Our God who speaks to us in your Word; the Bible and its 66 books, point us to truth; by your Spirit enliven our hearts that they may be clean and that we may know you and share in your eternity. Amen.

Beati mundo corde

Blessed are the clean of heart: chosen by the sisters of the Church and as I read the History of the Collegiate school and its Founding by these visionary sisters two words jump from history's page - Grace and Disciples. The sisters founded this great school that its pupils might receive the very best Christian education - not the very best education, not the very best Christianity but the very best Christian education.

Beati mundo corde - for the sisters - disciples of grace,

Bono writes of grace

Bono, as even I know, is the lead singer in U2, one of the world's biggest selling rock bands. He grew up in Northern Ireland, the son of one Catholic and one Protestant parent. Throughout his childhood and adult years he was a constant witness to the hatreds fuelled by 'Christian' belief. It left Bono less than enthusiastic about the Church.

Nevertheless Bono embraced Christian faith and maintains his embrace, not he says, because of the Church but because of grace. It is the one thing that makes him want to be a Christian.

In a speech to a Harvard University graduating class in 2000 he declared he was a believer in grace over karma, karma being the notion that we get what we deserve.

In a song entitled Grace (found on U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind album released in 2000) Bono pictures grace as a beautiful, vibrantly attractive woman. Here we find a wonderful description of grace as it comes to us from God and one another.

Grace, she takes the blame
She carries the shame
Removes the stains
It could be her name

Grace, it's the name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings

Grace finds goodness in everything.

Grace, she's got the walk,
Not a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything.

Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things.

Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

Before the pure, holy, holy, holy God of love and mercy and judgement can you imagine standing before him?

You are not a great person of fault and failure like this Dean, like Mother Therese admitted to be, like the apostle Paul. There you stand in the presence of a holy awe inspiring, awesome God. His love shimmers as the purest light; the flashes of fire are the only occasional daggers of disconcerting fracture.

But you are not alone tens of thousands upon thousands of God's people are there in their beautiful long robes glistening white. Spotless. But you notice one spot, one black stain, and it's on your robe.

For us men it's like when you pick out that $200 tie, silk, bought for the daughter's wedding, and you take it off the rack, you bypass all the Italian silk jobs. Look-alikes that you bought in Roma or Firenze for $4. That wonderful tie and before you head off for the 'do' you sit down on the comfy Natuzzi leather lounge and slurp a coffee. And slurp is the word. You look down aghast at that brand new fresh coffee stain right down the middle of your beautiful tie.

One stain before the God who says - Beati mundo corde; Blessed are the clean of heart - for they shall see God.

Or as Bono puts it - Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

The Christian faith is not a religion. As the Sisters of the Church taught it is a daily walk; it knows God as friend; it is receiving grace; it is being sustained in the Father's love.

So many people have been sustained by this faith and faith makes a whole person. We are all spiritual beings - look at the spirituality around you but much of it is human spirituality not the spirituality of God.

I thank God for those who help me catch the faith my parents and grandmother in particular. For those Christians who in their weak grasp on grace make a gigantic impact on me: Mandela; Martin Luther King Junior; Bono; Mother Theresa's humility; They all grasped that message of grace. It seems topsy-turvy, inside out, so unhuman. We reward the good. God welcomes sinners. We value the prosperous and the powerful. God loves the weak, the poor, the humble.

You heard it in tonight's reading.

3 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5 'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

7 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

9 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

8 'Blessed are the clean in heart, for they will see God.

Only by receiving in faith the Grace of God in Jesus Christ is there hope and certainty and a shared inheritance in the kingdom of eternity.

I like this story about the Grace Exam

In 2002 Denise Banderman was a youth ministry student at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri. The day came for the class to sit their final exam. When Denise and her fellow students opened their papers they were astonished to find every answer filled in. At the bottom of the page was a message that read:

This is the end of the exam.

All the answers on your test are correct. You will receive an A on the final exam.

The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you. All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you get the A. You have just experienced... grace.

The course lecturer, Dr. Hufty, spoke to the students about the exam. He said, 'Some things you learn from lectures, some things you learn from research, but some things you can only learn from experience.

'You've just experienced grace. '

One hundred years from now, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, your name will be written down in a book, and you will have had nothing to do with writing it there.

That will be the ultimate grace experience.

As Bono puts it - Grace makes beauty out of ugly things - the ugly things of heart and mind.

AMEN

Lindsay Stoddart, Dean
5 October 2007