Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment - to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)

 

 

     In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It was Jesus' way of saying that we base our priorities on what we decide is important to us. What is our treasure? What has taken possession of our hearts? What controls our lives? At the beginning of a new year, we often take stock of things – what's in our past that we regret, and what do we want to change as we look ahead. New Year's Resolutions, some people call them. I don't make New Year's Resolutions, because long ago I made a New Year's Resolution to stop making New Year's Resolutions, and I'm determined to keep up my perfect track record! But it's still not a bad time to start thinking about what our personal treasures are and to think about whether we have all our priorities in the right place.

 

     I can't speak about this on an individual level, of course, because I don't know what all of your treasures are. Maybe there are days when I'm not even sure what my treasures are! But I look at society, especially having just come through the Christmas season and standing here on what the church considers to be the last day of Christmas, and I'm at least aware of one possibility that afflicts society as a whole. I think for a moment of Paul's words in Philippians 3:19, when, speaking of what he calls enemies of the cross of Christ, he says, “their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.” Paul seems to be referring here to what Scripture sometimes calls gluttony – which doesn't necessarily mean just eating too much food, but really means just wanting too much of anything; much more than we actually need. 

 

     Gluttony for some reason is something that Christians like to ignore. And yet, gluttony is running rampant in our society. “Supersize it?” That's the question you get asked at any McDonald's  whenever you order anything. “Supersize it?” And often it comes across not so much as a question, but as a command. It's almost as if there's something wrong with you if you don't supersize it. And that just sets the stage for people to want more and more and more of everything. And we start to take for granted that having more and more and more – far more than we ever possibly need – is just the way it is and even the way it should be. I noted in the news recently that the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has estimated that by 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 2, the top one hundred paid CEOs of Canadian companies would have been earned as much as the average full-time worker's yearly income. Not necessarily because they've done anything to earn it. The author of the report actually said that “there is no clear relationship between CEO compensation and any measure of corporate performance.” But deserved or not there's a culture that says that that group should get far more than they need. Or that senators should be able to play fast and loose with travel reimbursement and housing costs. Or whatever. Our society creates the mindset that says we should get as much as we can – even if others don't have much and even if we have far more than we need. And too often the church allows itself to buy into that mindset.

 

     I know many Christians who have no hesitation about labeling smoking and drinking as sins, but for some reason they choose to either ignore or at least tolerate gluttony. There are those who wouldn't even think about having a glass of wine or smoking a cigarette but they have no qualms about gorging themselves at the dinner table. It's interesting. But when we want more than what we need, and when we can't control ourselves and we go to any lengths to get the thing that we want – that's gluttony. That's a sign of what our priorities are. We want to get rich on the things of the world – whether it's eating a lot of food, or having a lot of money – and we forget about the things of God. Gluttony is a problem – and a rampant one in modern society, which we see lived out so dramatically in the Christmas excess of food and drink and gifts. And there are so many other things that we ignore as well. Rachel Held Evans is a Christian author who recently wrote that she had been attacked simply because she had written that parents with gay children should love those gay children unconditionally. Which sounds Christian and Christ-like to me. But she wrote that people (mostly Christians) attacked her on the basis of a handful of biblical verses that they insisted had to be taken absolutely literally, even though there are so many clear biblical teachings that we now choose to overlook, on issues such as divorce, or gossip, or head coverings, or nonviolence, or the “abomination” of eating shellfish and the sin of calling other people idiots, which the Bible says is enough to get you sent to hell.  But we don't agree with those things, so we look for an out or we ignore them, and when we come across those teachings in the Bible, Evans says we decide that “then we need a little context. Then we need a little grace. Then we need a little room to disagree.” And I agree with her that we need all those things, and especially grace – because where would we be without grace.

 

     Grace is a concept we find hard to understand. In the January edition of the United Church Observer, there was an article about Rob Ford and his repeated pleas for forgiveness. Yes, it's easy to be cynical – but a Christian minister writing in a Christian magazine should surely rise above cynicism. But instead the article presented a virtually meaningless discussion about forgiveness from a very worldly and secular perspective when it had the opportunity to speak meaningfully about grace. The article starts with the words, "In a world that likes rules," setting us up for a works oriented approach to forgiveness. Follow the rules and you'll be forgiven. That's a denial of grace. I see much in it that seems to deny the principle of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Especially in the section where the author notes incredulously that Ford is a vicious political operator, and the very thing he asks of others is what he himself refuses to give. But nothing depends on what Ford gives or doesn't give - it depends on whether we can show grace and offer that which is undeserved, as God in Christ has done. "You don't get forgiveness just because you ask for it," the author writes. Well, actually, we're supposed to forgive innumerable times when asked according to Jesus - implicitly suggesting that we're to forgive even if the apology is not entirely sincere. The author writes that "forgiveness is a delicate miracle ..." A miracle? A MIRACLE? Forgiveness should be anything but miraculous to a Christian. It should be what we're about on a routine and regular basis. But he then says that it's a miracle that only happens "... when the unjustly treated receive back what has been taken from them." So forgiveness is conditional on getting something in return? Again - where's grace? The author had the opportunity to apply some basic Christian principles to the public sphere, and instead settled for a worldly understanding of forgiveness and all the conditions we attach to it. Offering forgiveness should simply be a given for a Christian. That doesn't mean that the person forgiven faces no consequences in the present for their past actions. But it does mean that we let them out of our debt and stop belabouring past sins. That's grace.

 

     In Ephesians we read that “In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us.” Here is where we find real riches – the grace of God lavished upon us through Christ. The most important word here might be “redemption.” It's a word that sounds vaguely familiar to church-goers but we've really lost sight of what it means when it's applied to God and faith. But think about how we use the word in everyday language. Today we redeem coupons – we get a bargain; sometimes we even get something for nothing.  That's redemption. We get something for nothing – and what do we get? We get all “the riches of God's grace” - and we get it for nothing. We get it because God simply gives it to us. In place of redemption we might use the word “freedom” or “liberation.” That helps us understand the reference to “through His blood.” That's a reference to Christ's death – which always goes hand in hand with His resurrection. We get liberation through the death of Christ – because the death of Christ tells us that there's nothing to be feared; not even death itself – because even death is conquered by Jesus – and by “the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us” we share in that victory, we gain that freedom, we enjoy that redemption. These are real riches that we find in God's grace. These are lasting riches that we find in God's grace. These riches are more important than anything else we might use to determine our wealth. 

 

     The top 100 paid CEOs in Canada might have earned as much money by halfway through January 2 than most of us will be earning in the entire year – but “the riches of God's grace” are always with us and can never be taken away. That's why they're the real riches. They free us to live as children of God and as followers of Christ and as servants of the gospel He preached. “The riches of God's grace that He lavished upon us” are truly all we need!