Frances Savill, minister at Richmond, B.C., told a story at the Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) gathering. In the summer of 2013, she took basic training as part of her preparation to be a reserve chaplain in the Canadian Forces. Basic training is grueling, with sleep deprivation and drill sergeants yelling at recruits, constantly reminding them that they will flunk out. It is a harsh, graceless environment. Those going through basic training are warned about the gas hut. There recruits are required to put on gas masks quickly and efficiently as the hut they are in fills with tear gas. Getting the gas in one’s eyes or lungs is an extremely unpleasant experience. This part of basic training is feared.
The sergeant in charge of the gas hut, after sending the drill sergeant away, said to the recruits, “This is my range, I am in charge here. No one fails. We will do it as many times as it takes for people to pass. I have your back.” The sergeant was a sign of grace in a harsh and fearful environment. As Savill noted, the sergeant’s words are similar to words God might speak, “This is my world, I am in charge here. Even when you are afraid, I have your back. You will make it through, because I have confidence I can get you through.” Getting through does not mean life will be easy, things may be difficult, but God has our back.
Savill was one of the keynote speakers last November at St. Andrew’s Hall for the first of the Reformation @ 500 series on sola gratia. Other speakers played with Savill’s metaphor. Stephen Farris, dean of St. Andrew’s Hall, noted the sergeant had rules, which could be called “laws,” about how to put on and use the gas mask. Law is not opposed to grace. In fact, with John Calvin’s “third use of the law,” it is an instrument of grace, revealing the path to be lived as those who have received God’s grace.
Diane Stinton, professor of missiology at Regent College, Vancouver, continued the conversation about metaphors for grace when she asked, “What biblical passage predominates our view of grace: John 3:16 (‘For God so loved the world …’) or John 10:10 (‘I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly’)?” Even North American Christians who may respond negatively to John 3:16 cannot escape the fact that their understanding of grace has been informed by that passage. In Africa and other parts of the majority world church, John 10:10 is the biblical metaphor for grace. John 3:16 suggests an individualistic view of grace focused on the offer of personal salvation; John 10:10, on the other hand, encourages a holistic view of grace including communal dimensions as the text is framed in the plural.
Not all North American Christian traditions have adopted individualistic understandings of grace, argued Mary Fontaine, director of Hummingbird Ministries, a Presbyterian ministry with Aboriginal Peoples in Vancouver. The First Nations community lives in hope of communal reconciliation, including reconciliation with creation. Since creation is the first sign of God’s grace, honouring and protecting creation is a celebration of the Creator’s act of grace in making the universe.
Paul Stevens, author and theologian retired from Carey Hall, built on the grace present in creation, exploring how work is made meaningful by grace. Work, which was given to human beings at creation prior to humanity’s fall, is empowered by God’s grace. And while work has the potential to enslave, it can also be a means of spreading grace.
The participants at the Sola Gratia event affirmed that “grace alone” speaks to our time, inviting the question 500 years after the Reformation: What metaphors of grace speak today? Where do we find ourselves surprised by grace alone?
The Grace Alone event was the first of five events taking place from 2013 to 2017, exploring “the five solas” of the Reformation: grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone, Christ alone, and to God’s glory alone. Sponsored by the Committee on History and funded through the support of the Ewart Endowment for Theological Education and the Conference Fund of the Life and Mission Agency, these events will help mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The project’s purpose is to address the question: What might these theological concepts, so central to the Reformation, say to the church in Canada today? Are the 500 – year – old slogans robust enough to be relevant today? The events are being live – streamed allowing people throughout the church to participate without travelling to the event. The technical challenges that arose while live – streaming the first event are expected to be remedied in time for the next gathering.
The fall 2014 gathering, which will take place in Nova Scotia, will explore Faith Alone. Gatherings will then take place in Montreal and Winnipeg, before the final gathering in Toronto in the fall of 2017.
