Sermonette: November 9, 2020

Do you have a favorite Bible verse? John 3:16 is always a top pick, as is Psalm 23. Other top picks include Micah 6:8, Isaiah 41:10, Hebrews 11:1 and Philippians 4:7. Each verse, in fact all of Scripture, is chock full of promise and grace.

I discovered my favorite Bible verse around 20 years ago, and it has captured and challenged my heart and imagination since then. Here it is:

From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace - John 1:16

When I think back to my discovery of this verse, I am pretty sure that at the time, I was feeling especially optimistic, exceedingly blessed, because the idea of “grace upon grace” felt completely true to me that day. It was like John knew exactly how I felt, like John too felt blessed beyond measure.

There are times in life when we feel like that; times when John 1:16 perfectly expresses our experience.

God indeed pours grace over us and into us in Jesus, and then because God is good, because God is love, God heaps an extra helping of grace on top of that. Grace upon grace!

Sometimes life feels just like that, and . . . sometimes life doesn’t.

In 2013, I traveled to Norway with my sisters. We visited several ancestral churches and ancestral farms.

At one of the farms, the current owner gave us a tour of the farmhouse and outbuildings. In one of the buildings, there was a simple frame with red Norwegian lettering hanging on the wall. I asked the owner about the sign. She said it came with the property and said that the sign read “All is Grace.”

When she said the words “All is Grace,” I immediately thought, “Oh, interesting. Hmmm. Is that true? Is everything grace?”

On that day, visiting my homeland with my beloved sisters, it felt so true, and I was captivated by those words. Every picturesque vista, every Norwegian city, every farm, every church, every fjord, every conversation with my sisters… it certainly was ALL GRACE.

Yes, sometimes life does feel like everything is grace, and… sometimes it doesn’t.

Since that trip to Norway those three words “All is Grace” have held me captive in the very best sense of the word. They have kept me asking, “Can it be true?”

Or more accurately, “How can it be true?”

And then comes the answer.

They are true because God is good. God is love and God is in the business of transformation. Jesus died in order that we might live and live abundantly, and the Holy Spirit is always at work creating God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Yes, we live in a broken world, and grace upon grace can sometimes seem a “pie in the sky” thought. But here in John 1:16, we are invited to believe. We are invited to trust in this God who created us, knows every cell of our being, and who loves us. We are invited to imagine that all is grace and that God’s got us, regardless of our circumstance.

And in believing that John 1:16 is true, it actually becomes true. In trusting that no matter the circumstance, that in Jesus all is grace, all is grace. Because that’s how faith works. As it says in the book of Romans:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

May you, dear one, lean into this kingdom truth, and may you know grace upon grace.