Don: This is the second part of a two-part series on Sabbath and grace. Of necessity and for context, there’ll be some duplication from last week so that those of you who weren’t here will not be lost. 

The subject of a Sabbath recurs throughout the Bible. From Genesis through Revelation, from the creation of this earth to the creation of a new earth, we see the story of the Sabbath:

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth,
Which I make, will endure before Me,” declares the Lord,
“So will your descendants and your name endure.
And it shall be from new moon to new moon
And from Sabbath to Sabbath,
All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:22-23) 

The emphasis throughout, especially the emphasis placed on it by Jesus, is not on the day of the Sabbath, but on the meaning of the Sabbath. The day of the Sabbath was not in dispute as the Jews of Jesus’ time thought. The Sabbath was the seventh day, it was commonly held. By making time sacred instead of the space sacred, God forever removed mankind’s control over the designation of what is sacred. Man, you see, can control space but can I control time. 

Like Grace, Sabbath Rest is a gift of God to all mankind, we cannot hasten the Sabbath, we cannot delay it, we cannot manipulate it, modify it, move it, control it, contain it, advance it, retreat it ,or alter it in any way. All we can do is enter into that sacred rest. Like Grace, it is everywhere, available to all and always free. To enter into it is to enter into God’s presence, to lay down one’s burdens and to “study war no more” as the old spiritual song puts it. Life is a war; a daily contention among and within ourselves, with others and even sometimes with God. It is to change our swords for plowshares and pruning hooks:

And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift a sword against nation,
And never again will they train for war. (Micah 4:3) 

But Sabbath Rest is not just physical. Primarily Jesus told us it is a rest for the soul:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Mathew 28-30)

Why grace? While we tend to want to control it and use it for our own selfish advantage, we cannot in fact do so. We cannot possess the Sabbath; it can only possess us. When we place ourselves and what we do or what we don’t do at the center of the Sabbath instead of letting the Son of Man who is the Lord of the Sabbath reign than we are in danger making the Sabbath into an idol and worshiping it instead of worshiping God. Make no mistake about this: Our reverence and our keeping of the Sabbath does not make us special in God’s eyes. He is the God of all mankind. If God wanted uniformity of worship or correctness of doctrine, he would have spelled it out more clearly in the details of how we are to relate to him. 

But herein lie two related perils. First, the more that God lays down rules, the more we place emphasis on our own work. to keep those rules, God knows that since we ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we are wired to seek discrimination of our work. Second, if God gave the rules to one group only, that group would use those rules to suppress everyone else. Even now, every religion and every sect claims to speak for God and seeks to subject everyone else to their view of his rules. I believe that God has revealed elements of his truth to all people everywhere and that every great faith and every great denomination has some identifiable insight into the element of truth, which then they rightly emphasize. For us, those of us who call ourselves Seventh-Day Adventists, one of those elements is the Sabbath. 

When we talk and share and teach, we all have something to contribute to a discussion about what it is that God would have us to see in him. By grace, the gift of the Sabbath rest must not be hoarded—it must be shared, but not as a doctrine simply to be justified or proven: It must be shared as a gift as it was given to us. To disconnect from our daily pace and connect with God and enter into physical, emotional and spiritual rest is a very special opportunity to be cherished and shared. It brings us back to the oneness that we lost in the Garden. 

The notion of a Sabbath controlled by man with his rules and prohibitions at the center of it is obsolete, according to Jesus. How we apply the eternal gift of Sabbath rest to ourselves is between us individually and God. Our church, that is our Adventist church must share how, what, and why it means something that is important to us, but we also must share how we use it ourselves individually and demonstrate in terms of our relationship with God. We must do so with great humility and without sanctions or judgment. 

Last week, Donald asked the question”When you’re talking about the Sabbath and grace, is that Sabbath with a capital S or sabbath with a small s?” In other words, is Sabbath simply a concept, or is the day itself important? In the realm of religious observance, the question of which day to set aside for worship has been a topic of debate and divergence across faith traditions for centuries. While some adhere to specific days based on theological interpretation, or cultural practices, others argue that any day is suitable for worship. However, 

The Sabbath emerges, I believe, as a compelling choice for worship not because other days are inherently wrong, but because the Sabbath holds unique significance and symbolism that make it the “right “ day for communal worship.Yet there is no inherently wrong day of worship. God accepts worship whenever and wherever it comes from as long as it’s sincerely given. 

The Sabbath, in Scripture, is a day that is set apart. In both Jewish and Christian traditions, the Sabbath holds the central place as a day of rest and worship, rooted in the creation narrative where God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). The Sabbath was later enshrined as a commandment in the decalog (Exodus 20:8-11). Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the Sabbath is depicted as a sacred day for communal worship, reflection and spiritual renewal. 

The Sabbath carries profound symbolism as a day of rest and renewal. By setting aside one day in seven for rest and worship, individuals acknowledge their dependence on God as the sustainer and the creator and the restore of life. The Sabbath offers a sanctuary and a time enabling believers to pause from their worldly pursuits and reorient themselves from the mundane toward the divine. 

Observing the Sabbath as a communal day for worship fosters unity and cohesion within a religious community. Gathering together on a designated day promotes fellowship, mutual support, and shared spiritual experiences. It strengthens the bond of faith and solidarity amongst believers, creating a sense of belonging and connection and indeed a sense of community. 

Across cultures and civilizations, the concept of a designated day for worship has been prevalent, often aligned with astronomical, agricultural or religious calendars. In many societies, the seventh day has been recognized as the time for spiritual reflection and communal worship, reflecting a human longing for transcendence and divine connection. Regular observance of the Sabbath cultivates spiritual discipline and specifying a day lets individuals prioritize their relationship with God and invest in their spiritual growth. The rhythm of Sabbath observance creates space for prayer, study, worship acts of service and nurturing a deeper intimacy with the divine through introspection and personal loss. 

The Sabbath emerges as the right day of worship not because other days are inherently wrong, but because of its unique significance and symbolism in religious tradition. Rooted in biblical precedence, this is the Sabbath for me. By linking the Sabbath to a day, it actualizes the message and the significance of the Sabbath. The concept of a  Sabbath without an acknowledged and actualized day makes the message, in my opinion, less real. A real life day of rest accentuates the message of grace. When the Sabbath shows up on the seventh day, every seven days, it is a reminder of God’s gift of grace. It is what I’ll call a down payment on God’s eternal grace. 

In the tapestry of religious practices, the Sabbath stands out as a profound expression of divine grace rooted in Abrahamic traditions, particularly in Judaism and Christianity. The Sabbath is more than just a day of rest: It is a sacred gift, a manifestation of God’s grace and a downpayment of his blessings. The significance of the Sabbath is as a testament to divine grace, and its observance serves as a foretaste of the abundant blessings bestowed upon humanity. It is in this sense that I refer to it as a downpayment. 

At the heart of the Sabbath lies the notion of cessation, a sensation from worry from labor, and from worldly pursuits. In the biblical narrative, God Himself rested on the seventh day after the work of creation; not of fatigue, but as a divine example for humanity. This act of rest was not imposed as a burden but offered as a gift, a space carved out in time for community communion with the divine. 

In the rhythm of the Sabbath individuals find restoration and renewal for their weary souls. It offers a pause in the frenetic pace of life inviting believers to reconnect with their spiritual selves, with their loved ones and with the natural world. This rejuvenation is a testament to God’s grace, offering solace and strength amid life’s trials. 

The Sabbath also symbolizes freedom from bondage, echoing the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Just as God commanded the Israelites to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy (Exodus 20) He invites all humanity to experience the freedom that comes from surrendering to his divine rhythm. Sabbath observance fosters communal harmony and solidarity as people gather to worship, share meals and engage in acts of kindness. They experience the interconnectedness of humanity under the shelter of God’s grace. It is a time for reconciliation for forgiveness and for building relationships. All of these are essential aspects of God’s redemptive love. 

In addition, beyond its immediate benefits, the Sabbath also serves as a down payment of God’s blessings, offering a foretaste of the ultimate rest promised to believers. It is a glimpse of the eternal Sabbath, where sorrow and pain will cease and all creation will dwell in perfect harmony with its creator. Jesus Christ proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God, as Michael so elegantly taught us, where the weary will find rest and the oppressed will be set free. The Sabbath therefore becomes a tangible expression of this end of time hope this eschatological hope, a taste of the kingdom yet to come. 

In the ministry of Jesus, the Sabbath was a time for acts of compassion and healing. He demonstrated that the Sabbath was made for Humanity’s benefit, but not as a legalistic burden. Through His miracles, Jesus revealed God’s grace in the fullest expression, bringing redemption, restoration and healing to a broken world. Ultimately, the Sabbath points to eternal fellowship with believers who enjoy their fellowship with believers who enjoy their relationship with God and the new heaven and the new earth. It is a symbol of the eternal rest promised in Hebrews 4:9-11, where every tear will be wiped away and God will dwell among his people. 

The Sabbath stands is a manifestation of God’s grace and a down payment for his blessings. It is a sacred space and time where believers experience restoration, freedom and communion with the divine. Moreover, the Sabbath anticipates the eternal rest and joy, promised to all who embrace God’s redemptive love. Honoring the Sabbath reminds us of God’s abundant grace and hope for everlasting life in His presence. 

Grace and Sabbath are both predictable and eternal. Both require us to rest, not to work. Both are about God and what He does, not about us and what we do. Just as it is fatal to fail to embrace God’s everlasting grace, a Sabbath rest predicated on my work is also fatal, as it was for the man stoned for breaking it in the Exodus (the story is told in Numbers 15). 

The Sabbath is also a symbol of freedom from bondage for all of God’s creatures, rich and poor, animals as well as humans, which is another way of saying this is an evidence of God’s grace.

“Keep the Sabbath day to treat it as holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work that day, you or your son or your daughter, or your male slave or your female slave, or your ox, your donkey, or any of your cattle, or your resident who stays with you, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as well as you. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

The Apostle Paul told us to accept this Sabbath gift with great humility: 

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not to have quarrels over opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person values one day over another, another values every day the same. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and the one who eats, does so with regard to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat, and he gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

But as for you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you as well, why do you regard your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all appear before the judgment seat of God. For it is written:

“As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee will bow,
And every tongue will give praise to God.”

So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let’s not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this: not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s or sister’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to the one who thinks something is unclean, to that person it is unclean. For if because of food your brother or sister is hurt, you are no longer walking in accordance with love. Do not destroy with your choice of food that person for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the one who serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by other people. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the person who eats and causes offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother or sister stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14)

Paul re emphasizes this point in his letter to the Colossians:

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have in your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and that they would attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.

… 

Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of man? These are matters which do have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. (Colossians 2:1-4,16-23)

To me, this has not in any way reduced the importance of the gift of the Sabbath. Rather, it sheds light on how we should share the gift with others. Just as I should share grace with you, I should share the Sabbath and should do so without judgment, without coercion and without affectation. 

Isaiah stressed the importance of the gift by saying:

“If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14)

I think that doing your own pleasure does not just mean doing things that you don’t want to do and shunning things that you want to do on the Sabbath. It means making yourself the focal point of the Sabbath, putting yourself at the center of it and what you do and how you keep it, rather than putting God at the center. We should rather take delight in the Lord. The result is to be wrapped in the robes of righteousness and salvation (Isaiah 61). This is the eternal abiding condition of grace. We know that the heritage of Jacob is nothing less than a new name, signifying God’s glory in His investment of grace in Jacob and forgiveness of his sins. 

Let me draw this together in the rich tapestry of religious observance. The Sabbath stands out as a day of profound significance across various faith traditions. Debates may arise regarding the appropriate day for Sabbath keeping. The essence of Sabbath lies not in what we do but in what God does. Sabbath keeping on the “right” day (“right” because of the Divine actions that occur on Sabbath rather than what human activity) is a guide more than it is a rule. It is an invitation more than it is an injunction. The Sabbath is a day, believe it or not, of divine activity. 

In the creation narrative, the Sabbath is established as a day of rest not because God was fatigued, but as a testament to his completed work and creation. The Sabbath therefore becomes a sacred day marked by God’s presence and pleasure in his handiwork. 

Throughout biblical history, the Sabbath is intimately linked to God’s redemptive Act. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath served as a memorial of God’s deliverance of Israel from bondage (Exodus 5-15.) Likewise, in the New Testament, Jesus performs numerous miracles on the Sabbath, demonstrating God’s compassion and power to heal and to restore. The Sabbath is a day set apart for divine revelation, and encounter, when believers are invited to draw near to God to seek His presence and to listen attentively to his voice. 

In the stillness of the Sabbath, our hearts are open to receive divine guidance, comfort and inspiration. God’s activity on the Sabbath extends beyond physical rest to accomplish spiritual renewal and transformation. As believers enter into a Sabbath rest, they experience God’s grace and empowerment to overcome spiritual weariness, doubt and despair. The Sabbath becomes a catalyst for personal and communal revival. 

The Sabbath also points toward the end of time and eschatological fulfillment of God’s kingdom. It is a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath rest promised in the New Earth to believers. Suffering will cease and God will dwell among his people in perfect harmony. If there is a right day for keeping it, it is because of the divine activity that God undertakes—activity that unfolds on the Sabbath, rather than human actions. The Sabbath is marked by divine revelation, encounter renewal, and anticipatory anticipation of End Time fulfillment. 

As believers honor the Sabbath, they may be drawn into deeper communion with the Divine and experience the transformative power of God’s presence in their life. I believe there is a “right” day of worship, but I also believe that there is no wrong day for worship either. It is a right day because of what God does on the Sabbath, not what we do. God makes the day holy, God that makes the day right, not us.

Joyce: The number seven, representing completeness and fulfillment in the Bible, is exemplified by the Sabbath and even the Year of Jubilee. Instead of simply saying every 50 years, it specifies a cycle of seven times seven years—49 years—and then on the 50th year, actions such as freeing slaves and returning land to its rightful owners are mandated, and the land is allowed to rest completely. 

This demonstrates what completeness and fulfillment look like, mirroring how Grace is meant to be complete, not just for those adhering to specific rules, but for all humanity.

David: The notion of rules is interesting. I wonder if this group discussion can be considered a form of Sabbath worship. It’s intriguing because, as far as I know, Don hasn’t established any rules for this class. Perhaps the absence of rules is feasible because we’re a small group. In larger groups, there’s a natural need for some organization and, consequently, some rules. 

I wonder if engaging with your community on the Sabbath is a requirement, or if Sabbath keeping is on a continuum, ranging from the antisocial or painfully shy loner to the social butterfly who thrives on gatherings. Can one observe the Sabbath alone, or does that by definition focus too much on oneself? If someone chooses to keep the Sabbath in solitude, is it akin to going into the closet to pray, and is that equally valid as going to church to pray?

Donald: As someone who has been a Seventh-day Adventist their entire life, this discussion is meaningful yet somewhat disruptive to the harmony of my beliefs. It was intriguing when Don mentioned using the three words in order but added “but, however, in addition.” 

This conversation challenges some established ideas. For instance, the Sabbath is central to our identity, and our identity is often framed by others’ perspectives. I’ve used the term “Sabbath” with my neighbors, when I could easily say “Saturday” instead. Sometimes I wonder if I should adjust that terminology. I’ve rarely heard anyone who observes Sunday refer to it as their “Sabbath,” though perhaps some do. 

As Seventh-day Adventists, we’ve been encouraged to take pride in being a “peculiar people.” This distinctiveness is apparent when interacting in the community; you can often identify an Adventist by their demeanor and appearance alone. These are aspects I’ve come to understand about being labeled as peculiar. I’ve never liked being called peculiar—is that really a goal? 

Finally, regarding the choice of worship day, Don would probably agree it’s a personal choice. I also recall a friend who wished to create their own church, which I suppose is what a community church essentially does—creating their own doctrines and ways of worship. It makes me wonder, when someone says they want to create their own church, what exactly are they aiming to establish?

Carolyn: I want to revisit the distinction between communal and solitary worship, and the issue of placing ourselves at the center of the Sabbath rather than keeping God as the focal point. If you’ve ever been involved in communal worship, you’ll know that it can be the busiest day of the week. Whether you’re a preacher or fulfilling other roles, you find yourself working throughout the Sabbath. 

Conversely, staying at home allows for a solitude that offers personal time with the Lord. Choosing to go for a walk on the Sabbath, you might share the joys you’ve experienced with others you meet, which can itself be refreshing. 

However, I often feel that how we spend the Sabbath leads to judgment—both us judging others and being judged in return.

Reinhard: I grew up attending Sunday worship with my family, but I became an Adventist just before coming to study at Loma Linda. The phrase “remember the Sabbath day” has always stood out to me, especially since I knew the Sabbath was Saturday, which influenced my decision to embrace Seventh-day Adventist teachings. I believe God called me to be part of this church, and I am grateful and happy for it. 

Looking at the history of Israel, the Sabbath was one of the first signs between God and His people, meant to create a community that worships Him as the Creator. It’s interesting that there was no law to “remember the Sabbath day” until Moses’ time, suggesting that God wanted to establish a close relationship with His people from the start. 

Throughout history, from creation to the flood that spared only eight people, and then to the Law given at Sinai, God has been defining His relationship with humanity. In the New Testament, Jesus corrected some of the existing perceptions by healing on the Sabbath, which to some seemed like a violation of the law. He demonstrated God’s true character, contrasting with the strict and punitive nature some associated with Old Testament laws. 

Paul’s approach, especially to the Gentiles, was somewhat ambivalent about strict observance, emphasizing that the essence of faith is what brings people closer to God. He acknowledged that some consider one day more special than others, but for me, as a Christian who still wants to honor God, remembering the Sabbath is crucial. It’s a day of joy and delight. 

In my previous church, I learned why some observe Sunday, citing Paul’s practices, but I believe in following what God established from the beginning. It doesn’t mean we should condemn those who worship on Sunday; as long as they are sincere in their faith, that’s what matters. I stick to what I know as truth, which is observing Saturday as the Sabbath.

Donald: Reinhard refers to them as “Sunday worshipers” rather than saying they simply worship on Sunday, which they regard as their Sabbath. By phrasing it as “Sunday worshipers,” it differentiates them from us, who worship on Saturday. If you look up “Sabbath,” many will say it means Sunday. So, I guess it does boil down to a matter of perspective—big ‘S’ versus small ‘s.’

Reinhard: Many leaders and people I’ve been associated with acknowledge Saturday as the Sabbath, but they also see Sunday as a valid day for worship. To them, it’s one of the seven days suitable for worshiping God. I believe the original Hebrew term could be interpreted in various ways, but the essence remains the same: a day of rest. It’s good that we discuss and share what we know, ultimately seeking to understand the truth as we know it to please God.

Don: Is it possible to have a discussion on the Sabbath and grace without centering ourselves and our practices? It often boils down to the “right” day— and of course we’re right, you’re wrong! But what does being right really mean? Does it make us more acceptable to God? Certainly not. Worshiping on Sunday does not displease God if it’s sincere. 

We need a new theology of Sabbath keeping and grace. The argument that only one specific day is pleasing to God doesn’t align with Scripture, in my opinion. The question for me is whether there’s a way to understand Sabbath keeping and grace without making it about what I do (or don’t do).

C-J: When someone is adamant about their position and tries to prove why they’re correct, my question is always, “Why is this so important to you? Are you afraid of not being in the right line, whether in politics, religion, or justifying a personal choice that might draw criticism?” 

We’ve talked about how God’s grace is sufficient, and as we grow in God, the Holy Spirit can reveal things previously unconsidered, expanding our spiritual horizons. When we were children, we believed in fantasies that taught us lessons, but as adults, we hold ourselves accountable for our choices. 

What motivates us? What prevents us from doing wrong? When we’re confused or upset, leaning into God and trusting Him in our circumstances reflects a deep relationship with Him. This depth doesn’t arise from any specific condition or place, not even in dramatic circumstances like war. I believe that only the Holy Spirit can truly reveal the essence of what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the Sabbath,” which translates to grace. 

How to live this out is something God will guide you in. If you have to work on Saturday or Sunday, it’s not a sin; God understands our responsibilities to our time, place, and family. There was a time when you could tell your employer about church commitments on Sunday, and they would respect it. Nowadays, they might prioritize work responsibilities instead. 

God’s grace is sufficient. It isn’t about a specific day, place, or time; it’s about our relationship with God.

Donald: For Seventh-day Adventists, is there a cultural aspect? Is it something more than just about the Sabbath? We have to be careful about claiming something as the absolute truth.

David: Based on what Paul says in Colossians about not judging other cultures, I would say that if the SDA community has a culture of worshiping on Saturday, who am I to criticize that? And if someone is a Sunday observer, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that—it’s their culture.

Donald: But once we start saying it is the truth, we are implying that what others do is wrong.

David: When you tell me I should adopt your culture, it becomes challenging. But if you simply describe your Sabbath keeping and the joy it brings you, and if I then see the benefit in it, I might be inclined to adopt your culture. That’s how change should happen—not through coercion or guilt, but by seeing the value in it voluntarily.

C-J: In cultures that value tribal hospitality, inviting someone to your table and breaking bread with them is an expression of respect for their truth, regardless of their background. Hospitality doesn’t question whether someone is a good person; it simply provides water and food to a stranger without asking for their credentials. 

This ties back to the concept of grace. We all live our truths. How often do you hear someone say something is unequivocally wrong? But if you had walked in their shoes, their perspective might seem quite reasonable.

Don: We’re going to continue discussing this topic. I thought it would be provocative to link the Sabbath with grace because I believe that as a church, we need a new theology of the Sabbath and Sabbath Keeping. We need to put God back at the center of the Sabbath, rather than focusing on our actions or our identity in relation to the Sabbath. What makes the Sabbath special, if it is indeed special, is because of what God does, not what we do. There’s much to ponder.

* * *

I introduce this topic with some reservation because the meaning of the Sabbath varies among us here. Those raised as Seventh Day Adventists might see it as the correct day for worship, a distinguishing sign for God’s people, and something essential for salvation. This is not official doctrine, but Sabbath-keeping has long been considered a mark of piety among us. 

Every religion and its followers cling to practices or beliefs they believe are unique and special in God’s eyes, distinguishing them from other religions and followers. No religion teaches that another possesses greater truth, is more right-thinking, or practices more effective rituals than itself. To its followers, the truth, the right, and the effectiveness of every religion is proven by their understanding of their scripture.

As I’ve grown older, the line between those who observe the Sabbath and those who do not has blurred. The realization that my religion might not be the only way to heaven, and that there are many sheep in the pen who are not of this fold, has made Sabbath keeping less compelling. I believe that God is the God of all mankind, that all people, all sheep everywhere are his flock, that he can be worshipped in a variety of ways and should be worshipped daily, continuously, and without ceasing. 

Nevertheless, I believe the Bible from beginning to end contains a concept, a metaphor, an illustration for grace that is wrapped up in an understanding of the Sabbath. In this idea, we might find a new appreciation, a new way of understanding it, and more importantly, a new way to share it, just like we can share grace itself.

The first mention of the Sabbath comes from the book of Genesis: 

And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3)

Why does God need rest? Clearly, he is not subject to exhaustion. What does it mean that the day became sanctified? For whose benefit was it sanctified? Did this benefit God? 

The clue is what took place the day before:  

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:27-31)

Thus, we see here how God established the order of life and oneness in the Garden of Eden. Humankind—man and woman—were to be one with each other, one with the Earth and its creatures, and through the Sabbath, we see God establishing oneness with himself, resting with God when God rests. This oneness was, of course, shattered by the fall. Man and woman became ashamed of their nakedness and sought to cover themselves from one another and from God. Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the serpent. The oneness between themselves and with the rest of creation was broken, and their work and toil were multiplied immensely, as we know from the passage about the increase in pain with childbirth and the work that the man had to do (Genesis 3:16-24).

Fortunately for humankind, God had anticipated our fall and had provided the Sabbath as a way to restore this shattered oneness. The Sabbath, you see, is a metaphor for grace. The restfulness of the Sabbath contrasts with the toil of the other six days; it is the epitome of grace. It is a reminder of the creation time when there was oneness in the garden. 

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11).

Similarly, the Sabbath serves as a perpetually eternal sign of our true relationship with God:

“Now as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You must keep My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it must be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:13-17)

The death penalty declared in this passage is not simply a punishment for breaking the Sabbath; it emphasizes the fatal nature of any religion based on works without grace.

In the Gospel, Jesus taught the real meaning of the Sabbath. For His contemporary Jews, the Sabbath was a great burden. He constantly sought to teach them its importance, and in the end, He was crucified largely because the Jews considered Him to be a Sabbath breaker: 

For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.  (John 5:18)

In His teachings, Jesus established three important principles of Sabbath keeping as a way of reestablishing oneness:

• It is a day for worship, for reestablishing oneness with God.

• It is a day for doing good works for others, for reestablishing oneness with our friends and neighbors.

• It is a day to set aside business as usual for introspection, to reestablish oneness with oneself.

It is notable that Jesus performed many of His good works, His healings, on the Sabbath, and He explained this by saying: 

“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)

The link between the Sabbath and grace was further captured by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews: 

Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11). 

This suggests, of course, that there is both a physical Sabbath, a mental and psychological Sabbath, and a spiritual Sabbath. Paul continues: 

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must answer.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. (Hebrews 4:13-16).

From Adam and Eve, through the patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and the disciples, God is seen as an active and interactive God, constantly seeking, bending, plying, and molding us—never willing to leave us alone or to let us go. He is always eager to bring us back by whatever means possible. He brings Jacob back by wrestling with him, Moses through a burning bush, Balaam through a talking donkey, King David by the prophet Nathan, Jonah in a whale, Isaiah by a coal placed upon his lips, Elijah by a still small voice, Job through a personal encounter with God, the prodigal son by an internal awakening, Peter by a crowing cock, and Saul, who becomes Paul, through a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus—a blinding light and a voice from heaven. God, you see, is not indifferent to our choices. He does not leave us to our own devices, He will hound us, like the Hound of Heaven. And thank God for that, because that is what grace is. That is what the free gift is—the robe of righteousness, the restoration.

But you might say, “What does God do for me? Where do I see grace in my life?” We’re proposing today a new idea that might challenge those of us who are skeptical of the evidence: namely, that the Sabbath is a propositional and perpetual sign of God’s grace. Those of you who are not convinced may be indifferent to this concept. It is based on the passage we read earlier: 

“Now as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You must keep My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.’” (Exodus 31:13). 

The Sabbath is a sign that God is the one who sanctifies us, which is really what grace is. When you encounter the Sabbath, you should not see it for what you do, or for what the Sabbath means to you, but you should see it for what God does—in other words, His grace.

The subject of the Sabbath and Sabbath grace recurs throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, from the creation of the earth until the creation of the new earth. Isaiah 66 states, “’From one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord.” 

The emphasis, particularly by Jesus, is on the meaning of the Sabbath—by making time sacred instead of space, God forever removes man’s control over the designation of what is sacred. Man can control space, but he cannot control time. Sabbath rest is a gift from God to all humankind. It is a fact that we have no influence upon the Sabbath; we cannot hasten it, delay it, manipulate it, modify it, move it, control it, contain it, advance it, or retreat it. We cannot alter the Sabbath in any way. All we can do is enter into it like a sacred rest, by grace. It is everywhere, available to all, always for free, and it comes every seventh day like a down payment upon grace. 

To enter into it is to enter into God’s presence, to lay down one’s burdens and, as the spiritual song says, “to study war no more.” Life is like a war. It is a continuous contention among ourselves, with others, and sometimes even with God. To enter the Sabbath is to change our swords and spears for plowshares and pruning hooks, as Micah says: 

And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift a sword against nation,
And never again will they train for war. (Micah 4:3)

Sabbath is rest, not just physical. Primarily, Jesus told us, it is rest for the soul. It is a sign of grace, and like grace, often when we try to control it, we want to use it for our own advantage. We cannot do that with the Sabbath, and we cannot do that with grace either. We cannot possess grace, we cannot possess the Sabbath; we can only let them possess us.

Is the day itself important? I myself choose to rest when God rests, but since this is about grace, it cannot be about me and my rituals. When we place ourselves and what we do, or what we do not do, at the center of the Sabbath, instead of letting the Son of Man, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, be the center, then we are at risk of making the Sabbath into an idol and worshiping the Sabbath instead of worshiping God. Make no mistake about this: our reverence for the Sabbath does not make us special in God’s eyes. He is the God of all mankind.

If God wanted uniformity of worship or correctness of doctrine, He would have spelled it out more clearly in the details of how we are to relate to Him. But herein lie two pitfalls. First, the more that God lays down the rules about what to do on the Sabbath, the more emphasis we place on our own work in following those rules. God knows that since we ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we have been wired to seek validation for our own work. Second, if God gave the rules to only one group, that group would use the rules to suppress everyone else. Even now, every religion, sect, and denomination claims to speak for God and seeks to establish their viewpoint on everyone else, compelling everyone to follow their rules.

By grace, the gift of the Sabbath must not be hoarded; it must be shared, but not like a doctrine that has to be justified or proven. It must be shared as the gift of grace just as it was given to us—to disconnect from our daily pace and to connect with God, and to enter into physical, emotional, and spiritual rest. It is a very special opportunity, one to be cherished and shared. Like grace, the Sabbath is both predictable and eternal. Both require us to rest and not to work. Both are about God and what He does, not about us and what we do.

Just as it is fatal to fail to embrace God’s everlasting grace, Sabbath or grace predicated on my work is also fatal, as it was for the man who was stoned in Numbers 15. Isaiah stressed the importance of this gift of grace: 

“If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14). 

Isaiah goes on to say, in the language of grace: 

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,
My soul will be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a groom puts on a turban,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth produces its sprouts,
And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
To spring up before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:10-11)

I think that in these passages, doing your own pleasure does not just mean refraining from things you want to do and doing the things you ought to do on the Sabbath. Doing your own pleasure means making yourself the focal point of the Sabbath, putting yourselves at the center rather than God. Instead, as Isaiah says, we should take delight in the Lord and delight in the results that come from being wrapped in the garments of righteousness and the robes of salvation. This is the eternal, abiding condition of grace. We know that the heritage of Jacob is nothing less than a new name signifying God’s investment of grace in Jacob and the forgiveness of his sins.

What does it mean to keep something holy? It simply means to be completely devoted to something, to exalt something, to hold it in the highest esteem. But make no mistake about this: we cannot make something holy ourselves; only God can do that. The Lord of the Sabbath makes the Sabbath holy because the day is a sign of what He does for us—He gives us His grace. It is not a sign of what we do for Him.

It is not surprising, given that the Sabbath is a sign of grace, that Jesus would say and teach so little about how the Sabbath should be kept by mankind. Because when we emphasize how it should be kept, we make the Sabbath about us. To enter into grace is to enter into rest, freedom from the work to which we are so easily and naturally drawn.

To re-emphasize what I said earlier, Jesus teaches us three principles for returning to oneness with a graceful Sabbath rest:

• The Sabbath is a day to worship God. By worshiping God, we bring ourselves into oneness with God and restore what was lost in the Garden.

• The Sabbath is a day to do good to our fellow men. This brings us into oneness with one another, with our friends and neighbors.

• The Sabbath is a day to set aside business as usual, which is another way of bringing us into oneness with ourselves as we center ourselves upon God.

When God points the way to Himself and away from us, the Sabbath centers us upon God. For centuries, there have been discussions, even arguments, about what is the right day to keep, which centers things upon us and not upon God. It is the very opposite of grace.

I personally like the Sabbath, and I keep it because it is a perpetual reminder to me of God’s grace. But it is not the only way God expresses His grace. God has other sheep not of this fold who know His voice and are exposed to grace in a myriad of ways that God uses to reveal His grace.

When I was a boy, it was commonly held that Sabbath keepers would be the only ones who went to heaven. This was not an official position of the church, but it was a commonly believed notion. Once we began to accept into heaven others who did not keep the Sabbath, our theology of the Sabbath became quite confused. We need a new theology of the Sabbath. It is ironic that the very thing that God gives us as a sign of His grace should be viewed with such exclusivity and limitation, and should be centered on our behavior. The ultimate irony is that Jesus Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, was crucified over being a Sabbath breaker. We need a new theology of the Sabbath, one centered on sharing the Sabbath as a wonderful gift of grace. As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Another way of saying this is that grace was made for man, not man for grace.

Are you looking for a sign of grace in your life? God gives you the Sabbath. Do you want a graceful expression that you can recognize in your life? It may not be like other expressions of grace that we’ve talked about before, but you might try the Sabbath as a new expression of God’s grace. Sabbath rest is not just physical; primarily, Jesus told us, it is a rest for the soul: 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Like grace, while we tend to want to control it and use it to our own selfish advantage, we cannot in fact do this; we cannot possess the Sabbath, it can only possess us. When we place ourselves and what we do or do not do at the center of the Sabbath instead of letting the Son of Man, who is Lord of the Sabbath, be the center, then we are in danger of making the Sabbath into an idol and worshiping the Sabbath instead of worshiping God.

I believe that God has revealed elements of truth to people everywhere, that every great faith and every great denomination has some identifiable insight into an element of truth, which they then rightly emphasize. For us, one of those elements is the Sabbath. When we talk, teach, and share, we all have something to contribute to a discussion about what it is that God would have us see in Him. By grace, the gift of the Sabbath must not be hoarded; it must be shared, but not as a doctrine to be justified or proven. It must be shared as a gift, as it was given to us—to disconnect from our daily pace and connect with God, and to enter into physical, emotional, and spiritual rest. It is a very special opportunity to be cherished and shared. It is a method of bringing back the oneness that was lost in the Garden.

David: I wonder about the notion of the Sabbath as a social activity. As Don has shown in his Biblical quotes this morning, the Sabbath is rightly about rest rather than activity, and about  worshiping God. You can define worship in many ways; to me, it’s simply being in conscious communion with God. 

Eastern faith traditions don’t have a Sabbath per se, but they do have meditation, and it occurred to me, as Don was talking, that this is a form of Sabbath. Meditation is an inactivity; it is restful, inactive, and relatively individual rather than social. People may get together in meditation groups, but the Western tradition is more actively social—you attend church services and pray communal prayers and sing songs of worship and take part in charitable activities, being actively good to your fellow human beings. Isn’t that, in a sense, a form of work? 

I’m drawn to the Eastern traditions and I personally like the idea of an individual meditative, restful period of being alone in communion with God as a form of Sabbath. Maybe there’s room for both a social form and an individual form.

C-J: As you spoke, Dr. Weaver, I had two thoughts. First, it was a sideways way of saying that your time in recovery from being so sick gave you lots of time in this state of grace and Sabbath rest, trusting God for every day, every breath, every kindness. Life didn’t have to be done by you; your job was to rest in God and recover. 

As you continued to talk, I thought about the war between Israel and Palestine, and its rippling effect. If they could just find this Sabbath that is resident in each culture, to think about future generations and not be so caught up in, ‘I’m right, this belongs to me,’ and to understand that in the Sabbath, that grace would be sufficient, more than sufficient for multiple generations going forward and preserve what is necessary for life to thrive. If you worship God, you will desire peace, you will trust God in all things, and you will do good works towards humanity. 

You will set aside your business, your personal agenda—whether it’s to gain wealth, to be with your family, to have public honor and recognition—whatever your personal agenda is, to set it aside and be stripped completely there and allow God to do the work. And that the new clothing, put on, represents honoring God, which is peace and prosperity, and all those promises that were given to us through the Ten Commandments that Kiran really brought to a beautiful light. So that was my takeaway from what you said. 

Donald: Regarding the relationship between the idea of Sabbath and grace, there are three things I think we need to clarify.

1. Is Sabbath a concept or a specific day? The dictionary will probably give you both definitions. But for us to have this conversation, are we discussing a specific day or the concept of a day, or a moment in time, that should be established between us and God?

2. Is Sabbath a metaphor? If Sabbath is a metaphor, then that actually might answer the question about a specific day.

3. What’s the association between Sabbath and relationships? Is Sabbath really about relationships? And if so is about doing good work with others, and/or about worship for oneness, and/or about worship for ourselves? 

As a Seventh Day Adventist I will always be challenged when we get to the point of whether it’s a day in combination with these concepts, or it’s just a concept and the specific day is not that specific. It’s interesting that it’s part of the Ten Commandments. It’s interesting that it’s specified by a number. 

David: To me, the beauty of Don’s analysis is that in some ways it leaves the Bible open to interpretation. It doesn’t close it, nor limit it to the Seventh Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath (or on anything else). There’s nothing wrong with the SDA perspective; there’s nothing invalid about it. It is a Bible-based, spiritual perspective, so God bless it. 

That said, to me, there is no reason to think that one’s perspective is threatened by other perspectives, and that’s the problem that I think Connie was referring to. It’s OK not to share other’s perspectives, but it is not okay to judge people based on their perspectives. I don’t share the Adventist perspective on the Sabbath being a specific day, but I don’t think it matters that you do. If it helps Adventists in their association with God, I am all for it—for them.

C-J: I think that rigid religion and politics, which are often tied to economics, create a space of when and how business—both economic and political—is done in terms of institutions. And so, Seventh Day Adventists, happen to pick Saturday on the calendar we use in the United States. I agree that it’s really not about the day of the week. It’s about what you do with that time. It could be Wednesday for you, like if you have to work weekends and Wednesday is your day off, that’s going to be your Sabbath. You haven’t been sacrilegious or disrespected the tenets or the rules of the road. 

I really think it’s about mindfulness and setting priorities for your internal life. That would be expressed in how you interact with other people and other systems, other institutions. I don’t think God thought, metaphorically, that the day when he separated the heavens and the earth was going to be a Monday. There wasn’t even a name for it. I don’t think it’s necessary to do that, but as humans, we want to put things in categories. We want to be able to organize and build off that scaffolding. But I don’t think God is like that at all.

Donald: Many religions have a tithe, often 10% of income, but sometimes negotiable. But it’s a number. So, is the Sabbath really just every seventh day? Just a number, too? It wasn’t just “Separate yourself once in a while.” So perhaps it can be Wednesday, but is it important to be every seven days? Is the number important? Is important to have a numbered portion of your wealth contributed back to goodness (the tithe)? 

When we were young we dressed up for the Sabbath, which was very structured. As young adults we came to understand that what was right to do on the Sabbath was anything that was slow. You could not ski but you could swim, or at least wade. You just have to throttle back, as we tried to get these rules stamped. We couldn’t even ride our bikes. Today, the habits of a Seventh-Day Adventist Sabbath seem to have changed radically. I wonder at my grandchildren. The concept has changed—maybe it’s conforming itself around really what your remarks this morning are about. It’s about relationships. It’s a time, every Sabbath.

Don: I keep the Sabbath because that’s what God asked me to do. But it’s not about me. It’s about grace and about what God does for me. To me, the day is important, but it’s not important to God. He has sheep of other folds, and they may have a completely different view of how oneness with God is reestablished. But that’s not their prerogative, either. It’s God’s prerogative. I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to share a Sabbath rest with friends, but if they don’t see it the same way as I do, it’s not a cause for their destruction.

Reinhard: The fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day.” Perhaps the word “remember” isn’t quite what the Jews had been practicing, especially in the old days. But “seventh day” is just an indicator that the world or the universe was created on the seventh day. To me, you rest on the seventh day, you are affirming that God is the Creator. It’s nothing more than that. The seventh day was made for rest, after God created everything in six days.

In the Old Testament, punishment for those who violated the Sabbath was very harsh, even to the point of death. Jesus showed a different way of practicing the Sabbath. Many of his healings were performed on the Sabbath, including the man who was crippled for 38 years, which led to the accusations that Jesus violated this very sacred day. His accusers were so focused on the Sabbath day according to the law, they forgot that the Sabbath is a day of blessing for God’s people.

On the Sabbath, I try to rest. No matter how busy I am, the Sabbath is a blessing, physically and spiritually. I believe that God gave us this blessing in the new covenant. Some people, of course, consider Sunday to be their Sabbath. That is their conviction. I think Paul once mentioned that some people consider other days to worship. Paul was known for being all things to all people. 

Most of my family members believe Sunday is the Sabbath day. I think historically the Sabbath shifted to Sunday when the Roman Emperor declared Sunday to be a day of rest from work, so people used the free time for Sunday worship.

For me, the Sabbath is a rest day, a blessing day. It was not the practice of the Jews, especially during Jesus’ time, to prosecute people for Sabbath infractions but they made an exception for Jesus. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

The key is in the relationships built during the Sabbath. The worship of God has a special meaning to every individual. So, if we practice Sabbath on the seventh day, and others practice it on other days, the key for each individual lies in how they worship God.

C-J: God gave us the Sabbath, which is grace. Humanity wants to put us in bondage, but God wants to liberate us. When I’m taking a walk to the post office, it’s my quiet time. I reflect; I talk to God. I notice the birds, I notice the traffic. That’s a time of rest for me. I’m not thinking about what I’ll do when I get home. I’m really in that moment. 

Humankind imposes bondage on itself through rituals, through institutions, through politics, war—we put ourselves in bondage. God is constantly talking about sackcloth and ashes, about humility. That’s not dressing up, but it puts you fully in the presence of God. It’s not about the rings on your fingers, it’s not how much you put in the offering, it’s not about who you know in religious or political institutions, or what family you were born into. With God, it’s grace. It’s always been grace. Unmerited, full of love, patient and kind, bearing good fruit, loving and forgiving.

Kiran: A Sabbath focus on oneness with the self is a new revelation to me, especially given that it has to be physical, mental, and spiritual. That’s a hard task. We’ve just witnessed a solar eclipse. None of us could change it. We only had 99.4% of the total solar eclipse in eastern Michigan, but in Toledo it was 100%. I wish it had been 100% here but nothing I could do would make that happen. All we could do was to enjoy it as it was happening. I think everybody had a similar experience, so it was undying in a sense. They didn’t produce the eclipse; it just happened on its own for three minutes. And all they could do was just stay there, look up, and enjoy. Even if they didn’t look up, they would experience the darkness during the eclipse and then the light. It even united the animals because they felt eerie. We could tell by looking at some animals how they felt, how they were experiencing it. Humans had a better understanding of what was happening, of course. 

So, in a way, this whole thing makes so much sense for me. Sabbath is like a weekly celestial event that is happening, or a weekly spiritual event, whatever you want to call it, that we don’t have any control over. It’s a weekly reminder of a cosmic event initiated by God. All we can do is just enjoy it as both an individual and a communal experience.

Donald: I’ve lived my whole life conforming to a particular way, so it’s disruptive to think about the Sabbath in different forms, but it’s also liberating. But are we discussing the Sabbath with a small ‘s’ rather than a big ‘S’? I think Adventists make Sabbath with a capital ’S’, but perhaps our conversation today has been about small-s sabbath.

Michael: Don has often remarked that the Sabbath is like “a downpayment on grace.” I don’t think I ever fully understood that. Does it mean that every day we get a portion of grace, but on the Sabbath, we get to double dip?

Don: No, what I mean is that on a regular recurring basis, we’re called to think about the gracefulness that God gives us. God’s grace is good every day, 24/7. There’s no limitation to His grace. But by making the Sabbath a down payment, it’s a reminder, an event that brings us to focus on God’s grace. So that’s what I mean by a down payment. It might not be the best choice of words.

Michael: The Israelites collected a day’s worth of manna in the exodus—any more would rot, but they could collect an extra day’s worth for consumption on the Sabbath.

Anonymous: It has a different meaning to me. When somebody puts a down payment on a house, they then claim it as theirs. So when God puts a downpayment on the Sabbath, as you put it, that means “You’re Mine, because you acknowledged Me on My day. I paid to guarantee that you’re going to be in My possession during the week. So from Saturday to next Saturday, I’ve already paid for that. You’re Mine, you’re Mine, you’re Mine, week after week!” And that’s great, of course!

Don: Next week, we’ll discuss Paul’s writings about the Sabbath, Donald’s question of whether we are talking about Sabbath with a capital ‘S’ or a small ’s’, and whether the day itself is important at all.

* * *

Note: The first part of Don’s opening remarks are taken from the FEBRUARY 19, 2022 discussion called “Pregnant With Grace“.

To preface our discussion, Becky May provided the following excerpt from Ann Voskamp’s book The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas: 

She became a space.

Mary—she opens her hands and she nods.

And the promises come true in the space of her surrender—the pod of the Most High God lodging within her willing yes.

Beneath her heart—in one yielded space—beats the thrumming love of God.

There is no need to produce or perform or perfect—simply become a place for God. That is all.

Now, here, in this juncture of time and space, God chooses the inconceivable-grace.

And conceives Himself to deliver grace into the world.

Conceive: it’s not passive, but an active verb. Its root in Latin means nothing less than “to seize, to take hold of.” When grace conceives in you, you take hold of God.

When you are a space to receive whatever the will of God is in this moment as grace, you take hold of God. You most take hold of God when you simply receive Him in this moment taking hold of you.

Taking hold of your unsure hand.

Taking hold of your unseen needs.

Taking hold of your unknown stress.

He wants to take hold of you, to be with you. He wants to carry you, to be carried by you, to have relationship with you. The being with is always the gift, not merely the doing for. Because God knows: relationship is the only reality; there is nothing else. The way He lives in Trinity, the way we are tethered to Him, to His Body. The way He is with us and in us; the way we make space for Christ to grow us, unfold Love in us; the way the life of Christ stirs amazing grace within.

That way anywhere you make space for someone, you become a womb for God.

He comes to you as the exhausted man over a plate of cold food, the brushed-off kid in the hall, the loud woman peppering your patience with a thousand questions. When you slow and let your eyes fully receive theirs or your words nourish small things anytime you’re a safe place for another soul or you open and conceive grace—-you become a womb for God. Nothing is impossible with Him.

Christmas is conceived in your world when you simply receive it- however Christ and His will come to you. When we think we’re the ones who will have to produce Christmas, we only half-wrap the notion that we think the saving of the world begins with us. There is a name for this, and it is called idolatry.

“No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven,” says the one who is preparing the way (John 3:27 — emphasis added).

Hear it like an echo of the heavenlies: Christmas can’t be made, like people can’t be self-made, like dreams can’t be force-made. Everything is given from heaven. Everything is a gift. Your life becomes a masterpiece the moment you see it as a gift of grace to willingly receive. 

It is more blessed to give than to receive-and it may be more of a struggle to receive than to give. Christmas humbles: we are not the givers we long to be. Nor are we the receivers God woos us to be.

Mary kneels before us this first Christmas not as a woman producing, performing, or perfecting but simply bending before a God who has all the power to dispatch angels, enfold Himself in embryonic cells, choreograph the paths of stars—a God who quietly beckons every man, every woman to simply come, bend, make a space, receive.

This is the chronology of grace, the chronology of Christmas: before were called to give, we’re called to receive. 

This can be the hardest. We struggle to receive. Sometimes we are better givers than getters. Grace? For me?

I don’t have to bring anything? I don’t have to make anything, produce anything, perform anything? What if someone sees… how empty I am? How I am not enough, how my gifts are not enough, how giving all I’ve got is never enough? How there are empty places in me, gaping places in me—all these hollow, starving places?

And Mary nods to you in the last days of Advent. Only one thing is necessary-be a space for Love to come. You simply have to receive Love. Let yourself be loved.

Will you let Me fill all your emptiness with Love? Receive my Love? Conceive My grace?

It’s for you.

“Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace,” writes John Wesley.™ And nothing is harder for capable people at Christmas than to simply come and receive.

Don’t let this be the gift you refuse. The grace is for you. Your greatest gift is not your gifts, but your surrendered yes to be a space for God.

The miscarriage of Christmas begins when anxictics crowd out space within simply to carry Christ. Make room; be a womb. Be a womb to receive Christ everywhere, and it is He who delivers everyone.

So you let the last of the trimmings go.

Cease the pace to do, buy, produce more.

Find the calendar and erase.

Somewhere make space. And you can feel the space become a sanctuary. Sanctity stilling the crush. Glory overshadowing everything else.

And time holds its breath, and the whirl of this old whirligig world holds for half a blink… and God comes in the fullness of His love into the willing space.

And time exhales relief, and the angels dance joy, and the velvet hush of grace received falls over this place like a coverlet over a waiting child.

* * *

Grace is a subject of great importance to the Christian yet something we find vaguely unsettling. It elicits strong emotions—joy, for one; but also anger and confusion. Of all Christian beliefs, nothing engenders emotions like grace. 

Moreover, it is the single most questioned belief by those who are not Christian. The freely given pardon, the lavish gift of forgiveness without paying anything for it just doesn’t seem right. Don’t I have some responsibility? Isn’t there some accountability for my actions, my behavior, my conduct? It can’t be that I just get off scot free! It just doesn’t seem right. To some, it may even seem scandalous.

Somebody, it seems, has to pay something, some way, somehow. There is no free lunch. The concept of a pardon, a free gift, without payment, just doesn’t add up. I’ve got to do something—shape up at least, repent, return, reform. 

As we noted last week, Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the term “cheap grace”—grace without consequences, without paying something. I can’t just shrug away all my faults and my shortcomings and my sins, can I? Don’t I need to work hard at being better? Why should I be good if I’ve already been forgiven? Why try to be just as God wants me to be when he accepts me just as I am? 

This is the scandal of grace. This is grace unhinged. Can it really be true? 

A 2017 article in an online publication called Catholic Chemistry reported, ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, some Pew research showing the majority of Protestants—52%—believe that both good deeds and faith are necessary for salvation and that Christians need the guidance of the Church and its teachings and its traditions in addition to the Bible. 

According to the Pew poll, only 30% of Protestants believed in both sola fide (faith alone is what matters) and sola scriptura (scripture alone is what matters)—the hallmarks of the of the Reformation. Another 35% believed in either sola fide or sola scriptura alone, but not both. The remaining 36% believed that neither was necessary. In comparison, 81% of US Catholics believed that both good deeds and faith are necessary for salvation, while 75% believed Christians need the Bible and tradition.

Religion is all about paying the price for our sins. Much of the practice of religion is about paying it back in our rituals, in our habits, and in our procedures, prayers, fasting, and almsgiving. All of these are, at root, forms of penance. But grace is not like that. Biblical grace requires no payment, no quid pro quo. It is full and it is free. In his book  What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancy concludes:

“I freely admit, I have presented a one-sided picture of grace. I have portrayed God as a love-sick father eager to forgive, and grace as a force potent enough to break the chains that bind us and merciful enough to overcome deep differences between us. Depicting grace in such sweeping terms makes people nervous. And I can see that I have skated to the very edge of danger. However, I have done so because I believe the New Testament does so as well.” 

Consider this pointed reminder from the grand old preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones, a Welshman who was a physician and also Minister of the Westminster chapel for 30 years: 

“There is thus clearly a sense in which the message of justification by faith alone can be dangerous, and likewise, with a message that salvation is entirely of grace. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the new testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are enemies of God. This is a kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation. Grace has about it the sense of a scandal.” 

Still, it must be true that grace does something to us. What do we expect of grace? The apostle Paul must have anticipated this objection, this argument that somehow grace cannot be free. He must have anticipated the scandal of grace. In the first five chapters of the book of Romans he establishes the sinfulness and the depravity of all mankind. In Romans 3:23, he makes the categorical statement that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But in Romans 6 and 7, he puts the scandal of grace to rest, and he begins in Romans 6:1 by asking the question on everyone’s mind: “What shall we say then? Are we to be continued in sin, so the grace might abound? By no means.”

God forbid! Absolutely not! Pick the phrase you like, depending on the translation, but the answer is emphatic. 

He goes on to make three arguments using the metaphors of life and death, slavery and freedom, and marriage: 

• Grace liberates you from sin, just as the resurrection liberates you from death. In the spirit, by grace, you died to sin and were raised to a new life in the Spirit. You would no more persist in choosing sin over grace than you would choose death over life.
• He makes the same argument with the illustration of slavery: Being freed by the bonds of slavery to sin by grace, why would you go back to a life of bondage? “Embrace your freedom,” he says; “Who wants to be a slave?”
• Finally, he uses the metaphor of marriage: Love, he emphasized, is the binding element of grace. 

Yancey wrote: 

“Would a groom on his wedding night hold the following conversation with his bride: ‘Honey. I love you very much, and I’m eager to spend my life with you, but I need to work out a few details. After we’re married, how far can I go with other women? Can I sleep with them? Can I kiss them? You don’t mind a few affairs, do you, now and then? I know it might hurt you but just think of all the opportunities you’ll have to forgive me after I’ve betrayed you. 

“To such a Don Juan, the only reasonable response is a slap in the face and a “God forbid!” Obviously, he does not understand the first thing about love. Similarly, if we approach God with a ‘What can I get away with’ attitude, it proves we do not grasp what God has in mind for us. God wants something far beyond the relationship I might have with a slave master who will enforce my obedience. God is not a boss, or a business manager, or a magic genie to serve at our command. Indeed, God wants something more intimate than the closest relationship on Earth—a lifetime bond between a man and a woman. What God wants is not a good performance, but my heart. I do good works for my wife not in order to earn credit, but to express my love for her. Likewise, God wants me to serve in the new way of the Spirit, not out of compulsion, but out of desire. If I had to summarize the primary New Testament motivation for being good in one word, I would choose ‘gratitude.’ 

“Paul begins most of his letters with a summary of the riches we possess in Christ. If we comprehend what Christ has done for us, then surely, out of gratitude, we’ll strive to live the life worthy of such great love. We will strive for holiness—not to make God love us, but because he already does. As Paul told Titus, it is the grace of God that teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live a self-controlled and upright life. This passage is from Titus 2 beginning in verse 11: ‘For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Christ Jesus, He who gave Himself for us, and he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possessions, zealous for good deeds.’” 

There’s one more story I think sheds light on this discussion. It’s found in the story of the Annunciation, the calling of Mary to be the bearer of grace, to give birth to Jesus:

 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. (Luke 1:26-30). 

The Annunciation of Mary is her calling of grace, and it is to be seen as if we are all like Mary, called to bear good for the world, each of us in our own unique and special way. We can see this as the birth of the Word with a capital W in the soul. Notice that what is born in us is not of mankind’s devising. What is born is holy and divine. The fetus in Mary’s womb is not man-made; the Immaculate Conception is of heavenly origin. So too for us: God seeks by his grace to make us instruments of the Immaculate Conception of his divine grace. 

We see here universal applicability. We are all called to grace, to bear the Word of God to others. “Hail Mary, full of grace,” the angel says, “the Lord is with you.” This is the greeting to Mary, and this is the greeting to you and to me. Luke says that Mary is greatly troubled at what the angel says, We are doubtless troubled by our capacity for evil, and for aggression, or even more afraid, it seems, of our capacity for goodness. Mary is greatly troubled to hear herself be proclaimed as full of grace and that the Lord is with her. And so too, I think, are we.

Far more threatening than the fear that we are capable of doing evil and harming others is the truth that we are blessed, full of grace, and have a capacity to bring Jesus into the world in a special and individually specific way. It is frightening to know that we all have a unique task and an assignment before God. We are called as a consequence of the gift of grace. It is as if God says “My grace takes care of you. You’re absolved. Your salvation is taken care of by my grace.” But you’re called to a different mission, a mission of bringing Jesus to the world, not a mission of self-righteousness, but to bear the word of grace to others. We must be faithful to the call, to give birth to the Word at the core of our being. 

Do we struggle to give voice to the Word that God will speak through us? We, like Mary, are vessels of grace and beloved by God. The Lord is with us. We have been created to bring Jesus to the world in a way that no one else can. This is the responsibility of grace. While it may be terrifying, it is our calling. And God assures us, as He did with Mary, that with God all things are possible. To accept that we are full of grace and that the Lord is with us, is our mission and our calling. It assures us that God is willing to help us, that we have his covering of grace, and that it puts us into this situation of being a source of grace to others. 

The apostle Paul must have anticipated the objection that somehow grace cannot be free. He anticipated the scandal of grace because, in the first five chapters of the book of Romans, he establishes the sinfulness and depravity of all humankind. In Romans 3:23, he makes the categorical statement that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But in Romans 6 and 7, he addresses the scandal of grace. He begins in Romans 6:1 by asking, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” By no means! Absolutely not—pick whatever phrase you like, depending on the translation, but the answer is emphatic. He then makes three arguments using the metaphors of life and death, slavery and freedom, and marriage. First, grace liberates you from sin, just as the resurrection liberates you from death. By grace, you find you died to sin and were raised to new life in the Spirit. Paul argues you would no more persist in choosing sin over grace than you would choose death over life. Second, he uses the illustration of slavery. Being freed from the bonds of slavery to sin by grace, why would you return to a life of bondage? Embrace your freedom, he says. Who wants to be a slave? Third, he uses the metaphor of marriage to emphasize the binding element of grace.

But there’s another story, the one that Becky has brought forward today, that sheds light on this discussion. It is found in the story of the Annunciation, the calling of Mary to be the bearer of grace, to give birth to Jesus. Reading from Luke chapter 1, “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was very perplexed at this statement and pondered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'”

The Annunciation to Mary is her calling of grace and is to be seen as if we are all like Mary. We are called to bear good for the world, each in our own unique and special way. We can see this as the birth of the Word, with a capital ‘W’, and a soul. Notice that what is born in us is not of humankind’s devising; what is born is holy and divine. The fetus in Mary’s womb is not man-made; the Immaculate Conception is of heavenly origin. Likewise, God seeks by His grace to make us instruments of the Immaculate Conception of His divine grace. 

We see here the universal applicability. We are called to grace, to bear grace to others. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you,” the angel says. This greeting to Mary is also a greeting to you and to me. Luke says Mary is greatly troubled at what the angel says. We are doubtless troubled by our capacity for evil and for aggression, and even more afraid, it seems, of our capacity for goodness.

Mary is greatly troubled to hear herself proclaimed as full of grace, and that the Lord is with her. And so too, I think, are we. Far more threatening than the fear that we’re capable of doing evil and harming others is the truth that we are blessed, full of grace, and have the capacity to bring Jesus into the world in a specific and individually tailored way. It is frightening to know that we have a unique task and an assignment before God. As a consequence of the gift of grace, it is as if God says, “My grace takes care of you. You are absolved, your salvation is taken care of by my grace, but you’re called to a different mission, a mission of bringing Jesus to the world—not a mission of self-righteousness, but to bear the word of grace to others. We must be faithful to the call to give birth to the Word at the core of our being. Do we struggle to give voice to the Word that God will speak through us? Like Mary, we are vessels of grace and beloved by God. The Lord is with us. We have been created to bring Jesus to the world in a way that no one else can—not Jesus in religious doctrinal terms, but as Jesus with his message and with his mission. 

This is the responsibility of grace. While it may be terrifying, it is our calling. And God assures us, as He did with Mary, that with God, all things are possible. To accept that we are full of grace and that the Lord is with us is our mission and our calling. It assures us that God is willing to help us,

Donald: We generally think of our spiritual matters in a corporate way, gathering together to share our private perspectives, yet we do this corporately. The two questions I’m pondering are somewhat related. First, what would organized religion look like if it focused on grace, assuming it currently doesn’t? Second, what is our understanding of grace as a class? Are we on the same page as a group? Are we focusing on grace more than a traditional group of people who discuss faith or spiritual matters? Although we’ve suggested having a different perspective, I’m not sure we’ve clearly articulated it.

David: The question, “What would a faith look like if it focused on grace?” is fascinating. It reminds me of Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times that we discussed years ago in which a Catholic priest described being called, soon after his ordination, to a hospital where a child had just died, to comfort the grieving Latino family that spoke limited English. Despite having some minimal Spanish, he felt unprepared, realizing all he could offer was his presence as a representation of God’s grace. This act of grace was appreciated and recognized by the family. 

This makes me wonder, could the Catholic Church succeed if its priests focused less on mass and more on being present with those who are suffering? Does a grieving family need basic instruction in Catholicism to recognize grace, and would this priest’s approach suffice even for an atheist family in distress?

Jay: We often view grace as a universal principle, a timeless characteristic of God, and while that may be true, the quotation shared by Becky May at the beginning of this class suggests that grace can be very individualized. “When you are in a space to receive whatever the will of God is, in this moment, as Grace, you take hold of God.” This highlights the challenge of defining grace as both timeless and universal, yet potentially very individualized. 

Educators face a similar challenge in trying to individualize the educational experience for each student, a daunting task with hundreds of students. If we consider God’s perspective, capable of offering individualized grace, it becomes clear why defining grace concretely is difficult. Additionally, the concept of hoarding grace varies greatly between individuals. For instance, the parable of the seeds and the talents illustrate grace as individualistic proportional gifts rather than a uniform distribution. This individualized nature of grace complicates the idea of focusing on it corporately, as a corporate entity may not be equipped to meet everyone’s unique needs.

Donald: Among those of us with an Adventist background, do we know if any of the 27 core beliefs directly address grace? Does one or more speak to grace? This seems crucial. If we cannot affirmatively say so, it suggests that grace is not a prominent concept or is not explicitly addressed. Is it considered a private matter? It’s unlikely that even one of the 10 people here could define it—it’s that personal.

Jay: For me, the essence of God’s goodness and grace is universal and timeless. It transcends time, culture, and geography. The grace of God is experiential everywhere. Our concrete minds want to standardize it, to have everyone experience it in the same way. However, I propose that the way you connect with it and how it manifests in you, and how you then serve as a vessel to pass it on, is highly individualistic.

Carolyn: I agree, but there’s the aspect of judgment at the end of grace. What is our cause, our position, once we’ve received grace, regarding judgment? Are we covered by grace forever, or just in that moment? Does this imply that our deeds post-receiving grace matter? Judgment introduces a pause, a consideration in the discussion of grace.

Michael: That’s a challenging question. From my exploration of teachings on grace in various churches it seems that people’s understanding of grace often varies. Many associate grace with conditions, which might be what Carolyn referred to—it’s seen as conditional, not just freely given without cessation or requirement to stop sinning. 

However, another perspective, and perhaps ours, views grace as unconditional, a significant distinction. It wasn’t easy finding congregations that discuss grace as we do, but I did find a few sources. Though these discussions begin with grace, they often circle back to topics like judgment and responsibility, which complicates the concept.

Jay: Carolyn revisits the concept of grace and judgment, highlighting a desire for clear definitions, especially concerning judgment. If grace and judgment are intertwined, and grace is individualistic, it follows that judgment is also highly individualistic. This notion is liberating for me, as it implies that judgment is not based on someone else’s standards but is tailored to each individual by God, who understands the grace we’ve received and passed on. God recognizes our capacities at different stages of our lives, freeing us from being held to a constant standard. 

This perspective on judgment, reflective of biblical teachings, suggests judgment is God’s domain, and those being judged may not predict their outcome, underscoring the importance of trusting in God’s grace and goodness as a comforting and secure stance.

Carolyn: I’m reminded of John 3:16, which has been a foundation for me since childhood: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse, to me, encapsulates grace and covers the concept of judgment, promising everlasting life under grace.

C-J: When I consider biblical stories like Daniel in the lion’s den or his capture as a young boy, I see grace in every moment of trial. These stories remind me that God has brought me through difficulties before. It’s about recognizing God’s restoration and purpose in our lives, leaning into the work He is doing in us. Grace, to me, is like building a wall brick by brick, each representing the Holy Spirit’s attributes and the life-giving Word of God. They remind me that I am merely a vessel through which God expresses grace. In moments of despair, when the pain seems too great, I’m inspired by Daniel’s patience, understanding that delays are not denials. This teaches me to lean into grace, knowing that everything unfolds in God’s timing.

Reinhard: Willingness to accept grace—to make space for it in hour hearts—seems to be the only requirement. Once we have this grace, as long as we maintain it with the help of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need to worry about judgment, particularly the last judgment. When people judge us, those with authority, like courts, make judgments based on that authority. But if fellow members of our religious community judge us, it’s often to remind us to return to the right path. In our Christian lives, when we are judged by people from the church, it’s an encouragement to stay on course and not stray.

Metaphorically, the space for grace is like a room being prepared for new furniture by first emptying and cleaning it. Similarly, we must make our hearts clean and empty, ready to receive. Once we receive, like new furniture in a room, we care for it, keep it clean – this is akin to accepting and nurturing grace, as well as sharing God’s love with others. As individuals, we accept God’s grace and mercy, keep it, and share it with others.

Just as in a room where someone might knock on the door and we invite them in to share the space, we can share grace with others in this ‘room’. Grace, although not always fully understood because it is free, requires something from us in return: willingness, humility, and an open heart and mind. With this attitude of willingness to accept God’s grace, our actions reflect God’s will on Earth. By fulfilling this requirement, we can pass on grace to others and ourselves.

Anonymous: The parallel between Mary, hailed as “full of grace,” and Jesus, recognized for being full of “grace and truth” in John 1:14, highlights a profound connection. The observation about Joseph not knowing Mary until Jesus was born, and relating this to humans not understanding grace until Jesus is formed within us, is a compelling analogy. This idea of needing Jesus within us to be filled with grace mirrors Paul’s sentiment in Galatians 4:19 about being in travail until Christ is formed within the believers. It suggests that without being spiritually ‘pregnant’ with Jesus, we cannot produce good works. This analogy extends to the idea that just as pregnancy is evident in a woman, being filled with Jesus and his grace should be visible in our actions and works.

Donald: The absence of grace as a standalone core belief of Adventism might suggest that while grace is not explicitly mentioned, it could be an underlying theme within other Adventist beliefs. The idea of simply becoming a place for God, without the pressure to produce, perform, or perfect, strikes a powerful chord. It raises a question about our collective belief in the sufficiency of grace and the absence of performance-based faith.

Don: In the entire narrative of Jesus, from the Annunciation through to his teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection, it’s evident that grace is a central theme of his mission. The observation that grace permeates Jesus’s story from conception to resurrection emphasizes the importance of grace as not just a theological concept but as the essence of his presence and mission. This observation challenges us to consider why grace isn’t more central in our own messaging and missions, given its pivotal role in Jesus’s life and teachings.

David: I asked a ChatGPT derivative called Perplexity if the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s core beliefs include grace. It responded that the church believes in salvation through grace alone, as outlined in its 28 Fundamental Beliefs. It emphasizes that “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). This seems to confirm that the Adventist Church does indeed have a key focus on grace. 

This brings me back to the notion introduced by Becky and echoed in Maureen Dowd’s column and in Reinhard’s metaphor, that grace can be seen as the presence of God within us, a concept that extends the definition of grace beyond mere divine favor to include the indwelling presence of God.

Michael: I see judgment and grace as intertwined, occurring simultaneously. Thus, the rejection of grace constitutes judgment, aligning with the biblical assertion that while light came into the world, people preferred darkness over light.

Donald: It’s worth examining how other churches articulate the role of grace to understand its significance as a foundational aspect of Christianity, especially considering its pervasive presence from Jesus’s conception to his resurrection.

Reinhard: In real-world contexts, judgment can lead to a verdict of guilty or not guilty. Biblically, judgment often refers to condemnation. However, Paul assures that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Maintaining grace in the proper manner should alleviate concerns about judgment. This discussion extends to the ultimate judgment, where grace covers our actions against God’s will, provided we repent. This ongoing process of repentance is key to our spiritual journey.

Jay: Grace is mentioned three times in the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Adventist Church, in regard to salvation, spiritual gifts, and the law of God. Instead of grace being a standalone belief, it is used to explain other concepts. Salvation, for instance, is through grace. This indicates that rather than starting with grace, we tend to reverse the order, explaining salvation and spiritual gifts as emanating from grace. 

It’s intriguing that we don’t position grace as the foundation from which all else derives but rather as an element that integrates into other beliefs. This might be why we struggle with conceptualizing grace, not as the beginning of everything but as an additive. I’ve mentioned before that on the first day, God created light, independent of the sun, moon, and stars created on the fourth day. This leads to pondering the foundational element established at creation and its relation to grace, suggesting that grace is like oxygen—inescapable and fundamental to the universe’s functioning.

David: The problem in our approach to understanding grace might stem from treating it as a reductionist exercise, breaking it down into components like mercy and compassion. This becomes more complex the further we go down this path. A holistic approach might see grace as an aspect of love, with God’s love being the ultimate saving grace. Perhaps we should focus on the concept of love, and accept that being loved by God is sufficient. There is no need for further breakdown and analysis.

C-J: Love and grace imply a relationship filled with growth, commitment, and sacrifice, necessitating work and development through its challenges. This relationship with God is private and unique, reflecting through community not as a personal showcase but as a space for divine expression. The essence of our relationship with God transcends the boundaries of time and religion, being limitless and constantly evolving.

Don: I’d like to express regret that Becky couldn’t join us more extensively. Her contribution, focusing on Jesus’s mission and message as one of grace, has been invaluable. We’ll continue exploring this theme in our future discussions.

* * *

Michael: At the end of last week’s class Donald asked the class this question: Why do we often link the terms suffering and pain? Is it necessary? Is suffering different than pain? This week Kiran and I will try to explore this connection and furthermore. 

But first, let’s define these terms, with help from Chat GPT: 

Pain is a sensory and physical experience that is typically associated with a negative sensation or discomfort. It is a physiological response to injury or illness.

Suffering encompasses the mental and emotional distress that can arise from pain, loss, adversity, or challenging life situations. Suffering involves how individuals interpret and respond to pain, as well as the thoughts, emotions, and existential questions that may arise as a result.

Pain doesn’t always lead to suffering and suffering can be experienced even in the absence of physical pain. For example, exercising can cause pain, but we seldom say we suffer because of it. Also, someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one may experience suffering even though they are not physically in pain. 

Even in the absence of physical pain, suffering can be a very real and debilitating experience. Suffering can manifest itself in different ways such as 

• Emotional distress, such as grief, anxiety, or depression.
• Loss, such as the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or the loss of a job.
• Disappointment, such as not achieving a goal or not getting what you want.
• Social or economic hardship, such as poverty, homelessness, or discrimination.
• Spiritual or existential distress, such as questioning the meaning of life or feeling disconnected from others.

It seems that our attitude towards pain and suffering has been evolving for the past century or so. Specifically, we have become more reluctant to experience pain and suffering. In a culture that emphasizes happiness and well-being, pain and suffering have no place, they are outsiders, aberrations of what a normal life should be. Advancements in medicine and psychotherapy have taken great strides towards the elimination of pain and suffering. 

Today we want to ask this question. Do we lose something from this pursuit of happiness and pleasure above everything else?

Dr. Anna Lembke, in her New York Times bestselling book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence made this interesting observation. 

 “There has been an increase in addictions, anxiety, and unhappiness, especially in developed nations. Currently, there is a massive prescribing of feel-good pills. One in four American adults, and more than one in twenty American children takes a psychiatric drug daily. According to the world happiness report, people in the US reported being less happy in 2018 than they were in 2008. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that around 264 million people of all ages suffer from anxiety disorders, making it one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.”

Our attitude and approach towards pain and suffering (complete avoidance and elimination) has paradoxically led to increased levels of them, especially in developed nations. Is there a better attitude to adopt towards these essential aspects of our human experience? To try and arrive at the answer, I’m going to discuss two cases of people who instead of running away from painful life circumstances, decided to embrace their suffering. After that Kiran will discuss a few lessons from Job’s suffering. 

Perhaps one of the most well-known people to write about his suffering is the Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankel. Frankel was an Austrian psychiatrist before becoming a prisoner in Auschwitz, one of the infamous Nazi concentration camps. In his famous book, “Man’s search for meaning”, Frankel details the prisoner’s life in a concentration camp where they endured forced labor—often pointless and humiliating, and imposed without proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest. When a prisoner suffered from a work-related injury, disease, or starvation, they were executed. Many prisoners lost the will to live. They couldn’t find a meaning for their current lives and the endless suffering. One could easily tell who they were because they would smoke all their cigarettes and wouldn’t go to work in the morning. When Frankel came back after the day’s labor, they would be gone. 

Frankel observed that a minority of prisoners were able to rise above their circumstances. I’m going to quote from Frankel here: 

“The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The second story is that of Jerry Sittser. I got to know about him because he wrote a book called “A Grace Disguised”. He is currently a theology professor at Whitworth University. 

Jerry and his mother, his wife, and his four children, were driving down a road in rural Idaho at night. A drunk driver crashed into their car killing his mother, wife, and youngest daughter- three generations gone at once. His loss was sudden and catastrophic. He was devastated and contemplated ending his life “the pain was relentless, like midday heat in the Sahara.” However, he had three children that needed to be cared for. 

Jerry was also faced with a choice: 

“I discovered in that moment that I had the power to choose the direction my life would head…I decided from that point on to walk into the darkness rather than try to outrun it, to allow myself to be transformed by my suffering rather than to think I could somehow avoid it. I chose to turn toward the pain, however falteringly, and to yield to the loss, though I had no idea at the time what that would mean.”

From these two men who embraced suffering, we understand that we have a choice to make at the face of suffering. The choice is: How do we interpret our suffering and how do we respond to it. Do we blame God or life for the unfairness and feel pity for ourselves or do we accept our fate, question our convictions, and embrace the suffering, which seems to enrich our lives in ways we can’t anticipate.

Kiran: In the book of Job, we can clearly how Job faced suffering and how the choices he made at the face of suffering got him to “see” God and to become more spiritually mature. 

Job experienced catastrophic loss and suffering not because he is wicked but because he is righteous. One of the main lessons we can take from this story is this. In this world, there is no correlation between righteousness and prosperity or wickedness and suffering. The righteous often suffer more than the wicked and the wicked often prosper more than the righteous. This goes against our innate conviction of fairness and cause and effect.

If God allows the righteous to suffer, why should anyone strive to be righteous? Where is the incentive to be righteous? Perhaps this is why Job’s wife asked Job to curse God and die. 

The central question in the book of Job is about the spiritual journey and faithfulness of Job. God asked Job, when things don’t make sense, when you feel utterly helpless, when you lose everything, when I, your protector is letting you get hurt, would you still put your trust in Me? Would you trust that I am benevolent, compassionate, and good? 

This is a recurrent theme in the bible, and not limited to Job. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, God asked Abraham, will you trust Me? When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Father asked Jesus, will you trust Me? 

We wish there were rational explanations for human suffering. Why was this unfair burden put on me? Why me? Why not another person? Why do we have to exercise the choice to blindly Trust God in such situations? Why can’t God simply explain the reason behind the suffering and tell me that everything is gonna be, okay? Why is he silent?

The other major lesson we can take from the book of Job is this. Even if God has an explanation for our suffering, we are not capable of comprehending it. When Job questioned God about his suffering, God didn’t answer job’s question. Instead, God responded with a bunch of questions about the things above and below the earth and animals. After that God paused for Job’s response. 

Then Job answered Yahweh,

“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you will answer me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you.
Therefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”

In these verses we can see the steps of how Job made his choice and came close to God. 

• Job understood that God is all powerful and no one can stop him in fulfilling His purpose. 
• Job understood that as a human he cannot comprehend the purpose of God and the ways He chooses to accomplish them.
• Job understood that his choice is simply to trust – that God is benevolent and has good intentions towards him even through this suffering. 

With this trust in God, Job accepted his suffering and made peace with his situation. 

This can be best summarized by a quote from George Muller. 

George Mueller of Bristol England lost his wife Mary to rheumatic fever. They had been married 39 years and 4 months. In her memorial service this is what he said. 

I miss her in numberless ways and shall miss her yet more and more. But as a child of God, and as a servant of the Lord Jesus, I bow, I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father, I seek by perfect submission to His holy will to glorify Him, I kiss continually the hand that has thus afflicted me.

Accepting suffering can cause us to take inventory of our lives and to become more alive to the present moment. To appreciate the everyday gifts of Grace. The present moment is where God and Grace reside. 

That is why we see Job counted every blessing he received from God. 

Going through suffering increases the soul’s capacity for grief, but also for joy. It also makes us more sensitive to the pain of others. 

That is why we see that Job interceded for his friends despite the emotional pain they caused. 

Intellectually I know that suffering will be good for me. Instead of being a punisher’s whip, it could become a surgeon’s scalpel if I put trust in God. Yet, I fear suffering. When I put my kid to sleep, I fear what might happen to him in the future. When I hear about women as young as my wife succumbing to cancer, I fear about my wife. I fear if I have the strength to accept such suffering. I fear if I die, would they be able to accept such suffering. I fear would such suffering wreck my life, my marriage, my faith in God and my will to live. I fear I will ever find meaning in such suffering. I feel utter helplessness and lack of control over things that matter to me. 

At the core of these fears is the frightening truth of our mortality. We are creatures, made of dust. Life on earth can be wonderful, but in the end all of us will die.

But here is the hope. The Apostles believed that suffering is a part of the Christian experience, and they embraced it and even counted it as joy. 

Romans 5:3-5 Paul said: 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Gifts of grace come to all of us. But we must be ready to see and willing to receive these gifts. It will require a kind of sacrifice, the sacrifice of believing that however painful our losses may be, life can still be good. in a different way than before, but nevertheless good. 

What are your thoughts on the value of suffering in our lives? 

How does God’s grace play a role in suffering? 

Is it necessary to go through suffering to find and accept Grace? Or is the suffering a consequence of accepting Grace? 

Do you fear the possibility of suffering in the future, or do you count it a joy? 

Donald: I appreciate hearing the thoughtful insights from both of you; they were well-articulated and undoubtedly provocative. One focal point that caught my attention in your remarks was the evolving attitude toward pain and suffering. I wonder if this shift means we’re becoming more sensitive as a society, or if it’s simply a reflection of higher life expectations. Clearly, the “greatest generation” had different life expectations compared to today’s more educated populace, who feel as if they have boundless opportunities.

Another intriguing point is the subjectivity of pain. Someone I know who fell ill recently was asked to rate her pain on a scale of one to ten, but having led a life largely free of physical suffering, how can she objectively measure it? This raises an interesting question: Do we all perceive pain and suffering in the same way? I’m uncertain about that.

Lastly, you touched on coping mechanisms for pain, such as addictions, and compared it to muscle building. You mentioned that cyclists endure physical pain to build muscle, suggesting that maybe suffering, in a broader sense, serves to prepare us for future hardships. Is the purpose of enduring suffering, then, to better equip us for future pain?

Don: What keeps occurring in my mind is the question. Is God responsible for the pain / suffering because it has intrinsic value? Or does he take a bad circumstance and try to make some something good out of a bad circumstance? Who’s the underlying individual entity responsible for our suffering?

David: In Job’s case wasn’t it very clearly God who caused the suffering?

C-J: The concept of capacity resonates with me, and alongside it comes the idea of resiliency. It’s also a matter of where you choose to focus your attention within a given space. I recently spoke to a woman and expressed my dissatisfaction with the current state of things. At 71, I expected life to be different, and it’s disheartening to see educated individuals making poor decisions while I feel voiceless. Although I recognize the importance of perseverance and selflessness, the inequities make it difficult to maintain a positive outlook. Like Michael and Kiren mentioned, these feelings have their place and are essential for our growth.

Janelin: I had a recent interaction that made me reflect on how people in different situations perceive and respond to life’s challenges. In Michigan, there was a tragic Amber Alert involving a child whose grandmother I happened to know. Despite losing her granddaughter and three brothers to gun violence, she reaffirmed her faith in God. It was an emotional moment and it made me wonder how I would react under similar circumstances. Her unwavering faith was truly moving.

David: That raises a good point. Most of us, including myself, would likely struggle to maintain faith when faced with such adversity.

Donald: As a group of Christians, we find strength in our faith. But what if we were speaking to an atheist? They might list coping techniques like drinking and smoking, and categorize religion as just another form of escapism. What are your thoughts on that?

C-J: I believe that medication and faith serve different roles. Using substances to cope can become a form of codependency, whereas a relationship with God for me is about aligning myself with God’s purpose for my life. That often requires work and conscious commitment, unlike simply using substances to escape. So, in my view, the two are fundamentally different. Being a Christian is not easy; it’s a daily commitment that I, along with many others in this faith, take very seriously.

Don: One of the most challenging aspects that calls people’s belief in God into question is the issue of suffering and the origin of evil. This raises an essential question: Is God the author of suffering? Is suffering merely an illustrative tool, or is it a universal truth? The problem is especially distressing for many Christians who find themselves grappling with the feeling of being unjustly targeted by divine forces.

David: Once we entertain the notion that God might be responsible for suffering, we’re led to a troubling conclusion, especially within the framework of Christianity. If God is anthropomorphized—made in our image—then it becomes difficult not to assign blame to Him. That’s partly why I identify as a Daoist. My interpretation of Daoism allows for a divine being but doesn’t personalize that deity, preventing the allocation of blame. An impersonal god sidesteps the problem of justifying why a god made in our image would allow suffering.

Sharon: Could we find insights into handling suffering from our Islamic peers who often invoke “inshAllah”?

Reinhard: To understand suffering, we should consider its root cause. While God may be indirectly responsible for Job’s suffering, the primary culprit is Satan. Suffering has been an inherent part of human existence since the expulsion from Eden. Not all suffering manifests as physical pain; it can take many forms such as economic hardship or mental anguish. However, if we maintain faith in God, we can persevere through these trials. Suffering can fortify our character and enable us to withstand future challenges.

I also have a personal story to share, influenced by my father’s experiences. He was a Dutch Army prisoner of war during World War II and also a political prisoner during a civil war. His faith actually flourished during these tumultuous times, reading the Bible multiple times. His ordeal made him a stronger and more devout person, and he always told us to steer clear of military life due to the terrible suffering involved.

So, despite the hardships we may face, if we place our trust in God and hold firm in our faith, we can navigate life’s ups and downs. As the Psalm 91:15 suggests, if we rely on God, we will experience both good and bad times but ultimately find a reason to give thanks.

Anonymous: This has been an incredibly enriching and thought-provoking discussion. I want to extend my gratitude to Michael and Kiran for their insightful presentations. I have a lot of thoughts on this matter, but first, I want to express how suffering has brought me closer to God. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2001, I’ve spent the last 22 years growing spiritually through my trials. It’s taught me to fully trust in God’s goodness. What saddens me is when people are suffering and yet don’t have the spiritual perspective that I do. They look for escape routes which often worsen their predicament. How can you help someone, for example, a woman who only sees divorce as an option after suffering emotional, verbal, and physical abuse? It’s a dilemma.

Sharon: I’d say that the fact that these individuals confide in you means they’re looking for social support. Religion provides a social function through community, something that is invaluable especially when other social systems fail. It allows us to be there for each other, which is how God works through us to provide strength and hope. So, it sounds like you’re already playing a role in helping these people.

C-J: While I agree with your points, Sharon, the issues we’re discussing become even more complicated in theocracies where women are systematically oppressed. These acts of violence aren’t God’s will. We are social beings with an obligation to form strong communities that support everyone. If the government doesn’t allow for that, it’s a failure not only of governance but also of our collective conscience. We can’t just be reactive; we must be proactive in creating more equitable systems. My heart aches for the stories you’ve shared, and I think it’s essential that we look at the broader systemic issues at play here. Thank you for bringing them into the open.

David: Picking up on Sharon’s comment about “InshAllah,” I’m curious if this conversation would be different if we were all of Muslim faith. Whether in times of celebration or disaster, Muslims often say “Allahu Akbar” or “God is great.” Perhaps this reflects the message in Job that God’s greatness is beyond our understanding. Could the constant affirmation of God’s greatness help communities like the Afghans persevere through hardship? This intersection of religion and resilience is something I’d like to delve into in an interfaith context.

C-J: I see the dominant narrative, particularly in religious texts, as something that has often been manipulated to favor men. For instance, the Bible’s relief at the birth of a male child, as if the life of a woman is somehow less important. I don’t believe that’s what God intended. I think the ideal is equal partnership, and when that’s not achieved, societies suffer.

Donald: This is a heavy conversation we’re having. While I might not articulate it as well, I do think about suffering in the context of my own experiences. Having been critically ill as a child, I often ponder why I went through that. Maybe suffering entered the world with sin, creating a sort of spiritual war zone. In this war zone, we all get hurt to some degree, and the question is how we navigate that suffering, often through relationships and healthy living.

Kiran: The question of whether God causes suffering or if it originates elsewhere is complicated. My perspective is that I have the capacity for both good and evil, as do we all. Jesus advised overcoming evil with good, and that’s the choice I make.

Michael: This discussion is tough, and as someone in a teaching role, I’m even more aware of how little I can offer in terms of answers. But the point about Jesus not just dying but suffering excessively is puzzling. Why the added layer of suffering, especially when the primary purpose was his death?

Don: You bring up an intriguing question, Michael. As we continue our long-standing study of the book of Matthew, we’ll be getting into the crucifixion and will spend time pondering why, if Jesus had to die, did he also have to endure so much suffering? So, let’s keep these questions in mind for future discussions. 

Just a note, no class next week due to a family reunion, but we will resume the week after that. Thank you all for the rich dialogue today.

* * *

Sharon has a PhD in Social Work and has been a professor and administrator at a variety of colleges and higher institutions of higher learning. She has agreed to give us some perspective this morning on suffering and the picture of God that comes with the suffering that each of us has in our lives.

Sharon: I will start with the artificial intelligence ChatGPT’s response to the question that I posed to it concerning how we see God through suffering. It responded:

“The question of how we see God through suffering is complex and deeply personal, as opinions and beliefs may vary among individuals. 

“Some people find comfort and strength in their faith during suffering, seeing it as an opportunity for spiritual growth and deepening their relationship with God. They may believe God uses suffering to teach important lessons, foster empathy and compassion, or develop inner strength. 

“Others may struggle with the concept of a loving God in the face of suffering, questioning why a benevolent deity would allow or inflict pain. These individuals may seek understanding and solace in different ways, such as exploring philosophical or theological perspectives, sharing their experiences with a supportive community, or seeking personal meaning and purpose amid adversity. 

“Ultimately, how one perceives God through suffering is deeply personal, shaped by individual beliefs, experiences, and worldviews. It can be a journey of spiritual exploration and finding personal responses to the profound questions raised by human suffering.” 

But I’d like to suggest that suffering is a part of our human experience. I really don’t know any individual of any ethnicity, gender, or economic status who is immune from the human experience of suffering. If you haven’t experienced suffering, hang on, because it’s coming your way. No one is exempt. 

My premise—the Pittman Principle of Human Suffering, so to speak—suggests that the reason we struggle so much with suffering is because the sense of control in our lives seems to hold us together in a comfortable homeostasis, so when we lose that sense of being in control we feel vulnerable in our understanding of ourselves, our relationship with each other, and even our relationship with God. For controlling human beings, vulnerability is not a comfortable prospect. 

There are four categories to vulnerability: Physical, social, economic, and environmental. Physical vulnerabilities such as illness and the aging process can lead to disability. Social vulnerabilities include the breakdown in personal or familial relationships or in an institutional support system, and community dysfunction or social isolation Economic vulnerability occurs when someone experiences fiscal disequilibrium within their social context. Environmental vulnerability, such what recently happened in Maui, where fire destroyed the entire town of Lahaina. 

That is the Pittman Principle, but what is the Biblical perspective on suffering? Psalm 34:18 says: 

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” 

The great news about grace is that Jesus endured the ultimate pain for us so we can be assured that God never leaves us alone. As believers, we have this source of comfort in our pain: God is with us. We have been promised his presence during our greatest vulnerability. We have grace on steroids at the time when we feel our most vulnerable.

Weakness is an opportunity for God to work powerfully in our lives. Even when our flesh and heart fail us, He is the strength of our heart (Psalm 73:26). As we reflect on the areas of our lives where we know we are weak, in whatever capacity that is, may we look to Jesus and ponder how He works through our weaknesses for His glory. He increases the power of the weak. 

Paul David Tripp wrote:

“Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God’s working through you, but your delusions of strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness! Point to His strength by being willing to admit your weakness.”  

The song Sometimes it takes a Mountain speaks to what we’re talking about today. 

I don’t know what your mountains or your deserts have been in the last year but I know that if you’re walking the human experience, suffering is going to come our way. My husband passed away a little over a year and a half ago. It has been a big mountain for me to climb, with the loneliness, the breaking down of cars that I don’t know how to fix,… all sorts of issues. But I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I can’t explain it any other way. My source of resiliency and being able to push on comes from being completely vulnerable with Jesus, each day saying in my weakness “Please, please help me to become strong.”

I’ll conclude my remarks with another opinion from ChatGPT. I asked the AI how virtual reality (VR) could help me cope with suffering and improve my well being. Here’s what it shared:

Virtual reality (VR) can cope with suffering and improve well-being. Here’s how you can use VR for this purpose:

1. Mindfulness and Relaxation: VR meditation or mindfulness apps can create immersive environments that help you relax, reduce stress, and promote inner peace. These experiences may include serene landscapes, calming sounds, and guided meditation sessions.

2. Exposure Therapy: VR can confront and overcome various fears, anxieties, or trauma-related symptoms. Simulating and gradually exposing you to triggering situations in a controlled virtual environment allows you to desensitize yourself and build resilience.

3. Pain Distraction: VR can divert your attention from physical or emotional pain by immersing you in entertaining or engaging virtual experiences. You can explore games and virtual worlds or watch immersive videos that remove you from your current suffering.

4. Therapeutic Experiences: Some VR applications are specifically designed to provide therapeutic support. These may range from virtual storytelling, art, or music therapy to immersive environments that help distract from symptoms of chronic pain or severe illness.

5. Social Connection: VR can also enable virtual social interactions, bringing people together who may be physically distant or isolated due to their suffering. Participating in virtual support groups, multiplayer games, or social apps can alleviate loneliness and foster a sense of community.

Remember, while VR can be a useful tool for coping with suffering, consulting with a healthcare professional or therapist who can guide you on incorporating it into your overall coping strategies is essential.

How does each of you see God in your suffering experiences? 

Donald: It’s remarkable that Sharon can be halfway around the world and still use technology in the way she has to present her ideas this morning. Thank you so much. I was quickly jotting down many points about what you shared with us. You know, it’s part of the human experience, and we all know that we must walk this road at some time. 

Most of our lives, we seem to spend time trying to prevent or control suffering, not allowing it to be a part of our experience on a daily basis, or at least to a significant degree. Sometimes we can’t control it, and certain things can increase that percentage of suffering, unfortunately, in many individuals. Interestingly, we know that suffering can bring us closer to spiritual matters, yet we often resist it. That’s one point I’m making. 

Secondly, it’s intriguing how we perceive suffering as part of being human, yet when we think about heaven, we imagine it to be a utopia without suffering. Those were a couple of thoughts.

David: I agree absolutely with what Sharon called “the Pittman Principle of Suffering”, that when we’re at the end of our tether, that’s when God kicks in most; we find God at that point. It’s a wonderful message. I bet there are others in this group who have also experienced it, as I believe I have myself. 

As a sidebar, I’d like to note that Sharon just gave us a perfect demonstration of how technology is being used today for the exploration of spiritual matters.

Michael: I really enjoyed this as well. I think it confirms my experience that when you’re not feeling your best, it’s the time when you introspect and connect with God more. But it’s also fascinating that it’s in stark contrast to what the Church teaches—that suffering is evil, the absence of God. It seems it’s a movement that can bring us closer to God. 

Another thing: Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus being a man acquainted with suffering is not the image we see in movies, where the white savior is portrayed, but the prophecy clearly suggests he was a sufferer. This acquaintance with suffering is what brings you closer to those who suffer the most.

Sharon: I struggle with this in my profession of social work. I’m teaching a class online, and they require us to teach with a “trauma-informed” perspective. This seems to me to be very problem-oriented and not strength-oriented. Christians can see our experiences of suffering as opportunities to connect with our savior in a deep and personal way. 

I struggle with the idea of everything being trauma-informed when maybe it should be “resiliency-informed” because people are strong. I learned so much about resiliency from little kids I fostered, who, despite being horribly abused by their mother, still loved her. We’re stronger than we think, and looking at everything through trauma-informed eyes may not serve us well in the long run. Maybe that’s just my bias.

Don: I’m not familiar with a “trauma-informed perspective.” Can you explain it?

Sharon: “Trauma-informed” assumes that everyone’s early life experiences were traumatic. You must approach everything as if everyone has suffered and not recovered from it. This seems to be problem-focused, not a strengths-based approach. It overlooks how strong people are and how amazingly they get through extremely difficult situations.

David: I like the idea that there’s more power in people than weakness. It goes along with something else we’ve often discussed in class, which is that there’s more goodness in the world than badness, more kindness in people than evil. We tend to focus on evil things as they’re more newsworthy, just as something traumatic grabs attention more than something pleasant.

Reinhard: Since the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden, I believe that’s the consequence of sin; man has to go through hardship. To me, suffering has a broad meaning; it encompasses physical hardship from illness or disease, suffering caused by others like persecution, oppression, or natural disasters. 

But there’s also a Biblical aspect in Matthew 5:10, mentioning when you are persecuted because of righteousness, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. So, if we look at all these varieties of suffering, whether man-caused, natural, or illness, they’re all consequences of sin. Kiren mentioned the positive side; for those who know God, this teaches resilience and faith. 

Sometimes we see good people meet their demise early, or some who don’t believe in God live long lives, and that’s a mystery. To me, suffering isn’t only physical or mental but also a battle of psychological suffering. I believe God gives us peace and help, even though we might lose loved ones too early. If we trust God, we can live a peaceful life.

Kiran: I really liked the quote by Paul David Tripp: “It’s not your weakness that’ll get in the way of God’s working through you, but your delusions of strength.” I can identify with this statement. There was a time when I didn’t understand this fact, and I think that’s why my suffering lasted longer.

Donald: Back in the day, I worked with at-risk students. I came in contact with Strength Quest, an organization that changed my perspective. Instead of focusing on students’ problems or weaknesses, they taught me to capitalize on strengths and minimize weaknesses. That was very insightful. 

People know their deficits, but focusing on what they’re good at can really benefit them. Maybe that’s playing games with our heads, these delusions of strength, but I think it’s an interesting perspective. Some people suffer greatly, and it becomes their strength. Just an observation.

Carolyn: How does personality relate to suffering? Some people seem to react differently to their pain or disability due to their personality traits.

Donald: The opposite goes, too.

Don: There are people who are generally excellent and in good spirits. You could metaphorically cut their head off and ask them how they’re doing, and they’d say, “I’m fine, everything’s fine.” Yet another person with a minor issue like a hangnail could be completely disabled. It’s a remarkable characteristic that physicians observe in patients; it’s not their suffering that’s measured, but their response to suffering.

Sharon: There are personality factors, but I think when you’re walking with Christ, the beauty of the Christian walk is that you move toward happiness, toward peace, toward resting in God’s love. I know a man who is one of those perpetual pessimists. For him, the cup is always half empty. He says, “All of Africa is awful,” yet he loves it, and he stays here. I think we each struggle with this because it’s easy for us to complain about the negative. 

I believe we need to encourage people to look outside themselves, especially those who focus on the negative. You can go to any hospital, and you’ll find those who are self-focused and others who try to give hope even in the midst of suffering. As Christians, we must continue to trust the Lord and know that in our weakness, He becomes our strength. It’s not about us; it’s about His love and grace shining through us to a hurting world. 

We still love those who are negative, but they do drain us. Many of us get drained by those kinds of people. We must try to reframe things positively and say, “Can we look at the cup as half full?” It’s not an easy thing to deal with people who have that personality challenge, but we love them unconditionally and hope they move toward living a life of positivity.

Donald: Why do we often link the terms suffering and pain? Is it necessary? Is suffering different than pain?

Sharon: That’s next week’s discussion. That’s profound.

Donald: We talk about suffering as being painful, and most of us would agree that it is. When you go to the doctor, or when healthcare professionals ask you to rate your pain on a scale of one to ten, it leads to an interesting conversation about pain control. I don’t recall that when we were young, there was a conversation about pain control. Are the things we do to control our pain the same as the things we do to control our suffering?

Kiran: I once thought I was a control freak. I mean, I’m still a bit of a control freak, but I’m trying not to be one. I’m trying to be okay with chaos. One thing I notice is if I’m okay with not having control, I feel indifferent, as if I’m indifferent to things happening around me. It’s a conundrum that I can’t totally understand—how to be engaged while accepting that things are not under my control, yet still knowing it’ll be okay. I guess that’s something I still struggle with when things go out of control.

Sharon: I think that’s the biggest lifelong battle for all of us, to give over control to our Lord and Savior and trust that He can take our most negative situation and turn it into something beautiful. We all struggle with being fixers. I know I do. I want to fix everyone who’s not doing what they need to do when they need to do it. It’s a lifelong battle to give up that control and let Jesus come in and take over when we have no answers. 

My father used to say that with six kids, he had six theories about raising them, but once he had the kids, he had no theories. Life is kind of like that. We think we have the answers, but the more we walk, the more we realize that our way might not be right for someone else. We need to allow others to be who they are and enjoy the diversity they bring to our lives.

Carolyn: After we hand our cares to Jesus, we might still worry. What if? What if this should happen? What if that should happen? When does the pain of worry go away?

David: : Donald talked about the difference between pain and suffering, I still tend to treat them as one and the same thing. We tend to look at pain and suffering as a result of evil, as something that’s been called by the devil. To me, pain is the antidote to evil, not the result of evil. It was God who caused Job and his family to suffer, not Satan. 

If everything goes great in our lives, then our chance to get closer to God is that much less. As Sharon said: The more we suffer, the closer we become to God, and at the end of our tether is when we are closest. So if you never reach the end of your tether, perhaps you’re never close enough to God. I believe that pain is an antidote, not a result.

Don: From a physician’s point of view, that’s definitely the case. Pain is what gives you a warning that something is wrong, that you must seek attention, that there’s some kind of abnormality going on. People who, because of various kinds of diseases, don’t have pain include patients with leprosy, who end up with real problems in their extremities, their noses, their ears, their feet, who might step on a tack and can’t feel the pain. They can develop serious infections in the soft tissue of their feet. 

There are many medical conditions associated with loss of pain or with reduced pain sensation and none of them have a good outcome—all of them have a bad outcome. We do tend to view pain as something from the devil but really, in essence, it is a God-given response to sensation that allows us to prosper.

Sharon: Carolyn asked what to do when your worry keeps returning. The fact of the matter is that there are some techniques in good Biblical counseling that might be of advantage in that case. Worrying can be the basis of anxiety syndromes and someone having repeated worrying attacks really needs to talk with a physician about it because maybe a little serotonin or some other drug might help bring a little bit of peace. 

If worrying is really keeping someone from sleeping and from functioning, they probably need to get some medical and or counseling support because that could be a serious indicator just as physical pain can be an indicator.

Donald: People reach out to music for support; for example, to the song we listened to this morning. There were a couple of things going on there—the lyrics as well as the music. People sing to try to cope with their pain. There’s something about music. You turn to it, in some ways, as a counselor, you find music that soothes your soul.

Sharon: Music really helped me as I’ve walked the valley of the shadow of death, I’ve always found songs to be comforting. So music is a really vital part in helping us deal with the issues, especially for some people and some personalities.

Kiran: I write down everything I’m feeling. I have pages and pages of stuff that I felt at a particular moment. Years later, I go back and I realize how I felt at the time and how my life changed. When I write things down, I feel better.

Sharon: Journaling is a great a great therapeutic tool, especially for the worrier. A prayer journal helps to document things in one’s discussion with God. Writing it down kind of concretizes emotions that may not be easy to recall otherwise. It does help us to cope with suffering. 

Michael: It’s fascinating that what we’re saying contrasts with the common wisdom, especially in the US where pain is a bad thing you need to get rid of in any way possible. So we end up with addictions to OxyContin and so on, and that then became the physicians responsibility.

Don: A decade or two ago, there began a movement driven by hospital administrators and credentialing groups that insisted on pain control as a major therapeutic intervention that physicians and the hospital itself were responsible for. That resulted in the very liberal use of narcotics and to a place where we now have addiction and overdose as a major public health problem as a result of trying to control pain. 

So now we’ve swung completely the other way where it’s very difficult for doctors to prescribe narcotics. The hurdles and the paperwork that’s required is so extreme that it’s almost impossible, in many cases, to easily relieve pain. 

So even during my lifetime as a physician, we’ve seen the ebb and flow of which has resulted in a complete reversal of what we were doing earlier.

Donald: Suffering is the issue, and pain is a response to suffering, and we’re trying to control pain, but we’re really not—we’re masking it in some ways. Think of all the things that human beings have done to try to mask pain. Rather than caring for suffering, we’re more caring for pain in some ways.

David: It begs the question: Why should we try to make people feel better? It seems that in the end, it does more harm than good. In the interim, it may do a great deal of good but in the end, it perhaps doesn’t. It’s a fascinating conundrum.

Even in the political realm the socialist wants to take care of everybody and alleviate their suffering and the conservative wants to let people “man up and tough it out.” I guess this is a conundrum as ancient as humanity. Maybe we’ll never get to the bottom of it.

Sharon: Suffering is something that we all commonly experience. But we have an amazingly powerful God, who gives us grace on steroids at the time that we need that extra dose. Jjust trust and rely on him when things look difficult, when things are not answered, when there’s no answers to our questions. 

When there are just footprints in the sand, God is actually carrying us. We cry: “God, why did you leave me, because there’s no footprints of you walking with me?” But he answers: “I was carrying you, my child. Those were my footsteps.” And I just know that the Lord is willing, he’s able to carry each of us if we just trust in him. He may not alleviate our suffering, but he will certainly give us peace in the valley. 

* * *

We’ve engaged in a rather lengthy discussion over the past several months concerning how we develop our view and our understanding of God and how we develop our concept of God. We’ve looked at the influence of technology and education, and Donald gave us some very insightful lessons on how images are interpreted and how they help to shape our worldview. Last week, with Carolyn’s help, we looked at the influences music brings to spirituality. 

Today we’re going to turn to nature. All the senses are involved in our attempts to understand God; indeed, it seems almost as if understanding God can only occur through the senses. Nature involves all the senses, and scripture says that nature is God’s second book.:

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God;…their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). 

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they [people who ‘suppress’ this truth, v.1] are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

I invited David to prepare the preamble to today’s discussion.

David: You won’t be surprised to hear that this preamble is by and large the work of ChatGPT. I’ll take credit for asking the questions that resulted in ChatGPT’s responses, so in that sense I claim some credit for the responses themselves. They certainly jibe with what I myself have long felt.

Throughout history, various cultures have attributed natural sounds such as thunder, howling wind, bird song, running water, and seismic rumblings to the actions or to the presence of divine beings.

In many ancient cultures, the peel of thunder and the crackle of lightning were believed to be the voices of gods. The Greeks attributed thunder to Zeus, the chief deity in their pantheon who was associated with sky and thunder. Romans similarly attributed thunder to Jupiter. In Norse mythology, Thor was the god of thunder and his hammer strikes were thought to cause thunder and lightning.

Also in many cultures, wind was often associated with divine beings. In Christianity, for instance, the Holy Spirit is often represented as a rushing wind. The first two verses of Acts 2 tell us that…

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1-2)

In Ancient Greek religion, winds were personified as the Anemoi. Among Native American cultures, the sound of wind is often interpreted as the voice of ancestral spirits or divine beings.

Bird songs and calls have often been interpreted as messages from the divine. Augury, the practice of interpreting omens from the observed flight patterns and calls of birds, was practiced in ancient Rome. Native American cultures still view bird songs as spiritual messages or warnings.

The sound of running water in streams or rivers and waterfalls has often been associated with the divine in several cultures. In Shintoism, waterfalls are considered sacred and the sound they make is thought to represent the voice of the kami, or gods.

Finally, the sounds and tremors associated with earthquakes have long been attributed to gods or divine beings. The Greeks believed that the god Poseidon caused earthquakes, and in Norse mythology, earthquakes were said to be the result of the god Loki struggling against his bonds.

The practice of interpreting the sounds of nature as the actions or voices of divine beings reflects the human tendency to seek patterns and meaning in the world around us. 

But the interpretation of these sounds is heavily influenced by the specific cultural and religious contexts in which they occur. In other words: When we encounter things in our environment that are hard to understand, we often use our cultural and religious frameworks to make sense of them. This so-called cultural interpretation is heavily influenced by our particular beliefs, knowledge, and experiences.

Culture and religion provide templates or models of how the world works, including explanations for natural phenomena. These templates are filled with symbols, narratives, and meanings that help us understand our experiences. For example, if you grow up in a culture where thunder is explained as the voice of a god, then you’re likely to interpret the sound of thunder in that context.

This process doesn’t just apply to sounds. It applies to all sensory experiences and events that we encounter, including of course the visual sense Donald has discussed in recent weeks. To a scientist, the Aurora Borealis are the result of charged particles from the sun colliding with atmospheric gases; but to some Indigenous peoples of North America, they are the spirits of their ancestors dancing in the sky.

Thus, the cultural and religious contexts in which we are raised—or which we adopt later in life—provide us with a framework for interpreting natural phenomena. The sounds, sights, smells, textures, and events of the natural world are filtered through these frameworks, which leads to the attribution of specific meanings, including perceptions of divine intervention or divine presence.

Of course, these interpretations can change over time as cultural and religious ideas evolve, or as new scientific knowledge becomes available. What may have been interpreted as the actions of a divine being in one historical period may be understood in purely natural or scientific terms in another. This evolution of understanding (which seems to me a key truth, but people strongly resist it) reflects the dynamic and changing nature of human knowledge and belief systems.

Besides its sounds, other aspects or attributes or manifestations of Nature that affect people’s perception of a divine presence include Astronomical Phenomena, Natural Landscapes, Animals, Plants and Trees, and Weather and Climate Phenomena. Let’s consider each of these in turn.

First, Astronomical Phenomena: The sun, moon, stars, comets, and other celestial bodies have often been associated with divine beings or messages. For instance, the ancient Egyptians saw the sun as the god Ra. In the Christian tradition, the Star of Bethlehem is seen as a sign of the birth of Jesus. Many cultures have assigned divine or spiritual meanings to solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, and other celestial events.

Second, Natural Landscapes: Certain geographic features and landscapes have often been seen as sacred or divine. For instance, mountains are seen as the abode of the gods in Greek mythology. In Hinduism, the Ganges river is considered sacred. Many Native American cultures view certain geographic locations, like the Black Hills for the Lakota Sioux, as sacred and central to their spiritual beliefs.

Third, Animals: Certain animals have been associated with divinity or spiritual powers in many cultures. For example, the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christianity. The cow is considered sacred in Hinduism. In many Native American cultures, various animals are considered spirit guides or totems.

Fourth, Plants and Trees: In many cultures, certain types of trees and plants have been seen as sacred or connected to the divine. For example, the Bodhi tree in Buddhism, under which Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, is seen as sacred. In Celtic traditions, the oak tree is revered and associated with deities. The use of hallucinogenic plants in various cultures, such as the use of ayahuasca in some South American tribes, is also seen as a pathway to divine encounters or spiritual enlightenment.

Finally, Weather and Climate Phenomena: Weather phenomena like rainbows, lightning, hurricanes, and even the change of seasons have often been associated with divine action. For example, rainbows are seen as a sign of God’s promise in the Bible. In various mythologies, gods and goddesses are often attributed control over weather and climate.

In essence, virtually any aspect of the natural world can be, and has been, interpreted as an indication of the divine, depending on the cultural and religious context. The natural world has always been a rich source of symbolic and spiritual meanings for human societies.

However, different religions have unique ways of interpreting natural phenomena as signs of a divine presence or action: 

In Christianity, natural phenomena are often seen as manifestations of God’s creation and might. The Book of Genesis spells out the creation of the universe in some detail. Certain phenomena, such as rainbows, are viewed as symbols of God’s covenant with humanity. Genesis 9:13 says:

I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

But Christianity does not generally ascribe divinity to natural elements themselves; rather, it maintains a distinction between the creator (God) and the created.

Hinduism has a complex pantheon of deities, many of whom are associated with natural elements. Agni is the god of fire, Vayu is the god of wind, and Varuna is the god of water. The sacred river Ganges is considered to be the physical manifestation of the goddess Ganga. Natural phenomena, like the cycle of seasons, are also seen as part of the cosmic dance of creation, preservation, and destruction.

While Buddhism does not posit a creator God, it views nature with deep respect and as part of the interconnected web of life. Natural phenomena are seen as part of the constant cycle of change and impermanence—what the Buddhists call Anicca. The natural world is seen as a place for meditation and understanding the true nature of existence.

In Islam, natural phenomena are viewed as signs or Ayat of Allah’s power and majesty. The Quran mentions various natural elements, like the sun, moon, and rain, as signs of God’s benevolence and reminders of his existence. However, like Christianity, Islam maintains a clear distinction between the creator and the created.

In Shinto, natural elements such as trees, rocks, rivers, and mountains are often revered as Kami, or divine spirits. They are seen not just symbols of the divine, but as the actual manifestation—the literal presence—of divine beings.

Finally, indigenous religions around the world often have a deep sense of the sacredness of the natural world. Many Native American religions, for instance, see all elements of nature as imbued with spirit or life force.

Remember that these are broad strokes, and individual beliefs can vary greatly within each religion. Additionally, many religions have evolved over time and absorbed influences from each other, leading to shared or overlapping ideas about nature and the divine. 

It’s important to note that in many of these traditions, the understanding of natural phenomena is not just about the divine, but also about moral teachings, the meaning of life, and the place of humans in the universe.

To elaborate: When we discuss religions and their interpretations of natural phenomena, it’s not just about associating divine presence or action with these occurrences. These interpretations often hold deeper meanings that impart moral teachings, define the place of humans in the cosmos, and seek to explain the purpose or meaning of life. Here are four examples:

First: In many religious traditions, natural phenomena are used to convey moral lessons or ethical principles. For example, in Christianity, the parable of the sower (which can be found in Matthew 13) uses agricultural imagery to illustrate different responses to the word of God. Similarly, in Buddhism, the natural principle of cause and effect is used to explain the law of Karma, influencing moral and ethical behavior.

Second: Religions often use natural phenomena to explain the relationship between humans and the universe. For instance, in many indigenous cultures, humans are seen as an integral part of the natural world and not superior to it. This perspective often cultivates a respect for nature and all life forms. But in the Abrahamic religions, humans are often seen as stewards of God’s creation, which establishes a certain responsibility towards the natural world.

Third: Natural phenomena can also help explain the purpose or meaning of life. For example, the cycles of nature, such as day and night, the changing seasons, or the life cycles of plants and animals, are often used to symbolize the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth in religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. These cycles can serve as metaphors for spiritual development and enlightenment.

Finally: Natural phenomena often play crucial roles in religious cosmologies (understandings of the universe’s structure) and eschatologies (beliefs about the end of the world or the “end times”). For example, celestial bodies—the sun, moon, and stars—often feature in religious accounts of the creation of the universe. In terms of eschatology, phenomena such as earthquakes, storms, and celestial events are often associated with prophetic events or the end times in religious texts such as the Book of Revelation.

In this way, many religious traditions see natural phenomena not just as manifestations of the divine but also as carriers of deep symbolic meanings and messages, offering insight into moral conduct, the human condition, and the mysteries of life and the universe.

In summary: Throughout history, humans have attributed various things in nature to divine beings or actions. They include sounds, astronomical phenomena, natural landscapes, animals, plants, trees, and weather or climate phenomena. Specific examples include the thunder attributed to gods, wind as the passing of spirits or divine forces, bird songs as spiritual messages, water sounds as divine voices, and earthquakes as actions of gods. 

How these natural phenomena are interpreted is heavily influenced by specific cultural and religious contexts. Our cultural and religious backgrounds provide us with frameworks for understanding the natural world around us, and they shape how we perceive and interpret these phenomena. Christianity and Islam often view natural phenomena as signs of God’s creation and power, while Hinduism, Shinto, and indigenous religions might see divine beings or spirits embodied in nature itself. Buddhism views nature as part of an interconnected web of life and a place for understanding existence.

Interpretations of natural phenomena in religious contexts often hold deeper meanings that impart moral teachings, define the place of humans in the cosmos, and seek to explain the purpose or meaning of life. These phenomena may be used to convey ethical principles, demonstrate humanity’s relationship with the universe, symbolize the cycles of life, and feature in the creation and end-times narratives.

In a nutshell: Our understanding and interpretation of natural phenomena and their association with the divine are profoundly shaped by our cultural and religious contexts. These phenomena carry symbolic meanings and messages that provide insights into moral conduct, the human condition, and the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything.

Jay: I’d like to touch on another aspect. In an effort to prove the existence of God, people often point to the complexity of nature as evidence of divine design. As we grow in our understanding of the world and its intricacies, this viewpoint gains traction. Many believe that the complexity we observe, particularly as our knowledge deepens, indicates a divine hand at work, especially in the realm of existence, be it human or otherwise. 

I concur with your point on sensory experiences. Over the past weeks, we’ve highlighted many such experiences that influence our perception of God. The complexity of nature, which humanity has endeavored to comprehend over the centuries, undeniably shapes our view of the divine.

Donald: That brings to mind the difference between simply pondering and observing nature. While we view the world around us, we must remember that we too are a part of nature. David touched upon animals and their role in nature. It raises the question: Are we just another species, albeit a more sophisticated one? Are we integrated into this natural process or are we merely spectators? A recurring theme in our discussions has been the influence of cultural and religious frameworks. Our perspectives on these subjects are heavily influenced by our cultural surroundings and religious beliefs. This context has been pivotal to our conversations over the past weeks.

Don: I’m reflecting on what expectations I should hold for nature to offer insights or understanding about God. Are my expectations grounded in reality, or are they misplaced? Nature plays a significant role in these musings. The saying, “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge,” underscores the notion of God being portrayed, revealed, and understood through nature. As David highlighted, this theme is not only prevalent in Christian scriptures but also resonates in many religious traditions. So, I’m left wondering, what should I truly expect?

Reinhard: When addressing the question of creation, I believe the Bible speaks profoundly, even in its silences. The natural wonders, the heavens, and the earth—they all articulate a kind of divine language. It’s true that nature sometimes shows destructive sides like earthquakes and floods. However, there’s an undeniable beauty in the universe that cannot be overlooked, especially when compared to man-made wonders like the Great Wall of China. This beauty is a testament to God’s handiwork, which, if we believe in Him as the Creator, enhances our appreciation of His creations.

Each person has unique experiences with nature’s beauty. I fondly recall, during my childhood in the 60s, nights so dark due to limited electricity that the sky glittered with stars—so close, they seemed shoulder to shoulder. Such celestial views have become rare, especially in places like the United States. To me, these moments are like divine messages that invite deep reflection. Such splendor doesn’t merely occur by chance; it deepens our faith and understanding of God’s love.

Despite the biblical narrative of God cursing the earth after Adam’s fall in Eden, there are still countless blessings around us. As I mentioned, we should appreciate music, romance, and nature’s beauty. These are gifts that uplift believers. We are placed on this earth not just to live but to cherish, cultivate, and ensure its continued prosperity. It’s our duty as humans.

C-J: I view everything, seen and unseen, as God’s handiwork. The natural world, from plants to the invisible wonders beyond our senses, is a testament to His design. Plants not only provide medicine but also cleanse our air. When we respect nature and avoid acting out of greed, the planet remains healthy. This healthiness resonates with our own well-being, and in turn, with our spiritual vitality. Everything is interconnected in this vast web.

Regarding our expectations of God amidst chaos, He promises to be a God of peace, not chaos. He assures a sound mind and tranquility. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I turn to this promise, seeking balance and clarity. If I impulsively act out or give in to frustration, the immediate relief may be temporary, but when I witness God’s intervention, there’s lasting change. When I try to control situations or rely solely on my understanding, my faith wavers. However, in moments of patience, when I wait for God to unveil the mysteries, I am reminded of His ever-present promise: “I am with you always.” It’s in these moments that I truly perceive God’s provision.

Chris: When I ponder nature, my experiences have evolved over time. I’ve transitioned from primarily visual appreciation to engaging more of my senses, from hearing and touch to even taste and smell. By immersing myself in nature in this multi-sensory way, I’ve discovered a deeper connection, one that mirrors the character of God for me. In these moments of true connection, I find a profound peace, a respite where my worries momentarily fade.

Discussing nature’s relationship with God often leads to highlighting complexities. We marvel at the intricacy of the human body, noting how each component is vital for its overall function. We observe the precise order within nature, sometimes even employing mathematical concepts to underscore its complexity. But for me, it’s not merely this complexity that signifies God’s presence in nature.

Rather, it’s the sensation that His essence is interwoven within it. When I simply allow myself to be present in nature, to truly listen and immerse myself in the surroundings, I feel a palpable reminder of God’s omnipresence. It’s these moments that reaffirm my belief in God’s ever-present nature.

Sharon: I’m pondering the question of what would God be without nature? And that just leaves a huge hole in my heart.

David: That’s a really critical question. A video game guru asserts that:

We are [only] years away from people saying: “I no longer want to live in reality, I’m going to go into this universe where I can tune out.” You’re going to be sitting in your living room talking to fake people.

I too have long been struck by the increasing shift from our reality to virtual reality. It is accelerating exponentially. As people become more enveloped in virtual worlds, they may find themselves detached from the authentic beauty of nature, seduced instead by the enhanced allure of virtual landscapes that can be manipulated to appear even more vibrant and captivating than the real world. What happens when our primary interactions are with virtual humans, rather than actual humans? How then do we forge a relationship with God in an environment dominated by virtuality?

If our reality becomes overwhelmingly virtual, that may very well become the predominant lens through which we relate to everything, including our spirituality. Considering upcoming generations, I think about Jason’s young son, Luke. He will grow up in an era where devices like Apple’s newest head-mounted displays are commonplace and much of his life may be lived inside one. In just a few years, the advances in this technology will make the virtual experience incredibly immersive, making it even harder to distinguish from reality. As these virtual realities become filled with entities that seem more caring, intelligent, and helpful than real people, we face the rapid evolution of how we perceive and interact with the world and, by extension, the divine.

C-J: Shifting entirely towards virtual reality overlooks the importance of hands-on learning. We are physical beings; our reality doesn’t just exist within our minds. Our senses and cognition aren’t separate; they blend harmoniously in a healthy body. It’s concerning to think about untangling the intricate tapestry of experiences that God intended for us.

All of us have an inner dialogue—a mix of learned scripts and self-written narratives. While many of these scripts originate from childhood directives like “be nice” or “put your dishes away”, over time, personal experiences refine and expand our internal narratives. Our expectations of ourselves evolve beyond those basic guidelines.

David’s vision of a VR-dominated future worries me. I fear we might become so scripted and compartmentalized in our interactions that authentic human connection becomes a rarity. I had an experience with Amazon where I interacted with five different representatives just to change my password. It felt like they were all following a narrow script, without genuinely considering my issue.

Reflecting on the changing landscape of education, I remember the physical educational materials I used as a teacher. I’ve held onto them, thinking they might be useful if everything else fails. But, looking at them today, I realize they don’t align with modern teaching methods.

Donald: Returning to the previous analogy of a meticulously woven basket, I find myself juxtaposing the organized digital world on my computer with the raw beauty outside my window. Birds interact, flowers bloom, and nature exists in its profound detail and organized chaos—an experience no virtual world can truly replicate.

While technological advancements like virtual reality can enhance our experiences, they also come with sacrifices. The concept of a park—a sanctuary preserved against time and untouched by human interference—intrigues me. With the surge in park visits, it seems people are seeking a break from daily life, yearning for something genuine and unchanging. However, accessing some of these parks requires technology like roads and airplanes, highlighting a paradox.

As Chris pointed out, simple experiences like the rich smell of burning wood or witnessing a clear blue sky have an irreplaceable charm. Observing the short-lived beauty of daisies or the timely blossoming of flowers offers a sense of wonder. There’s a universal attraction to elemental wonders like water and fire, which transcends faith or beliefs.

Yes, upcoming headsets and IMAX experiences might provide unparalleled insights into worlds we’ve never seen. Still, they can never truly displace the authenticity of being a part of the natural world. The growing attraction to parks signifies this yearning for a genuine experience, something that digital recreations cannot wholly offer.

Don: Is that an attraction to God?

Donald: We may not want to admit it, but it is, I believe.

Jay : Human beings inherently prefer concrete experiences over abstract ones. This preference is primarily rooted in our senses, which offer us a clear and tangible grasp of the world around us. Our senses often guide our understanding more than our abstract thought does, even when interpreting concrete matters. Nature, in all its sensory richness, provides a vivid tapestry of experiences, offering us insights into the divine.

This idea aligns with the biblical narrative, starting with the creation—the birth of a sensory universe. God, being an abstract entity, offers us concrete experiences like nature to comprehend and connect with Him. Without these tangible experiences, our connection to the divine might feel distant or nonexistent.

As technology advances, we’re nearing the creation of incredibly immersive sensory experiences. While experiences like IMAX or immersive rides at Disneyland can’t replace the authenticity of nature, they’re undeniably advancing. With smells, sounds, and even tactile feedback, these artificial experiences become increasingly real.

Yet, with every technological advancement, there’s potential for distraction or disconnect from our understanding of and relationship with God. However, the key question remains: Can we use these advances to deepen our understanding and connection with the divine?

Janelin: I genuinely worry about those virtual reality headsets. As both a parent and a physician, it’s concerning to see the sedentary nature of our children’s lifestyles. I’ve observed teenagers losing track of time in these virtual worlds. Just three months ago, I came across a case of a blood clot in a young individual. I believe it’s because they’re not moving enough. Our bodies are designed to be active, to interact, enjoy nature, and take walks. The increasing sedentariness is alarming. We aren’t meant to be this inactive.

David: Absolutely, your concerns are valid. But despite its potential drawbacks, technology can also open doors. For example, the reality is that not everyone has access to national parks or the privilege to experience nature firsthand. However, with the advent of virtual reality and immersive experiences, those who have never felt grass or witnessed a sunset in a serene park might be given a glimpse of these wonders. In essence, this technology has the power to democratize experiences. It bridges the gap between those who have access to natural wonders and those who don’t. It’s essential, though, to strike a balance and be conscious of the potential risks. The question remains: even if these experiences are virtual, do they not hold value in broadening perspectives?

Don: Is God virtual?

C-J: Large institutions, including governments, seem to want to isolate us for control. We’re in an era of pervasive self-medication, where many turn to substances or distractions to avoid pain, disappointment, or fears related to personal safety. “Take this pill” or “watch this video” have become common responses to these feelings. Alarmingly, we are witnessing a rise in suicides among the young. Some of these tragedies are due to accidental overdoses, like mistakingly consuming fentanyl instead of glycogen. This self-medication seems to stem from our increasing detachment from the natural world.

While some might say God is “virtual,” I believe this doesn’t imply a dimensional separation. Instead, we have direct access to God. Connecting with Him transforms us, making us aware of our spiritual essence beyond our physical existence. We aren’t merely carbon-based beings; we’re spiritual entities, created in God’s image.

Donald : It’s remarkable how humans value these designated spaces where one can touch grass or observe a lion without having to journey to Africa. Every technology has its merits and drawbacks. Often, the most lucrative aspects can also be the most harmful to us. Having had the incredible opportunity to introduce children to the majestic parks of East Africa, I realize the power of exposure. For many, their first insight into these wonders might be through a simple encyclopedia—an unembellished image accompanied by text. While it’s not a glamorous portrayal, it serves as an invitation to reality.

Cameras, especially with advancements in technology, can venture where humans cannot. This extends beyond nature and into sectors like healthcare, where innovations are revolutionizing patient care. I find it slightly disheartening that our discussion today seems to revolve around the pros and cons of technology, especially when the core topic is nature. Nature, regardless of its scale or grandeur, offers its own intrinsic value. While not everyone can access grand vistas, most people can find solace in a nearby green space, no matter how modest.

C-J: They’re focusing on increasing green spaces instead of building on vacant plots. Community vegetable gardens, small orchards, flower gardens, and spray parks are being developed. Rochester is actively creating community parks that are easily accessible on foot, eliminating the need for transportation or personal cars for those nearby. Along the corridor from the city of Rochester to Lake Ontario, the entire Genesee River will be transformed into a walkable park, starting from the upper falls. This path, which has been in use since the time of the Native Americans, will be expanded, cleared, and enhanced. This promising development is less than a mile from my home, which is likely to boost its value. Consequently, the dynamics of my neighborhood will shift, making it more akin to the 19th ward, known for its desirability due to the surrounding parks.

Chris: We often discuss technology and the experiences it can replicate, even recreating nature through man-made constructs like zoos. One of the most profound encounters I had with nature occurred just before the COVID outbreak during a family trip to India. We embarked on an open-air truck journey into a tiger reserve. I can still recall the morning’s crispness, the dust being stirred beneath our tires, the distinct birdsong, and the unique scent in the air.

There was a moment when several trucks halted, sensing an impending spectacle. The forest seemed alive with anticipation: birds raised an alarm, and the other animals appeared restless. From the reeds, a tiger majestically emerged. I’ve observed tigers in zoos, admired their grandeur behind glass barriers, but this was incomparably awe-inspiring. It wasn’t merely the sight of the tiger; it was the symphony of sensory experiences enveloping me.

In that moment, the world seemed to stand still in reverence. It’s amusing to think that while I sat in that open vehicle, the tiger was so close that it could have lunged and snatched anyone had it wished. Yet, I felt no fear—only a deep sense of peace and awe, akin to the moments when I reflect upon God, immersed in wonderment.

Donald: I’ve been fortunate to immerse myself in nature’s wonders. Just this morning, our neighbor’s dog, which routinely visits three or four times a day, has gradually made its way into our home. What makes a simple creature like a dog so captivating to us? Nature’s allure isn’t reserved only for grand experiences. While I understand the awe one might feel encountering majestic beasts, sometimes it’s the mere sensation of grass beneath our feet or the playful antics of a neighbor’s dog that can transport us to a place of deep appreciation and serenity.

I recently read an article which stated that even if you don’t own a pet, but your neighbor does, it can extend your lifespan. Of course, if the pet annoys you, it might have the opposite effect! Nature is a cornucopia of wonders: the myriad colors, diverse textures, and distinct aromas are universally captivating. While some of our friends might prefer the predictability of concrete over the wild unpredictability of grass, and while they might value environments where they don’t have to swat away insects, they’re wonderful in their own right.

Nature is a marvel that took six days to craft, presenting us with an awe-inspiring world. We’re fortunate that there are individuals, as CJ mentioned, who recognize the importance of preserving these natural spaces, ensuring more people can experience their beauty. It’s a testament to something greater than us, urging us to look beyond ourselves.

Jeff : Still reeling from Don’s comment about 10 minutes ago, his statement “this is an invitation to reality” truly resonated with me. I’ve been reflecting on the essence of that phrase. The concept of reality becomes incredibly abstract when we delve deep into its definition. Is nature God’s gesture to show us true reality? Is it the most tangible aspect of our existence, or perhaps just a fraction of a reality beyond our grasp?

These musings challenge our perceptions, making us wonder if what we consider real merely exists within the confines of our understanding. This inherent human urge to perceive and immerse ourselves in reality, despite our limited capacity to fully grasp its breadth, is intriguing. As we’ve discussed many times, our perception is finite. Don’s insight has given me much to ponder, and I anticipate it will linger in my thoughts for some time.

David: Chris’s poignant account of his encounter with a tiger reminds us of the profound experiences that nature can provide. Yet, as technology advances, we’re nearing a point where such experiences can be emulated in virtual reality. An emulation, unlike mere simulation, is so impeccably crafted that discerning between it and reality becomes virtually impossible. With the trajectory of technology, soon we might don head-mounted displays, or even have chips embedded within us, allowing us to not only see but also feel, smell, and taste these virtual experiences.

Imagine if, instead of a tiger, it had been a prehistoric dinosaur that emerged from the grass in Chris’s story. The sheer thrill and amazement of such an encounter would be unparalleled. This leads us to ponder deeper philosophical questions. As we strive to cultivate green spaces, community gardens, and natural preserves, what does spirituality mean in a world brimming with virtual experiences? Is our endeavor to preserve patches of nature merely a distraction as the world transforms around us? As we immerse deeper into virtual realms, how do we ensure our spiritual essence remains intact?

* * *

We’re talking about culture, religion, technology, and how we can know God. 

Last week, Anon asked: If grace is like oxygen—everywhere, essential to life, and free—then why won’t everybody be saved? In other words, how can grace be rejected? 

In every story of grace in the Scriptures—whether it be Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Joe, David, Daniel, even Saul on the road to Damascus—we see grace extended and, in turn, grace accepted. And with the acceptance we see a transformation.

In using the metaphor of rebirth that we talked about last week, and the involuntary nature of birth, we see that who we are does not change. That is to say: Our DNA, our composition does not change; but what we are becomes widely and utterly different as a result of rebirth. Spiritual rebirth still leaves us as a son or a daughter as we were before but now with a completely new spiritual outlook. Grace changes everything. 

In speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus illustrates the transforming power of grace by referring to a story very familiar to any Jew: 

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,…  (John 3:14)

It is the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness. The road from Egypt to Canaan is the metaphorical road of life. The road of life is through the wilderness, which is a dry and desolate place. It is a road, however, full of God’s grace, because (as we see in the story) God underwrites the trip in reality and figuratively from beginning to the end, beginning with the plundering of Egyptian jewelry to finance the trip. 

Manna, as we’ve noted before, is a symbol of grace as well as water from the rock, the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, and don’t forget about the quail that came down for the non-vegetarians. 

This is the story:

Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.”

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:4-9)

The water from the rock and the manna had become detestable. They rejected the very elements that define God’s grace. But rejection of God’s grace has fiery and fatal consequences, visualized here as venomous snakes. This is the condition of mankind apart from grace. Apart from grace, we are in a pit of deadly poisonous vipers. The remedy is a return to grace. Here we see what Jesus was alluding to with Nicodemus, a bronze serpent on a pole really a bronze serpent on a cross, which is of course the symbol of grace. 

Jesus said that he himself would be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And notice what was required of the bitten: Anyone who was bitten had only to look at the snake to live. This is the price of grace: Look, don’t turn away, and you will live. No statement of belief is required. There is no ritual to perform, no work to do. Just look, if only a fleeting glance. 

About 80% of our sensory input is through sight. That’s why sight is considered by most experts as the most important sense. It takes almost no effort to see. A touch or a taste takes active effort, but a glance is nothing. In fact, a shiny bright bronze serpent would naturally attract a glance. The object of grace is by nature attractive. That’s the power of grace. 

The only thing that limits grace is to turn away from it. Jesus says that the bronze serpent is himself—the true and everlasting symbol of grace. The symbol of a snake on a pole has become a universal symbol of healing. It is even today often seen in medical emblems. 

The fact that it was made with bronze I think is significant as well. This metal alloy is frequently mentioned in the Bible. It is a metal of the common man. Its special use is recorded in the making of the wilderness sanctuary and also for furniture and implements in the outer court of Solomon’s Temple, in contrast to the most holy place where the furniture was made of gold. The outer court is the court of the common man, and its bronze furniture is for the common man. 

It included the bronze altar of sacrifice, the place for the furnishing of blood; and the bronze laver—the washbasin—on the back of 12 bronze oxen. The great bronze tank sometimes referred to as the “molten sea” is used for ceremonial cleansing. Blood and water, both in the temple furniture, both of bronze, both the symbol of cleansing, both the symbol of grace:

… after they came to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. (John 19:33-34)

The bronze serpent becomes grace personified, life-saving grace. So highly valued was the bronze serpent made by Moses that it became over time a highly valued symbol of veneration. 800 years later, the bronze serpent was still around: 

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done. He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. (2 Kings 18:3-4)

Hezekiah crushed the 800-year-old bronze serpent because it had become an idol. The very symbol of God’s grace itself had become an object of veneration. Instead of pointing to something, it became itself the object of worship. The symbol had become an object, Grace had become works. This is the condition of fallen man. We always seek to objectify grace. The symbol that started as an object only to be looked at, to be seen just in a glance, an eye attraction. 

Throughout history, God has offered his grace to humanity as an unmerited gift. The story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness demonstrates the ease with which God’s grace can be accepted. The act is single, the act is simple. The act of looking at the bronze serpent served as a symbol of faith and salvation. The narrative reflects on the significance of the simple act of looking. The eye would be even naturally attracted to the shiny object of bronze. 

What makes this story remarkable is the simplicity of the remedy. God did not require the people to do any work, perform no ritual, no recitation of any type. Looking was all that was needed to ensure God’s promise of salvation. It was profound yet straightforward. It was an exercise that required no great physical strength, no skill, no intellectual prowess, and no planning. 

The act of looking at the bronze serpent carries significant symbolic meaning, I believe. It highlights the importance of faith and trust in God’s provision. By looking, the Israelites displayed their reliance on God’s Word and the recognition of his power to heal and to save. 

Also it emphasized the simplicity of God’s grace. God’s offer of salvation did not necessitate complex rituals or unreachable standards, it was accessible to all regardless of social status, age, or ability. Furthermore, it served as a foreshadowing of the ultimate act of grace and redemption through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. 

The story of the bronze serpent holds valuable lessons for contemporary believers today, I believe, as well. It reminds us that accepting God’s grace does not require us to accomplish extraordinary tasks to prove our worthiness. Whether it calls for a humble acknowledgement of our need for salvation and a willingness to fix our gaze upon Jesus who was lifted up upon the cross for our redemption, in a world often filled with complexity and striving and convolution the simplicity of accepting God’s grace through faith offers hope, comfort, and assurance. 

Does God’s grace needs to be accepted to be effective? The concept of God’s grace is often linked to salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Accepting God’s grace through faith is considered necessary for it to be effective in a person’s life. All humans are sinful and fall short of God’s perfect standards, it says in Romans 3:23. However, God, out of his mercy, offers his grace as a gift to humanity. 

This grace is God’s unmerited favor and forgiveness, freely given through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. To receive the full benefits of God’s grace, Christian theology emphasizes the importance of accepting grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The belief is that, through faith, individuals acknowledge their need for God’s forgiveness and salvation and place their trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior: 

 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Accepting God’s grace is a transformative act that opens the door to a personal relationship with God, for forgiveness of sin, and for the gift of eternal life. It is a response of gratitude and surrender to God for his loving offer of salvation. Jesus told two parables that contrast grace accepted and grace rejected. First is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) in which a younger son asked his father for his share of the inheritance and squandered it on life’s excesses. When the son hits rock bottom and decides to return home, his father sees him from a distance and runs to embrace him and celebrate his return. The father’s actions represent God’s grace and unconditional love. The son accepts the grace by acknowledging his mistakes, repenting, and returning to his father. The elder son, however, in contrast, rejects God’s grace and at the end of the story he is is left standing outside the house of the father. 

The same contrast between accepting grace and rejecting grace is seen in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) who go up to the temple to pray. In his prayer, the Pharisee boasts about his righteousness and looks down on others, while the tax collector humbly prays for God’s mercy, acknowledging that he is accepting the grace for his sinfulness. The Pharisee rejects God’s grace by relying on his own righteousness and not recognizing his need for forgiveness, while the tax collector accepts God’s grace by acknowledging his sin and seeking mercy.

Is grace by itself incomplete then? Is it like a pro drug that must be mixed with something in order to be effective? Must it be mixed, for example, with faith? The concept of faith is often intertwined with grace. Faith can be seen in the channels through which individuals receive and appropriate and respond to God’s grace. Faith involves trust, belief, and reliance on God and his promises. 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus often connected faith with the reception of grace. For example, Jesus would say to those healed: “Your faith has made you well.” The act of exercising faith in Jesus was seen as a response that allowed individuals to experience the fullness of God’s grace. Faith therefore can be understood as the active response to God’s grace—the trust and reliance on his character and promise, and the willingness to surrender to his will. It is the channel through which individuals appropriate and experience the transformative power of God’s grace in their lives. 

And that brings us finally, to grace and free will. If we have free will, then can we reject grace? And can our acceptance of grace be a needed component of the grace equation, like the two needed ingredients in an epoxy glue? 

The concept of free will allows for the possibility (at least, theoretically) of rejecting God’s grace. In the context of Christian theology, it is believed that individuals have the freedom to accept or reject the offer of salvation and grace extended by God. While grace is freely given and available to all, it does require a response from the individual in order to be fully experienced and realized. 

Acceptance of grace is often understood as an active choice, where individuals willingly turn to God, acknowledging their need for forgiveness and salvation. The response involves repentance, faith, and surrender to God’s will. The analogy of the two ingredients needed in an epoxy—resin and a hardener—might be helpful in illustrating the idea that acceptance is a necessary component in experiencing the full effects of grace. Just as the epoxy repair requires both components to bond and create a strong adhesive, the acceptance of grace through faith is seen as the crucial ingredient that allows individuals to be united with God and experience the transformative power of his grace. 

It is important to note that while acceptance of grace is significant, it does not imply that individuals earn or merit God’s grace through their own efforts. Grace by definition is unmerited favor. Rather, acceptance is the response of humility and the openness to receiving the gift of grace that God freely offers. So while grace itself is freely given, acceptance of grace through faith is a vital component of the process of experiencing and appropriating God’s grace in one’s life. It is the act of responsive individuals, made possible through their free will, that allows them to fully embrace and be transformed by God’s unmerited favor. 

So why is not everyone saved, apparently, like the prodigal’s elder brother and the Pharisee, who won’t accept the grace. How easy is it to accept the grace? How difficult is it to reject the grace? Why would you reject grace? Why would you look away from the from the bronze serpent?

David: It seems to me that the acceptance of graces is essentially passive. It’s a recognition—like that of the prodigal son—that what he’s doing is not working and he’s reached the end of his tether, so he goes home, not so much as an active intellectual decision but because the only thing left to him is the grace of his father. 

It’s the rejection of grace that seems to me to require an active decision. When grace is the only option, in order not to have it you have to actively reject it. You don’t have to do anything to get it. The word active seems to me to connote that you still have to do something in order to get it.

Jay:  I’ve been struggling with the same kind of thought process. “Accepting” grace seems to have a very active component, or it the act id accepting feels active. “Acknowledgement” seems more appropriate, like looking at the serpent—acknowledging its presence. This, I think, is where faith comes in. Grace is unseen but faith acknowledges its existence. Rejecting grace almost seems like it requires more action, more initiative, more mental exercise.

Anonymous: I agree. The word acceptance is active on our part, because you have to make a conscious decision to accept or not to accept. Non-resistance seems more accurate than acceptance. It’s like either you accept or you reject; or even worse—you resist. Resisting is worse than rejecting: It is even be an enemy to God and fight his word and fight his grace and try to prevent it from spreading. 

So I would say, if you don’t resist, then God’s work is being done and you are saved even though you took no active part in it. You might even be unconscious of it because you’re not resisting, and you’re not accepting, and you don’t know; but God is at work. God is bringing people to understanding. 

This is where the Holy Spirit role comes into the picture. When you don’t resist, God sends his Holy Spirit to make you aware of his grace and to bring you closer to him. And through your awareness God gives you faith, little by little. My neighbor is an example: He’s an atheist and does not believe in God and does not know anything about God’s grace, so he does not resist. He just passes on taking sides, and his life is an example of God’s grace. 

Just because people are not aware of God’s grace doesn’t mean they’re not receiving it. Because God has given us all the sun and the air and the love and the forgiveness and the food … everything. That’s God’s grace. They’re living in grace passively, without any effort on their part. They just don’t realize it as God’s gift, as God’s grace. The Holy Spirit does something in their heart, and they end up faithful. The Bible has a lot of examples that support this.

Donald: Based on my googling, the consensus on what it means to accept God’s grace seems to be: First you have to acknowledge God; second, you have to recognize your own limitations; third, you have to repent or confess; and finally, you have to surrender and trust. And then you grow in grace. 

So why is it so difficult for people to accept God’s grace? First: Pride and self-sufficiency—that’s what we basically work toward our whole lives; second, guilt and pain—no one really wants to feel guilty or live a life of shame; third, vulnerability and the lack of trust. 

So I think all that fits together but it’s a lot more active than our conversation up to this point would suggest.

Reinhard: God gave us the discernment to know when we do something against his will, but in the desert when the Israelites started dying from snake bites, God imposed only a minimal requirement (a glance at the bronze serpent) to save them. Nevertheless, it was still a requirement to respond. 

Even with faith in God’s grace, I believe we still have to have that active mindset, we have to do something otherwise grace just passes us by even though we didn’t reject it; but we didn’t accept it, either. It’s the same with the Good News: It just passes some people by. They hear it but don’t do anything about it. Some people may not even hear it. God has his own way of accounting for them; that’s his prerogative.

I think we need to have faith and be active participants in the transaction with God in order to get grace.

David: I just had this conversation with GPT-4:

DE: What does it mean to accept God’s grace? What is involved?

GPT-4: Accepting God’s grace refers to a spiritual or religious concept predominantly found in Christian theology, although similar concepts may exist in other religious traditions. Here’s what it typically means within the Christian context:

1. Understanding Grace: Grace, in Christian theology, is the free and unmerited favor of God. It is a gift from God that cannot be earned through human actions or merit. It includes God’s love, forgiveness, mercy, and help. Understanding this concept is the first step in accepting God’s grace.

2. Acknowledgment of Sin and Need for Grace: The next step is acknowledging one’s own sinfulness and the need for God’s grace. This involves recognizing the imperfections and mistakes one has made, and understanding that they can’t attain salvation on their own.

3. Faith in Jesus Christ: Accepting God’s grace in Christianity is tightly linked to faith in Jesus Christ, who is seen as the mediator of this grace. Christians believe that through his death and resurrection, Jesus made God’s grace accessible to humanity. So accepting God’s grace often means accepting Jesus as one’s savior.

4. Repentance: This is a change of heart and mind, a turning away from sin and a turning toward God. It involves sincere regret or remorse for past misdeeds and a commitment to live according to God’s will.

5. Living by Grace: Accepting God’s grace also means trying to live one’s life in accordance with that grace. This may involve showing love, forgiveness, and mercy to others, just as one believes God has done for them. It also means trusting in God’s grace in times of trouble or difficulty.

6. Grace in Sanctification: In Christian thought, grace doesn’t just play a role in salvation, it also plays a role in sanctification – the process of becoming more like Christ. Accepting God’s grace means relying on God to help one grow spiritually and morally.

7. Receiving the Sacraments: In some Christian traditions, particularly Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, grace is also imparted through the sacraments such as baptism, the Eucharist (Communion), and confession. Participating in these rites is another way of accepting God’s grace.

It’s important to note that the specifics of how grace is understood and what it means to accept it can vary widely among different Christian denominations, and these points may not align with all Christian beliefs or other religious viewpoints.

It’s always best to explore these questions within the context of a specific religious tradition, as teachings can vary. Also, such deep spiritual matters are often best explored in conversation with spiritual mentors, religious leaders, or through personal study and prayer.

DE: Can you answer that question from a non-faith-based perspective?

GPT-4: From a non-faith-based perspective, accepting “God’s grace” can be seen as accepting life with all its complexities and imperfections, with gratitude and acceptance. Here’s a secular interpretation of the concept:

1. Acknowledgement of Imperfections: No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Accepting this reality is akin to understanding that we are all flawed in some way.

2. Self-Acceptance: “God’s grace”, in this context, can mean accepting oneself fully, with all flaws and imperfections. It’s about understanding that one’s worth is not dependent on achievements, possessions, or societal standards.

3. Compassion: Just as grace implies unmerited favor, one could apply this to their dealings with others by being understanding and compassionate, even when it’s not “deserved”. This includes forgiveness and empathy towards others.

4. Gratitude: Being grateful for what one has and for life’s experiences can also be a form of accepting grace. It’s about appreciating life’s blessings, big and small.

5. Living Authentically: Accepting “God’s grace” can also mean striving to live one’s life authentically, according to one’s values and beliefs, without letting external pressures dictate one’s path.

6. Resilience: This concept can also be associated with resilience, or the ability to recover from setbacks and difficulties. It’s about having the strength and courage to continue moving forward, despite life’s challenges.

7. Embracing Uncertainty: Life is unpredictable and often beyond our control. Accepting “God’s grace” can mean accepting this uncertainty, not trying to control everything, and being at peace with whatever comes our way.

This interpretation tries to draw upon the core values associated with the religious concept of God’s grace, such as compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, and gratitude, while framing them in a non-religious context. Of course, interpretation can vary widely based on personal beliefs and experiences.

DE: Can you repeat that but include relevant citations from the world’s various scriptures?

GPT-4: Interpreting the concept of “God’s grace” in a non-religious context while including scriptural citations is a unique challenge since scriptures are inherently religious. However, I can certainly provide references from various world scriptures that might relate to the secular principles I mentioned previously.

1. Acknowledgement of Imperfections:
   From the Bible: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23).

2. Self-Acceptance:
   From the Bhagavad Gita: “A person is said to have achieved yoga, the union with the Self, when the perfectly disciplined mind gets freedom from all desires, and becomes absorbed in the Self alone,” (Bhagavad Gita 6:18). This suggests a state of complete self-acceptance.

3. Compassion:
   From the Buddhist Dhammapada: “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal,” (Dhammapada 1.5).

4. Gratitude:
   From the Qur’an: “And remember! your Lord caused to be declared (publicly): ‘If ye are grateful, I will add more (favors) unto you…'” (Qur’an 14:7).

5. Living Authentically:
   From the Tao Te Ching: “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you,” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 8).

6. Resilience:
   From the Bible: “But we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope,” (Romans 5:3-4).

7. Embracing Uncertainty:
   From the Tao Te Ching: “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you,” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 44).

Please note that these references are interpreted here in a way that aligns with the secular principles and that the context in the original scriptures might have different implications. Moreover, interpretations can vary widely among different readers and traditions. It’s always best to explore these matters within the context of specific religious traditions and in conversation with knowledgeable mentors or scholars.

I find the AI’s responses really interesting. The list of factors that comprise what it means to accept grace seems pretty significantly different between the purely Christian perspective and a global faith-based perspective.

Carolyn: What does it mean: “There is no condemnation for those who belong to the Lord”? Does it mean that they have accepted grace? And what does “no condemnation” mean? I know Jesus paid it all, but in the context of grace on the one hand and on the other the 10 Commandments and all the other little rules that apply when you become part of a religious organization, what does it mean that we have no condemnation?

C-J: I’m guessing, but I’m thinking that the culture that this is coming from is Jewish and so sacrifice was core to that expression of religion and faith—mostly religion. I think what God is saying, going back to what we’ve heard multiple ways today, is “Don’t look at the past. Don’t feel shame or guilt, be authentic moving forward. Be persistent in that and it will transform you. Live according to what has been revealed to you. What was is no more.” 

If you walk with your scars, you’ll never be free. Being authentic in Christ liberates us and transforms us.

Michael: I think it’s quite fascinating in our discussion that some of us are suggesting that accepting grace is so simple, because it goes against the grain psychologically. We feel that if we work for something, then we’ve achieved something (grace) that has value. Somehow it fits with our psychology much easier than saying, “Oh, I don’t have to do anything.” It is such a fascinating concept because it is a foreign concept to humans.

David: You’re absolutely right. But that’s Jesus all over, isn’t it? “Turn the other cheek” is something we’re incapable of doing. Accepting that grace is dead simple is also something we’re psychologically predisposed to reject. But the right answer is to turn the other cheek, just as the right answer is to accept that grace is there for the taking. They are the right answers. But they’re hard for us to swallow.

Michael: My point is that it’s so paradoxical even if it’s so simple to accept, because we’re wired against it—it goes against our culture.

C-J: Isn’t that the great lie Satan tells humanity?—“You’ll never do this! It’s impossible! Just go play! If you think you’re gonna be forgiven for that? Good luck. Look at what it produced. Look at how much harm it did. No, no, no, that’s a lie. You’ll never be accepted into heaven.” 

It’s a very powerful statement, because as Michael said, it goes against everything that we as humans process—good, bad, deserving, not working for it, and so on. I think that’s the great lie. The beauty of this relationship with God or this recognition of this grace is that I can’t do anything. It is truly a gift that I cannot earn. And I have to trust it. But the lie is powerful.

Don: Donald was making a case for much more active involvement.

C-J: I think there is accountability. We can’t grow without doing the work. But it isn’t the work that saves us. It is a witness and a testimony of this relationship. When you love somebody, nobody questions that. They say “He or she loves that person and it’s evident. You can just see it as a witness. They sacrificed everything for that person.” And that’s how it is with God, but God is not tangible in terms of a husband, a wife, a child, an idea, a country.

Sharon: I’m thinking of grace as an addictive behavior. For me, grace is like an ice cream sundae: The more I eat it, the more I want to eat it. Every day when the Lord and I come together and he gives me this abundant life that comes from accepting grace, I want more of that. My addictive behavior, my bias, just has me wanting more of that.

C-J: Addiction is based on chemistry in the brain. They’re seeking the high for that moment. But the relationship of God and grace is perpetual. You can’t go out and get it. Part of addiction is the ritual of preparation to get your high. And once you get your high, it’s fleeting. But with God, it’s enduring. 

It’s not about the high or the valley. It’s not about the richness of “God blessed me greatly.” It’s that relationship, like between a husband and a wife. You look up and they’re present. They touch you on a shoulder. When you’re not near them, you wish you could share what was happening with them. It’s not an overwhelming presence. It is an abiding relationship.

Anonymous: I agree. There’s a verse that says where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. That’s why God’s grace endures and that’s my reason for thinking that everybody will be saved—because God’s grace endures. He keeps working, even when sin abounds. 

Another verse that comes to mind also generates a question. It says, “By grace, you are saved through faith, and that’s not from you…” (meaning the grace or the faith)…

Don: …or both…

Anonymous: … or both. Since faith is not from us, it’s a gift of God. And grace is not from us, that means we’re very passive. We cannot do anything, so we have no reason to worry about those faceless people, because God is working on building their faith. Good examples on that are the two thieves, one on the right and one on the left of Jesus on the cross. It made me think this morning that God keeps working to the last minute in everybody’s life. We might see a faithless, unbelieving person living in sin all his or her life. But we don’t know the last minute of their lives, what takes place between them and God. They may come to realization of his grace and in that one minute of faith, they’ll be saved. 

So what I’m saying here is that to go all the way with grace means I need not worry about people I care for not being saved. Many verses in the Bible stress that you have to have faith, you have to accept, you have to be obedient, you have to…

Don: …be baptized…

Anonymous: Exactly! These are not just human thoughts or opinions—the Bible itself stresses some of these requirements for salvation. So we have to reconcile these two points, these two views. They can’t be both—or can they? I would have a hard time accepting both.

C-J: I think the problem is that when we look at the 10 Commandments, and what is in each of those envelopes—“Thou shall not lie,…” that we come to an understanding that it’s not a rule, it’s an understanding of the harm that lack of truth creates the soil that we’re planting a seed in, when we lie, whether it’s a white lie to preserve somebody to save them pain, or just a bold-faced self-indulgent lie. 

The reason it’s just, “Thou shalt not lie” is because we don’t understand that what happens is a breakdown of trust. You know the saying that trust is hard won, easily lost. And I think that’s what our relationship with God is, because of the things that Michael said. It doesn’t make sense to us that God would still love me when he knows that I continually either in my heart or actively participate in things I know I shouldn’t. 

But God is always enlarging our borders and saying, “Don’t just look at the face, watch the walk, watch the eye, and learn of me, learn of me.” I believe God is indwelling every creature, even the bird in flight. So when we look at those 10 things that we consider all-encompassing, really what God is asking us to do is be still and know. And then like Michael is saying, we can’t do it in ourselves. We are supposed to keep our eyes on God, not just glance at him.

Donald: Active versus passive seems to be our focus this morning. A boat on a windy sea is becalmed if the sails are not raised.You wouldn’t even know it was windy, absent some active response from the boat, which will move independent of whether you want it to or not. But it does require at least the acknowledgement of the wind. I think

David: The boat is passive. It is just sitting there. If the sails are up, the wind moves the boat, which has no choice but to respond to the wind by moving, so that it’s “active” only in that passive sense.

Donald: The boat won’t move unless the sail goes up. The mast isn’t enough resistance to the wind, it can act independently of the wind. But let’s not push this too hard!

Anonymous: Jesus continued speaking, I think in his discourse with Nicodemus, to the effect that it’s like the wind—we don’t see it, but we feel it, we see the results of it. And this is how God works in us. The Holy Spirit works in us and we are very oblivious to it. We don’t see it. We don’t know what’s going on in the back. But we see the results in the change of heart. It is a passive outcome but when we see the change, it’s as if something convinces us that there must be a reason behind it. It must be God’s grace, it must be the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual, to help them recognize God’s working in him or her. And this is how faith is given to this individual. 

So faith and grace are not our work. The bad thief beside Jesus probably thought he was not salvageable, so he resisted and started talking badly about Jesus: “If you think yourself the Son of God, why don’t you do something? Why don’t you save us and save yourself?” If only he had not resisted, the Holy Spirit that worked on the other thief would have worked on him as well.

Kiran: It took a while for me to really accept the message of the serpent—that all I have to do is simply look and not do anything else—not focus on myself, not focus on others, or on anything else; just simply look at God. It took a while to learn. My problem was disciplining myself not to conflate my salvation with my acts but instead simply trust in the Lord to do everything in his own time. 

It brought a lot of peace and comfort to me. 

Reinhard: The Holy Spirit serves to remind us and correct us, but we have to respond to it. If we make a mistake, we have to repent. We have to show our contrition. We have to learn to live as God wants us to live. We have to receive the grace of God, to internalize it. We have to make corrections in ourselves to really get close to God. 

In the Old Testament we see God always reminding people, whether it’s Israelites or whoever, to come to him, to repent. Believers already know what God wants from them. They don’t have to be reminded, once they are in Christ. With faith and grace we can move forward as long as our relationship with God remains intact, we can move forward without worrying about the repercussions, or about the judgment that we will have to face some day.

Don: There is much to think about: To resist or to surrender? To accept or to reject? Active or passive? There are a lot of ideas about how to operationalize grace. Interesting. Well think more about it.

* * *

Today, I’d like to return to the concept of the new birth, of being born again, in the context of our ongoing discussion about what we can know about God through religion, technology, and ideas. 

Jesus tells Nicodemus: 

 …. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

These words, spoken nearly 2000 years ago, have become a cornerstone of Christian belief and discourse. The metaphor of being born again has provoked considerable theological reflection, contemplation, and debate. But I believe that the involuntary nature of birth provides a compelling lens through which to interpret this metaphor. 

To grasp the depths of Jesus words, one must first comprehend the metaphor of rebirth. The term “being born again” suggests a transformative process, a spiritual rebirth that symbolizes the rejection of the old sinful self and the adoption of a new holy life in Christ. This transformation is not a superficial change but a profound personal revolution that permeates every aspect of a believer’s life. It’s akin to starting life anew, just as a newborn does when they are born. 

When analyzing this metaphor, it is essential to consider the involuntary aspect of birth. This, I believe, is key to understanding the metaphor. A newborn has no say in its birth. It is a process initiated and guided by forces outside of its control. By choosing the metaphor of birth to explain the process of spiritual transformation, Jesus was highlighting the role of divine grace, I believe, in the process of salvation. Just as a baby cannot contribute to its birth, so too, a person cannot achieve salvation through their own efforts. 

The act of being born again is a passive one on the part of the believer. It is God or the Holy Spirit with his grace who engenders this new birth. The metaphor’s implication extends even beyond the individual to collective religious experience. The concept of being born again reflects the transformative power of faith on a personal level, and the potential for renewal within the Christian community as well. The involuntary nature of birth suggests this transformation is not a human achievement but a divine gift. 

This understanding fosters humility, gratitude, and a deep sense of dependence on God’s grace amongst the believers and that is the corporate Church, which is in badly in need of a theology of grace, in my opinion. While the metaphor and involuntary nature of the rebirth underscores the role of divine grace in the process of salvation, it does not negate the importance of personal faith. 

The individual’s role is to accept this gift of grace which requires faith. This faith is not just intellectual assent, but also involves trusting in Jesus for salvation and committing to a life of discipleship. In this sense, being born again is both passive in receiving God’s gift of salvation and active in the sense of placing one’s trust in Jesus and choosing to follow him. 

So what does the metaphor of being born again teach us about grace? The metaphor as used by Jesus, I believe, provides a powerful illustration of grace. The concept of grace, in Christian theology, is generally understood as free and unmerited favor of God. It is God’s benevolent act of Salvation, offered to humanity irrespective of their deeds. 

The metaphor of being born again and the understanding of grace are inextricably entwined. To begin with, the very idea of birth is predicated upon a form of grace. A child does nothing to earn or merit their birth. They do not choose the circumstances, the time, or the place of their birth. It is a gift, a pure gift, a blessing given to them without any effort or merit on their part. The process of birth is entirely outside the child’s control, and it is initiated and completed by forces beyond their agency. 

The involuntary and unearned aspect of physical birth serves as a powerful illustration of the spiritual rebirth that Jesus talks about. When Jesus speaks about being born again he is referring to spiritual transformation that is initiated by God’s grace. Just as a child contributes nothing to his physical birth, so too an individual contributes nothing to merit the grace of God that leads to spiritual rebirth. The initiation of this process of rebirth is God’s action, a manifestation of Divine love and mercy towards humanity. This is the essence of grace: It is unearned, undeserved, and unmerited. 

The metaphor of being born again also teaches us about the nature of grace as transformative. Grace is not merely about God’s favor. It also involves a profound transformation of the recipient: A person who is born again experiences radical change. They begin a new life, leaving behind old ways. This transformation is not the result of human effort, but the work of God’s grace. 

The metaphor underscores the idea of grace as a gift that needs to be accepted. While grace is freely given, the act of being born again requires an individual’s acceptance. It is a passive reception on the part of the believer, who is called to accept this gift of grace through faith. It is this faith—this acceptance—that allows the grace of God to transform those who are being born again. 

In another birth story, this point I believe, is driven home further. The story of the Annunciation in Luke 1 is one of the most pivotal moments in Christian history. It is the moment when the angel Gabriel visits marry a young virgin from Nazareth and announces that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit. This event is a profound illustration of God’s grace and provides key insights into the nature and working and the relationship between rebirth and grace. 

First, the fact that Mary was chosen to bear the Messiah exemplifies the unmerited favor that characterizes divine grace. She was to be in reality “Hail Mary, full of grace”. She was a humble young woman, probably no more than 12 or 13 years of age, from a small town. She had no extraordinary social standing, no achievements to her name. It was not through her own efforts and merit that she was chosen (which is why Protestants do not worship her). Rather, it was purely an act of God’s grace. 

This echoes the concept of being born again, where the individual does nothing to earn or merit their spiritual rebirth. It is a gift of grace from God. The supernatural conception of Jesus underscores the divine initiative in the workings of grace. Mary did not and could not contribute to this miraculous birth in a natural way. It was the Holy Spirit that caused her to conceive. This mirrors the process of spiritual rebirth which was initiated not by human effort but by God’s Spirit. Just as the physical birth of Jesus was a divine act, the spiritual rebirth of a believer is also a divine act, underscoring that grace is rooted in God’s initiative, not our own.

Second, Mary’s acceptance of the angel’s message illustrates the human response to God’s grace. When Gabriel told her of God’s plans, Mary responded:  

And Mary said, “Behold, the Lord’s bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38)

The gift of grace is freely given by God. It requires an open heart and willingness to accept it. Mary’s response represents the faith and acceptance necessary for God’s grace to affect transformation. 

Lastly, the birth of Jesus whom God made flesh represents the transformative power of God’s grace. The incarnation—God becoming human—is considered the ultimate act of divine grace, demonstrating God’s love and mercy towards humanity. Through Jesus, people can experience a spiritual rebirth, a transformative process made possible only by the grace of God. 

Mary, you see was a child and she was at first suspicious of this apparition and its message. The angel tells her not to be afraid, which is a message we see often in the New Testament; and tells her that she is going to be a mother of a great king. Although young, she knows enough to know how babies are made and that virgins cannot be a mother. The birth produced the Son of God and our rebirth produces sons of God as well. We are all brothers and Jesus is our brother; and nothing is impossible with God. 

Mary, you see, responded with humility and acquiescence, but it is clear that she did not fully comprehend that she had been chosen by God to have a baby that already had been named and would become a king in the line of David. It is a symbol that, like Mary, we too are innocents and are also used as tools in the hand of God. We are to be given grace without asking for it and without understanding it even.

The last verse of the Christmas carol Oh little town of Bethlehem reads as follows:

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray,
cast out our sin and enter in,
be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Immanuel!

This is the essence of what the story is about. Each of us becomes a brother or sister with one another and with Jesus and with God. This is not the work of ovary and sperm. Rather, it is the act of God’s grace. It is a new divine light implanted in us by the Holy Spirit. 

It is a paradox that we are both born again and also giving birth in the sense that we are producing something new within ourselves. We are, in fact, passing on the grace. Like Mary, God chooses us—we don’t choose him. Like Mary, we are his tool; he is not our tool. Like Mary, we must allow the Holy Spirit to enter in. Like Mary, we must bear and give birth to the grace within us. It will fill us with grace and produce new life within us, making us be born into the kingdom of heaven, into the community of brotherhood. 

Here we see the community corporately being driven by a transformative infusion of the Holy Spirit that fosters brotherhood and sisterhood. It seems to bear upon our discussion and it prompted me to draw up a list of the involuntary aspects of conception, birth, and infancy and noting how they serve as a metaphor for grace and the need to become childlike to enter the kingdom of heaven: 

1. Conception: The idea of conception and the act of conception is involuntary from the perspective of the child. A child doesn’t choose to be conceived. Similarly, God’s grace is given to us without our initiation or our control. 

2. Gestation: The development of the baby in the womb is entirely involuntary. The unborn child doesn’t control the process of its growth and development. This can be likened to the transformative power of God’s grace which works in us to bring about spiritual growth and development without our control. Birth is a process that is initiated and completed without any effort from the baby. It is an act done for the baby, with the baby, but not by the baby. Likewise, spiritual rebirth is being born again is an act of God, not an act of human will or effort. Infants 

3. Dependency: Infants are wholly dependent upon the parents for survival. They cannot feed, clothe or protect themselves. This dependence can be compared to the believer’s dependence on God’s grace for spiritual life and sustenance. 

4. Growth: Physical and mental growth during infancy happens naturally. The child doesn’t consciously control this growth. Similarly, spiritual growth is a result of God’s grace, working on the believer’s life and transforming them into the likeness of Christ. 

5. Innocence: Infants possess an innocence and purity. They hold no pretense or guile, a quality that Jesus highlighted in Matthew 18:3 when he said “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This innocence serves as a metaphor for the purity and humility that grace instills in believers, enabling them to enter God’s kingdom. 

We’ve wrestled before with what it means to be child-like in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. It occurs to me that rebirth is not a singular event. Evangelicals have often pointed out being born again as a singular event that occurs in your life, but it is very clear that we must be born again daily. We need grace daily and in that sense, we are always child-like:

 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

In other words, being born again is a continuous, day-by-day experience; and since it is the work of God and not our work then it can be a continuous daily experience where we’re perpetually like a child. 

7. Trust: Infants inherently trust their caregiver with all their needs. This trust mirrors the faith and trust that believers are to place in God, relying completely upon his grace. 

So how does the concept of rebirth or being born again highlight the nature of God’s grace? What does the metaphor of rebirth emphasize? How does the metaphor of rebirth emphasize God’s initiative in the process of salvation? What does this tell us about God’s character? If God initiates the process of spiritual rebirth, how does human free will come into play in this process? And how does this inform our understanding of God’s aspects for human autonomy? 

In what ways is the metaphor rebirth underscore God’s ability to bring about new beginnings and second—and third, and fourth and fifth and 100th chances. I fell today, but I’m being reborn tomorrow by God’s grace.

C-J: I wrote down those five things ahead of you about the process of birth. But I began with something a little different in that interim of fertilization in the actual birth, and that was: That birth is always difficult. It’s a process. There’s always imperfection. So many things can go wrong during that gestation period. And when a child is born that is obviously not perfect, or struggles, it’s always heart-wrenching. 

We just want what’s best. It’s been a long journey. It’s very painful for the parents, emotionally, all of that. But I agree with you about every day grace, and I likened it to recovery and addiction. You have a good day, you have a bad day. You might make it through the first really bad day and not use, but you trip before you get out of bed on the second day. And you wonder why. 

But I think it’s because in that process of falling, God is always teaching us to learn how to stand, to find our balance, to recognize why we had a misstep, what led up to that misstep, and to find balance in the opportunity to grow. So that when that comes again, we can see it coming at us. And we need to preserve that. 

So in a Christian walk that might be making sure we are in fellowship with like minded people, time in the Word, time in prayer, time in self-examination, holding ourselves to a higher standard, working on discipline and faith. Even though Faith comes by God, it’s more than just making the right choice. It’s relationship. It’s falling in love with God. The relationship I have with God—falling in love with God over and over again. And the humility—not seeing it as failure, but a gift because it makes me more receptive to that relationship.

Donald: I’ve never heard “born again” being unpacked as you’ve done today, Don, thank you very much. I think the steps you’ve outlined certainly speak to the spiritual process and I think Connie-Joe’s additional point is a good one. 

Those steps are all personal. I would like to ask, should the corporate Connie talked about fellowship with like-minded persons. Perfect. That is what church is. That is what Christian Fellowship is, in many ways, but corporate tend to wrap it up and put a bow on it and don’t seem to be involved with these. They want to be beyond this, it seems to me. 

I don’t want to shift the conversation, but I’m just trying to think of it in the context of our conversation last week.

C-J: In terms of the word corporate, I think of administrative duties. When you look at the foundation of this new belief system, they were held in small groups, in churches, on the road, running from trouble. But when they got established—when these churches grew in an established way—they got administrative. But they get too big. You can’t be all things. The church, by definition is individuals having like-mindedness. 

It’s not about paying enough money to build a church or helping those that are less fortunate, etc. But the problem is the administrative piece—who’s going to be the leader—and our eyes are taken off of God in our relationship with God and humanity.

Donald: When you put children together, there’s growth, there’s innocence, there’s trust, all those things do happen when they’re together. But as they (we) mature, they tend to become narrower and narrower.

David: The notion of like-mindedness, I think, is very important. All infants are born pretty much like-minded, single minded even. Culture begins to impact them as they grow, begins to change each individual mind in unique ways. But fundamentally, we are all like-minded. We began as like-minded, and that’s what we need to get back to, and to do that we need to be born again. We in this class are like minded. Sometimes we have Hindus, Muslims, weirdos like me, and others who participate from time to time, and I like to think it’s because we’re all like-minded at some fundamental spiritual level.

Don: Donald’s comment that that the Church wants to be the adult in the room is interesting, given the fact that Jesus says that unless you’re a child, you’re never getting into heaven.

Donald:I think there is value in having organization, I will go so far as to say that there’s there’s good value in it and people spend their entire lives doing their best to bring like-minded people together in meaningful ways, and to have organization amongst children. So I’m not being totally negative—I was just wondering should the church, would the church, could the church be lime an innocent infant, growing day by day? 

I don’t see it that way. I don’t think the church sees itself that way. Change is a challenge and can be disruptive to fellow Christians and painful if you’re a part of that process.

Don: Can a corporate church be born again?

Donald: Isn’t that what a congregational church is?

David: The adult in the in the house of God is God. It’s not the priest. It is God. Maybe that’s what the church needs to remember. Certainly in a room full of human children, you need an adult in the room to maintain order. In the house of God, where we are all children—infants—we need God in the room to show us the way, show us what to do, to look after us, to save us from ourselves.

Robin: Funny things happen, though, within the church community. I’m old enough to have experience (and am experiencing this now) that it is a very difficult process to become once again childlike, because we see this within the church organization, when the there’s a struggle, with the younger generations, who not only want to participate, but then they get to the point where they want to be the ones to make the decisions. They think that the way that they see things is more correct than the way that their parents or their elders saw or see things. 

It’s a strange position to be in, from where I’m sitting, because I can see the talents and the gifts of these younger ones. But it’s not very nice to be elbowed aside either, as if you need to be put out to pasture. I guess this is a society issue, not just a church issue.

Don:  So there is some scriptural reference to the fact that there is value in youth and mentoring youth but that sometimes we should let them have some leeway: 

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This is what applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But at the age of fifty years they shall retire from service in the work and not work anymore. They may, however, assist their brothers in the tent of meeting, to fulfill an obligation, but they themselves shall do no work. In this way you shall deal with the Levites in their obligations.” (Numbers 8:23-26)

C-J: I think that goes to the idea of term limits. Politically that is. Speaking for myself, there are so many things in today’s technology that I do not understand—how to get out a message, adjusting that message to different audiences, access, etc.—that I’d have to start all over again. But kids can listen to the wealth of knowledge, glean it, and apply it in a new way that it’s the normal progression of life, We have to give them tools, teach them how to use those tools. They will use those tools within their own generation and understanding. They’ll make mistakes like we did, they’ll just look differently. 

I think it’s very important that we are mentors. And we should start growing and thinking of ourselves as mentors as early as 30. We’re out of school, we’ve got some professional experience, we’ve maybe had a family that’s half grown. We have a lot to bring to the table. And part of that mentoring is holding ourselves accountable. 

I’ve had some people that I thought were like, this can’t be right. I’ve also had mentors that were phenomenal and I still look back and see the value in what they taught me. Mentorship is critical. We shouldn’t wait till they’re 50 and say, “Okay, now here you go, here’s the keys to the kingdom.” We need to start thinking of ourselves as mentors much younger, even in our generation, when people didn’t live past 65 in large numbers. That’s what Girl Scouts Boy Scouts, scouting within church bodies was all about: Preparing future leaders.

Robin: I totally agree with Numbers, but there is a difference between not being in the forefront of the fight anymore and being dismissed.

Don: Yes, there’s no call for dismissal. As a matter of fact, the call is to be a mentor. And then that involves not only your initiative, but the acceptance of your initiative by others.

Donald: I think this is a struggle for humanity, to let things go. We wanted to hold things tightly, like the politicians who don’t like term limits—they want to hang on tight, they are onto a good thing, they are in charge and know the way things should be done. 

With regard to Robin’s issue: It’s a matter of respect. Sometimes when you get pushed aside, you feel disrespected. There’s a balance there. Hold things lightly and release it and recognize that, at that point, you’re respected, not just pushed aside.

Robin: There comes a time when we’re teenagers, that we don’t understand (hopefully we do after a while) that when our parents are giving us advice, it’s for our good, and it’s not the same as wanting to control. Advising is not controlling—it’s saying: “I’ve been through this, I’ve made these wrong choices, or I know someone who has, and we don’t want to see you go through this.” But I don’t know very many teens who have succeeded in just accepting that!

Donald: Are we talking about spoiled children?

C-J: Indulgence. Kids need boundaries. They may resist it. But if you model it, if you tell your kid “You don’t speak to an adult like that” but you’re not respecting your wife or your husband, or the other children in the family, parents, grandparents, etc., they’re gonna say you don’t practice what you preach. This is why fellowship is so critical to see that same messaging of respect, played out in a very wide array of different scenarios with different people.

This is what respect looks like: You hold the door for the stranger. This is what respect looks like: You stand up for the elder person to sit down first. This is what respect looks like…. And you practice it habitually till you don’t even think about it anymore and that child will come into that not questioning it. But when you have a fourth time they’re not questioning the authority—they’re questioning the integrity. Big difference.

Anonymous: Based on what Don said in the lesson it seems that everyone is going to be saved since we have no say in the matter. But then I’m struggling with “by faith”. What’s the grace of God “by faith” (or “through faith”—I don’t recall the exact word)? It seems like a chicken-and-egg situation: God’s grace is not given on any basis other than having faith. But if I don’t have faith, I don’t think God will give me his grace. Which comes first: Faith or grace?

Don: I would say God does give his grace but some people won’t accept it.

Anonymous: But God knows if a person has no faith and will not accept his grace so why bother?

Don: Let me just say: I think it’s available.

C-J: God is gracious.

Anonymous: Okay, God is gracious and his grace is available. We have likened grace to oxygen—always there But only yesterday I was reading in the devotional that God only gives his grace to those who believe in him.

C-J: I don’t believe that at all. 

Anonymous: I can quote you chapter and verse from the Bible. I was surprised too.

C-J: Yes, but look at the Damascus experience. Paul was reminded, and says he had looked through a dark glass and thought he knew, but when he actually had the encounter, he could not resist. He knew immediately, Lord, Lord. Immediately. I think that that’s the grace. God always is ready to reveal. All we have to do is just pause. The rest is natural. To me,

Anonymous: But Paul had faith in God before he even met Jesus.

C-J: He had ritual and power. He knew what was expected of him as a Pharisee. And he enjoyed the riches of that title. But when he was removed from that, he was blind and fell to the ground and realized all those things were just window dressing. He really didn’t know God as God revealed to him on that road to Damascus. And he turned his life around and he understood it was in spirit, and in truth; led, blanketed, taught by the Holy Spirit. Very different relationship. That you’re

David: What is the faith of a newborn?

Robin: Maybe they have the greatest faith of all. They just come into the world and expect somebody is going to take care of them.

David: Isn’t that what we all should be doing, spiritually? In other words, I think we tend to think of faith as it is defined by our culture and our religions. You demonstrate that faith by going to church, etc.. But that’s just not it. It just isn’t. Faith is not religion. Faith is some kind of acceptance of a higher power and I think we all have that faith. 

So we are back to Anon’s original question of “How come everybody gets saved?” It can only be because everybody has faith whether they know it or not. Just like every infant has an unspoken faith that it will be provided for and be “saved” (Of course there are exceptions but only in humanity’s flawed, mundane idea of salvation.)

Kiran: If grace is free, if everybody can be saved, what’s the part we play? Dr. Weaver has mentioned in a previous class the prophet or high priest who was taken into the chambers of the heaven to appear before God. But first his filthy garment was exchanged for a clean new garment and during that process he became, of course, naked, and was exposed to the whole heavenly court. The key point is that he allowed this to happen. He could easily have refused to disrobe and wear the new garment, like the gate-crasher in the wedding feast parable, who ended up in outer darkness. So our part is to let God do what he wants to do. 

My infant son usually allows me to change his diaper but if he makes a fuss about it, it’s a mess! I can’t do anything about it. We are tempted to see to our own salvation but we ought not to trust our ability to do so. Rather, we should trust God’s ability to fix us in his own time and in his own way. We should be still and see what he does. The biggest temptation for me is to fiddle with it, like Abraham, who thought he could help God out by having a baby with his concubine. You can’t help really god out. We have no idea what’s wrong with us, so how can we fix us? 

My role is to be vulnerable in front of God, to resist the temptation to fix myself and let him expose me, rather than preaching to other people what they do do to be saved.

Anonymous: Don’t we have to have faith in order to let God work in us? Or is God’s work the kind of work that we don’t even have a say about—we can only either accept it or reject it? It’s not like a baby. The infant cannot reject being born cannot do anything. So what is faith here?

Reinhard: A pastor once said that grace is free, but it’s not cheap. Nicodemus was an educated man who knew the laws of Judaism. But through his example, perhaps God wants to teach us that faith is not a matter for the human intellect and being born again is not easy for the human mind to grasp and accept. God give us freedom of choice, but with that comes responsibility. Grace is free but it requites accountability, it requites a response, it requires acceptance.

Being born again, in a spiritual way, means accepting total dependence on God in the same way that a baby accepts total dependence on its parents. But it takes faith to accept grace.

Donald: I think this is an important time, a moment when we should ask ourselves whether our practice is really as it should be, and that has troubled me for some time. Church tends to equate being born again with baptism, so being born again is being tied with church. It’s very structured. But being born again, into a relationship with Christ, is a very different thing. I personally feel that it’s unfortunate that church membership and being born again are tied together as tightly as they are.

David: I think a problem is that when you’re baptized, it’s almost as though you are expected to assume some responsibility for things from then on. What responsibilities does a parent expect of a newborn infant?—None at all, It seems to me. If the churches would look at baptism in that way, baptism would be liberating. That is true grace, it seems to me. It really is free, it is there for the taking, and it lightens the burden. It’s when Jesus takes the yoke off your back. You no longer have burdens—responsibilities. You don’t have to worry about it. You are saved. That’s all there is to it.

C-J: Spiritual is different than unlearning bad choices. When I first came to the Lord there was a lot of unlearning still. The addict steps off. I have control, I guess I don’t have control. There is a responsibility. We are in the beginning, loved by the church, we are nurtured, we are sheltered, we are kept close under the arms of the church. But eventually we have to move out and go back to our jobs and deal with dysfunctional people all around us. The inequities of life. That’s a very hard thing to do.

David: But that’s a cultural responsibility. It’s not a spiritual responsibility.

C-J: No, they’re connected. They’re woven together very tightly. I’m not saying that my culture is who I am spiritually. But my spiritual life definitely influences the lens that I see my culture through.

David: But it is the culture of a baby.

C-J: But i’m not a baby, if I’m 12 years old, and I decide to get baptized.

David: Unless you are born again as a baby, you are not going to be saved.

C-J: You’re making a deadline, a destination.

David: I’m quoting scripture.

C-J: I hear you quoting scripture, but it’s metaphoric. You could say that on the Damascus Road is when Paul actually became born again. His relationship changed. And he was an old man, a relatively old man. He had served through the Roman army, so he wasn’t a boy anymore. When we meet God, in that relationship of born again, we have a new revelation, and we are held accountable. 

That’s why it’s so important to bring children up in the way of the Lord. Because unlearning those things that we find cultures accepting, that do harm—smoking, drinking, premarital sex, stealing, lying…, you can go down the list—they do great, great harm. And to unlearn that, not as a judgment of good or bad, but bearing good fruit, being a witness and a testimony of why the relationship with God is real, not just “Oh, you’re such a good boy or girl, you think you’re better than me”.

This relationship is profound. And the fruit is spiritual and actual. We do produce good fruit because of kindness and the love of God. It’s not motivated out of my personal agenda. I am compelled. I get angry at somebody and I just say, “I’m not doing this anymore”. God says “Go and love her again. Forgive that person. Love her again.” God does that; Connie doesn’t. Connie says “I’m done.”

Sharon: I would just suggest that we’re kind of control freaks. I really like the idea of involuntary birth, because it just has to take an unbelievable reliance on our great master to navigate us through the birth channel of life, to eternal life. It is such a comforting thought in times of stress that “This is involuntary. Lord Jesus, you’re going to get me through this and you are going to bring me to maturity. And meanwhile, I’m going to enjoy just accepting your grace that will cover and navigate the way of of the challenges for the week ahead.”

So thank you for that thought. It is a daily active of rebirth.

Don: Next week we may talk about Anon’s question: How do you reject grace? Or what are the signs of grace rejection?

* * *

We are talking about culture, religion, technology, and our view of God. The real question is what can we really know about God? Last week we looked at what it meant to worship God in spirit and in truth. 

As a sinful man, I am neither spirit filled nor truthful. How can I be truthful? Because I’m a sinner ensnared by the father of lies as Jesus called him in John 8:44. I can only acknowledge my need of God’s grace. To worship in spirit and in truth is to center our worship upon God and what he does, not upon me and what I do. Like the Samaritan woman, I can’t worship in spirit and in truth, I do need, as Jesus promised, living water. I need God’s grace. Only in that way can I worship in spirit and in truth. 

To worship God in spirit and in truth is to worship centered on God and what he does, which means to be centered on God’s grace. Worshiping God in spirit and in truth means that we approach God with a humble and contrite heart, recognizing our sinfulness and need for his forgiveness, it means that we seek to glorify God in all that we do, whether it be in our private devotions or in our public worship services. Because at the heart of true worship is an acknowledgement of God’s grace. 

Grace is the unmerited favor of God, which means that we receive God’s blessing and forgiveness even though we don’t deserve them. In other words, grace is a gift of God that we cannot earn or merit. It is the living water that Jesus promised to the Samaritan woman as a free gift. 

When we worship God in spirit and in truth we are acknowledging that our salvation is not based on our own works and our own good deeds but on the finished work of Christ on the cross. We are recognizing that all good things come from God and that our worship should be directed toward him. Therefore, to worship God in spirit and in truth is to center our worship on God and his grace. It means that we’re not trying to earn God’s favor through our own effort works. Instead, we’re acknowledging that God’s grace is the foundation of our salvation, and we’re seeking to respond to that grace with a life of worship and devotion. 

The encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well, recorded in John 4, that we talked about last week provides a clear example of how Jesus redirected the focus of worship from cultural traditions and rituals to a culture of grace. When the woman at the well engaged in conversation, she initially focused on cultural differences between the Jews and the Samaritans, including their place of worship. She asked Jesus whether it was better to worship on Mount Gerizim, which was the traditional place of worship for the Samaritans, or in Jerusalem, which was the traditional place for worship of the Jews. 

Jesus response was not to take sides in that cultural debate, but to point the woman toward a deeper truth. He told her that the time had come when true worshipers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth, rather than being limited by cultural traditions or physical locations. The statement emphasizes the importance of the heart of worship rather than the external practices or cultural norms, which we often so much emphasize. Jesus was directing the woman’s attention away from the external differences between Jews and Samaritans and toward the common ground of God’s grace. 

Furthermore, Jesus went on to reveal himself to the woman as the true Messiah—a revelation that transcended cultural and religious boundaries. He was, you see, everyone’s Messiah, the same Messiah for the Samaritans as for the Jews. He was the Messiah for men as well as for women. This revelation and the subsequent transformation of the woman’s life served as a demonstration of the power of grace to break down cultural barriers and bring people into a new community centered on Jesus Christ.

Worshiping God in spirit and in truth means that we are not bound by external rituals or traditions. While there may be value in the traditions and practices of the church, our worship should not be limited to those things. Instead, we should be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and allow our worship to be guided by the truth of God’s Word. We must value commitment to spirit and truth over the culture of our faith communities. 

What is our religious culture anyway? How many persons does it take to make a culture? Does God have a culture? 

The concept of culture is complex and multifaceted and there are a number of people needed to make a culture. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 that if two or three gathered together in his name, he was there. So maybe that’s a minimum number for a culture. 

Generally, a culture can be defined as a shared set of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that are passed down from one generation to another in a particular community. This community can be as small as a few people such as the family unit or can be as large as a great nation. The size and scope and scope of culture can vary widely depending on a number of factors including geography, history, language, religion, and ethnicity. 

Some cultures are tightly knit and cohesive, while others are more diffuse and diverse. Additionally, cultures are not static, but rather are in constant state of evolution, adapting to new circumstances and new influences as well as new information and ideas. 

Does God have a culture? Since God is not a human being he does not have a culture in the same sense that we do. However, throughout the Bible God is depicted as having certain characteristics, values, and behaviors that can be seen as forming the basis of a divine culture. For example, God is often described as loving, just merciful, gracious, compassionate, and these attributes can be seen as shaping the way in which God interacts with humanity. 

In addition, the Bible provides a framework for how God expects his followers to live and to behave, which can be seen as forming a distinct cultural identity. For example, the Ten Commandments provides moral and ethical guidelines that have shaped Christian culture for thousands of years. Similarly, the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament provide a model for how Christians should live and interact with the world around them. 

While God does not have a culture in the same sense that we do, the Bible provides a framework for how God expects his followers to live and behave, which can be seen as the shaping of a sort of distinct cultural identity. But how does an unchanging God keep up with an ever-changing culture? On the surface, at first glance, it may seem that an unchanging God is incompatible with a rapidly changing culture. However, upon closer examination it becomes clear that God’s unchanging nature actually provides a stable foundation for navigating the changes of culture.

First and foremost, God’s unchanging nature is not a limitation; rather, it is a reflection of his perfect and eternal nature. Sharon talked about the infinite size and the all-inclusive nature of God’s bubble. God’s unchanging nature means that he is always faithful and true to his promises, and that his character and attributes remain constant throughout history. 

This provides a firm foundation for believers to build their lives upon, even as the culture around them shifts and changes. In addition, while God’s nature remains constant, his relationship with humanity is a dynamic one and responsive to the changes of culture. The Bible is filled with examples of God working within the cultural context of his people, adapting to his message and approach to reach them where they are. 

For example, God spoke with the ancient Israelites in ways that they could understand using their own cultural traditions and practices to convey his messages. Similarly, Jesus spoke in parables that were relevant to the cultural context of his time, using everyday examples to teach timeless truths. 

God’s unchanging nature does not mean that he is disconnected from the world around us. He is intimately involved in the world working through his Holy Spirit to bring about transformation and renewal. As Paul writes in Romans 12:2, we are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, which is a process that takes place as we engage in the world around us in a faithful and thoughtful way. 

But here I propose that God does have a culture, which I’d like to call the culture of grace. God’s culture of grace is not bound by time. It’s not bound by secular culture or by rules. God’s ways are timeless, not dependent upon data or information or knowledge. Therefore, God is not bound by change in the ever expanding database that is constantly putting pressure on religion and religious culture. 

This is an important concept. God’s culture of grace is timeless and is not subject to the changing cultural norm or rules of society. As an all-knowing and all-powerful being, God’s ways and actions are not limited by the constraints of human knowledge, understanding, data, or ideas. The Bible affirms that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9) 

Furthermore, God’s grace is not dependent upon human cultural norms or rules. The concept of grace is based on the unmerited favor of God toward us despite our unworthiness. This grace is not something we can earn or deserve through our actions or adherence to cultural practices. Instead, it is a gift freely given by all by God to all. 

While the world and cultural norms may change, God’s grace remains constant and unchanging. As the Apostle Paul writes in Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This means that the truth and the grace of God remain constant regardless of the changing cultural and societal norms of the world. 

Religion and cultural practices are not the same as the truth and the grace of God. While cultural practices may be important to people and can provide a solid sense of identity and community, they should not be equated with the unchanging truth and grace of God. Religion can sometimes become bound by rules and regulations based on human traditions, rather than the teachings of God. And this can lead to legalism and unhealthy focus on external practices, rather than a heart which is transformed by God’s grace. 

Because religion is man-made and based on rules, rituals, and information, it is constantly under pressure to change. A culture of timeless grace, on the other hand, is immutable. New data, new knowledge, new information that need to be reassessed, reworked, and reassimilated do not have to be handled in an economy and a culture of grace. In short, it is not dependent upon us and our works and our ability to see something new. But our religion is based on God’s grace, which is immutable and timeless. 

It is true that religion, being man-made, can be subject to change over time as societies and cultures evolve. Religious practices and rituals may be influenced by social, political and cultural factors leading to changes in beliefs and practices over time. However, a culture of timeless grace is exemplified by an unchanging truth and grace of God. It is indeed immutable. 

That God’s ways and actions are not limited by the constraints of human knowledge or understanding and his grace is not dependent upon cultural norms or human rules does not mean that our understanding and interpretation of God’s grace cannot grow and evolve over some time. As we study the Bible and learn more about God’s character and nature, our understanding of his grace may deepen and expand. 

However, the core truth of God’s grace remains unchanged and unchanging, providing a firm foundation for believers to build their lives upon. Religion, being man-made, is in contrast subject to human error and influence, New data brings new ideas and new points of view. Religious practices and rituals may be based on human traditions rather than the teachings of God, and may be subject to change over time. 

This is not to say that all religious practices and rituals are inherently flawed, but rather that they should be evaluated in the light of the changing truth and grace of God. There is a need to process new ideas and new knowledge. While religion may be subject to some change over some time, God’s bubble is infinite. His timeless principles and his culture of timeless grace do not require any kind of adjustment. They are immutable. As we seek to grow in our understanding of God’s grace, we should be mindful of the influence of human traditions and the need to respond to new information, fresh data, and current understanding. 

Religious culture can be defined as a set of beliefs, practices, and values shared by a community of people who identify with a particular religious tradition. This includes beliefs about the nature of God (or gods), the meaning and the purpose of life, and the moral principles and ethical standards that guide behavior. Religious cultures also encompass rituals, traditions, and practices that help to express and reinforce these beliefs and values. 

Secular culture, on the other hand, refers to beliefs, attitudes, and values of people who are not necessarily religious and who may reject organized religion altogether. This includes cultural norms, social practices, political ideologies, and those that are shaped by factors such as science, technology, economics, and social change. 

One of the ways in which secular culture puts pressure on religion to change is through the influence of secular values and ideas. For example, as society becomes more diverse and inclusive, there may be pressure on religious communities to become more accepting of different lifestyles, identities, and beliefs. Similarly, as scientific knowledge expands and challenges traditional beliefs, religious communities may be forced to reevaluate their understanding of the world and their place in it. 

In addition, secular culture may put pressure on religion to change through political and legal means; for example, laws and policies related to issues such as reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and freedom of speech may come into conflict with religious beliefs and practices, leading to tensions and debates about the role of religion in public life. 

Overall, while religious culture may be resistant to change, secular culture can put pressure on religion to adapt to changing societal norms and values and can lead to tension and conflict between religious and secular communities, but can also provide opportunities for dialogue and understanding between different groups.

The prodigal son (Luke 15) had a religious viewpoint based upon his culture, his rules, and rituals. His father had a religious viewpoint based upon grace. The Parable of the Prodigal Son presents two different religious viewpoints based on cultural and personal beliefs. 

The prodigal son had squandered his inheritance on wild living and ended up in poverty. He eventually returns to his father in shame and repentance. From a religious perspective, the son’s action can be seen as breaking cultural norms and religious rules, leading to his downfall. He had sinned and he had to pay the price for his actions. 

However, the father’s response to the prodigal son’s return presents a different religious viewpoint, one based upon grace. The father’s reaction is not to punish the son for his wrongdoings, but to welcome him back with open arms, forgive him, and throw a great party. In this viewpoint, the father’s actions represent the concept of grace, which is the idea that forgiveness and acceptance are freely given without any requirement of repayment or punishment. 

The son’s religious viewpoint is one that emphasizes the importance of following religious rules and traditions, while the father’s religious viewpoint is based on the principle of grace and forgiveness. The son’s perspective is focused on external behavior while the father’s perspective is based on the internal condition of the heart. 

Overall, the parable of the prodigal son highlights two different religious viewpoints, one that emphasizes rules, traditions, and punishment for wrongdoing, and another that emphasizes grace, forgiveness, and acceptance regardless of past actions. I’m proposing this concept for discussion today. 

A religion based on grace is resistant to secular pressure. A religion that doesn’t rely on information, data, and knowledge but instead relies only on God’s grace—such as Christianity in its true form—must be resistant to secular pressure because grace-based religion emphasizes the importance of a personal relationship with God and a reliance on his grace for salvation rather than on religious practices or rituals. 

An emphasis on grace makes it less vulnerable to secular pressure to conform to changing cultural norms. You will never have to deal with new ideas and new data or new knowledge if your bedrock principles are resting on grace. One reason for this is that grace-based religion is centered on an unchanging truth about the grace of God rather than on the shifting opinions and ideas of secular culture. 

The foundation of grace-based religion is the belief that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and is not dependent upon cultural practices or human rules. Therefore, if cultural practices or societal norms change over time, the core belief in God’s grace and salvation remains unchanged. 

Furthermore, grace-based religion can provide believers with a sense of identity and purpose rooted in the unchanging truth of God’s word and the transformative power of his grace. This can make believers more resistant to secular pressure to conform to changing cultural norms as they have a deep sense of belonging and purpose that transcends the shifting values and ideas of secular culture. 

So I’d like your thoughts this morning on how secular culture has influenced religion in our society. Are there ways in which religion has resisted secular pressure? What are some of the challenges that secular culture presents to religion, particularly in terms of changing cultural norms and values? How does religion based on grace different from religion based on rules and rituals when it comes to resisting secular pressure? 

Are there ways in which religion can engage with secular culture without compromising its core beliefs or values? In what way can believers rely on God’s grace to resist secular pressure to conform to changing cultural norms and values? How can believers strike a balance between holding fast to their beliefs and engaging in dialogue with secular culture? And what role can grace-based religion play in promoting justice and equality in a secular society? 

Can religion and secular culture coexist peacefully, or is there inherent conflict between the two? And how can we navigate tensions between secular and religious values for a diverse society? In what way can believers draw on an unchanging truth and the grace of God to resist pressure to compromise when the truth is of similar challenge? 

So I’d like your thoughts today about worshiping God in spirit and in truth, about how culture is resistant to religion and religion is resistant to culture, and whether a culture of grace and a religion of grace is— because of its inherent newness—resistant to change. 

David: That the word of God is unchanging is beyond question. The key to all of this seems to me to be that worship is private and individual. It takes place in the privacy of the closet. Therefore, to me, a gathering of two or three people is not (or should not be) for the purpose of worship; rather, it should be for the purpose of applying God’s word—God’s truth, which exists in spirit inside us—to society. 

As the two or three become twenty or thirty and two or three thousand, there develops a need for social organization and ethical social norms, and that’s where God’s word can be applied. It flows downwards from the spirit. But worship, which I personally define as the acknowledgement of God or Goodness—is something we all feel in our spirit and recognize as truth, whether we are Christian or Buddhist or atheist.

This is why I think that there is no real difference between secular society and culture vs. religious society and culture. They are based basically on the same thing. 

There’s no question that God’s word does not change but society does. For example, militaries around the world are developing autonomous soldiers—machines, robots—with the kind of intelligence that GPT has, giving them the autonomy to kill at will. God’s Word—God’s truth—is: Thou shalt not kill. There’s no ambiguity there. Whether we read the Bible or the Koran or Richard Dawkins we fundamentally know and hold that as truth. It exists in the spirit contained within our minds. 

But as society changes, how do we apply that message? How do we apply “Thou shall not kill” to autonomous killer robots? It’s a problem we’ve never had to face before but we need to deal with it now. God’s truth has not changed a bit but society has changed a lot and we need to deal with that. But we can’t do it through worship. We mis do it by applying what we know in spirit and in truth—in our mind (or conscience, or soul)—regardless of our culture. 

We must render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s—and social obedience is Caesar’s—but render unto God that which is God’s, namely, the worship you render when you pray in your closet,.

Donald: Certainly our relationship with God is personal. It’s not a corporate thing—it’s an individual thing. I certainly have always recognized that my church is not going to provide salvation for me—again, it’s a personal thing. 

It has only been in the last decade that I have even pondered the idea of separating religion from my personal thoughts. They are so entwined that it’s hard to tell one from the other. I don’t know if they are equivalent, but they sometimes seem entwined practically to the point of equivalence, though that would be extreme.

I don’t think grace was talked about very much when I was a child. It was much more “These are the rules and this is how we behave. The road is narrow.” We had to pay attention to our behaviors, and that defined my personal religious traditions until I joined a non-denominational BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), which has specific rules about not using reading materials other than the Bible and not talking about one’s doctrines or church or sports or politics.  

We studied the Bible and extracted from it things that seemed to be behavioral. That’s what we seemed to focus on. Can a highly organized religious organization be based upon grace? Because I don’t think grace was central in my understanding of my religion, and that’s unfortunate, it seems to me. 

Yes, we all should have our own personal devotions, but corporately is where we really seem to express our worship moment. I’m having a harder time thinking of worship as something you do in your closet. No, worship is something I do in church. 

That’s kind of the way I think, and then to listen to Don and talk about grace-filled church in highly organized religion, I’m just having a difficult time putting that all together based upon my traditional ways of thinking.

David: I think of the Roman Catholic going to confession and saying: “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned, and I did this, that, and the other.” So the sinner already knows it. God has given the sinner the grace already to understand what s/he has done wrong. Why must s/he confess in the church confessional and feel guilty if they don’t? Isn’t it enough that in spirit they’ve recognized what they’ve done and clearly feel some remorse for it? 

Confession, to me, illustrates the dichotomy between corporate worship decreed by organized religion and the individual worship decreed by God. God is inherently recognized—worshipped—in the personal recognition of sin. Before the sinner goes to church to confess, s/he must have recognized her or his sin (and therefore have recognized—worshipped—God) in spirit and truth in a real or metaphorical closet and admitted “I shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong. Please forgive me. I’ll try not to do it again.” It is by God’s grace that we can worship in that way, and everybody does it—religious or not.

Reinhard: To me, religion was given by God for us to organize. Ever since God separated his remnant people, the Israelites, and set them aside as the apple of his eye and a channel through which to communicate his purpose to humanity, there have always been challenges. Isaiah 40:8 says that the Word of God will stand forever and we worship God based on his moral law. But throughout history, the moral law has always been challenged by advances in science and technology. Governments reform or make new laws to meet such challenges.

On the other hand, we are well equipped, it seems to me, based on history and God’s character, to do what we need to do. We can see from Biblical history through the Dark Ages to today that If we stay close to God, no matter what challenges we face, we will prevail.

Even now, I think we will get through the challenges posed by AI just fine, because AI has a good purpose. The biggest threat comes from the devil, who tries to shake our beliefs with humanistic ideology. I saw a magic show on YouTube in which a piece of chalk wrote on a blackboard by itself. The Bible talks about such devilish deception running amok at the End Time, enticing people who don’t know God and are not close to him to believe in another entity that seems to have God-like power. 

The power of evil is going to grow more and more, but through discussions such as ours in this class we remain on the right path and we’ll be fine until the end, as long as we acknowledge and recognize the dangers, in our discussions. 

Paul reminded us to assemble together to worship, so even though God may not have organized religion directly, he orchestrated it indirectly and, I think, blesses the forms of religion, the community we have with other people, as in this Zoom meeting. I think as long as we try to find the truth and seek a good relationship with God and with each other, we have what we need to stay strong in the belief that his grace will always look out for us. 

If we do wrong, if we transgress sometimes, it is very comforting to know that we can always listen to God. 

Anonymous: First of all, Dr. Weaver has eased my concern about AI. I no longer see it as a threat. His remarks have opened my eyes to the unchanging God and worshiping him in spirit and truth, that he is our fortress which is not going to change. God will never change, no matter what happens, and as long as I worship him in my closet, and the conscience about my behavior (back to Donald’s point) and bask in his grace, continually, unceasingly, regardless of my condition—all that makes me feel more secure rather than fearful or concerned or worried about technology going crazy. 

However, I have a question: That’s for those who trust and see God’s grace. What about the rest? What about the scientist who makes the robots that kill? What about people who live in a way contrary to God’s culture, not caring about salvation but blindly going straight forward to the other side, to the other extreme? How would their end be? How will God interfere in their life? How will his grace turn them around back to him? 

It’s impossible for us human beings to know. So all we can do is pray and present them before God and show them grace and our behaviors and our attitudes toward them. We can love our enemies. God gave us all the instructions and advice about how to live in this wicked world. If we follow his rules, I think we can we can change the world. 

On the other hand, I would still worry that no matter how true a representative I would be of God, in my love and in my sharing grace with those who are completely different from me, that it would be still impossible for me climb that mountain of difficulties. How can we move this mountain? 

Michael: With regard to the issue of personal religion vs. organized or corporate religion, I guess it’s easy to say that corporate religion has been declining and will probably continue to do so. But what about personal religion? Has it been declining or growing? Has it changed? 

If we equate religion to corporate religion, then yes, we can say religion is in decline, but if we equate it to personal religion, then it might not have changed, even with technology, even with societal values and changing laws. 

But why do we need corporate religion? Is it like a societal proof that God should save me, because I’m going to church, the other people can see me, they can judge me to be worthy of it? (That is false, of course, because you’re looking for other gods to think you’re saved.) Or do we need religion in order to learn and to be in community? 

The community part is fine but the problem with expecting that you’re learning from your church is that (it seems to me) most of the things that you learn in church are not right about God. They don’t teach you the right stuff. They teach you the wrong stuff. 

Maybe this decline in organized religion is matched by an increase in personal religion? And maybe, in a sense, if that’s a better or a truer way of worship, things are getting better. It depends on what you equate religion—the word religion—to. 

Don: Those are very important observations. They make me wonder if God is behind the decline in religion.

David: I too thought that was very insightful and also what Anonymous said, particularly concerning the mountain. To me, grace is what moves that mountain; therefore the mountain is not something to worry about. Right now, concern about the downside of AI is being expressed at the highest levels in government and in business, including some of those developing the AI. They are showing apparently genuine ethical concern about what they’re doing. They’re also expressing angst that if they don’t do it, a competitor will, so they face a seemingly no-win dilemma. 

But the very fact that they’re considering the ethical implications at all is to me a sign that God’s grace is kicking in. Those people, whether or not they go to church or consider themselves Christian and so on, have goodness inside them. They have God within. They have the Holy Spirit. They have God’s grace working in them. 

It’s interesting that the Babelonians had no such concerns, going by the narrative in the Bible. They just went right ahead with their tower. But their modern-day equivalents—the tech giants—are calling for a pause in the building of today’s Babel.

Of course there will be unethical individuals for whom it’s not a concern and who therefore do constitute a mini mountain, but I think society as a whole—goodness as a whole—will overcome it.

Donald: There is certainly something between highly organized religion and personal spirituality, and people who are a part of organized religion are always going to be skeptical of people claiming to be SBNRs (spiritual but not religious) and worshipping privately. Organized religion may say they are fooling themselves.There’s probably some tension the other way, too, with SBNRs being skeptical of religion’s traditions and fanfare. 

The mutual skepticism is not personal. COVID probably played a role in driving people to worship in private, and some of them may not want to go back to the old way of worship in church. The decline of organized religion accelerated during COVID but as things open back up, people have come to understand that they have choices in worship. 

David: The churches don’t want you to know your choices. The priest in the confession box doesn’t want the confessant to know that they could they could confess all by themselves in a real or metaphorical closet. And the typical Catholic churchgoer indeed does not know that. 

The reason is what Don spoke of: Grace has not been stressed by the church because it might put them out of business if churchgoers knew that they had a confession box right at home, in the closet, with the best confessor in the universe—God himself—ready and eager to take their confession, rather than a middleman.  

The church may help people who don’t realize the power of grace to lift from them the burden of something weighing on their conscience. Maybe it helps to be absolved by a middleman in return for 12 Hail Marys. There must be a great sense of relief, if you don’t have grace. If you have God’s grace, I think you’re able to forgive yourself. You recognize that you have done wrong but that God’s grace has bestowed forgiveness.

Carolyn: Way back when everyone went to the temple and brought their children to be blessed, was the temple just a temporary measure until Jesus’ crucifixion, his great gift to humanity? The life of the people before the crucifixion centered on community, and the temple was very much a part of that. 

But after Jesus, was it better to go to the closet rather than the temple? Or is it better to go to the temple and to the closet? As Donald said, these things are rather entwined. We need grace, for sure; to me, that is the all important thing and is the joy I have learned. But was the temple back when considered “corporate”?

Don: It’s a good question to leave hanging until next week. 

* * *

We’ve been talking about culture, religion, technology, and our picture of God, and getting closer and closer to some concluding ideas. We’ve noted that culture, religion, and technology are highly charged subjects, not easily understood and not universally accepted. It takes many passes sometimes to get our minds around these new ideas and concepts and strong emotions are tied to them—sometimes extreme anger, sometimes overwhelming joy. 

I’d say this: No argument can be made that God limits his grace based on culture. God is the God of all mankind. God’s grace is open and free to all. But does culture influence how we see God and therefore influence how we see grace, how we accept grace, and how we influence others when we try to share our grace with them? To study this further, we turn again to the story of the woman at the well for possible new insights. 

Immediately preceding the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) is the story of Nicodemus (John 3) and his visit to Jesus in the night. Both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman ended up being among the earliest converts to Christianity. Even before the term Christian was coined, they were followers of Christ. They represent the early Christian church. Yet they were practically polar opposites. 

Nicodemus was a Jew—and not just any Jew but a Pharisee, a Jew of the Jews—educated, wealthy, highly moral, and male. If he lived today, he would be in the 1%. Moreover, he was a seeker. He came to see Jesus at night. Those of us who call ourselves believers might identify with Nicodemus. We are educated, we’re moral, we’re seekers. 

The woman at the well, in contrast, is a woman, a Samaritan, uneducated, poor, and immoral. She does not seek Jesus, but Jesus seeks her. And he seeks her not at night but at high noon. Although we see ourselves as Nicodemus, we are in truth more like the Samaritan woman—without religious pedigree, poor, immoral and outcast. 

What the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus have in common, however, is first, that they both need grace, and second, that neither understands what grace is all about. Both end up being schooled in grace by Jesus. 

The story of Nicodemus shows that those of us who are good—even very, very good—still need God’s grace. Grace produces a new spiritual birth. Born into the Father’s house, Nicodemus doesn’t understand this at all. He talks about crawling back into his mother’s womb. Jesus taught him the most important lesson about grace: That it has to do with what God does, and not with what we do. For God, Jesus says, “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

The passage about the woman at the well contains the longest recorded discourse that Jesus has with anyone in the entire gospels. More than any discussion that he had with the Pharisees, more than any discussion he had with his disciples, Jesus talked to the woman at the well longer than anyone else. Here is that discussion, because it is important for understanding where we’re going today: 

So then, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that He was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing; rather, His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again to Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. So the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” They left the city and were coming to Him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  (John 4:1-32) 

God is a Spirit and His worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth. We’re asking that question today: What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth? 

Jesus was going north, from Jerusalem to Galilee. Normally, a Jew going north would take the trans-Jordan route on the east side of the Jordan River to avoid traveling through Samaria. Verse 4 says that Jesus had to go through Samaria: This shows the intentionality of his journey. He was going to find the woman at the well. Like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, Jesus set out to find his lost soul. 

He arrived at Jacob’s well at noon. The well is the center of a village, a focal point of gathering, but not at noon, not at the hottest time of the day. Midday is a time for rest. Jesus arrives here thirsty and tired. Jacob’s Well is in the modern day city of Nablus on the west bank of the country of Palestine. Today the well is covered by an Orthodox Christian church, but its location is considered authentic, one of the truest authentic sites in the Holy Land. 

He must have been surprised to find a woman coming there at midday. The usual time for drawing water was in cool of the morning or the evening, certainly not at high noon. Finding this woman there is highly significant. There is a great symbolism here. The village well was where you went to find a wife. Abraham’s servant Eliezer went to the well to find a wife for Isaac:

The young woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had had relations with her.  (Genesis 24:16)

She might be considered ancient eye candy, and a virgin. She also turned out to be expensive—10 camels plus jewelry and gold—but apparently worth every penny. Maybe she was the first trophy wife in history. Isaac’s son Jacob also found a wife, Rachel, at the well:

… Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance. (Genesis 29:17)

Today, we might say she was shapely and well built. Moses finds his wife Zipporah at the well as well 

The significance cannot be missed: The well is where you go to find a wife. Throughout the Scriptures, we see a picture of Jesus as a bridegroom looking for a wife, which is known as the church. Unlike the other woman found at the well, Jesus found a Samaritan woman, not a Jew. Moreover, she was neither lovely nor a virgin but more like Gomer, the prostitute about whom we have spoken before. 

She’s a Samaritan, ritually unclean, has had five husbands and is living with a man who is not her husband. God’s bride is a five-time loser and has been sleeping around. You can’t miss this point: We are, you see, the woman at the well. We are outcasts broken down and living in sin. 

Jesus seeks us out not to condemn us but to engage us, to teach us, to call us, to save us. He meets with us where we are, even though we’re morally bankrupt, at the well of life, which is where I work in order to sustain myself. The well is deep and requires much effort to draw. It is my bucket. It is my rope to let it down. It is my implement of water-drawing. It is my role to draw. It’s my muscles that give the precious water quench of my thirst. It must not be missed that the more I draw, the more tired I become and the more I draw the more I thirst. 

The cycles of work and exhaustion and work and thirst must be broken—and that is the miracle that Jesus is offering: The miracle of grace and living water. Jesus sees the woman at the well at this odd time because with her history and her present lifestyle, she doesn’t fit in very well with the rest of the community. He knows everything about her yet he still wants to be her spiritual bride. He doesn’t look on the outside. He sees her work and sees her as a person redeemed by grace. 

“Give me a drink,” he says, and she responds, “You’re a Jew. I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink, for Jews do not associate with Samaritans?” There are, she implies, cultural elements at play here. “How is it that you first wanted me to overlook the culture? And how is it that you on the other hand are willing to overlook the culture as well?” 

Jesus’s request and his action does two things. He’s saying to the Jews: “I am not going to allow you to define who and what the Samaritans are” and to the Samaritans he’s saying: “I am not going to let you define who God is.” Man’s culture seeks to define who we are and who you are. Man’s culture also seeks to define who God is. But Jesus here will have none of it. He is the definer and he is the decider. 

Grace, he says, triumphs everything and then he makes his pitch in verse 10: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asked you for a drink,” he says, “you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “If you knew the gift of God”: this is the universal need—to know the gift of God, the gift of grace. “If you knew what grace was, you would ask for grace” he said. It is very clear she doesn’t understand what grace is. 

Like Nicodemus, who is literally trying to climb back into his mother’s womb, she envisions her own private well, her private source of water; no hauling of hard-earned water back to the house. My own personal well, my own personal stash is what we all want from God. Our own personal well, our own personal blessing, blessings for my own family, blessing for my health, blessing for my business, blessing for my relationships, blessing for my bank account. What I want from you guys is to make my life less of a burden for me. 

Like us, the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus completely missed the point. Being not spiritually wise, we completely misunderstand grace. When we first hear about grace it goes completely over our heads. It takes almost a miracle for us to comprehend the lavish gift of God’s grace. We’re so focused on personal blessings we miss the point of grace. 

Jesus then drops the bombshell in verse 16: “Go get your husband,” he says, “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands and the man that you now live with is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.” The woman replies “I can see that you are a prophet”.

Here we see no condemnation of the woman at the well, no call to turn from sin. We see only the power of grace, which turns work into worship. Living water bubbles up and flows all over everywhere. The woman then tries to engage Jesus in theological debate, in cultural studies, and in doctrine, but Jesus turns aside the doctrinal debate. 

In verse 28, she leaves her water jar behind. This is significant: She is setting aside her own works and her implements of work. Living water changes everything. Grace turns work into worship in spirit and in truth, known as the work of Jesus here. It should be our work as well that is to teach and to tell the story of grace. 

But what does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth? In John 4 Jesus says that we should worship Him in spirit and in truth. And in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, he makes the point that to worship God in spirit means that we worship hm with our whole being, our heart, our soul, our inner strength; not just with our outward actions. It means that we worship him from a place of sincerity and truthfulness. 

To worship God in truth means you worship him according to his nature and character as revealed in the Scriptures. It means that we worship God in the way he has commanded and not in ways contrary to his nature and will. True worship is grounded in the truth of God’s word, not in human tradition or cultural preference. But I believe it is more than that: It provides the basis for our understanding of culture, religion, and our view of God. 

To understand what it means to worship in spirit and in truth takes us back to the concept of living water. Living water has five characteristics, described in the passage, that provide a clue as to how the passage is to be understood. 

First, the living water is a gift from God. Jesus tells the woman: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). This indicates that living water is not something that can be earned or achieved, but is a free gift of God. That is the biggest clue. 

Second, living water satisfies spiritual thirst. Jesus tells the woman that whoever drinks it will never be thirsty again (John 4:14). This suggests that living water is not a physical substance but a spiritual reality that satisfies a deep spiritual longing in the human heart. 

Third, living water is the source of eternal life. Jesus says: “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). This indicates that living water is not just a temporary fix for spiritual thirst, but the source of eternal life, and it never runs dry. 

Fourth, living water is available to all who believe. Jesus tells the woman: “Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty again.” This indicates that living water is not limited to a specific group of people at a particular time, but is available to all. 

Finally, living water is a spiritual reality. Jesus tells the woman that God is a spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. This suggests that living water is not a physical substance but a spiritual reality that can be accessed through worship in spirit and in truth. 

The living water described in John 4 is therefore a gift. It’s free. It’s the source of eternal life. It’s available to all.

As Jesus speaks to the woman at the well and tells her about a kind of water that will quench your thirst forever—about the living water—we begin to recognize it as having the characteristics of God’s eternal grace. We’ve listed those characteristics: It’s free, it’s a gift. It’s free to all, it’s essential to life. It reminds  us of the way grace is metaphored by oxygen. Here we see it metaphored by water. 

It’s important to note that the living water Jesus refers to is not a physical substance but a spiritual reality. Jesus tells the woman that whoever drinks it will never be thirsty again. This is not a promise of physical hydration, but rather a promise of spiritual satisfaction. Living water nourishes the soul, not the body.

The idea of grace as a kind of water is not a new one. The Old Testament has many references to God’s grace as a source of refreshment and nourishment. The psalmist writes: 

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;… (Psalms 42:1-2) 

In Isaiah God promises to provide water for the thirsty and grace to the needy:

For I will pour water on the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring,
And My blessing on your descendants;… (Isaiah 44:3)

This image of God’s grace as a source of water is echoed in the New Testament where Jesus himself in, identifies himself personally as the person of living water:

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)

The living water that Jesus refers to in John’s Gospel can only be seen as a metaphor for God’s eternal grace. It is not a physical substance but a spiritual reality that nourishes the soul. The idea of grace as a source of water is not new, and it’s found throughout the Old and the New Testaments. Ultimately, the living water that Jesus promised is a symbol of the gift of eternal life that comes through God’s grace. 

But worshipping God in spirit and in truth sounds like it involves spiritual truth. What is spiritual truth? It sounds like an attribute of God, not of fallen Man. There’s nothing about myself which is spiritual, or there’s nothing about myself which is true. I’m a broken, defeated, evil, sinful Man. Therefore, I’m concluding that whatever worship that we’re called to have in spirit and in truth must be something about what God does and not do. 

God’s worship is to deliver grace. Our rituals and rules are useless before God. Our worship should be centered on God and what he does, not on us and what we do. This is what it means to worship God in spirit in truth. It simply means to accept God’s grace. 

The concept of worship has been central to the practice of religion for centuries. It involves expressions of devotion and reference to deities through various rituals, practices, and beliefs. However, the question of what constitutes true worship is a matter of much debate and interpretation. In the Gospel of John Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that true worship is not defined by physical location or ritualistic practice, but rather by the heart and by the truth. In other words, true worship is centered on God and what he does, not on us and what we do. 

The idea of worshiping God in spirit and in truth suggests that true worship is based not on external acts or observances but on a deep spiritual connection with God. It is not something that can be achieved through rituals and rules, but rather through a genuine surrender of the heart to God. The surrender is characterized by a recognition of God’s greatness, power and mercy and willingness to accept His grace and love. 

The prophet Amos speaks to the idea of true worship, where he condemns the religious practices of the Israelites:

“I hate, I reject your festivals,
Nor do I delight in your festive assemblies.

Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fattened oxen. (Amos 5:21-22)

Amos is suggesting that the religious rituals and practices of the people are useless in the eyes of God if they’re not accompanied by a true heart of worship. True worship then is not about what we do—not about our rules and about our rituals. True worship is about what God does. It is a response to the grace, mercy and love that God freely offers us. 

This kind of worship involves recognition of our own unworthiness and complete surrender to God’s will. It is not something that can be achieved through our own effort or through our work, but through genuine faith and trust in God’s power and goodness. 

So what does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth? It believe it means nothing more (and nothing less) than to enter into and accept God’s grace. It is to enter into what God does and not what we do. We so much wish our religion, our spirit, our truth, our worship, to be about us and what we do, about our devotion, about our study, about our piety, about our Bible reading, about our meditation about our prayer, about our self-denial about our sacrifice, about our beliefs. 

But this cannot be about us, because there is nothing spiritual about us. There is nothing truthful about us. Anything that is genuinely spiritual and genuinely true must be about God. How can the Samaritan woman at the well worship in spirit and in truth if this is about her? 

I’d like your thoughts this morning. about technology, religion, culture, God, and above all, what does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth? 

Donald: Words do matter. And when we think of certain words, at least from my perspective, we have a sense as to what those words might imply. So when I hear the word worship, I typically do not think of worshiping alone, I think of it as being more than alone. 

Does Daoism have a place of meeting? Or is it just a way of living?

David: That is a really interesting question and pertinent to the discussion. There are two branches of Daoism; Originally, Daoism was a philosophy and as such essentially individual, so there was no formal gathering place for those philosophically inclined toward Daoism, though undoubtedly there were informal meetings where they gathered in spirit in a sense through their “Bible” the the Dao De Jing. 

But of course the human urge is to get together, to club together, so another branch of Daoism formed, now known as religious Daoism, which does have all the trappings—temples and monks and rituals—that go with a religion. 

Both Jesus and Amos were saying “Forget about religion and get back to my philosophy, go back to the individual, spiritual nature of God and go away from the communal approach. That’s a pretty shocking message. 

Donald:  When a third person wants to join two people who have gotten together, they want to know: Are you eligible to be a part of us? Two people can just get along. But once you start organizing you have to start defining who’s in the circle and who’s not. And that is something we really shouldn’t be doing, it seems to me, but we do. We make clear judgments as to whether you’re fit to be a part of our organization.

Don: Maybe you’re asking the question, how many people does it take them to make a culture? Does one person need a culture?

C-J: Humans are pack animals in order to survive. And the idea of bringing the spiritual element into it really was birthed out of living so close to nature. You had to pay attention to the signs and wonders, you knew you didn’t create this humanity or any other living creature that has autonomy and judgment, a sentient being. 

But for me, I believe what that demonstrates is that diversity. God meets us where we are. It isn’t just “I like the way this fits me. I don’t want to have to do all that other stuff. I like these people.” What if you move to another church? I know I like the people in the other place, even though the sign above the door says X. 

I think the thing that we hear in both the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and with Nicodemus is God meets us where we are. And it is in that moment of revelation that God begins, and the journey that led us to being able to receive like, “Who am I talking to? Something is different here. This man knows all about me. But I haven’t spoken a word.” 

Here’s a man who feels that he doesn’t need to say anything, because he’s wearing all of the social things that identify him—his clothes, the way he speaks—all those things. He doesn’t have to tell anybody that he’s a man of privilege. But God just says “None of that matters, because it’s all corruptible. It’s all transient. It’s all on who’s watching you.” If you have 10 people that look like you, it’s not such a big deal. If you’re standing next to the poorest of poor, then it’s quite obvious. And so we measure, we start putting measurements and values into things. But God says even the least among you has great value.

There is no quorum with God. He says if there are two or three in our chart, they are mine. But he stops for that lamb that is lost. “Where are you? Where are you? Do you hear my voice? For my people know my voice.” Sometimes you do hear the voice and then you come to a place where you can only hear God’s voice. So God meets us where we are. God reveals to us at a moment in time what we need in order to get up when we’ve been punched down or when we’re lost. 

I just I think we underestimate God in our own lives and all around us in the chaos so frequently that we want those safety nets that Donald talks about. “I want to know what this means right here and now, and I’m staying in my box. I see what’s out there, but I don’t want to be out there.”  And other people—the Mother Teresas, Jesus, the disciples—go where other people wouldn’t. They sit among the disenfranchised. I think that’s the Great Commission. It’s your neighbor, it’s the stranger on the bus, it’s the person in the grocery store. Not just the people that we’re familiar and feel safe with. And there’s where we find God.

Donald: I do feel like there’s great value in a collective group of people coming together and trying to worship God in spirit and truth. It does draw out of you something that may not happen otherwise. But the challenge for an organization would be that you would want to exclude someone, or make someone look peculiar.

David: There’s an even bigger problem: We are not, in fact, coming together, we are breaking apart. Read the Pew studies of the decline in religion or the spread of different sects, and so on. My technological mantra is that we are increasingly becoming more individualistic. We have a zillion social media channels (groups) to join, but each is becoming smaller and smaller. I think we will end up with the individual—and the technology—forming the whole, disconnected, channel. 

Don shared with me earlier that a survey of people who use ChatGPT as their doctor, asking it questions about their medical conditions, found that many more found the AI to be far more empathetic than their physician. If people look for empathy and will go wherever they can best get it, we’re getting to the point where technology becomes the individual’s most trusted advisor—what teenagers call their BFF (best friend forever). 

Human BFFs tend not to last very long, certainly not forever. Today’s teenager’s BFF is probably not her BFF in adulthood. But ChatGPT is shaping up to be everyone’s BFF, forever. We can trust it always to be empathetic and it’s only going to get better and better and have more and more understanding of the world in general and us as individuals in particular. 

So I challenge the convention that human grouping together is such a good thing that it will last forever. Maybe it is today, maybe it always has been to date, but going forward, is that going to hold?

C-J: And suicide is up. There are more and more problems with adolescents in terms of mental health, self-isolation, and socio-cultural isolation. Not having a clear path, my best friend forever when I’m 12 is not going to be who I would choose as a friend at 22. So these kids are lost. These young people see governments failing, economics impacting them, relationships failing, education failing them, healthcare failing them. An algorithm isn’t going to fix it. They want to be held, they want someone to read to them, they want someone to speak truth that bears witness with them spiritually, instead of like, “That’s a lie.”

Donald: Maybe one way to look at this is like singing solo. That is quite a different experience than singing as part of a group. I can’t sing with ChatGPT. Maybe it will be possible one day, but all I’m saying is, there there is something rich about having a shared experience.

Some of my richest experiences in life have taken place in Africa. They were shared experiences and rich experiences. Why? If I were to do that same thing in Michigan I might not feel so comfortable. But I think it’s important. I do think that there’s something to be said for a shared experience with somebody that you really connect with.

C-J: Isn’t that what public demonstrations for injustice are all about? They are shared experience of oppression or a voice that needs to be heard outside of a single room, “Say it loud, say it proud, you’re going to listen to me, because I won’t stop until you do.” Shared experience doesn’t just have to have a spiritual connotation of what’s acceptable or expected in a particular building. I love group worship. It’s just resonates, it’s like an orchestra. But I also remember some very sweet times just worshiping God at my bedside. They were also sweet. Or walking in the woods. God meets us where we are. 

But we can gain the most when we feel the most uncomfortable. Because it makes me look at something else before it makes me look at something inside myself, that I either thought I had an understanding of, had control of, or made a decision already about. I’d already defined it and categorized it. But when I’m in a place where I don’t feel comfortable, I’m anxious. I challenge that. And I want to see the fruit. 

God always bears fruit. Always, Always adds to the reflection of him and less of me, because left to my own device. I usually don’t make good choices. My timing isn’t really remarkable. But when God shows up, everybody notices, I guarantee.

Sharon: What role does our personality and our culture play in how the Lord meets us and how we meet the Lord? I’m thinking as an introvert. I find the most spiritual moments that I have in my life, for myself, are in the privacy of nature and when I can be totally without the pressure of having the social. 

So what role does the culture that we’re raised in and the social implications of that and our innate chromosomal personality play? Doesn’t the diversity of God meet this whole spectrum in some way? Because we’re not singular in identity, social creatures

Donald: Unfortunately, what we try to do is make people be like us We try to surround ourselves with people of like kind to support us. There’s something of value to that. Why would a violin want to be a harp? We wouldn’t have a symphony if we didn’t have a host of instruments. They’re all different. But we humans really strive to clean the others up, it seems to me.

Reinhard: We are in a comfort zone because we are believers. We only need a little fix now and then–a little tune-up. But to the majority out there, I think it’s a big challenge. Last week it was mentioned that the past two or three decades have seen a decline in believers, from close to 90% who came to church at least once a year, to 39%. 

I first came to this country in the 70s and witnessed the start of televangelism in the ’80s and I saw the culture start to become polarized between liberals and conservatives. The media started getting more and more liberal and hammered the televangelists if they made mistakes, such that by the turn of the century liberal influence turned people against church and towards atheism and humanism. 

Closer to our time, the LGBTQ movement and same-sex marriage promoted by the media further changed the culture. To me, these trends are more dangerous than AI because positive things may come of AI in terms of helping us to evangelize and doing God’s work. During the Cold War, Khrushchev said the USSR would win the war without firing a shot, based upon the Marxist view that humanism would prevail by percolating through the colleges and liberal professors and turn US culture into what we see today. 

Today the US is even more polarized between left and right people and this is more dangerous. Most people on the right are believers while most on the left are not. To those on the left, science and evolutionary theory undermine the Bible and its statements about the creation and so on. We are in a conflict zone but we can still deal with one another respectfully. 

It’s worse in Europe, where very few people attend church today. I think that’s the danger posed by a humanistic view: It causes people to not care about God and church.

C-J: I don’t think it’s about the polarization. It’s about the disinformation. It’s enough truth, skewed, that you can’t find your way out of the woods. How to sort the threads that change a balanced perspective? There’s so much going on all over the world. 

I started watching a series on Netflix called The Citadel, which is so current with what you just said. In terms of how that will play out, it’s timing. It’s how many times do you hear that same messaging. It’s the separation of degree. It scared me. If this proposition in terms of a possibility was to be considered, instead of those obvious polls, liberal–conservative, it scared me because I never considered a third player on the field. It’s taken root in my head..

It’s worth fast forwarding to the end credits for the scriptwriters and why they designed it the way they did. It made me pause. But I hear what Reinhardt is saying: When we choose a side on the field it is just as dangerous is being lost. Because we are not either/or: We are humanity and we’ve lost our way. 

I don’t care what border you’re next to. I don’t care what the person looks like or their belief or any of that. Humanity has lost its way and we have a very small window to coalesce into the understanding that if we don’t get this right in terms of preserving the planet, it’s not going to matter. We’re going to destroy the planet till it can not sustain us. 

It just changed the way I viewed so much, the premise in the script.

Reinhard: On the other side of the coin, in Asia, South America and North Africa, there are a lot of people who seek God. For instance, China will not publicly admit that Christianity is fairly widespread, with (if I’m not mistaken) close to 300 million Christians. 

In Asia in general, belief in and worship of God has remained steady over the past 20 or 30 years. It’s different in the western hemisphere, western Europe especially. It’s comforting news that on the other side of the planet there are probably more people seeking God. 

Anonymous: The jewel in today’s discussion is about the fact that to accept the grace of God is to worship God in spirit and in truth. To me that’s the bottom line of Christianity. It’s what Christianity is all about. It’s the true and deep and sincere connection to God’s grace and accepting it. That has nothing to do with culture, nothing to do with personality, nothing to do with technology.

It is something out of this world. I don’t know what to call it. It’s so important, so powerful, so true, so real. I’m very moved that in spite of his health condition, Dr. Weaver is still teaching us and giving us the truth and breaking the bread of life to us. Thank you so much, that means a lot to me. And it means that God sees the importance of this message, to show us how to worship God, in spirit and truth by just accepting his grace, 

You’ve brought out the seemingly minor points of the story of the woman at the well, such as her leaving the bucket behind when she went back to the village. The teaching of Jesus has so many deep meanings that we can apply to our lives and see where we stand, how poor we are, and there’s nothing else that we can do. The grace of God is oxygen available to everybody. There’s nothing to do but to accept it, and in order to accept it you have to have faith in God. 

Faith, as the Bible says, is given from God. Our faith is from God, and the grace of God is also a gift given to us. As soon as we accept it, God considers that as worship in spirit and truth. That’s beautiful. That’s so powerful. You could not put a value on this fact on this truth. Thank you for showing us that.

Don: Thank you for emphasizing it, because I didn’t know if I had made myself clear.

Anonymous: Oh, it is so clear.

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