Sunday, September 29th: "Original Words: Charis"
First United Presbyterian Church
“Original Words: Charis”
Rev. Amy Morgan
September 29, 2024
John 1:14,16
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Ephesians 2:1-10
You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world,[a] following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.[b] 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else, 4 but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ[c]—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places[d] in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.
“The gift that keeps on giving.” This phrase has been applied to everything from organic foods to the Watergate scandal. But it originated in advertisements for the phonograph. The phonograph enabled people to enjoy music on-demand and hear their favorite songs over and over. It wasn’t a necessity of life. In fact, it wasn’t even necessary for listening to music. Live music and the newly popular radio were viable listening options. The phonograph was a luxury, something you’d give or get as a gift, even if it was a gift to yourself. The music you loved could be gifted to you anytime, again and again.
When we think about gifts, we usually imagine something wrapped up and tied with a bow. But there is a gift contained in the pages of the New Testament that doesn’t have the trappings of a birthday or Christmas gift. This gift is given from the first chapter of John’s gospel to the final verse of John’s Revelation. It is mentioned in all but two of the epistles. It is truly a gift that keeps on giving.
That gift is charis, often translated as grace.
Like the phonograph, charis plays a lot of different tunes throughout scripture. Sometimes it simply means something pleasant and beautiful. This is closer to the origin of this word, which derives from a group of Greek goddesses representing beauty, charm, nature, human creativity, and fertility. Sometimes it is a greeting. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” is the way Paul begins his letters to the churches. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for the Greek word chara, meaning joy. It is sometimes used to covey God’s favor, as in the angelic visitation to Mary, God’s “favored one.” It can also mean a kindness shown to someone. And sometimes it is a form of gratitude, as we would think about saying grace before a meal. The word Eucharist derives from charis because Jesus gave thanks before breaking the bread and pouring the cup.
But there is a special way charis is used in the Bible that is somewhat original. For the early Christians, charis came to mean a gift from God that is freely given. John describes that gift as the Word, which is so full of grace that it overflows in an abundance of compounded grace. Ephesians describes it as salvation that brings us from death to life in Christ, to live as God created us to live. And it is clear that this is not a reward for good works but the work of God, a gift that is not and cannot be earned.
It isn’t a gift that is given one time, and that’s it. The way Ephesians describes charis in this segment of the letter, there is a continuous quality to this gift. God’s grace “prepared beforehand” – perhaps from before time – for humanity to live the way of love, the way Jesus showed us how to live. And now this Jesus event has happened that made us alive together with Christ and saved us from the broken ways we have learned to live. And in the future God will show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Charis, grace, is the gift that keeps on giving. It plays an endless variety of songs expressing God’s love for the world.
But this was an unfamiliar tune in the Roman world. In Roman society, favor had to be sought out, asked for. A person had to show they were worthy of the gifts they wanted. If and when those requests were granted, there was an expectation that thanks would be expressed in returned favors. This patronage system dominated the culture in which the early church developed. And so this understanding of grace as an unqualified, unwarranted, unlimited gift was radically opposed to the prevailing social norms.
Charis, as Christians embraced it, was something that you didn’t have to beg for, you couldn’t prove you were worthy of, and that didn’t demand something in return.
One would think this would be such a fantastic gift that people would be thrilled to receive it. But from what we read in the letters of the New Testament, this was actually kind of a hard sell. Early Christian leaders were constantly in conflict over what people had to do to be worthy of God’s love and Christ’s salvation. That conflict continued for centuries, resulting in the church requiring payment or pilgrimage or some other form of recompense for the dispensation of God’s grace. It is no accident that one of the watch cries of the Reformation was “Sola Gratia,” grace alone. It was difficult for people to accept that there was nothing they could do to deserve God’s love.
And that’s still difficult for us today. Maybe the church doesn’t require indulgences, but we still get the idea that the way we behave, the piety we demonstrate, the generosity and goodness we show, the “right” way of living, will ensure that we receive God’s grace. In America, we’re conditioned to earn what we have. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We don’t ask for handouts. We pursue our happiness, and if we haven’t caught up with it yet, that’s our own fault. Maybe we’re just too lazy.
And this impossible standard leads every last one of us to feel a deep sense of unworthiness. If we aren’t living the dream, if we aren’t healthy, wealthy, and happy, if we aren’t #blessed, then we haven’t done enough. We haven’t done enough to earn the love, joy, and peace we are seeking. And so we must not be worthy of those good things.
But we don’t walk around with those feelings of unworthiness on display. No, we have to push those feelings down and pretend we’re as content as the next person. So those feelings spill out as anger, apathy, and fear; overfunctioning, overspending, overachieving, overthinking, overindulging. Feelings of unworthiness can lead to a falsely inflated ego or to the depths of despair. Many of us suffer both of these extremes at the same time. Unworthiness may be one of the most dangerous feelings that exists.
And that is why God NEVER wants us to feel unworthy.
Ephesians talks about being dead and disobedient, like everyone else. The imagery of the ruler of the power of the air and being children of wrath might sound bizarre or harsh to our 21st -century ears. But this cosmology was common knowledge in the first century. Ephesians is speaking to early Christians in a language they understood, though it might not make much sense to us now. But what it is basically saying is that the way we live is inhuman, and God created us for something better.
God created us in Christ Jesus for good works. God created us to act in ways that are life-giving. God created us worthy of God’s love, because God created us in love. Our very creation is charis, is a gift that was given to us because God felt we were worth it.
And even when we chose to live in these death-dealing ways, even when we were dead through our trespasses, God loved us and gave us grace, because God still felt we were worth it.
And even if we don’t get our act together, fix up our messy, complicated lives, and bask in a shower of God’s blessing, God will still feel we are worthy, will still show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
From before the beginning of creation, through every breath of our earthly life, and in whatever age there is to come, charis reminds us that God feels we are worthy – of love, salvation, life abundant, now and always. Everything God has done, is doing, and will do, is a demonstration of grace. That’s a tune we can never hear often enough.
From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. In Jesus Christ, God gives us this gift that keeps on giving. And that gift keeps on giving through those of us who follow Jesus, who have received that gift. If we have experienced charis, we know that God feels we are worthy of love and peace and joy. It doesn’t mean that we will have health, wealth, and happiness. It doesn’t even mean we won’t suffer and grieve and struggle. But if we can shed that burden of unworthiness by embracing God’s grace, we can be free to respond to that grace with gratitude. We can participate in the good works for which we were created.
Because feelings of worthiness do not need to be suppressed or hidden. Worthiness spills over as compassion, courage, and collaboration. Paul describes the fruits of the Spirit that emanate from our sense of worthiness - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These gifts keep on giving.
And we can keep on giving these gifts. We can play the song of grace over and over, in an unlimited number of tunes. Until one day, perhaps, everyone will know their worthiness, everyone will know God’s charis.
To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.
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