You Asked for it:
Is There Anyone Outside of God's Grace
or Just Ours?

There are some who call Jesus a “Radical.” What that means to them is Jesus as a radical is someone who challenges the conventional or historical wisdom and beliefs of his culture. The following passage demonstrates this very clearly. Samaritans are seen by the mainstream Jewish faith as people outside the realm of God’s love. The parable we are about to hear has a title that would be an oxymoron to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. The parable is titled, “The Good Samaritan.” As you will see, Jesus uses the person of a Samaritan to be the example of what it means to live the Great Commandment of God, To Love God with your whole being and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.” In this story, we see two agendas of Jesus being expressed. The first is what does it mean to be neighborly, to be a loving person? The second agenda is to show the humanity of one who is deemed unacceptable, whose humanity has been overlooked and even denied by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

Read Luke 10:25-37

Romans: Paul in this passage reflects upon the depth of God’s love. This passage is important, for the title of today’s sermon is, “Is There Anyone Outside God’s Grace?” Grace is defined as unconditional, unearned, unmerited love. So Paul reminds us that nothing can separate people from the love of God through Christ Jesus, this radical man, because there are no conditions. One must ask if there can be such a thing as conditional love. If love is conditional, meaning I will care about you if you do this, makes the act of loving a work or a reward. Real love must always be unconditional, or it is not love. I believe Paul is telling us that in Jesus, we see that absolute love of God for all people, not because of the group they belong to, or because they do mighty acts, but because they are simply people, children of God, created in the image of God.

Read Romans 8:35, 37-39

Sermon:

Today is the last in our series “You asked for it.” We saved what seemed like your hardest question for last. It may have seemed the hardest, because I get to preach on it. The overarching question expressed in several similar questions is, “Are there any people outside God’s grace?” Remember what Nancy said in the introduction that grace is unconditional, unearned, unmerited love. There can never be a condition attached if it is an expression of love. Let me say up front, that I have already cut 45 minutes from the sermon of things I wrote, but obviously cannot fit into the time constraints of worship. So let me simply share a statement about a fundamental belief I bring to the topic today. I would ask you to remember Nancy’s sermon from two weeks ago. Utilizing Jesus’ story about the Lost Sheep she rightly pointed out that there are no throw away people. Each and every person is so precious to God, that God continuously seeks them out.

As my Ethics professor used to remind us, everyone believes in God’s grace, God’s unconditional love until we start getting specific. Certainly we see this in the parable from today. Jesus’ story shows the religious establishment that the love of God is even given to those they reject as being unloveable. Biblical scholar Marcus Borg suggests that it was Jesus’ table fellowship, eating with those rejected by his society that ultimately got him crucified. When you ate a meal with someone, you were saying they were acceptable and worthy of care. And we all love hearing this as we are called to love as Jesus loved.

The questions today reflect what some feel is this very contradiction often heard in our faith as we move to the specifics of living in God’s grace. The questions all said in essence, “We hear about God’s inclusive grace and yet hear many in the church universal say that homosexuals are unloved by God.” Can you please address this issue?” Thanks for the questions!

It is a hard question, because the issue is controversial at least, and makes many of us uneasy. Yet, as I shared this summer during our Disney series, we, as the church, need to be able to talk about anything, because all discussions are ultimately about the lives of the children of God. The issue of homosexuality is not an abstract, political issue for many who are here today in worship, for it is an issue that affects many here personally as the person they are, or in the love they have for someone very close and important to them. There are a number of gay people, or the parents or the brother or sister of a gay person sitting among you right now. This issue of God’s grace is extremely important for them.

Certainly the tension for Christians has been expressed very overtly. We remember that there were some prominent Christian voices, especially from the more conservative wing of the faith that said, “AIDS was God’s judgment against homosexuals.” This remained a prominent theology until it entered into the heterosexual community and we saw children dying from the disease. Yet, in an interview given by Jerry Falwell just days before his death, he was still blaming 9/11 on homosexuals. Again, his premise is that God was punishing our nation for being to accepting of gay people. So as people who seek to be faithful to God, who truly want to live our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, what do we do? Where do we get answers and insight?

As Christian people, to seek answers we always start with Scripture. Scripture, itself, is problematic for us I addressing this issue. First of all there are no words in Hebrew or Greek, the two languages of Scripture for homosexual. So it does not seem to be a categorization or label of a group in their cultures. Most of the passages in scripture used to attack homosexuality are from the Old Testament teachings known as the “Purity Code.” It is a complex subject, but let me make a few general remarks showing why it is problematic. An overly simplified understanding of the code is, “Everything has its place and nothing is to be out of its place.” One example a biblical, cultural scholar uses is, muddy boots are fine in the field, but don’t wear them in the house. Now how many of us have not heard a parent yell at us for not wiping our shoes before we enter the house? Blood belongs in the body and not outside. In the code, a woman is suppose to go through a two week purification after her menstrual cycle before she return to worship.

Another aspect of the code is some things that are deemed impure are not things that are unnatural but simply not the norm. For example, the Hebrew people were not supposed to eat fish without scales, because that was not normal. There are a lot of people who would be very angry today if they knew they had to give up their Friday evening catfish fry. The question that arises is, can you condemn a catfish for being a catfish. It raises the issue for us as we seek to find understanding, if indeed gayness is natural and not nurture, can we condemn someone for being who the are created?

There is another passage that is a little more direct in its condemning of homosexual practices. The passage in Romans 1:18-32. The thrust of the passage is actually targets the practice of idolatry, the practice of worshipping false gods. That idolatry takes us away from living in the grace of God and this dehumanizing our lives. It certainly uses same sex relations as an example. But it is also pointed out that the passage is not speaking about committed relationships. There is a sense of promiscuity. At the same time, biblical scholars remind us, that again, before we become too focused on using this passage to condemn people, we need to also acknowledge that such things as being a gossip, foolish, haughty, and rebelliousness against our parents are also listed as examples. Again, we see the tension in scripture as we can read even the rest of Paul’s letter to the Rome church and see how it deals with grace abounding. We all fall short of God’s glory, but God loves us anyway. The passage we read today that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from that love. And to add to the tension, it is an issue that Jesus, himself, never addresses.

So what next? Jesus does say that we need to be compassionate as God is compassionate. To be compassionate means to enter into another person’s life so fully that you feel their feelings in your guts. That you can understand life from their perspective. I believe the reason God asks this of us, comes back to what Jesus is doing in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is when we fully move beyond labels for people and experience them in the fullness of their humanity. So what I want to do is share just a few stories of experiences I have had that have influenced my understandings and decisions, but by the very fact that so many of you asked the question, I believe reflect your experiences as well.

One day several churches back, Nancy received a phone call from one of our parishioners. When she answered the phone all she heard was deep sobbing. Finally the woman composed herself enough to tell Nancy she had just returned from a study where the leader said that homosexuals were hated by God and condemned to hell. The thrust of the call came when she asked, “Do you believe my son is going to hell?” In the midst of this, we may forget that the labels we talk about are indeed someone’s daughter or son. We forget how deeply they are loved and how special they are to so many. Maybe like those who heard Jesus’ stories, we need to hear stories that remind us of the humanity of those we judge.

Several weeks ago I was the Dean for an HIV/Aids camp called “Strength for Journey.” The camp has a ritual where the first night at campfire they bring ashes from the last camp and dump them in the fire as a remembrance of the friends and relatives who have died. I must admit it was a deeply moving experience. To see the tears, to hear some of the stories of those who cared so deeply, who contributed so much to the lives of others. As we listened, there was no doubt of the deep love felt by so many, no doubt about the grace that was present in those deeply caring stories.

Now, I also want to share that this was my first year doing this camp, and I would not be totally honest if I did not say that there were times I was nervous or at least a little anxious. I was in the midst of a culture very foreign to me. I believe I am speaking for most of us that the unfamiliar can indeed be anxiety provoking. Yet, it is why Jesus tells us to be compassionate as God is compassionate. Even in the midst of my anxiousness, I was able to experience the real issues and feelings of those I shared four days of life with. At breakfast one morning, as I was talking with a camper, he said to me, “Thank you for coming and being here. I know we are the scum of the earth. I know we are a scourge to those around us. You being here helps us feel a little more cared about.” What can you say, what can you do to help someone see themselves differently? I was campfire song leader, and I made sure we sang the song “See Me Beautiful” every night.

I have many stories, as I know you all do. I want to share one more, as I believe it challenges us to understand why it is important to acknowledge the humanity of all people, and not live in the don’t ask don’t tell that may allow us to live outside our anxiousness. The first person I ever met in my life dying of Aids was in the late 80’s. He was the son of a couple in my congregation. His mom was the one who came to talk with me, as his dad was too embarrassed. She said she had no one to talk to because her family would disown her if they found out the truth of what was happening to her son. She shared that her son was on hospice as he was dying of AIDS. Would I do his memorial service? When I assured her that I would, she then risked asking if I would visit her son. Absolutely. In my visits with him, I discovered that he had done many things for his community. He had even been honored by the city of San Diego for all his volunteer work for park beautification. After several visits I had built enough trust, that he began sharing some of his deep frustration and hurt about his life. One of those frustrations was the lack of government commitment to helping find a cure for AIDS. He said, because it was seen as a gay man’s disease, little money had been provided for research. Only when it spread to the heterosexual community did funding increase. Here is what threw me. The young man looked at me and asked, “I wonder if I would have had to die if this was simply seen as a human beings disease and not a gay man’s disease?” I stood there speechless. What a human question?

Last week when I shared some of my thoughts about eternity, I shared a judgment day story. I close with another one today. It always seems to me the bottom line of any decision I make will ultimately be, “Can I explain my actions to God.” One of my professors said, “I do believe that someday I will stand before God and have to give an accounting of my life. And because I am human, I know I am going to make mistakes that I will be accountable for. But, if I err on the side of love, somehow I feel God will be understanding.” I agree, in the sense that to not err on the side of love may mean that somehow I may deny someone the gift of grace. I also see that no matter what we believe about any issue, God has simply asked us to love. I realize that love does not always mean being overly tolerant and accepting, that sometimes we need to practice a tough love that challenges people to change. This becomes another part of our tension. I do believe it is why compassion, getting to know and truly understand another is Jesus’ call and direction for living our faith. We first have to get to know each other as human beings, before we can know how to love. But it seems to me, the first belief is acknowledging, “There are no people outside the grace of God.” And since there is no one outside God’s grace, there can certainly not be anyone outside of ours.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on September 30, 2007.