​ HAPPY 36TH ANNIVERSARY– Living as a Community of Grace - Pastor David Tsai

Today, on our 36th Anniversary, I invite you to join us in heartfelt celebration and thanksgiving to God, the Father, and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ for His manifold blessings and provision. We also seek His guidance and provision in moving forward to what He has for us as a church community. There is much work for us to do; my prayer is that we will faithfully work together for His Kingdom and glory. Amen.
Grace and forgiveness are hard to come by these days. When people in the public eye make mistakes, they are instantly savaged on social media. This kind of viral destruction also happens to those whose private errors catch the attention of Google, Facebook, or Twitter. On these platforms, you rarely see people offer grace and forgiveness to others or seek forgiveness for their misdoings. You may get canceled for what you’ve done, but good luck having your sins canceled as an act of grace.
Ephesians envisions a very different kind of living for the community of Jesus’ followers. Ephesians 4:32 reads, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” This verse speaks to each of us, calling us individually to kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Yet this verse, like the rest of Ephesians, is not addressed to a single individual, but rather to a community of faith, to the brothers and sisters in the family of God, the body of Christ. You can see this corporate context in the phrases “to one another” and “one another” in verse 32. Paul envisions not just a bunch of separate Christians who forgive but also a forgiven and forgiving community, displaying God’s grace.
Wherever the people of God come together as a family, their fellowship should be characterized by grace and forgiveness. This doesn’t mean minimizing sin, by the way. Quite the opposite is true. Grace and forgiveness are needed only when a wrong has been done. So, a grace-filled community of forgiveness isn’t the same as a “make nice” fellowship that overlooks wrongdoing to “live and let live.” Rather, in a grace-filled forgiving community, sin is taken seriously as a precursor to true forgiveness and reconciliation.
 
 
 
 
Yet such a community doesn’t focus on sin as an opportunity to judge, condemn, or ostracize those who have done wrong. A mature community of faith doesn’t reward the proud who see themselves as needing less forgiveness than others. Instead, a grace-filled community is one in which all members are aware of their failures and realize they are lost apart from God’s grace and forgiveness. Because of that, they extend that forgiveness to others who have wronged them.
Throughout my five decades as a Christian, I have seen some churches exemplify this grace-filled community. I have also seen some churches demonstrate anything but grace and forgiveness. Our track record as the body of Christ is mixed, to be sure. No matter how well or poorly we are currently doing, Ephesians 4:32 holds us to a vision of a grace-filled forgiven, and forgiving community. We are a family of people who fail as all people inevitably do, who also experience a fellowship where failure is not dismissed, but rather where failure is a prelude to grace and forgiveness. Again, I emphasize this type of community does not minimize the wrongness of sin. Instead, through its practice of forgiveness, it encourages people to acknowledge their sins so they might receive the fullness of forgiveness both from God and others.
As we seek to live out the Biblical vision for us as a family of faith, you and I have the opportunity to shape our church into a grace-filled community. Not only our church, but also our other communities. In our marriages and families, in our friendships and workplaces, in our neighborhoods and cities and friendships, we can choose to extend grace and forgive as God has extended His grace and forgiven us in Christ Jesus. We thus create in the relationships of our lives what God intends for all of His people.
For His Glory! Amen.