Cake and the Economy of Grace--June 23, 2022

Cake and the Economy of Grace—June 23, 2022

"For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive?  And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?" [1 Corinthians 4:7]

You’ve seen it plenty of times before, I’m sure.  You’re at a kid’s birthday party, and the host starts serving up the cake.  And even though every single guest will have their piece by the time the last strains of “Happy birthday to you… and many more!” have been sung, the kids have a way of turning even the distribution of cake into something worthy of bragging rights.  “I got mine first!”  “Oh yeah?  Well, my piece is a corned piece—more buttercream flowers for me!”  “Well, mine is CHOCOLATE, and you all are STUCK with vanilla!”  “Sure, but mine is a little bit bigger than yours!”  And an almost infinite number of variations on that same theme.  You’ve been there. We all have.  Sometimes as the kid, if we’re honest, and probably sometimes as the adults trying to prevent the dessert course from becoming a battlefield.

As grown-ups, we’re pretty good at recognizing how childish it is for guests at a party to be bragging and fussing over whose piece of birthday cake is better than whose.  We have no illusions that this is something to brag about or belittle someone else about.  We know that everyone’s cake is a gift, after all.  It is a sign of graciousness and generosity from the hosts of the party, not a reward for personal achievements or compensation for the gifts the guests have brought. 

That’s it: everybody’s piece cake is a gift; which is to say, it is grace.  And the thing about grace is that by its very definition, it’s not something anybody can brag about, because it is given with reckless disregard to anybody’s “earning,” “worthiness,” “merit,” or “accomplishments.”  We can see how foolish—and maybe even downright disrespectful and ungrateful—it is for kids to be bragging to one another about their pieces of cake at a birthday party, because we are aware that a birthday party is entirely an economy of grace.  But we have a hard time realizing that among the people of God, everything is an economy of grace.  There’s no room anywhere for bragging about who you think you are better than, ever, in the community of Jesus, because everything we have is a gift of God, beyond our earning. 

And not only that, but the purpose of God’s gifts is not to compare against one another so we can declare ourselves better than someone else, like children do at a party, but rather where my gift’s abundance meets someone else’s need, mine is meant to be shared.  If you’re the grown-up at the party and you realize that someone you got a giant piece of cake and some kid ends up with a really small one, or lets their fall into the grass, then, yes, absolutely you share some of your cake with the one who has none.  This is not a moment to brag or pat yourself on the back for better cake acquisition skills.  This is a time to share, because that’s how an economy of grace works.

In the same way, among the followers of Jesus, we come to learn that my skills, abilities, and resources are all God-given, and therefore, they are meant for the benefit of all, rather than just being for my own self-interest.  Your talents, time, and treasure, as well, have been given by God, and they are meant to be used for the building up of everybody.  And when we see things that way, we realize how childish we must have seemed—to God, and to the watching world—when we fought or squabbled or bragged about the things we possess, from the tangible stuff we keep in our houses and garages and bank accounts, to the skills, abilities, and positions that can’t be locked up or cut into slices. Paul is going to keep pushing in this direction throughout the letter we call First Corinthians, because he really does believe it.  Everything in our lives is a gift, and that makes everything in our lives a part of the economy of grace, which is the only economy God recognizes.  So there is no room for anybody to childishly boast about pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps—there is only the recognition that not only your boots, but your feet themselves, are a gift of God in the first place, along with the hands you have been given in order to help somebody else to rise up onto their feet as well. 

That’s the bottom line for us, today and every day:  if everything is a gift of grace (or rather, “SINCE” everything is), nothing is sheer achievement or earning. And everything we have has been placed in our lives for the sake of everybody’s mutual and full joy.  The reason you get cake at a party is that the host wants everybody to be glad to be there.  What if we lived this day like we are stepping into a party that God is throwing, and looked at how we can offer what we have so that everybody else around can rejoice in the celebration?

Lord God, give us the grace of seeing our lives as grace, too.  And enable us both to rejoice in your good gifts, and to use them for the sake of all.