Season 4 - Episode 32
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
A few weeks ago, an Anabaptist-focused publisher called Herald Press had a big sale on. I took advantage of it to purchase three books. One of them is a compilation of essays put together by the General Conference of the Brethren in Christ - our American denominational extended family - with contributions from our global BIC family. The book is called Compelling Convictions: Finding Our Future in a Modern World. It is a fresh look at the ten core values that were recognized by the North American BIC Church in the early 2,000s. As a denomination, we have a statement of faith. But a doctrinal statement does less to describe who we are and who we want to be than a description of our values. Prompted by this book, I’m going to explore our Be in Christ Church of Canada’s ten values over the next ten weeks, as we head towards the summer. Each week, we’ll take a brief look at one of our core values. We’re considering the value of Experiencing God’s Love and Grace in this Covenant Weekly for April 22, 2025.
Experiencing God’s Love and Grace: We value the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
No matter what one's perspective is politically, socially, morally, or philosophically, most of us can agree on one thing. The world is, in some sense, broken. There are things in the world that we look at and feel, deep in our bones, that it isn’t the way it is supposed to be.
And in our honest moments, I feel fairly confident that virtually everyone would acknowledge that we contribute, in some sense, to the brokenness of the world. Sure, we may not mean to. But none of us respond perfectly every time, act perfectly every time, or avoid acting out of our wounds every time. We share in the brokenness of the world both in what we experience and what we offer into the world around us.
If the world is going to be made right, if even our interior world is going to be made right, we need help. A core part of our conviction is that God is pursuing us to give us that help.
There are a lot of people, businesses, and online forums that offer us help. For $150 per hour, a therapist will help us process our past. For the same price, a life coach will help us plan for our future. For the low, low price of $34 per month, we can get AI-assisted scheduling to help us manage all of our tasks and time. There are a myriad of other subscription services to help us lose weight, get in shape, eliminate stress, and make millions in investing. Advertising assures us that if we buy the right coffee, drive the right car, go to the right church, get into the right retirement village, or even move to the right province, that those things will help us be happy and fulfilled.
The contemporary Canadian philosopher, Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”
None of those other things we might pursue are the answer. While some of the things mentioned can be a help to address the brokenness in the world and in our lives, none of them are the help. We are convinced that God has not left us alone to flounder, but rather has pursued us with love and grace to bring healing - starting now and being completed in eternity.
We believe that at the heart of healing is Experiencing God’s Love and Grace. We value the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
This week, I was reading a conversation between Dr. Geoff Holsclaw and theologian and musician Michael Card about the Hebrew word Hesed. In most English translations of the Bible, this word is translated as “loving-kindness, steadfast love, or faithful love.” It is all over the Psalms. But the word means far more than any of those English renderings. Michael Card has done a deep study of the word, and he came away saying that it really isn’t translatable. It can be expressed, but not translated.
He describes Hesed as “when the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.” Hesed isn’t so much expressed or described as it is experienced. Love, grace, mercy - these are all wrapped up as things we experience because of God’s Hesed. And that is what this value is trying to express.
God is constantly and consistently pursuing us with Hesed - divine love and grace. It comes to us through salvation in Jesus - the deepest kind of help in our broken world - and through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, helping us to experience and partner with God in Hesed’s healing work even today.
Our connection with God isn’t, at its core, something we believe or do. It is love and grace that we experience and to which we respond.