Good Morning All!!
John 1:16; “For from his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace.”
One of the most popular songs sung
at funerals is “Amazing Grace.” One of the biographers for the author John
Newton estimates this song is sung over 10,000,000 times annually. It has had a great impact on American folk
music and is one of the greatest folk hymns.
It tells a great story but the story of the author is just as amazing.
John Newton grew up with a distant stepmother and a father who was gone
to sea. He soon became a troublesome
child and was sent to boarding schools.
At 11 he joined the navy as an apprentice sailing with his father. He eventually renounced his faith and went on
to be overly headstrong and got into many disagreements with his shipmates and
the captain.
He would make up songs and poems that oftentimes mocked the
captain. While he served on the ship “Greyhound” he was admonished by the
captain to clean up his language. His
vocabulary so crude and profane, that it made a sailor blush. Yet while on this ship, during a great storm,
off the coast of Ireland, he called to God for mercy. While his conversion was begun, it took a few
years including serving as a slave trader captain and a couple of major
illnesses, before it took earnest root.
He eventually became a customs agent, taught himself Latin, Greek and
theology. He and his wife Polly immersed
themselves in their church community. He
became the priest in Olney in 1764.
While there he was known for his unique preaching style. While most preachers at this time were
distant from the parishioners, Newton freely spoke of his own experiences with
temptation and sin. He describes his
style as “breaking the hard heart and healing the broken heart.” He
described his own life like this, “How
industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and
had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human
race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.” It
was this life, from which God led him to a life of redemption; that led to his
song.
In January of 1773 he introduced “Amazing
Grace.” Over time a few different
versions appeared depending on the denomination of the church singing the
hymn. Yet all versions sing of God’s amazing
grace bringing salvation to a lost sinner.
Drawing from stories in the New Testament like the “Prodigal Son” and
the “Healing of the Blind Man”, the phrases “lost but now I am found” and “blind
but now I see” echo throughout most of American Protestantism. Most of us enjoy it and cherish it. Perhaps you even have a favorite verse, mine
is the fourth verse in our hymnal.
Yes, when this flesh and heart
shall fail and mortal life cease
Amazing grace shall then prevail
in heaven’s joy and peace.
One commentator notes that grace is glory
begun and glory is grace perfected. God’s
grace is truly amazing. It moves through
our lives and takes shapes in manners we never appreciate. It upholds us through all there is. We can rely on it in every event that we
face. No matter what you were before,
God’s amazing grace saves you. There is
no past that we cannot move beyond with God’s amazing grace in action. Rest in its sweet sound.
Loving Father full of grace, you lavish us with your
incredible and undeserved grace. You
pour grace upon grace on us and then give us more. Keep us focused on your love. Keep us moving in our journey with you to our
eternal home. Help us to share your
amazing grace with those who do not know it.
In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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