"Enough Grace to Go Around" | The Rev. Andy Fiddler | May 18, 2025

Enough Grace to Go Around

  by A. Fiddler   5/18/25

Jesus gave us a new commandment to “love one another”.  But like all of the commandments, it was easier said than  done. And yet what we do, what we have done, and what we will do tomorrow has always been at the heart of the Christian faith.

In his parable of the Last Judgment, Jesus told us plainly: “As you have DONE it unto the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it unto me.”

In the Old Testament, the prophet Micah said “What doth the Lord require of thee but to DO justice.”

The test of faith is in the doing.

But wait.  There’s more. 

There’s more than what WE do. There’s also what God does. What God does is called GRACE.  Grace is the power of God.  Grace is the higher power that can help us do what we cannot do on our own.  And long before we humans did anything of worth, grace came first.

Grace came down from heaven when God said “Let there be light. And there was light.”

Let me tell you a true story about one small encounter with grace.

When I was in seventh grade I ate lunch in the junior high school cafeteria with four of my friends at a table near the cafeteria entrance. The tables held 10, but we usually had the whole table to ourselves since no one else wanted to sit with us.

Even for seventh graders, we were immature and silly.  We tried to make each other laugh until milk came out of our noses. If you’re thinking Beavis and Butthead, you’re not far off.

And we knew we resembled little boys.  But we also knew that eighth grade girls resembled young women.

It was a big junior high school, but there was one eighth grade girl who stood out.  We didn’t know her or anything about her, but somehow we found out that her name was Irene.

She looked like a movie star. My buddy Richie thought she looked like Marilyn Monroe. 

Irene walked like a model, with perfect posture.  She always entered the cafeteria a little late, and she always walked right by our table without ever looking at us.

For weeks of lunchtimes she walked by our table and never once glanced in our direction.  It was like we didn’t exist.

So Richie finally came up with a plan.  At the next day’s  lunch hour, as Irene came near our table, we would all sing the opening bars of the song “Irene Goodnight.” 

We all knew the song. “Irene Goodnight” was a big hit by Pete Seeger and the Weavers when were younger.  We would sing it very quietly so only Irene would hear us.

The next day came, and Irene made her usual entrance.

We were ready to sing “Irene Goodnight.”  But as Irene approached our table, before we could even take a deep breath or sing a note, something happened that had never happened before.

Irene looked right at us.  And she smiled the warmest, kindest, most beautiful smile we had ever seen.

We were dumbstruck.  We were literally struck dumb.  For possibly ten long seconds, not one of us said a word.  And then Richie broke the silence.

What he said is nowadays a teenage cliche, but back then, in those more conservative days, it was hardly ever said, maybe for fear of taking the Lord’s name in vain.

What Richie said was “Oh my God!” Oh my God.

But Richie was not taking the Lord’s name in vain.  He was uttering a deeply felt prayer to the God of grace.

Because, as the Bible says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

Grace happens.  Like Irene’s warm, kind smile, it is always undeserved, unmerited, unexpected.  And grace is always amazing.

Grace comes to us in big ways and in small ways, and is often unrecognized.  Sometimes a good and perfect gift coming down from the Father of lights goes unrecognized.

For instance, we may not recognize that grace brought us all here today. Coming to church on a Sunday morning is paddling against the current of our times.

We could be home having a second cup of coffee, reading the newspaper or watching the Sunday morning pundits on TV.

Or we could be a few blocks up the street waiting in line for an overpriced toasted bagel loaded down with a dangerous amount of cream cheese.

But we are here. In church. By the grace of God.

That may be a small thing, but sometimes God’s grace is a big thing.

Sometimes grace is the only power available to us to stand up to the forces of darkness.  As St. Paul wrote:  “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

That was written back in the days of the Roman empire, but spiritual wickedness in high places continues to thrive.

Hundreds of years ago the German reformer Martin Luther wrote these words in a hymn:  “Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing.”

Our own strength is not enough.  We need the higher power of God’s grace.

If you think all this talk about the power of God’s grace is just wishful thinking, think again.  Everything the Bible says about grace comes from the lived experience of the community of faith who recorded what happened to them. What they saw with their own eyes. What they tasted.

As they hungered in the wilderness they tasted the manna that fell from heaven.  They tasted the water that was made wine at the wedding in Cana.  Five thousand of them ate their fill of the loaves and fishes. 

Of course it’s human nature to worry that  God’s grace won’t be enough.  On that day when five thousand hungry people showed up, one of the disciples wasn’t exactly optimistic. His name happened to be Andrew. 

Andrew said to Jesus, “There is a lad here with five loaves and two fishes, but what are they among so many?”

But Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes, and blessed them, and by the grace of God five thousand people were fed, and there was more than enough to go around, filling 12 baskets with leftovers.

There will always be enough grace to go around.  As David wrote, “My cup runneth over.”  All of us have received some measure of grace, and it will always be enough to give some away. That’s our job.  To give some grace away.

Grace makes it possible for us to do justice.  Grace makes it possible for us to love one another.  God has called us to be instruments of that divine grace.  Our cup runneth over.

If we can do that, if we can share the blessings we have been given, we have a good chance of standing up to the forces of darkness.  Because we are no longer confiding in our own strength, but in the gracious strength of God.

And speaking of blessings that God has given us, I’d like to close with a blessing from the Old Testament book of Numbers. Our choir used to sing it at least once a year at the end of Sunday worship.  It speaks of the graciousness of God:

“The Lord bless us and keep us.  The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us—and be gracious unto us.  The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us. And give us peace.” Amen.