Living in the House

Union, Sacrament, and Sanctifying Grace

Scriptures: Mark 12:28–31; John 6:56; John 15:1–11; Romans 6:1–11; 1 John 4:7–21; Galatians 5:22–23

The words “union with God” have caused me to reconsider much more than prayer.

They have helped me see how many pieces of my Christian journey belong together.

Jesus tells us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. First John tells us that we cannot claim to love the God we cannot see while hating the brother or sister we can see.

Everything comes back to relationship.

I think of four relationships that continually shape human life:

Our relationship with God.

Our relationship with others.

Our relationship with ourselves.

Our relationship with creation—the universe of which we are a part.

I also see four dimensions within myself.

I am physical.

I am emotional.

I am spiritual.

I am rational.

These dimensions are not separate compartments. What happens physically affects me emotionally. What happens emotionally can affect my reasoning. My spiritual life affects how I understand everything else. My rational life can help me examine what I feel and believe.

There needs to be balance.

The same is true of our relationships.

Love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor. Love of neighbor cannot be separated from a healthy relationship with ourselves. Our relationship with creation cannot be separated from our understanding of the Creator.

We know these relationships are not perfectly balanced.

Something is broken.

That is why sanctifying grace means so much to me.

Justification does not mean that suddenly everything within me is perfectly ordered.

I use the illustration of the house of grace that became so important to me in seminary.

Prevenient grace is the porch. The Holy Spirit draws us from the street toward the house.

Justifying grace is the threshold. We respond in faith and enter.

But then we have to live in the house.

That is sanctifying grace.

We grow.

We learn.

We fall down.

We get back up.

We discover another room we have never explored.

We discover something in ourselves that needs healing.

We discover that something we were certain about needs reconsideration.

Sometimes, like the Professor in The Pilgrim Continues His Way, the teacher has to become the pupil again.

We never graduate from discipleship.

This is also why the sacraments have become increasingly important to me.

Baptism is not magic water.

The Eucharist is not a magic meal.

Confirmation is not graduation from church school.

Confession is not merely reciting our failures.

Anointing the sick is not a magic potion.

These are encounters with grace within the life of a person who is being drawn into deeper communion with God.

Baptism speaks of new life and our union with Christ.

Confirmation says that the journey continues.

The Eucharist continually brings us back to communion with Christ and with one another.

Confession allows us to recognize what has become distorted, name it, receive grace, and turn again toward restored relationship.

Anointing reminds us that grace meets embodied human beings. Our physical lives matter too.

These things matter because Christianity is not merely intellectual agreement.

It is life.

It is relationship.

It is communion.

It is transformation.

It is union with God.

That realization also makes me look differently at pastoral ministry.

I spent years concerned about building attendance. Churches count people. Churches count offerings. Churches build buildings. We develop programs intended to bring more people through the doors.

There is nothing inherently wrong with people gathering, giving, building, or organizing ministries.

But those things are not the destination.

Jesus told us to make disciples.

A pastor is a shepherd.

And perhaps I understand shepherding differently now than I once did.

The shepherd may sometimes preach from a pulpit.

But sometimes the shepherd sits on the porch with someone over a cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea.

And listens.

Listens long enough for someone to say what the Professor finally said:

“I am between despair and hope.”

Listens long enough for someone else to say what the Pilgrim essentially said:

“I need to learn too.”

The shepherd does not manufacture the teachable moment.

The shepherd recognizes it.

The soil is ready.

The person is listening.

Now perhaps a seed can be planted.

This is discipleship.

Not simply filling buildings.

Not simply increasing offerings.

Not simply adding names to membership rolls.

It is helping people learn to abide in Christ.

And the fruit does not appear all at once.

Paul speaks of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Fruit grows.

That takes us back to sanctifying grace.

We are growing.

We are maturing.

We are learning to follow Jesus.

Our relationship with God is being deepened.

Our relationship with others is being transformed.

Our relationship with ourselves is being healed.

Our relationship with creation is being reordered.

Our physical, emotional, spiritual, and rational lives are being brought toward greater balance.

We are learning to love.

Perhaps that is another way of describing the pilgrimage.

Salvation is God restoring what has been broken.

New birth is welcoming the Breath of God.

Sanctifying grace is learning to live in restored relationship.

Discipleship is continuing to grow and mature as we follow Jesus.

And the destination toward which grace continually draws us is beautifully expressed in three words that I am not going to forget:

Union with God.

The Curious Pilgrim