Lenten Café 2018: We Are Lutheran St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Falls City, Nebraska

Sola Gratia (By Grace Alone) Wednesday, February 21, 2018

No matter how many times we hear otherwise, our relationship with God often seems like ladder climbing We strive to reach up to God, to make ourselves worthy before God, to try to attain God’s favor by our own work Worse, we adopt this attitude with other people We strive to look good for others, to earn the praise and favor of our peers, to differentiate ourselves from others by what we do Life, one way or another, seems to be nothing but a constant striving

God Human beings all too often imagine that the point of our existence is to reach out to God, to plead with God Our lives are consumed with striving to achieve God’s favor by what we say and do (Or, if we don’t care about God, we don’t care about God’s favor at all, and strive to achieve something else (the favor of other people, society, self-fulfillment, etc.) Creation

Augsburg Confession, Article IV “Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3 and 4.” - Presented June 25, 1530, at Augsburg, Germany Gerhard Forde, p. 22: “We are… Listen and believe!”

God Christianity broadly (and Lutheran Christianity in particular) begins reflection on God’s relationship with creation with the conviction that God moves first – period. We cannot make the first move toward God. Ever. God moves first to give us everything! (Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27, 31) Luther’s Small Catechism, Creation

Grace is God’s attitude toward us in Jesus Christ This is true, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8)

Gratia = Gratitude Gratia is also our attitude toward God Now that God has moved first in Jesus to give us everything, we respond with grateful hearts, minds, lips, and lives

Ephesians 2:10 – Even the good works we do are prepared beforehand by God for us to do Even our good works are gifts of a good and gracious God!