GRACE: GOD INVITES US ONTO THE PORCH by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

    Way, way back in the old days, when a young man wanted to initiate a relationship with a woman, (and back then those were the only types of relationships we talked about), it was called courting. From the beginning of time, there have been rules of mating, as you know, some formal and some informal. But back in the old days, a man would come calling and often the couple would sit on the front porch. It was a way to talk and get to know one another, in a public place under the watchful eye of the family. It was a way to keep things at a certain superficial level when things were early in the relationship.

    We are just sitting on the front porch, having some lemonade, enjoying some pleasant conversation. We are not serious yet. We are just getting to know one another. If we want to take this to the next level we will come into the house for a family dinner and go through the grilling from the parents. We will sit on the couch and try to steal a kiss after the parents to go bed. Eventually after we go in the house, we might start planning a life together, and make a real commitment. But out here on the porch, it’s still casual. We can still make a run for it, if we decide we don’t want to be here with this person.

    John Wesley, the father of the Methodist movement, used a house as a metaphor to talk about the stages of our relationship with God. Grace is the church word we use for God’s love and God’s powerful force for good in our lives. John Wesley said that there were three stages of grace.  Stage One, is the porch.
 

    Imagine that you are walking by this house. This house is God’s love. It represents the relationship that God wants to have with us. God wants us to have a home with God.   God is trying to get our attention with the porch.

    It’s pretty nice, huh? But you know what we do. We keep walking by. Or more accurately, we drive by, fast, without even noticing. We are too busy. We know God will always be there. So we wait until we have a crisis. Then we think to ourselves, now where was that beautiful house, with the pretty porch?

    God spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year trying to get our attention to say: ‘I want to be in a relationship with you. I want to love you. I want to lavish you with attention.  And I want you to love me.’

    God is like a potential life partner who is wooing us, but we don’t even pay her the time of day because we are too busy with school or work or something else.
It’s like this story from the Old Testament that we heard today. Yeah, I know it’s a story about shepherds and none of herd sheep for a living. But this is how the story goes (Ezekiel 34:11-16 from the Message translation for those following along on the web):
11-16 "'God, the Master, says: From now on, I myself am the shepherd. I'm going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I'm going after my sheep. I'll rescue them from all the places they've been scattered to in the storms. I'll bring them back from foreign peoples, gather them from foreign countries, and bring them back to their home country. I'll feed them on the mountains of Israel, along the streams, among their own people. I'll lead them into lush pasture so they can roam the mountain pastures of Israel, graze at leisure, feed in the rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. And I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make sure they get plenty of rest. I'll go after the lost, I'll collect the strays, I'll doctor the injured, I'll build up the weak ones and oversee the strong ones so they're not exploited.
That means God is not even staying in the house or sitting on the porch waiting for us. God is all over the place – trying to find us. Wherever we are, feeling discouraged, or lost, or weak or exploited, God is coming to us – wooing us into a relationship.

   You see here is the thing. We all have a connection to God because God is our creator. Even people who claim to be atheists, are connected to God, because God made them, and us. And so even when we don’t believe in God, God believes in us.

   And even when we go for years without praying, or coming to Sunday worship, God is paying attention to what is going on in our lives, because we are God’s children.  Every one of us is God’s beloved child.  EVERY ONE.

   Do you think when a grown child does not call her mother for 25 years, that the mother forgets her child? She might say she does, but I don’t believe it. Not a chance. A mother never forgets her child. She never stops caring. And God never forgets us.   That is grace.

   That is grace at work in our lives, even when we are not paying one bit of attention to God. God still loves us.
    You see, sometimes we claim that we are blessed because we pray. We have a connection to God because we love God and serve God. And of course, I think we have a much better life for us when we choose to have an on-going connection to God. Our lives will have more meaning; and we’ll be more prepared when those really hard challenges of life come along. We are blessed when we pray because we experience connection to God.

   But I also believe that when we forget God, we will still experience blessing – because God wants to get our attention. Think about it. Think about how much someone wants to get your attention, when they have a crush on you, and you have not given them then time of day. Then imagine how much more God, our creator, must want our attention. Because every one of us it God’s own child. God loves us so much more than someone who has a passing crush on us.

   So, when you take a drive this week, or better yet, a walk, and you see a beautiful porch, I hope you will stop and consider this. God is on that porch, calling to you – asking you to come on the porch and recommit yourself to be in a deep relationship with God. We’ll talk a little more about that deeper state of grace next week.

   For today, I want to invite us to respond to this message by remembering some of those times when God got our attention. And we’re going to have a brief time of sharing.

   Can you think of a time in your life when you were not really living in God’s house? You might be there now: a time when you were resisting God, or just not paying much attention to God. But God, in God’s grace was trying to get your attention.

   God was on that porch waving to you, trying to call to you to come on over and have a cup of coffee and chat awhile. Maybe God sought you out for a blessing at a time when you were not expecting it, and you can only explain it by pointing to God’s grace.  Have you experienced a moment of this? Think hard, God can be subtle and use some unusual things and people to reach us.

   If you need a place to look for that nice house with the porch, we’re here.  We’ve got comfy seats, we’ve got lemonade, no porch swing, but that’s a little old school anyway.  Come join us Sundays @ 10:30 at the corner of Conant Street & The Anthony Wayne Trail in Maumee.