We live in a society that is based on buying and selling. You want something, you pay something. If the exchange does not involve money, then there is the assumption that it will involve time, or expertise, or payback in kind, or some kind of compensation. We all know that you don’t get somethin’ for nothin’. The presupposition of market transactions pervades our lives. And this had led to the commoditization of people and relationships. What’s this person worth to me? What can I get from this person? And, sadly, we think in those terms even outside of the workplace and business world.
We can also see how this transaction mentality has taken hold in some expressions of Christianity. In classic theology, we have sinned. We owe God a debt for our sin. We cannot pay that debt. Nothing we can do can satisfy that debt. So God has sent Jesus to live a sinless life, and to give that life in payment of our debt. If we believe in him as God come in human form for this purpose, then our debt is paid. If we are of another religious tradition, or do not believe in Jesus that way, then our debt is not paid, and we will spend eternity in hell. That’s the thinking behind “Jesus died for my sins.” Jesus completes the transaction with God that nullifies our sin if we buy into him.
This perspective may sound familiar to us, even if we do not subscribe to it. Let’s look a little deeper. I’m wondering about a God that has to be “paid”? This sounds like an account keeping God. A bottom line God. An assets and losses God. And that’s not at all the way God is conveyed in the stories associated with Jesus. Jesus talks about forgiveness with no payment. He doesn’t ask people to make recompense before they are forgiven. He tells of God like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep or a woman looking for a lost coin. This doesn’t sound like a God waiting to be paid.
Also, Jesus freely forgave people, fed people, healed people, and he didn’t ask for their money or their theological credentials ahead of time. He doesn’t ask for their insurance card, verifying belief in him as the divine son of God sent to pay our way to heaven, before offering his services. He goes right ahead and extends compassionate care and community to all, no questions asked. That also does not fit with the God who requires correct belief as payment to gain access to heaven.
In Psalm 51, the writer pleads:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
This is not a request to go to heaven in the next life. This is a plea for healing and restoration in this life. The word salvation is related to the word for salve, and implies healing. The writer wants to be restored to right relationship with God by receiving God’s forgiveness and mercy, here and now. And this is before Jesus. Salvation is life lived in right relationship with Divine Love, one another, and the earth. It is about ethics and outlook, not doctrine and dogma. It is based on grace, which can never be acquired through a transaction, or it is not grace. That’s the scandal of divine grace. No transaction. No purchase. No bartering. No quid pro quo. No exchange. No compensation. No payback. No commoditization of grace. That’s why the writer of Psalm 51, from the depths of despair, in anticipation of the grace that God cannot withhold and still be God, declares: “my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. . . and my mouth will declare your praise.” No payment required. Only praise.
Prayer
In a world of exchange and transaction, it is hard to shift gears to a dominion of love, free grace, and uncompensated service. And yet that is the reality we are invited to be part of by Jesus. May we accept what we are offered and keep no score. Simply praise, praise, praise! Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 