I don’t consider myself a cultured person at all. Let me just unpack that. I don’t look at artwork and see the nuances and expression of the artist and what message he or she is trying to convey in their pieces of art.
I don’t meditate listening to classical music and get lost in the symphony of great musical masterpieces. I prefer to sit and watch TV in my spare time – quite often sitcoms or crime shows. I don’t sit and read and try to analyse messages that an author is trying to tell his or her readers as they search their soul and put it in writing. No, I prefer going to the footy – yelling at the umpire and being unable to speak the next day from all the cheering and singing I tend to read the Herald Sun rather than the Australian or the Age. Tend to vote conservatively in politics and perhaps shocked a lot of people when I said that I didn’t mind Donald Trump.
I hope that doesn’t make you look at me differently. But this is the beauty of God’s creation.
We are all different – and sometimes we don’t understand how a person can be so different. How on earth can they watch and listen to that sort of stuff. Why can’t they see and enjoy the beauty of that composer – that author. And sadly this is when some of our prejudices can make us look at people in a different way – in a less appealing way. This is often where prejudices like racism and sexism have their beginnings. When we look at a person differently – usually negatively – because they’re different. Maybe we don’t verbalise it but we think it or roll our eyes or speak to someone about it who will understand why we feel that way about that person. And as you would be aware from our news coverage this has been a huge issue in the media lately that has even cost some people their careers.
St Paul today reminds us that not only does God not discriminate about anyone but rather when he looks at us he sees us as “masterpieces” his handiwork that he is so proud of even if others can’t see what God would be proud of. But sometimes it’s not others who look down on us or others because we are different – and let’s remember there’s nothing wrong with being different. But sometimes it is we who look at ourselves and cannot see anything in us that anyone could possibly find attractive. Or maybe we’ve looked at our lives and wondered – what could God possibly love about us?
Well, there are 3 points that come out of our readings today to assure us that God loves us UNCONDITIONALLY.
First, we don’t always know or see what value we are contributing to God’s work on earth. Look how Paul explains it: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Some translations say we are God’s “masterpiece”. We are “GOD’S” handiwork – GOD’S masterpiece – no one else’s not even ours. And we have been created to do good works – which GOD prepared – IN ADVANCE for us to do. Please don’t ever devalue yourself because in devaluing yourself you are devaluing God your creator.
And this is the second point from our readings. And, as Paul said – we are saved by grace and not by works: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God– not the result of works, so that no one may boast. Yes, we don’t always live lives that would make ourselves proud but God never ever stops loving us or disowning us. No, again Paul says: But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our sins, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved.
Notice that Paul can’t get the word “love” out there enough – out of the great love with which he loved us.
Probably not the best English grammar but Paul cannot emphasise enough how much God loves us.
And that draws us to the third point – just how much God loves us.
Jesus himself tells us just how much God loves his handiwork – his masterpiece when he says:
For God oved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. This is what we need to keep reminding ourselves about others and ourselves. That each of us – no matter what our physical appearances are – no matter what our personal likes and dislikes are – that God loves us so much that he not only sent his Son to be with us but allowed him to be sacrificed so that our salvation was not dependant on anything that we do but purely on God’s grace in his love for us. We might not always agree with one another or understand one another but that’s the beauty of God’s creative ability in that he created each and everyone one of us – warts and all – in his own image.
And that’s what we need to understand about each other and just as important to understand about ourselves. When God looks at you he sees himself – he sees his handiwork – even if no one else understands or can see it.
As we draw near to the end of our Lenten season, let us again reflect on just how much God loves us and everyone when we see the suffering and death that Jesus underwent for us. And let us remember that that suffering and death was for us and for all people and remember the next time we look down on ourselves or another person let us remember that we are actually looking down on God and discrediting his handiwork.
And if we believe that a person should be of a certain standard to achieve God’s love then we actually bring into question God’s love for us. Because is there is a standard that others must reach then we too must reach that standard. But there is no standard because we are saved by grace and not by works. And it was out of God’s great love that he loved us – warts and all – in that it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
So let us always and continually give thanks to the Lord, for he is good – and that goodness is described by the Psalm writer – because his mercy endures for ever.
