Monday, 16 August, 2004

The opening piece is from “Union with Christ” – The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther.



Luther found it most important…to relate grace and gift closely to each other, and to understand them both as given to a Christian through Christ” “But ‘the grace of God’ and ‘the gift’ are the same thing, namely, the very righteousness which is freely given to us through Christ.” …grace and gift are given not only through Christ, but in Christ and with Christ. For whatever distinction Luther makes between them, he also always keep them together. …Luther points out that grace and gift are in Christ and they become ours when Christ is “poured” into us.



I wanted to use this piece because I was taken to a portion in the Prayer of Thanksgiving that we use in the Holy Communion liturgy. I one liturgy we sing “through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit…” In another one we actually repeat the word Christ… “through Christ, with Christ, etc." Within those words we simply sing or speak by memory, is a depth of language that attempts to remind us of the wonder-filled participation we have in the name of the one we call Christ, Jesus. More and more I find it odd that in a community sharing the Lord’s Supper and using such language as this that we can even think of dividing the house of issues of the day. No issue, no item on the social agenda, can over ride the way in which we are ALL partaking in the benefit of life “poured” into us and shared among us. We may fear a bunch of stuff that goes on in our world and be a bit anxious about what this or that may do in our lives, but we are shaped and gifted by a power that forms us and transforms us as freely as God chooses.



Connection: So…we are a “gifted” people in Christ Jesus. How in the world will that giftedness become a part of the reality of your day? How might all things change…even if for just a moment in time?

Lord of the New Day, transform us with your love and lift us up to see the wonder of life that is available through, in, with….and all around the one we call the Christ, Jesus. Amen.