Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Preventing Grace

Home
Evangelical
Sunday Blog and Monday Podcast Mashup

Sunday Blog and Monday Podcast Mashup

Last updated on: August 31, 2020 at 10:15 am by Anne Kennedy

Sunday Blog and Monday Podcast Mashup 2020-08-31T10:15:07-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Good Morning! It is a bright, cool day in Binghamton–a welcome change from the humidity of the entire month of August. We finally climbed back onto the internet with a podcast about all the things we were happy we didn’t have to talk about all month. Things like Kenosha and Mr. Falwell and how the whole world is burning down. It’s epically long, and we round it all out with a plug for the Joel Osteen Inspirational Cube, which only costs 39.99$ plus shipping and handling. Hope this makes your whole week bearable!

Here are some links, first, but scroll down for what I wrote yesterday but was unable to post for unknown Patheos technical reasons.

Here is the Joel Osteen cube.

This is important.

I meant to clean out my whole house but I read this instead.

If you didn’t know anything about Jerry Falwell Jr.

Honestly, I don’t have any other links, I spent the whole month trying to read books. Consider this my virtue signal of the day. Read my blog post below instead:

What Kind of Person Would Try to Prevent Grace?

Well, let us see if I can remember how to blog on a Sunday morning. A lot of lovely texts floated by me this month, and I sat in the pew sometimes and wondered if I would have had anything to say about them, and then my mind floated elsewhere. Mostly around the always strange reality that God, who could do anything really, would choose to come and argue with people like Peter, or the Pharisees, and would, in getting the upper hand, somehow accomplish the salvation of the world—a salvation that often feels miserly and perilous, and yet so necessary, encompassing, as it does, the healing of the sick, the feeding of the hungry, the calming of the howling and destructive wind and rain.

Anyway, here we have endured through the whole month of August this long saga in Matthew of Jesus being always at odds with the Pharisees and Leaders of Israel, of doing mighty works and yet never being enough for anyone. And today, of all days, it is more contentious and exasperating than ever.

I say of all days because the collect hearkens to the name of this blog. In the new 2019 ACNA book, it says this:

O Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow after us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Now, this is a very nice prayer, and one worth praying every day. And it might remind you of this one:

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sometimes people read this blog and look at the name and understand that I am a bad person. What kind of person wants to “prevent” grace? Only bad people would want to stop God from doing the nice things he is going to do. And that’s true. We are all bad people, all of us, both individually and all together, and we are generally bent on stopping—hindering—God. Look at the dreadful little interchange between Peter and Jesus in the gospel for this morning:

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

It seems, at first glance, like a nice thing to tell someone who has explained to you that he is going to die, brutally, that he is, in fact, not going to die. Don’t die! That’s the nicer thing to say. In fact, if someone feels like he wishes he could die, and wants to bring it about, it would be beyond cruel not to try to “prevent,” to “hinder,” to “stop” him. But Jesus isn’t an ordinary person. And he isn’t articulating a death wish, as any one of us might, no matter how bad things are in the year of our Lord, 2020.

Jesus is speaking prophetically about what is certain to happen. He will suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day be raised. He has already explained why this has to happen. He has spoken both plainly and in parables. He has performed mighty works that authenticate his divine nature. He is God. He has come to save you and me and Peter and everyone. And Peter, who just made that extraordinary confession—”You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”—hears only the word “killed” and not any of the other ones, and doesn’t even begin to glimpse the implication of “on the third day be raised” and gets right in the way to declare that this must not be so. Peter would like to “prevent” Jesus. And so Jesus likens him to Satan and says he must get out of the way. Jesus will not be hindered or prevented from doing what he came to do.

The word “prevent” is key, in this case. As I said, now it means to stop someone from doing something bad, to prevent disaster, to prevent someone from saying something or going somewhere or doing something. Prevention, in fact, is a good part of medicine. If you can have certain kinds of screenings for certain illnesses, you can prevent them from causing certain death. Similarly, most of my job as a parent, at least it was in the early years, was preventing certain tragedy. I prevented my children from running across busy streets, prevented them from eating garbage, prevented them from putting their hands on the hot stove…the list is endless.

And yet, when I look at God, I never want him to prevent me from doing anything I want. When I desire something, I do not want to be prevented from attaining it. Any hindrance that stands in my path is an annoyance. Why I can understand this when it is a small child but not when I am mindlessly scrolling through the internet as a middle-aged adult and irritated by some small delay in the page loading, is a great irony.

Anyway, “preventing” didn’t always mean to stop or to hinder. It used to mean “to go before, to anticipate.” Etymology Online says, “to go come,” and “anticipate to hinder,” which I think is a very nice circle of expressions to describe how it is exactly that God keeps us from wandering into the darkness of hell.

Because that’s really what this is about. “Preventing” Grace is regenerative grace. To quote myself on my blog explanation:

…preventing used to mean to go before. It was the word Christian thinkers used to describe God’s work of regeneration, the changing of stubborn, hardened, grumbling stone cold hearts into slightly less stubborn and moderately less grumbly hearts of flesh. This Preventing Grace is how the Father draws sinners to repentance and faith in his Son Jesus. And it is also how God continues to carry us throughout our lives, preventing us by grace, so that we, despite our efforts to prevent him, remain with him to the last day.

Though we would, like Peter, hinder God, would stand in his way, would stop him from being God, would explain to him how he is wrong, yet he is the one who anticipates our destruction, who goes all the way into the pit of hell to pull the sinner out of the mire of everlasting destruction and set him on dry ground.

Jesus turns to the rest of his gathered disciples after his stinging rebuke of Peter and makes it worse, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Not only will Jesus go to the cross for the sake of those he loves, he will bring each one along with him.

What kind of a grace is this? This death dealing invitation to come along with Jesus, to throw down every hindrance and pick up the most shameful, violent, hideous instrument of death—not to deal it out to others, but to die shamefully and painfully to the self? That is what the believer learns so painfully, stumbling along in the wake of Jesus, seeing over and over again how deep was the pit out of which he was drawn, how great is the darkness that Jesus eradicates from the soul, how cruel the words and actions of the human heart that Jesus over and over again stops, forgives, mends, and ultimately heals. Jesus is a “continual help” with his “most gracious favor.”

So anyway, it’s good to be back! Hope to see you in church sometime!

Previous Post

August 28, 2020

7 Summer Takes

Next Post

September 1, 2020 Anne's Guide to Raising Children

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who asked Jesus, "What is truth?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Caiaphas Herod Nicodemus Pilate

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »