Anniversaries and the Very Ordinary Means of Grace
July 18, 2024 | by: Bill Burns | 0 Comments
Posted in: Guest Writers
A month or so back, when the Session was first discussing Dale’s sabbatical and he asked us each to take at least one turn writing for the Touchpoint, I was thinking about Oak Hills’ 25th anniversary. And then the date I’d signed up for just so happened to coincide with my own wedding anniversary, which actually lands on this coming Sunday. Let’s just say, Beck and I “pre-date” Oak Hills by a few years. Our own Oak Hills anniversary is going on 19 years in September.
In considering anniversaries, especially ones like Oak Hills’ and our own, which have many years in the rear-view mirror, now, it’s helpful to consider what goes into such a long-term engagement. Marriages and churches aren’t the same thing, but there are a few similarities.
Both marriages and churches are formed and maintained with promises of faithfulness and devotion. Both involve men and women, and hopefully, both will reproduce. Both take a lot of time, and require investing heart and soul and sweat, and often tears, and much prayer. Both require physical, mental and emotional presence. There are costs involved, some simple financial ones; other costs are harder to quantify. Certainly, we renounce many things when we take a spouse or join a congregation, but hopefully, we simultaneously embrace many other benefits, like fellowship, companionship in life, security, and a certain sense of shared responsibility and a commitment to a common family life.
These things are known as discipleship in the Church context. If we’re honest, we might see that word and wonder, “Am I really a disciple?” Am I following Jesus, like the saints we hear or read about in scripture? I don’t know about you, but when I hear hard words like, “Take up your cross and follow Me…,” or, “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees’…,” or if I compare my own life with some amazing missionary figure, like Jim Elliot, or Hudson Taylor, I feel completely out of my depth.
Isaiah describes the people of Ephraim and Jerusalem as complaining of Yahweh: “…And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be broken, and snared and taken…” (28:10-13ff). This is the way that they perceive the teaching of the Lord: as drudgery and disjointed and meaningless tedium.
Being a church member can be like that, sometimes, especially if we let the cares of our lives overtake us. It may feel like a chore to pray, to read, to even sit in church. Maybe you can’t bring yourself to keep up a regular devotional or prayer life, or you feel overwhelmed by your circumstances, tired and stretched too thin. If that’s you, I have good news.
In the account of the sisters, Mary and Martha when Jesus comes to their house, Martha busies herself serving everyone and complains to Jesus about her sister, who plants herself at Jesus’ feet. Jesus tells Martha, “…only one thing is needed,” and that her sister Mary has chosen “…the good portion,” (i.e. sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to His teaching), and that that good portion will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:38-42). I think Mary knew her limits, first of all, and she clearly knew what was worth her investment of time and energy.
As Presbyterians, we hear a fair bit about the “ordinary means of grace.” The original meaning of the word, “ordinary,” in this term actually means something like ‘ordinances,’ but it also is rightly understood in the normal sense we often take it to mean, namely simply, ‘ordinary.’ These very ordinary means, or regular ways of receiving God’s grace are really very simple: Word, sacrament, & prayer.
We don’t have to pray ourselves into a certain state of mind or go through elaborate rituals to appease our God. We don’t have to busy ourselves with service projects or volunteering (although these are perfectly fine and commendable things for us to do). We don’t need to constantly engage in fasting or alms giving (also fine things, if done in moderation, and for the right reasons). But we have the opportunity, each Lord’s Day, to join together and quiet our hearts, and hear the preached Word of God to us, to observe the sacraments like baptism, signifying our entrance to God’s family, and the simple meal of remembrance and fellowship at the Table, where we acknowledge our need for Christ’s forgiveness and sacrifice, and our membership in his family, to pray together, and confess our sins together, and to sing together.
Maybe you feel overwhelmed by sins and can’t focus to pray. That’s why we have corporate confession and prayer. Maybe you feel condemned. For you we have the assurance of pardon. Maybe your heart is heavy (or full of joy!). For you, and with you, we will sing together.
When we become members of the Church, one of our vows asks us if we “sincerely receive and rest in Christ alone” for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel. This is an important one to remember and renew each week. When you come to church, let the very ordinary means of grace bless you. Christ says to you, “Come to me, all who are weary, and find rest for your souls.” May we still be faithfully receiving and resting together in Christ at Oak Hills in another 25 years!
- Bill Burns
