t know about you, but the more I grasp what God has done for me… his gracious act…
It produces a desire to want to serve him all the more…
To turn away from sin and evil…
To share the good news of Jesus in this world…
To do good works in this world…
Not because they help me gain salvation…
But because of the salvation that I have received by grace…
I want to do what God desires for me to do.
You see grace changes everything.
It’s what makes Christianity different than any other religion in the world.
The grace of God is where I find my importance, my self-worth, and my purpose.
The grace of God is where I find my true self, my real humanity.
The way I was created to be.
The way I was designed.
The way we will take our place on this earth…
As we read in Genesis and the Psalm…
Managing God’s creation…
Is through understanding who we are in the grace of Jesus Christ.
Which is why when we have a little verse like Hebrews 2.9:
…by the grace of God (Jesus) might taste death for everyone.
We are reminded of God’s great love for us.
God loves you.
And he wants to fill you with His Spirit by His great grace.
And to lavish his love on you.
He loves you.
Amen.
[1] The Reformation Study Bible, p. 1778.
[2] Justin S. Holcomb, On the Grace of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 11.
[3] Ibid., 16.
[4] Ibid., 12.
[5] Ibid., 12-13.