Grace and Peace at Thanksgiving

This past Sunday our pastor led a wonderful season of Thanksgiving in the worship service. Each worshiper found a note with instructions about how to best participate. The effects were positive, inspiring faith, sharing appropriate appreciation, and were appropriately centered on the One from whom all good and perfect gifts are received. The pastor’s message strongly reinforced what had preceded. Pat and I were glad we were able to attend.

One of the most powerful points of the pastor’s message was an observation that others notice and are affected by our spirit of appreciation. Our family shares experiences the pastor used as examples. Several times restaurant diners have briefly interrupted us as we ate, thanking us for bowing our heads and giving thanks before eating. It happened last Christmas at the　holiday season when all 16 members of our immediate family dominated a corner of a restaurant. The usual indecision of how we would be seated took an embarrassingly long time. The laughter was as playful as always. Smaller grandchildren grew restless and behaved their age. We were certain that other diners were getting annoyed. But, contrary to fears, people stopped to speak of how they wished they had a family they could enjoy like we enjoy ours, and specifically mentioned our prayer of thanks before eating the meal.

Thursday most of our immediate family will gather around a table to eat a very traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The memory of aromas from past holiday meals builds anticipation for the newest display of culinary art. Our mealtime custom includes each person at the table sharing thanks for God’s blessings. Given the range of ages and interests in our family, Thanksgiving is a broad, ever-expanding exercise. The grandchildren at this year’s meal will range in age from three to nine years-old. Their recitals of thanks keep maturing as their palate of experience expands.

This year I am prepared to point to Saint Paul’s letters to the churches. In each of at least ten letters Paul bestows a blessing of "grace and peace" to those who would receive them. In his letters to Timothy Paul expands his blessing to "grace, mercy and peace" bringing the total to twelve reinforcing mentions of an all-important truth. We　could never experience　the peace of God unless God had preceded that with His grace. After man sinned, it was God who came to look for man and not man for God. My friend, Bob Neuman suggested adding the following poem.

He did not wait 'til I needed Him;

He loved me at my worst.

He need never have died at all

If I could have loved Him first.

First, grace always precedes peace. By definition, grace is undeserved, given freely by Him who metes out unmerited blessing. Paul’s letters help us understand the power of grace. Consider –　
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8　
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
– Ephesians 2:8-19
Paul personalized grace in 1 Timothy.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. (Verses 12-14)
James shares an additional dimension about where good begins and how utterly helpless mankind is without God’s grace.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. - James 1:16-18We could paraphrase James by saying, "If it is good, it didn’t start with us!
As a high school senior I encountered the 15^th chapter of John in a powerful, life-changing manner. While reading the Gospel I was captivated with verses 15 and 16,
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
God aggressively seeks out those He desires to follow Him! Wonder! Awe! Startled surprise fills my spirit while I contemplate the grace of God.

Peace is the fruit of grace received. Shalom, well being, rest and serenity are experienced by those who revel in God’s grace. In last Sunday’s service an older member of the congregation exhorted us as she gave thanks, "People, God has everything under control! It’s going to be all right!" The dear saint was God’s mouthpiece, blessing the church with peace! The refrain of an old gospel song comes to mind. It says,
"There’s a deep settled peace in my soul.
There’s a deep settled peace in my soul.
Tho the billows of sin near me roll;
He abides.　Christ abides!"
The peace of God is more than the absence of conflict or unfavorable circumstances. Christ’s shalom is confident trust that He is fulfilling His plans.

On the surface some could conclude that our family could pose for Norman Rockwell. But our family is more complicated than "home on the range, where seldom is heard a discouraging word." Our lives are blessed because God grace and peace have been poured out on us! Some storms are passed. Others may be on the horizon. The peace of God follows His grace. We ought always to be giving thanks for both grace and peace.