Amazing Grace Pastor's Note

The tune of Amazing Grace can be picked up by just about everyone, can’t it? Even those of us who wouldn’t expect ourselves to be part of a choir (or, run from the thought of singing in one) can pick it up. When those first few notes hit the organ, or the piano, or the guitar, (Buh bah! Ba-bo-ba!) every one of us—the regular churchgoers, the doubters, the happy, the sad, you and me—we are transformed into a choir of saints and sinners who sing to God those hope-filled words. We sing for faith, we sing to cry out, we sing for healing, and we sing for hope. We sing for God’s grace to transform this mess of a world that we find ourselves in, and to transform us, who often feel like we’re a mess ourselves.

 

Throughout the verses we are naming God’s Grace coming to us before we can believe it to be true (Methodists like to call this Prevenient Grace); we name the ways we’ve messed up this gift of God’s love, and how, even still, God forgives us (this is Justifying Grace); and we name how God’s grace, over time, is transforming us from the inside out to be more like Jesus in all that we do (this is Sanctifying Grace). And just like that, whether we knew it or not, we’ve been gifted a theology lesson wrapped up in a song.

 

We Methodists like to do that. Rather than having shelves of books to read on our theology, the old adage for Methodist theology is: take a look at our hymns. While Charles Wesley may not have written this one, it was still common throughout America in the 18th and 19th centuries by Methodists trying to live faithful lives in the midst of the mess the world was in at that time. From enslaved people singing the final verse (When we’ve been there ten thousand years...) to bring hope amidst the sinful injustices perpetuated against them, to Native Cherokee peoples doing the same thing while walking the Trail of Tears, this song has been a balm for so many during their lowest of lows, a steady anchor when things are out of our control.

 

Throughout the season between Easter and Pentecost, we are focusing on the verses of Amazing Grace to walk through just how God’s grace works in us, how it transforms us, and how it leads us to change the world. It’s foolish. It’s powerful. It’s hopeful. It points to resurrection when others only see death. It has the power to change the hardest of hearts (read John Newton’s bio), and it has the power to transform relationships.

 

Each and every day we wake up to a world that is in a mess. And each and every day we try our best to make a positive impact on the world, to live out our faith in ways that bring justice, liberation, freedom, Sabbath, and peace, as well as trying to eradicate injustice, bondage, anxiety, loneliness, and shame. Rather than assuming we are the ones to do all of this work, maybe we can rely more on God’s amazing grace to work in us, freeing us to participate in what God is already doing in the world. Freeing us to give that grace to others because we have first received it.

 

Maybe it starts with listening to a different version of Amazing Grace each week, finding new versions from communities we’re not as familiar with. Say, like the version that is sung in Twi (a language of Ghana), or one of the many live versions from Aretha Franklin, or learning the ASL movements to sign it.

 

God’s amazing grace is here for you this season and every season. Will you let it transform your own life? I hope so. The messy world hopes so, too.

 

On the Journey With You,

Pastor Skitch

 

(You can catch up with our Amazing Grace series by clicking here.)