As I write this, it’s about an hour before kick-off in Super Bowl LIV, when the AFC Champion Chiefs take on the NFC Champion 49ers. Neither of them are my team, but I’m pulling for the Chiefs. I’m pulling for the Chiefs partly because a good portion of our congregation pulls for the Chiefs, and a happier congregation makes for a happier ministry! Besides, 50 years without an NFL title seems long enough. On top of that, I’m pulling for the Chiefs because I’m pulling against the 49ers. I still haven’t forgiven Joe Montana & Dwight Clark for “The Catch” in their NFC Championship game against my beloved Cowboys in 1982. They say time heals all wounds, but evidently the healing process for some wounds is longer than 38 years…
Actually, no matter how long it’s been since a wound was inflicted, there is a crucial element that must be added to time in order for healing to take place: you also need a healthy dose of grace. We talked a bit about grace in our message today, which was about how all of us are called to be Soul Mates. As part of the human family, we all share in the same spiritual DNA. In some sense, we are all on the same team. Our shared humanity doesn’t change, even when we temporarily forget it and wind up wounding one another.
When we are cut to the quick by each other, we are given the opportunity to practice grace - and we are called to do just that, as image-bearers of God’s unlimited grace. The game of life in which we find ourselves is ultimately meant to be a game of grace. As hard as it can be to play the game that way, thankfully, God shows us the way. While we have to suffer the consequences and incur penalties when we cause an infraction (are you getting tired of this metaphor yet?), we will never be ejected from the game - because God is ultimately a God of grace. One example I cited this morning came from the story of Cain & Abel in Genesis 4. After Cain, in unrelenting anger, murders his brother, God imposes a penalty on him. Cain will have to suffer the consequences of his actions. But strikingly, God does not demand Cain’s life as payment for Abel’s life. And while Cain is cast out from what he has known up to that point, even in his punishment, God marks him to protect him. The perpetrator of evil in the story is marked as a member of God’s family! While God disciplines Cain, God does not disown him. God essentially lets Cain know that, despite what Cain has done, he is still God’s child. And if Cain is still a child of God, after what he’s done, then EVERYONE is still God’s child! We are ALL in the same family.
This is grace. As Philip Yancey defines it, “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more - no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of religious causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less - no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.”
When the game is over tonight, one team and fanbase will be giddy with joy, and the other will feel defeated and deflated. But soon after the final gun, both teams will meet on the middle of the field to exchange handshakes and hugs and congratulations. There will be wounds in the game, and healing to be done afterwards, to be sure. But there will also be grace.
Whatever our woundedness, my prayer is that in seeking to live from the center of our souls, we will begin to recognize the Divine Image in all others, and recognize that we are all sisters and brothers. We are all on the same team.
Grace and peace, my friends.