This text is a description of Christian community at its best.
The micro viewpoint for this text is Peter’s salvation invitation following
his first sermon. The macro viewpoint is what is happening on the heels of
Pentecost. Pentecost gave Peter and the believers a power and purity they
had never known before. The result was threefold:
Conviction was present: People were “cut to the heart”
and asked, “What shall we do?”
Conversion took place: People “repented” and “were
baptized.”
Community was established: “About 3,000 were added to
their number that day.”
The sum of these parts was the birth of the Church.
“Community” derives from two words: commune—to
share life together; unity—oneness in purpose. The Early Church shared
life together with a oneness of purpose, undeniably a gift from God. The evidence
was made compellingly clear by the distinctively different lives the early
Christians led as a result of the gift of the Spirit. We are told the Christian
community overflowed with compassion—they cared about the people around
them; generosity—their compassion was tangible; hospitality—they
shared a “what’s mine is yours” mentality; sincerity—they
were real and authentic. All of these were visible signs that something was
different in the world. The Church was a visible sign: Jesus was alive!
A sermon on this passage could include a summary of the identifiable
marks of a Christian community. The essential behaviors of the first believers
must guide the behaviors characterized in believers today. Several questions
the sermon could address might be: What are the differences between Christian
koinonia and all other kinds of human fellowship? What implications does new
life in Christ have for new lifestyles? What about our life together are undeniable
signs that Jesus is alive?
Jesus knew possessions have a way of controlling our passions.
Nearly half of the parables Jesus told touch on the subject of money or possessions.
One out of every ten verses in the Gospels refers to money or possessions.
Approximately 500 verses in the Bible are on prayer and 500 more on faith.
Nearly 2,000 verses deal with money and possession-related topics. Apparently,
Jesus knew our attitude toward material possessions is directly related to
our spiritual well being.
This passage begins by describing the prevailing attitude of
the early Christians toward possessions: “No one claimed that any of
his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had” (v.
32b). “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time
those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as
he had need” (v. 35). Luke wants us to know the appropriate view of
possessions is to hold loosely what we have been given so all of our resources
can be used for kingdom purposes.
Luke then offers two specific, yet polar opposite examples of the right use
of possessions and the wrong use of possessions—one exemplary, one disgraceful.
The good example was Barnabas, who sold a piece of property and brought his
proceeds to the apostles to be given to the poor. The bad example was Ananais
and Sapphira, who also sold a piece of property, but chose to keep a portion
for themselves while pretending to give the full amount.
There is a right and wrong way to deal with possessions. When
used for good, money is a gift from God. When used for evil, money destroys
the very essence of what God has created for good. So what is the proper purpose
and potential perils of possessions?
A sermon on this passage could deal with at least four different
topics:
1. How does an improper focus on possessions lead to sin?
2. How does a misunderstood value of possessions lead to self-sufficiency
and pride?
3. How can a distorted personal view of possessions affect the
greater Christian community?
4. How does God hold us accountable for the inappropriate use
of our possessions?
The Early Church had a problem. They were too successful! They
continued to grow at such a rapid pace they outgrew their mode of operation.
With any significant change in life, good or bad, comes the inevitable problems
from both within and without. Whether change will happen is not the question.
Meaning? Change is inevitable. How we will respond to the change is up to
us. Meaning? Growth is up to us.
Up until now the Early Church was made up entirely of Jewish
believers. However, there were two kinds of Jewish Christians: Hellenists
and Hebraic. The Hellenist Jews were those born in lands other than Palestine,
who spoke the Greek language, and were more Grecian in their attitudes and
outlook. The Hebraic Jews were those who spoke the Hebrew language (or Aramaic),
and preserved Jewish culture and customs. They were clearly not the same and
conflicts arose.
The primary conflict was a disagreement in how the food distribution
was being carried out for the Jewish Christian widows. The Hellenists believed
that the Hebraic widows were being given deferential treatment, even to the
point the Hellenist widows were being overlooked and ignored. It was clearly
an issue left unresolved could potentially divide the Christian community.
This conflict would test the fortitude and adaptability of the baby Church.
How would they respond? Would they ignore the problem and hope it would blow
over? Would they overreact and make a mountain out of a molehill? Their response
was to release the ministry of the Church to even broader circles of influence.
They rose to meet the challenge and were stronger for it.
Kingdom communities today are very much the same. We must always
be adapting, changing, and meeting one another half way for the good of the
greater mission. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit every conflict has
a resolution. Every predicament is pregnant with potential. There are possibilities
in every problem.
What the Church has established, the Church may change. From
the first, the Church demonstrated an admirable ability to attend to the essential,
follow the leading of the Spirit, and respond creatively to new challenges.
A sermon on this passage might portray how the people of God
deal with differences among themselves and change in their world. Even success
brings change. What steps can be taken to manage those problems in such a
way it serves people and honors God? What are Christ-centered methods for
dealing with hurt feelings, prejudices, and divisive issues? What does this
passage teach us should be the criterion for servant leadership in the Church
today?
This passage begins with the Church under severe persecution.
Following the stoning of Stephen the believers in Jerusalem were literally
pushed out and scattered throughout the surrounding regions. As the believers
were dispersed, however, so was the gospel and the mandate of Jesus was fulfilled:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth” (1:8). Forced to leave home base, every Christian
became a missionary. Persecution did not stifle the Church. God worked in
the midst of it to accomplish His goal of spreading the gospel.
One of the safest places for a Christian Jew to go would have
been Samaria, because no orthodox Jew worth his salt would have been caught
dead there. But this is where Philip, another waiter turned witness, found
himself. He proclaimed the message of Christ and God worked through him to
perform miraculous signs and wonders. Everyone was amazed and many believed.
Those who believed included a powerful man in the region called Simon the
Great. The text calls Simon a magician, but many scholars maintain Simon was
a sorcerer involved in occultic practices. Simon was enamored with Philip’s
supernatural abilities and infatuated with his extraordinary power. He wanted
the same power, prestige, and glory for himself.
When Peter and John arrived to confirm the work in Samaria they
prayed that those having been baptized in the name of Jesus might also receive
the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw the gift of the Spirit was given through the
laying on of hands, he opened up his checkbook and offered the apostles money
for the same power. Peter issued a sharp rebuke and helped Simon to realize
following Christ meant more than believing—it also involves a fundamental
change in one’s motives, attitudes, and actions.
Whether or not Simon changed his ways is up for debate. What
is not debatable is that his name lives on in church history through the term
“simony” which means the buying or selling of a church office.
A current definition of simony might be the desire to have the life Christ
promises without the surrender of one’s entire life to Christ. Jesus
said: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Simony
in the church today happens whenever someone projects himself or herself as
someone great and equates the gift of the Spirit with worldly standards of
power and success.1
A sermon on this text might touch on two important truths about
the Church of Jesus Christ. The first thing is how inclusive Christ’s
gospel is. Everybody gets in: Jews and Samaritans, men and women, magicians
and people who follow them. Anyone can believe in Jesus! Anyone can be baptized!
Anyone can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! Anyone can serve the church!
Nobody gets left out. Rich and poor, black and white, liberal and conservative.
All are welcome in this inclusive gospel!
The second truth is just as important. This inclusiveness also
calls for a radical change in those so included, and this radical change is
called repentance. Christians are not magicians who have gained control over
God to make Him do what they want. Christians are those over whom God has
gained control so they will do what He wants. What is the message of the gospel
in this text? Be included by the love of God, but be changed by the power
of God! One without the other is to get the Gospel wrong.
Evangelism in the book of Acts is viewed as a combination of
heavenly orchestration and human encounters. When the two are added together
the sum equals divine appointments. This equation can be clearly seen in the
story of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. “Now an
angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert
road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza’” (Acts 8:26).
God orchestrated a divine appointment between Philip and this eunuch that
happened at just the right place and just the right time. If Philip had hesitated
in his obedience, even for a few hours, he very likely would have missed the
window of opportunity God had provided to intersect with someone who was searching
for answers to spiritual questions.
Acts 10 and 11 is a key passage for Luke’s second book.
We know this because of its significant length (it is the longest narrative
in Acts, a seven act drama of 66 verses) and by the fact it serves as a hinge
between the beginning and end of his history.
This passage is another example of a divine appointment, this
time between Peter and a man named Cornelius. There were many reasons why
this encounter would not have happened without God’s intervention. First,
Cornelius lived in Caesarea, which was the Roman capital of Palestine. He
was a Roman centurion, which meant he was the commander of one hundred occupying
Roman troops, and possibly even the head of the Italian regiment of all troops
in Italy. Second, Cornelius was an uncircumcised Gentile and considered unclean
by the Jewish faith. It was unlawful for a Jew to even visit with him, much
less go to his home and share a meal together. But Luke’s description
of Cornelius tells us God was faithfully at work in his life. He was God-fearing,
generous, and devout in his prayers (10:2). We also discover God was faithfully
at work in Peter’s life to break down inhibitions, prejudices, and paradigms
contrary to the Kingdom.
This is a story about conversion. A conversion not only of one who comes to
faith in Christ, but also of one who has a change of mind and heart. There
is a conversion from an old way of thinking to a new way of thinking. There
is a broadening of horizons and shifting of paradigms—from a comfortable
religious mindset to the transforming mind of Christ. This story illustrates
a conversion of a Gentile, an apostle, and a church. Cornelius, Peter, and
the Jerusalem church needed changing if God’s mission was to go forward.
A sermon on this text could address the ways in which God in love breaks down walls that separate us from each other in the Church and from His mission in the world.
Whenever we worship the forms of godliness rather than the one
true God, we are in danger of spiritual idolatry. Phineas Bresee has been
quoted: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things,
charity.” As long as our methods do not compromise the message, freedom,
and love must be our guiding principle.
Abraham Lincoln once said: “I have been driven many times
to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
The Early Church undoubtedly felt the same way in this important passage.
The chapter opens with the martyrdom of James by order of Herod. With this
act, Herod’s approval ratings with the Jews went through the roof. He
decided arresting and beheading Peter could only make things better. Herod
had Peter arrested, put in prison, and heavily guarded until after Passover
when a public trial could be held.
A wonderfully detailed plot unfolds when God sends an angel
for a jailbreak. The angel awakens Peter from sleep, ushers him past armed
guards and swinging gates to freedom, and sends him on his way. Peter realizes
he has not been dreaming, but has actually been miraculously saved. He makes
his way to the home of John Mark’s mother where he anticipates a prayer
meeting will be taking place. He guesses right. The believers are inside,
behind locked doors, praying for Peter’s dilemma at that very moment
(v. 5). Peter knocks and a servant girl named Rhoda comes to answer the door.
She recognizes Peter’s voice, and is so shocked she leaves him standing
on the front porch, and rushes back into the prayer meeting to give them the
news. The prayer meeting folks promptly chastise her for interrupting and
question her sanity. When Rhoda insists she isn’t hallucinating, they
surmise Peter’s guardian angel might have showed up. Peter’s persistent
knocking finally gets their attention, and they are astonished to find their
flesh and blood answer to prayer waiting to get in.
This is a story about surprise. Everywhere you turn someone
is surprised in this narrative. Peter is surprised he has been rescued. Rhoda
is surprised to find Peter on the front porch. The praying church is surprised
their prayers have been answered. The soldiers who had been guarding Peter
are surprised when he is missing. And Herod is so surprised to hear of Peter’s
escape he decides to go ahead and have an execution anyway (v. 19).
The relevancy of this to the Church today makes for ample sermon
fodder. Our churches are full of people who pray for God’s intervention,
yet when God directly answers their prayers, they are surprised by the miracle.
Many have given up the hope for change in a marriage grown cold, for a wayward
child far from God, or a body decimated by disease. They are in their own
prisons, chained by their doubts and fears, completely helpless to change
their desperate circumstances. This sermon can offer hope that God still has
the power to surprise us and sometimes the answer He is providing is closer
than we think.
This sermon begins a series on holiness I called, “Holiness:
What Our Hearts Desire.” Foundational to any preaching on holiness is
the theological groundwork laid on the Bible truth that God is holy and commands
us to be holy. The congregation probably has people who have never given much
thought to God’s holiness and certainly not to the idea they should
be or could be holy. In fact, most people live with the assumption that “holiness”
is a word reserved only for the Pope or at least for super-saints. The congregation
probably also has people who grew up hearing “holiness talk” but
concluded the idea of holiness was far beyond what they could ever live.
The imperative of this text is simple and clear: “Be holy,
because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (v. 2). What are we to do with
that? It also comes in the context of a rather overwhelming list of rules
for the people; a litany of wicked acts that will cut the people off from
God. The central truth of this text, however, is that we are called to be
holy because God is holy and God’s people are to be holy by being like
God in the world. So holiness is not so much about behaving in certain ways.
It’s about the character of God who wants to answer our deepest heart
desire—the desire for life to be made right again, the desire to be
at peace again, and the desire to have hope again.
The purpose of this sermon is to forward the central idea at
the beginning of this series that holiness is not an “add on”
but basic to what it means to be Christian. Holiness is what will finally
bring a sense of wholeness and well being to life.
God’s call and command to “be holy” is clearly
established in the Bible being clearly and concisely expressed in the Leviticus
passage of last week. However, across time the story of God’s relationship
with His people is often a rather sad tale of people struggling to measure
up. We are working hard to figure out how in the world we can possibly be
found acceptable in the sight of a holy God.
Hebrews addresses a people whose orientation to this holy God
was based on the Law. The Law set the standard. The Ten Commandments and all
of the requirements coming out of those commandments stood as gracious invitation
to enter the holy life. In fairness, they also stood as constant condemnation
to a people who were never able to discipline themselves into holiness.
So we see God’s grace in giving them the chance to come
before Him with sacrifices and offerings. They might recognize God’s
holiness, recognize their sinful condition, and receive forgiveness from God.
Year after year, as the text says, the sacrifices of the old system were repeated.
God created us for holiness but He also knows what happened to us. God knows
that sin entered the world. God understands we are not able to get ourselves
back to original creation. So God by grace did for us what we could not do
for ourselves.
This is the essential theme of Hebrews and especially of this
chapter. When we were caught in a never-ending cycle of religious sacrifice,
God provided the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. God never intended for us
to live our lives in a futile attempt to be pleasing to Him. And that is why
Jesus came and made the journey to Jerusalem. Jesus did not die to make us
morally flawless. He died to make us holy. Big difference. Moral perfection
is about adherence to the Law. Holiness is about a heart of love.
Jesus does not desire from us moral conservatism. His desire
is to give us a pure heart. Jesus does not desire from us attempts to think
positive and overcome the hurts of the past. His desire is to give us true
freedom from the past. He doesn’t want our acts of service, He wants
our heart to be so changed that we care passionately about people and serve
them from a heart of love. He doesn’t just want our disciplined devotional
life, He wants to spend time with us as a Friend who loves us. He delights
in us. He loves being with us. That’s the heart of Jesus. And that’s
the heart that Jesus desires. A holy heart.
The key verse in this text is verse 12, “He sat down.”
We know from our focus last week in this letter to Hebrew Christians, the
writer is comparing the old covenant under the law of Moses with the new covenant
under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The writer is contrasting the futility
of the old sacrificial system with the perfect and completed work of Jesus.
Before, the people had to bring animal sacrifices and offerings constantly
because none of those sacrifices would ever take away their sins forever.
But now when this priest, Jesus, offered for all time one sacrifice
for sins was all we needed. The work was done. Nothing more could be offered,
nothing more needed to be offered. So having made the perfect sacrifice, Jesus
“sat down.” The writer opens this section by saying the priests
of the old covenant would stand, day after day, performing their religious
duties. We stand when the work is not yet done. We stand because there’s
more to do. For us, standing means readiness for action.
But Jesus “sat down.” It’s interesting to
notice how this posture even plays out in Jesus’ earthly ministry. I
was interested to see just how often in the gospels Jesus is sitting down
on the job. In Matthew chapter 5 at the opening of Sermon on the Mount, the
gospel says, “He went up on a mountainside and sat down, and began to
teach them” (vv. 1-2). Later in Matthew’s gospel the crowds have
grown to unmanageable size. Once the people gather on the lakeshore and press
in so much Jesus gets into a boat, sits down, and teaches the people from
there. Why is that significant? It says something about authority. It says
something about confidence.
And as great as that this it’s still not the end of what
this text says to us. Verse 14: “By one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being made holy.” Almost sounds like a contradiction.
“Has made perfect . . .” compared to, “. . . are being made
holy.” Is this holiness deal something that happens to me all at once
or do I kind of grow into it? The answer is, “yes.” God calls
us to be holy, we’ve seen that clearly. But you can’t make yourself
holy. That’s why Jesus came. There is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
It’s not about your good works, it’s about your devotion, it’s
not about your service, and it’s not about your moral purity. It’s
not about you! It’s all about the “sit down” work of Jesus
who makes us holy not by our effort but by His power and grace.
One of my favorite Leadership cartoons shows two couples seated
in a living room engaged in Bible study. One of the women is speaking and
she says, “Well, I haven’t actually died to sin, but I did feel
kind of faint once.” I’m afraid too often we think that’s
the best we can ever do in our battle against the influences of this world.
The message of Hebrews chapter 10, indeed the message of the
whole Bible, is in Jesus Christ. God has made a way for us to fulfill his
command, “Be holy, as I am holy.” In our text for today, there
is mentioned one of the most wonderful doctrines in the Christian faith. It
is the idea of assurance. Because of Jesus we can draw near to God “in
full assurance of faith” (v. 22).
One of the most significant illustrations of this is contained
in the story of John Wesley struggling to know he did indeed belong to Christ.
The influence of Moravian brethren during a journey across the ocean was an
important piece of preparing Wesley for his famous “Aldersgate experience.”
He describes the moment of assurance in wonderful terms.
Preaching holiness must include attention to the idea of assurance.
Too many of our people live in a state of constant uncertainty about their
spiritual health. However, there is no reason for our discipleship to be a
life of fear. God wants to give us the gift of the witness of His Spirit.
He wants us to be assured of our salvation, to know that we belong to Him.
The writer of Hebrews is talking about where this assurance
comes from. It first comes from the Holy Spirit bearing witness, as promised
in verse 15. It also comes from knowing Jesus not only desires holy hearts,
and not only does He make holy hearts, Jesus also keeps holy hearts. We do
not have a static doctrine of perseverance where once one is saved one is
always saved. We have a dynamic doctrine of perseverance where the Spirit
of Christ indwells me, purifies my heart, and daily makes me able to stand
in God’s presence.
This is the wonderful assurance that is part of what the grace
of holiness offers to us. It’s the privilege of living with the awareness
on Paul as expressed in Romans: “You have not received a spirit that
makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And
by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with
our spirit that we are God’s children” (8:15-16).
During the weeks just past, we were looking at the biblical
call to holiness. In fact we were seeking to understand holiness as something
our hearts truly desire because God made us for it. We heard in Leviticus
God’s call to “be holy as I am holy.” Then we heard from
Hebrews the good news that in Jesus Christ the way has been provided for us
to live before God in holiness.
In these next three weeks we will focus on how this call to
live holy lives plays out—in our personal lives and in our corporate
life as the Church. Living a holy life in our kind of world is tough. But
it’s about more than the way the world is. The issues are personal and
specific. The challenges we will face this week will be challenges of personal
integrity.
What does it mean to live as one who has been clearly called
by God to “be holy” in the midst of a very unholy world?
The people to whom this letter is addressed had to face that
question with sobering reality. Peter is writing to encourage and to warn
these Christians who were truly feeling like strangers and aliens in the land.
What does God’s word say about maintaining holiness in a pagan atmosphere?
Our attention almost immediately moves toward the specifics
of attitude and behavior that the writer lists in this passage. He talks about
being disciplined and self-controlled. He talks about non-conformity to the
sinful desires that once controlled our lives. But in order for us to really
live differently in this world, the work of God in our lives has to go much
deeper than the discipline of choices we make.
You cannot be a holy Christian in an unholy world just by trying
hard to act like one. The only way to live in the holy relationship of which
this text speaks is through a miraculous change of heart—a work of God’s
grace.
I liken it to how my parents inculcated their values in me.
If all my parents had ever given to me was a list of expectations or characteristics
I should have, it probably wouldn’t have been all that effective when
the pressure was on. Instead they gave me an identity, a vision for what a
person of integrity was like. They gave me clear instruction by their words
and mostly by their model of what it meant to live as one who belongs to Christ.
So they said, “Remember who you are.” I knew what they were talking
about. And I wanted to honor those words because they didn’t hand me
a list, they gave me their heart.
This is what God offers to us in Jesus Christ. He offers a new
identity as “obedient children” and as those who have been redeemed
“with the precious blood of Christ.” So we live holy lives not
in response to a list of expectations but in response to the love of a Father.
As we think about God’s call to holiness, there is much
more at stake than our personal holiness. A major part of this biblical call
to holiness is God call for his church to be holy. This is an important truth
to proclaim in the midst of a culture that majors on individualism. This same
spirit of self-exaltation has invaded and, in some cases, pervaded the Church.
It has some disturbing consequences. For example, there is in
today’s Church a common lack of intimacy among God’s people. We
who speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ are, in fact, often
not that close. Paradoxically, Christians are some of the loneliest people
in America.
Our society has driven home the idea that what matters most
is your rights. “Have it your way, protect yourself, actualize yourself,
and take care of yourself.” This unchristian idea has thoroughly invaded
the Church. People leave churches every week on their way to different churches
because, they say, “my needs just weren’t being met”—as
if that’s the main issue in being part of a church.
There is also a kind of “boot straps theology” at
work whereby people seem to believe being reconciled to God is mostly their
work. I come to Christ, I get saved, I repent, I reorder my life, and I surrender
all. This rugged individualism in which we have become so steeped impacts
every dimension of our Christian lives. It certainly impacts the way we think
about and express the doctrine of holiness. Maybe holiness has as much to
do with how we act and live together as it does with how we act and live individually.
Now there is no doubt that the grace of God’s sanctifying work is thoroughly
personal but it is not private.
This is borne out throughout the Scriptures but it is beautifully
evident in the way Jesus prays for us just before He goes to the Cross. This
wonderful prayer of Jesus in John 17 has the balance just right. Jesus does
begin His prayer, interestingly enough, praying for himself. His relationship
with the Father is personal. But it is not private for Jesus very quickly
moves His prayer to the relationship He and His Father desire with all of
us who would believe.
Jesus’ prayer for us is a corporate prayer and as He prays
for us together one of the main things he prays for is that we would be holy.
He prays, “Sanctify them by the truth” (v. 17). He longs for us
to experience what it means to be a sanctified church. What does that mean?
Jesus imagines more than a collection of holy individuals who happen to get
together on Sundays. He imagines a holy church—where the result is greater
than the sum of the parts.
by John Nielson
This is the final Sunday of the liturgical or ecclesiastical
year. It celebrates the ultimate triumph of Christ, the King of kings and
Lord of lords. We began the year by anticipating His coming in Advent. We
celebrated His birth at Christmas. We followed His life, teachings, and miracles
during late winter and early spring. We welcomed Him on Palm Sunday, mourned
His death on Good Friday, and whooped with joy on Easter. We observed His
appearances to His disciples and His commissioning of them until the day of
His ascension followed by the pouring out of His Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
We looked at the transformation He makes in us, and the difference He makes
in our lives as it is lived out in ordinary days.
All of that comes to a grand finale on this Sunday. It is a
time to experience all the exuberance of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
Christ has triumphed over sin and hell; over pain and death. He sits enthroned
at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for us. He will come
again and bring all of history to its fulfillment and usher in His Kingdom
in its fullness.
In the United States, this is also Thanksgiving Sunday. One
of my favorite passages for this season is found in Deuteronomy 8 (See also
6:10-12). Moses reminds the people they must remember all the benefits of
God’s covenant and all the blessings from His hand. They are to praise
the Lord, give the glory to Him and not take it for themselves.
Over the past liturgical year we have seen much for which to be grateful:
grace extended to us through the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and exaltation
of Christ—grace that forgives, redeems and purifies. It is a life far
more blessed than the life exhibited in the world around us. We have seen
the changes grace makes in our own chara
