Most of us have favorite passages of Scripture. One of mine was read earlier:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God—not the result of works so that no one may boast. For we are what [God] has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

In this passage we are reminded that it is by the love of God at work in our lives that we are saved, that we are made whole, that we become the persons God intends us to be. The passage also reminds us that it is through our faith in God, it is in our trusting God loves us that we discover God really does love us. It is in giving ourselves to God that we discover we are embraced by God. And this is not something we can brag about. The love of God that saves us, the grace of God that makes us whole is not something we deserve or we can earn. It is a gift we embrace by trusting it with our whole lives.

And when we do, when we really trust the love of God that we have seen in Jesus Christ, our living is shaped by that love. We become loving persons, doing the deeds of love. This is our purpose in life, to live the kind of love we see in Jesus. It is for doing the works of love that we have been created. It is why we are here.

This congregation has certainly been on the receiving end of God’s grace. And if we cannot see that, I suspect no sermon can convince us. But whether we are aware of it or not, whether we believe it or not, God’s grace has been and is at work in our lives.

And in response to the grace of God, this congregation has been growing in its willingness and ability to be an instrument of God’s grace. Here is a very incomplete list, just to give you an idea, an impression, of the ways you, the congregation, are involved in doing the good works that are expressions of God’s grace.

Just within the last few months people in this congregation have been involved in repairing houses of the poor here in Austin, and our junior high youth have done this even in Brownsville. Our senior high youth have been involved in Habitat for Humanity home building. Other members have been involved in building facilities for the preschool education of children who live in a rural poverty area in Honduras, and in developing the curriculum and helping to pay the teacher. We have youth and adults who have been active volunteers helping with the ministry at the Children’s Emergency Shelter here in Austin. Many adults are currently serving as mentors to children in Barbara Jordan Elementary School and in other public schools. Still others are involved in our prison ministry, while others have been involved in our ministry to Native American and Hispanic children who live in a poverty area in New Mexico by working with the McCurdy Mission School. Still others have been involved in helping families through the Family Pathfinders program. Others are involved in ministering to youth in our area, through our Scouting program. For many of these youth, their only contact with the church is through one of our Scouting programs. Others in our congregation are involved in ministries to persons living in nursing homes. Others have helped refugees make a new life for themselves in Austin. In a variety of ways, other members of this congregation are involved in ministries of prayer. The list of ministries we are involved in as a congregation is much, much longer, but you get the idea.

But our members are not only in ministry, being instruments of God’s grace through programs that are officially related to Tarrytown United Methodist Church. Throughout this community members of this congregation are involved in a variety of ministries to persons in need. Some are active in the Caritas ministries dealing with the hungry and homeless. Some are active as volunteers in hospitals. Many of our members who are medical professionals serve as volunteers in charity health clinics. In fact, just a few days ago, the Austin Community Foundation named Dr. Tom McHorse, a member of this congregation, as volunteer of the year for his 24 years of service in a charity health clinic, and by coincidence, Helping Hand Children’s Center had nominated his wife Kay for the same award. Chip Oswalt and Ray Wilkerson of this congregation, along with some of their friends, have recently founded HeartGift, an organization to bring children from poverty situations in other countries to have surgery that is not available where they live. These are not official ministries of this congregation, but these, and God only knows how many other similar ministries serving those in need, are being done by members of this congregation. The point is that we are not limited to ministries sponsored by Tarrytown United Methodist Church in our being instruments of God’s love.

And providing direct services to those in need is not the only way members of this congregation serve as instruments of the grace of God. Individual members of this congregation serve on a wide variety of boards, committees, task forces and councils that are making decisions that impact the quality of life of people in our city, in our state, in our nation. Some of these places of service are boards or committees related to city, county, state or national government. For example, A. J. Ernest by his profession is involved through the State of Texas in dealing with mental health issues. Olivia Donelson has been a advocate at the state level for the needs of persons who are mentally handicapped and need some sort of institutional care. Others work to provide helpful information to legislators regarding legislation that impacts the life of persons and the economy of our state. Many are aware of high profile public servants who are involved in this congregation, a federal judge, the Lt. Governor, the Governor, who is also a candidate for the presidency—but not only are these highly visible persons involved in ministry through public service, many others are serving the public by working for agencies that serve the city, the state or the nation. Others in this congregation serve on boards of businesses and banks, making decisions that impact the lives of the people in our area and some impacting the lives of persons far beyond Austin. Each of these persons, where they are in the position they hold, through the job they have, is in a position to be an instrument of the grace of God.

Members of this congregation—more than most congregations—are strategically located so that it is possible for them to have significant influence in regard to policies, procedures and legislation that impact the quality of life for all of us, but especially the quality of life of those most vulnerable in our society. Through jobs and through committee assignments, members of this congregation are located in positions of significant influence, and in those positions, they are able to be instruments of the grace of God.

The truth is, each of us is provided opportunity after opportunity in our daily living for being instruments of the grace of God through what we say and do. And our being involved in doing the good works of God’s grace is not merely limited to what we say and do. It is not merely through our jobs and positions we hold and relationships we have that we are instruments of God’s grace.

We are also involved in doing good works through the money we give that enables others to do ministries we are unable to do. Through our financial generosity, we are involved in being instruments of the grace of God.

For example, if you have given any money to this congregation you have been involved in ministries done in this building. From Monday through Saturday, each week there are more than 500 adults who receive ministry in these buildings in study groups, reunion groups, choirs, A. A. groups, Debtors Anonymous groups, Tough Love groups, and others. This does not include all the various Scout meetings, the activities related to our youth ministries, our Children’s Day Out ministries or the ministries of West Austin Caregivers. Within the last 12 months, this congregation has provided funds for a church in Russia to build a fellowship hall; we provided a van for the ministry of the United Methodist Church in the Dove Springs area here in Austin. In 1999, twenty-three cents of every dollar this church received went outside the congregation to support not only a wide variety of United Methodist ministries in this area, in our state, our nation and around the globe, but also more than 25 other ministries in Austin and beyond. Through our financial generosity, members of this congregation have been involved in doing the good works the passage we read is talking about.

In a few minutes, those of us who call Tarrytown United Methodist Church our church home will be given the opportunity to bring our estimate of giving cards to the altar. Each of us has some choices to make. One is whether or not to participate financially in the ministries of this congregation. And if we decide to do that, then we have to decide what our motive is. Are we merely paying dues or our fair share of the salaries and bills, or are we responding to the grace of God? And if we understand our gift as a response to the grace of God, what percent of our income are we going to invest in ministries through Tarrytown United Methodist Church?

In this sermon, what I have been trying to say is that when we really trust the love of God—the love we have seen in Jesus Christ—our living is shaped by that love. When we have such faith, such trust in the love of God, then we become loving persons, doing the deeds of love. This is our purpose in life: to live the kind of love we see in Jesus. It is for doing the works of love that we have been created. Some of the works of love we do, we do as members of this congregation. Some of the works of love we do, we do as faithful persons in our everyday living. Some of the works of love we do, we do through the giving of money. In all the ways we do it, we are to invest ourselves in being instruments of the grace of God. This is why we are here.

 

God, enable us to see all we say and do, including our giving to this church, as ways of responding to your love and being instruments of your grace. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, save us from our fears that keep us from living as You intend us to live. Enable us to see our blessings; make us sensitive to the ways Your love is at work in our lives. Rescue us from the dark dungeons of suspicion and enable us to live by faith, trusting You and Your love. May we be so aware of all we have been given that we are able to experience profound gratitude and the joy known only by those who are truly grateful. Enable us to experience the freedom that comes from commitment to You and Your will.

As we make our estimates of giving for the ministries of this congregation in the year ahead, enable us to do this out of the joy of knowing that we are doing what You want us to do. As we face this opportunity to share what we have in ministries for others, rescue us from resentments rooted in selfishness and angers rooted in fears. Give us the peace that comes when we are aware that what we are saying and doing is in harmony with Your will.

All this we pray in the awareness of Your generosity to us, especially the gift of Your son, the one who taught us to pray: "Our Father ..."