Each week as we look at the means of Grace I want to begin with my short summary: the Means of Grace are those "routes" by which we encounter the grace of God and by which the grace of God encounters us. Grace is not a commodity that can be packaged and dispensed by human beings. Grace is the mysterious and wondrous love of God which is made real in our lives; forgiving and freeing us to become the persons God has designed us to be. One of God's gifts is that we have been given opportunities to participate in activities which position us to experience and be enriched by that grace. One of the most central Means of Grace for the Reformed Church (meaning Presbyterians among others) is that of the reading and hearing the scriptures.
The concept that reading and hearing scripture is a Means of Grace may seem a bit odd to some of us. After all the scriptures are a collection of stories, history, poetry, letters and laments written over more than a thousand years, which offer, at times, what appear to be contradictory opinions about God, law and life. In addition, in the most basic sense, the scriptures are merely words…lots and lots of words. The question becomes then how can such a book be a means of God encountering us and us encountering God?
The answer for some is that the Bible is literally "the Word of God." It is perfect in its original manuscripts because it was dictated by the very breath of God. Therefore when one reads scripture one is reading the literal words of God; thus one is encountering God. In some sense this coincides with Islam's view of the Quran. According to Islam the words of the Quran are prefect because they are the verbatim words of God as dictated to Muhammad. Thus they ought not to be even translated out of the original Arabic.
For those of us who do not subscribe to the theory that scripture is perfectly dictated by God, and that there are places where scripture contradicts itself, we still believe that it can serve as a Means of Grace. It can serve as such because it is the primary witness to God's loving work in the world. I say scripture is the primary witness because there is a secondary witness, creation itself. According to the Apostle Paul, human beings ought to be able to look at creation and know that not only is there a God, but that this God has particular wishes and desires for humanity. In a way this is what some people refer to as Natural Theology (knowledge of God that can be derived from observing the world around us).
Scripture on the other hand is a record of God's encounters with humanity and humanity's encounters with God. These encounters bring to us God's commandments, Jesus' teachings, the words of God to prophets, priests and kings, God's words to Apostles and other New Testament writers, the history of God's people and their theological reflections. What these writers record for us is not what they learned about God from observing the world, but what was revealed to them through these sacred encounters. What happens then when we read or hear scripture is that we are allowed to stand with these ancient persons and encounter God alongside of them. That is the power of sacred story. Sacred story allows us to be vicariously present with those in the past who have encountered God and been changed by those encounters. In addition we believe that the Holy Spirit applies these stories to our lives in order that they become our stories as well.
In the end though what finally makes the scriptures a Means of Grace is that all of its stories revolve around God's grace and love. I understand that especially in the Old Testament there are stories which include God's wrath; but ultimately even behind those stories is grace. Behind and through all of scripture is grace that loves, forgives, saves, reconciles and restores. That is the narrative that binds all 66 books together. So as we read scripture we continually encounter God's grace, not just for persons past, but for each of us in every moment of our lives.
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