Channels of Grace
1 Timothy 1:12-17[1]
We’ve been discussing some of the pitfalls of religion over
the last several weeks. As hard as it is to admit, the Church has not escaped
the flaws inherent in all human religion. I think it’s fitting to have this
discussion this year because Luke’s Gospel focuses on these matters. A brief
overview of history shows us that the Church has had a mixed legacy. In many
cases those who follow Jesus have given sacrificially and have poured out
kindness and mercy to those who are hurting. At times giving their very lives
to serve other people. But in all too many cases, I’m afraid the Church has
been responsible for inflicting harm. More than that, the Church has inflicted
violence of many kinds on innocent people. At times it was just for being from
the wrong religion. I think about the crusades. At times it was for being the
wrong gender. I think about the “witch hunts.” There were sometimes when it was
simply for practicing a different form of Christianity! I think about
Protestants versus Catholics and vice versa.
Just like every other human endeavor, religion is flawed
because it is practiced by human beings. Many others have observed that the
roots of the problem are to be found in our own capacity for fear, hatred, and
self-deception![2] As hard as
it is for us to hear, our religion can turn into neurosis. The definition of
neurosis is that what a person has repressed—fear of not being “enough,”
self-hatred, excessive pride, unbridled desires—becomes what they see in
others. But it’s all an elaborate (but
unconscious) ploy to avoid having to face the ugly truth within themselves![3] This
repression of one’s own insecurity and guilt inevitably leads to a rigid set of
rules and authoritarian beliefs that are considered absolute precisely because
they protect the guilty from having to face their own shame. Anyone who
opposes, challenges, or in any way questions that system of religious
self-justification becomes the target of vicious hatred and violent attacks. It’s
happened over and over again in the history of the world! When religion
originates with fear and hatred, it’s no wonder that people kill others in the
name of God, as heartbreaking as it is to recognize!
By his own admission, St. Paul was such a man. His devotion
to Judaism was so complete that he considered the message of Jesus about God’s
joyful acceptance even of those who have lost their way to be a blasphemous
insult. When confronted with the gospel, Paul’s initial response was violent.
Anyone who preached Jesus’ message deserved a death sentence. What made Jesus’
gospel outrageous to someone like Paul was that it defines God as the one who
loves everyone so much that he goes out searching for those who have lost their
way, as our Gospel lesson reminds us.[4] But the fact that Jesus preached and enacted that good news contradicted Paul’s
original view of God as a stern and unfeeling judge who doles out rewards and
punishments in strict conformity to obedience and sin. Jesus’ message of grace
and mercy to those who have lost their way was an intolerable upheaval in the
image of God for Jewish zealots like Paul. It was outright blasphemy! And so he
set about to eradicate it.
Again, this isn’t propaganda hurled against Paul by his
opponents. This comes from Paul’s own confessions about his life. In our lesson
from 1 Timothy for today, we hear about how Paul had formerly been “a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Tim. 1:13). I can imagine
that his heart broke as he authored those words. The book of Acts recounts that
Paul was on his way to Damascus with the authority to seek out followers of
Jesus and have them put to death! The sobering fact is that he did all of that
on God’s behalf, as an expression of his faith. That may seem impossible
to believe, and yet I think it was part and parcel of his version of that
compulsive, neurotic religion. When confronted with something he could not
reconcile with his own “sacred cows,” Paul didn’t hesitate to act in anger and
violence. People of all faiths still do it all the time.
But something happened to Paul that changed him. He came
face-to-face with the risen and exalted Christ. And as a result Paul says he received
mercy and grace “poured all over” him (1 Tim 1:14, CEB). That was enough
to convince him that he was headed in the wrong direction. So he turned his
life around. But more than that, he received a commission: Paul says he was
“judged faithful” and “appointed” to serve Christ. And so, as he says
elsewhere, Paul began to proclaim the good news he had formerly tried to destroy
(cf. Gal. 1:23). In a real sense, Paul became a channel of the very grace and
mercy he had formerly sought to suppress and even to eradicate.
Some might be tempted to say that God made an exception for
Paul. But our lesson for today suggests that the reason why Paul experienced
such extraordinary grace and mercy was not only to make him a channel of that
grace to others, but also to show that this is the way God deals with us all.
As the Scripture lesson puts it, Paul’s experience was to demonstrate that
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Since Paul
could consider himself the “foremost,” or a “worst-case” sinner, our lesson
says that he received mercy so that “Jesus Christ might display the utmost
patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for
eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). Paul experienced God’s grace, mercy, and love so
that he could become a channel of that grace to others, especially those who
were considered a “lost cause.”
I think some of this might come as a shock to us. After
all, it is “Saint Paul” we’re talking about, preacher and teacher of the
gospel, founder and pastor of churches, and writer of about a third of the New
Testament! He’s called “Saint Paul” for a reason. Most of us would consider
ourselves much worse sinners than Paul! But I would say our lesson insists that
the reason why Paul experienced such amazing grace and mercy was to show there
is no one who is beyond the love of God. By his own admission he had blasphemed
Christ and viciously attacked and even murdered Christians. If he could be
forgiven for that, then there was no one who could not be forgiven their sins.
Since Jesus came into the world to save sinners, that includes us all. Paul was
the prime example of how God’s grace can transform even the most violent person
into a channel of grace to others.
While our Scripture lesson for today comes from the end of
Paul’s life, the message that God’s grace and mercy and love are for all people
was an important part of the gospel Paul preached from the very beginning. In
fact, this message can be found in Scripture long before Paul lived, even
before Jesus died on the cross. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, God displays grace
and mercy to the people of Israel again and again. Grace and mercy and
unfailing love define God’s very character throughout the Bible. We might
wonder how Paul and his compatriots could be so devoted to Scripture and be so
completely wrong-headed about God. And yet, as I observed when we began,
whenever anyone uses religion to cover up a fundamental sense of guilt and
shame, their religion can become angry and violent.
As was the case for Paul, so it is still true today that
God’s grace and mercy and love remain intact, even for those who use their
religion to harm others. God’s grace remains for us all! And part of Paul’s
point in our lesson from 1 Timothy is that the extraordinary grace God showed
someone like Paul is for everyone. Christ Jesus came to save us all. That means
there is no one who is ever beyond the love of God. This is the way God has dealt
with people from the very beginning. But the purpose of God’s grace has always
been to transform those who experience it into channels of grace to others.
That was true with Abraham and his descendants. It was true for Paul and his
compatriots. And it’s still true for us today.
There are things happening in our world and in our country
that are troubling and discouraging. It may leave us wondering what we can do
to make a difference in this big world that seems to be spinning out of control
into violence and hatred. I’ve said it before: I believe that every time we act
with integrity and compassion, it makes a difference. Every time we share the
grace we’ve received from God with someone else, it makes a difference. It
certainly makes a difference directly in the life of those with whom we share
that grace. But I believe it also makes a difference in the bigger world. We
may not see it. We may not see the path in front of us, but that’s because
we’re living in a time when we’re forging that path by every act of integrity,
kindness, or compassion. Every time we act as channels of God’s grace, we’re
forging the path toward the light, toward goodness. We’re blazing the trail
toward kingdom of God. The purpose of God’s grace has always been to transform
us into channels of grace to others. That was true for Paul and it’s still true
for us today. God shows us his grace and mercy and love, without restrictions
or conditions, to make us into people who will rejoice with him any time anyone
who has lost their way finds their way back home. He does so to make us into
people who will become channels of that grace to those around us.
[1] © Alan Brehm 2025. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/14/2025 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Keith Ward, Is Religion Dangerous?,
25-41. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 186-89.
[3] Cf. Paul Tillich, “The Yoke of Religion,” in The Shaking of the Foundations, 93-103; Emil Brunner, Revelation and Reason, 258-273; Karl
Barth, The Epistle to the Romans,
236.
[4] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God,
128-29, where he points out that Jesus “demonstrated God’s eschatological law
of grace towards those without the law and the transgressors of the law,
through his forgiveness of sins. By so doing he abolished the legal distinction
between religious and secular, righteous and unrighteous, devout and sinful. He
revealed God in a different way from that in which he was understood in the law
and the tradition and was perceived by the guardians of the law.” Cf. also ibid.,
142, where he speaks of this as a “revolution in the concept of God”: “God
comes not to carry out just revenge upon the evil, but to justify by grace
sinners, whether they are Zealots or tax collectors, Pharisees or sinners, Jews
or Samaritans, and therefore, also, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.”
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