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May 18, 2008
II Corinthians 13:11-13Rev. David A. Davis
“Benedictus”
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” That’s how the Apostle Paul ends the Second Letter to the Corinthian Church; the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. In most of the other of his epistles Paul concludes with some slight variation on “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” But here in II Corinthians it is the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of Romans, Paul kind of soars. He finishes with a flourish of praise, with more “umph” as it were. “Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but is now disclosed , and through the prophetic witness is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith---to the only wise God through Jesus Christ , to whom be the glory forever. Amen!” It’s a doxology really, even an affirmation of faith when it comes to the gospel, the mystery of salvation being made known to the Gentiles. It’s not just a benediction, like the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
There are other benedictions in scripture that are more striking in terms of language or image, more poetic, more quotable. Like these words right near the end of the Book of Hebrews: “Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Or these words at the very end of the little epistle of Jude, maybe the only words from Jude you can remember ever hearing. “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all times and now and forever. Amen.” The words have a kind of flow; there is a beauty that sort of drips on you when you listen. You remember it’s not what a poem says, and even more than what it means, it’s what it does. These benedictions (Hebrews and Jude) they have a certain literary eventfulness to them, For Paul, at the end of the Corinthian correspondence, it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, the Book of Numbers, there’s a blessing that seems to have a bit more of an authoritative pipeline; from God to Moses to Aaron to the people of Israel. The Lord told Moses to tell Aaron that when he blessed the Israelites, he should say this: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto to, the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” It’s called the Aaronic Benediction. You’ve heard it. You know it. We use it. It’s not just the authoritative pipeline there; it’s arguably, one of the oldest blessings/benedictions invoked by the people of God, deeply rooted in ancient temple life in Jerusalem. Paul, here at the end of II Corinthians writes “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Abundant blessing ascribed in such an unadorned way.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace comes first. As a gift of God. Unearned. Unmerited. Undeserved. Yet, the grace comes first. God’s first move is grace. Prevenient is the fancy word. Grace. It is the downbeat. The first pitch. The preamble. The first brush stroke on a blank canvas. A first word spoken. The ice broken. God’s grace comes first; everything else, our faith, our lives, our promises, our praise...everything else is a response, everything about us is response to God, and God’s grace. Grace comes first.
And grace extends farther than one can imagine. As far as the east is from the west, farther still is the reach of God’s grace. From the end of the universe to the top of child’s head cradled at the fount, from the first breath of creation when the Spirit moved over the deep to the dawn of each new day, from a place at the foot of the throne in the kingdom of heaven to that God-shaped vacuum in each of our hearts, that tender spot in each of heart. Our hearts sometimes full to overflowing sometimes broken and seeping out. The reach of God’s grace, who can describe it? God reaches all the way down to us in all of our humanity. God comes all the way down. That’s the imagery used by John Calvin. You and I, apprehended by God’s grace. That’s how the theologian Karl Barth described it.
Grace, it is fresh and new every morning. Like sunshine that breaks in the morning sky, like dew that falls afresh on the field, like a morning star that shines brighter as the darkness fades. It is like a spring day that shouts after the long winter, the morning dance that comes after the night of tears; it is the joyful embrace that comes after a season of worry. Grace; it comes first, and it comes all the way, and it is fresh every time you hear it and receive it and live in it. A new day. A fresh start. New life. Forgiveness. Second, third, fourth chance. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the community of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
God’s grace is uniquely and distinctly revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Overwhelming grace poured out for us and for our salvation. Grace made real in and through the life and ministry and suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus. The one who laid down his life, who emptied himself, who gave until there was no life in him. The one who was unjustly condemned, tortured, tormented, and taunted. He was betrayed and deserted and handed over and abandoned by those he considered friends. Grace made real and understandable and imaginable when he welcomed a child, when he told about a Good Samaritan or a Prodigal going home, when he ate dinner with a sinner and embraced an outcast and knelt down with a woman about to be killed by a mob because of something she did. Grace to be seen when he healed a man with a withered hand rather than keeping the Sabbath law, when he crossed every possible line in the sand to show mercy, when he turned every cheek in order to forgive, when he wept at the death of a friend, when he washed feet and talked about a new commandment, “love one another, as I have loved you.” The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. Like when someone introduces you to the most important person in their life, like a threshold that bids you step into such a celebration of joy, like the most trusted companion you will ever know who holds your hand through the night until the morning comes again, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ leads right to the love of God. The God who so loved the world. The God who first loved us. Not the providence of God, not the omnipotence of God, not the reign of God, not the mystery of God, not even the power of God or the strength of God or the force of God or the protection of God; the love of God. Steadfast. Unending. Unconditional. Beyond explanation. Without words. More than just the opposite of wrath. Not just the absence of anger. But an eternal embrace of compassion and mercy that gives meaning and purpose to every moment, every relationship, every opportunity. “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” (Is 43) Claimed. Redeemed. Transformed. Carried. Marked. Sealed by the love of God. In this life and in the life to come. It is who we are.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the community of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Holy Spirit. God’s presence. God’s leading. God’s Advocate. God’s Wisdom. Our Counselor. Our intercessor. A presence invisible yet palpable. A presence unexplained, yet witnessed over and over and over again. The community of the Holy Spirit. Communion. Fellowship. Relationship with God. Me and my creator. Me and my Savior. God walks with me. God talks with me. God tells me I am his own. An “In the Garden” kind of intimacy with God. A four-part harmony that comes from you, and the Spirit, and Jesus, and God? Well, yes, community with the Holy Spirit offers a relationship with the Transcendent God of the universe, the God of Gods and the Lord of Lords, a relationship so close, it can be known only to you and to God.
But this community, this fellowship of the Spirit, it never stops at alone. The Holy Spirit breathes life into a crowd. The Holy Spirit takes one and another and another and life takes shape. The Holy Spirit puts one bone here together with a bone over there, and the Spirit puts the flesh of life on those bones, and there is this rattling of life together. When two or three are gathered and Christ is present, that’s the Holy Spirit. When a weekly gathering through Word and Sacrament becomes the Church, that’s the Holy Spirit. When a community of faith, knows itself to be the Body of Christ in and for the world, that’s the Holy Spirit. The community of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Not one congregation or another, not this church or that church. We know, and God knows that on any given day our fellowship can be brutally human and frail and broken. Yet, the community of the Holy Spirit still breaks out and rushes in and shapes our life together and tends to our rough edges and smoothes our efforts and bolsters our proclamation of the gospel and unites our call for justice and multiplies our ministry of compassion and sends us out to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Disciples who bear witness in all that we say and do, to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the community of the Holy Spirit.
A church member once told me that the benediction was the most important of the service for her. Hearing the words, receiving the promise, taking the words out from this place. The raised hand from the one offering the benediction, some compare it to a laying on of hands, touching each one, as it were with the grace of God. Some think of an embrace, a symbolic action that reflects that embrace of the love of God. Some may think it’s those Presbyterians never quite able to carry through on making the sign of the cross. How about this; it is a posture of blessing, offered not only to you, but to those gathered around you, and not only to them, but to the community outside these walls, and not only there, but to the world. We receive the benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we receive it and then turn and bless the world with the faithfulness of our lives.
Part of the bedtime ritual with our children when they were young was to blow a kiss near the door. The response was to catch it, and together we would say, “save it for later.” There are some weeks, some days, some times of life, some periods in history, some moments in the world (like when hundreds of thousands of people die within a few days of each other), there are those days when you receive the benediction that you will want to save it for later.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
© 2008, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
Contact the church to obtain reprint permission