Gathering Yourself

A few months ago an Episcopal priest and author, Robert Farrar Capon, died.  A lifelong New Yorker, for almost thirty years Capon was a full-time priest in Port Jefferson, New York.  In 1965 he wrote his first book, Bed and Board.  But in 1977 he left the full-time pastorate to pursue his writing career (twenty books in all).  In 1982 he published Between Noon and Three.

In it he writes of something that’s sadly missing in most Christians’ perception of the Gospel – Grace Alone.  Before I give you the Capon quote that sets up Sunday’s message (“Gathering Yourself” from Jonah 1 & 2), let me cite the words of Jerry Bridges in his book, Transforming Grace.

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.  If we’ve performed well – whatever “well” is in our opinion – then we expect God to bless us.  If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.  In this sense, we live by works, rather than by grace.  We are saved by grace, but we are living by the sweat of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to “try harder.”  We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way.  We give lip service to the attitude of the Apostle Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (I Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Robert Capon expands on Jerry Bridges words when he says:

 

The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of 1500-year-old, two hundred proof GRACE – bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scriptures, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly.  The word of the Gospel – after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps – suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started.  (Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace, 1983. p. 114-115.)

Following on the heels of last week’s message, “Serving the World,” in which we highlighted the principle reason why any Christian goes beyond himself or herself to serve the world with the Gospel, this week it’s back to Chapters 1 & 2 of Jonah.  Here we get another clear picture of the grace of God in Jonah’s life.  Here at the outset of his rebellion the compassion of God is all over him.  The grace of God collides with the compassion of God; and the result is repentance.

In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1.      What is Paul talking about in Philippians 2:12?

2.      How does “working out your salvation with fear and trembling” square with Sola Gratia – Grace Alone?

3.      What do you think Paul is talking about when he uses the expression “fear and trembling” in II Corinthians 7:15 and Ephesians 6:5?

4.      How do these two usages inform the Philippians 2 usage?

5.      How do the events of Jonah 1 & 2 square with what God says to Jonah in Chapter 4?

6.      How do you explain Jonah’s inconsistency – from his prayer inside the fish in Chapter 2 and his reaction to God’s mercy in Chapter 4?

7.      Why would the Holy Spirit see fit to show us Jonah’s failures in each chapter?

8.      What does the story of Jonah tell us about God’s call on our lives?

9.      How do you define repentance in light of Jonah 1-4?

10.  If the last sentence of the Capon quote is true, what does that say about our failures?

 

Still rejoicing in God’s glorious BEYOND display!  See you Sunday!