She asked a question in one of her blog entries that I have been pondering at length: Is prayer a means of grace. Her argument, if I follow, is that prayer contains Word and the Living Word is a means of grace, a means by which God comes to us, bestows upon us forgiveness...salvation. I could accept that argument save for the fact that prayer does not always contain the Living Word and is often seen as a work, something that we have to do and need to do correctly for the full benefit. Means of grace would never come in the form of works.
So, I would proffer that it is not...but perhaps in the same way holy absolution is not a sacrament. While it does not have God's Word attached to a physical element, it functions as something God does for us. When I am praying my beloved Psalter, certainly that would be a means of Grace because the Psalter is the Living Word. When I am praying prayers from the Lutheran liturgy, I am doing so based on prayers that have been handed down and/or gathered in because of the doctrinal confession therein. But even though they contain some Word, they are not completely the word. And when I am praying spontaneously, the prayers may very well be of my heart, but you know know has many twisted thoughts and oft sees Law where none was intended. I pray well; I fail the prayer. How then can a means of grace be something that is dependent, at least in part, on me?
SIGH. I shall have to think on the matter until later....
Then tonight, as I began to type this, I received another lovely e-mail. There was a new person in the Greek class last night who actually greeted me (shocking, I know). I offered to help her catch up if she wanted and sent her my alphabet cheat sheet I created for Bettina because I think she should be learning Greek with me. When I emailed her, I mentioned that I have MS and am not sure about being able to keep up. It turns out she is in the early diagnosis stage for MS. Small world. She would like to be study buddies, so we have to figure out how to do so while living in two different cities. Still, it was wonderful to know there is someone at my new parish I might not overwhelm if I talked about my disease.
In between the emails, I had a lousy day at work and Compline at church. While walking out, I did ask my new pastor why the colors of the paraments changed last week and received a crash course on the church year. He even allowed me to ask a few more questions, such as what the colors stand for (the red was for a martyr; white is when the saint didn't die a violent death) and the differences between--Trinity Sunday and Sunday after Trinity (it has to do with the two different lectionaries). He squeezed in a bit on Pentecost, so that is more clear to me. He said they don't have green paraments, just vestments and banners. I had to stop myself from promptly offering to buy some. After all, shouldn't Myrtle be the one to supply green stuff? I bit my tongue because I do not know how such things work, how a church goes about adding to their supply. I did sign up for the altar's guild. I am not sure if shaky hands and legs would preclude me from this, but he put out a request for volunteers. I would like to be of assistance in the new parish in some fashion.
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1Peter 1:3b
14. JESUS OFFERS US AN UNDYING HOPE.
Any runner knows that finishing a race is mostly mental. Without the knowledge that he can complete the distance before him, his mind starts to weaken, and his body soon follows. Likewise, when our spiritual endurance is tested, the deciding factor is whether or not our hope will hold out. If home dies, our spirits are crushed, and we lose the will to continue.
Thankfully, the hope we have in Jesus will never dies, because He lives forever. We know—beyond a shadow of doubt—that He will ultimately triumph in our lives and in the world. Because He lives, we have hope.
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!
No comments:
Post a Comment