Johnny Cash – Tawa Baptist

Scriptures: Romans 10:12-15, Luke 15:11-32, Acts 26:12-18, Psalm 66:8-12, Psalm 28:6-7, 2^nd Peter 3:10, [Psalm 73:26]

Structure:

Introduction
The grace of forgiveness
The grace of fear
The grace of providence
The grace of heaven
Conclusion

Introduction:

I have here a pendulum

If I let the pendulum go from just a little height it won’t swing that far the other way
But if I let the pendulum go from a greater height it will swing further to the opposite extreme

People can be a bit like pendulums. Often the further we go to one extreme, the greater we are inclined to rebound to the opposite extreme

For example, if your mum made you vegemite sandwiches every day for your school lunch you may develop a life time aversion to vegemite
Or, if you grew up not having much and not knowing where your next meal was coming from you may (as an adult) be inclined to save aggressively to avoid ever going hungry again.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series

In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called Amazing Grace. There are two versions of this song. We sang the newer more modern version last Sunday

Today we are looking at the older, more traditional version
Amazing Grace was written by John Newton in 1772
John Newton was one individual in which the pendulum effect was certainly noticeable
As a young man he led a pretty immoral life but later went to the other extreme and became a church minister
Amazing Grace draws heavily on John Newton’s personal experience of God’s grace for him.

There are a number of verses to the song, each of which focus on different aspects of grace. God’s grace is not one dimensional – it is multi-faceted

For example, there is the grace of forgiveness, the grace of fear, the grace of providence and the grace of heaven.

The grace of forgiveness:

The opening verse of the song reads…

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

A wretch is a person who behaves badly

And grace is a word which simply means ‘gift’
A gift is not something we earn like wages and it’s not something we deserve like justice, nor is it something we are entitled to by law
To receive grace is to be given something good that we haven’t earned, don’t deserve and are not entitled to
God’s grace, his gift of unmerited favour, is amazing both in its generosity and in its scope.

In the opening verse of his song John Newton describes grace as a sound that saved him. Perhaps he was thinking of the sound of the gospel of Jesus being preached. As we read in Paul’s letter to the Romans

God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. ¹³As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.” ¹⁴But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? ¹⁵And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

So the grace of God is a sweet sound – it is something which can be heard as the gospel is preached – it is the sound of Jesus saying, ‘Do not be afraid. Your faith has saved you. Your sins are forgiven. Come follow me.’

I once was lost but now I’m found; was blind but now I see is probably a reference to the story of the lost sons, aka the parable of the prodigal son

In Luke 15 Jesus tells a parable about two sons. The younger son runs away from home and squanders his inheritance on wine, women and song
Eventually, when his cash runs out, he ends up feeding pigs
He is so hungry he could eat the slops being fed to the pigs
It is at that point, when he is at his lowest, that his eyes are opened and he comes to his senses.
He realises his father’s servants are treated better than this so he returns home with a plan to ask to work as a hired hand for his dad
In an extraordinary act of grace, the father generously welcomes his wayward son and throws a party to celebrate his return
The older brother is angry and refuses to join the party so the father says to him: we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost but now he is found.

That’s a picture of God’s amazing grace in the form of forgiveness and salvation and it was John Newton’s experience too

The grace of fear:

Verse two of the song reads:

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

Fear is one of those words which can take on a different nuance or meaning depending on the context

Fear can mean panic and terror, but it can also mean the deep calm of reverence and respect

We may think of grace as a lovely pleasant feeling – something nice that we enjoy or that makes us happy – and while it can be like that, grace can also be something painful, which we don’t enjoy and which makes us feel afraid

The hunger the prodigal son experienced was just as much a part of God’s grace as the warm welcome he received from his father
Without the hunger the young man would never have come to his senses and returned home.
God’s grace is multi-faceted – not only does it teach us to fear (in the sense of creating reverence and respect for God), it also relieves our fears, in the sense of removing panic and terror

I don’t know if there are any Johnny Cash fans here but if there are you may be familiar with his song ‘When the man comes around’

It’s a song which reminds us that Jesus will return one day and when he does, ‘will we be ready?’
Johnny Cash was a bit like Johnny Newton in that, as a young man, he led a pretty immoral life but later, by the gravity of God’s grace the pendulum swung the other way and Johnny turned his life around
Johnny Cash has a line in his song where he says, “It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks”
A prick is a long pointed stick that was used in the old days to get a stubborn animal (like an ox) to move in the right direction, sort of like a cattle prod or a goad
A prick teaches the animal to fear or respect the farmer so they walk in the right path

“It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks” is a quote from the Bible – from Acts 26, verse 14, where we read of the apostle Paul’s conversion

As Paul (or Saul as he was known then) was on his way to Damascus, hunting down Christians to persecute, he encountered the risen Lord Jesus in a flash of blinding light and he heard a voice say to him…
‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by kicking against the pricks’
Naturally Paul was terrified and fell to the ground saying, ‘Who are you Lord?’
And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you persecute.’

‘To kick against the pricks’ is to learn to fear God the hard way

Johnny Cash, Johnny Newton, the prodigal son and the apostle Paul all learned to fear God the hard way
God would rather not use the pricks on people but he will if he has to
Although not pleasant, the pricks are one of his instruments of grace

The grace of providence:

John Newton’s conversion wasn’t as quick as the apostle Paul’s – it actually took John Newton many years to learn the fear of the Lord, but all through those years God offered John the grace of providence

Providence is the protective care of God – it’s God giving us just what we need at the right time

One of the verses of the song acknowledges God’s providence through the difficulties of this life

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

John Newton certainly knew about dangers, toils and snares

When he was just six years old John’s mother died of tuberculosis
His father was a shipping merchant and therefore was away a lot
John was sent to boarding school.
At age 11 he joined his father in the shipping trade
As a teenager John’s faith was like a pendulum swinging wildly back and forth, from one extreme to the other.
He was in a pattern of behaving badly, then being corrected by the pricks, before falling back into bad habits again
On one occasion John was talked out of his faith by a crew mate
Newton later wrote, “Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me.”

John’s behaviour became so bad he was made to join the Navy but, before long, he deserted in order to visit his sweet heart Mary Catlett.

The Navy couldn’t handle him so they traded John Newton to become a crew member on a slave ship, where John’s profanity became legendary
(Profanity is the opposite of holiness)
John created obscene poems and songs about the captain much to the delight of his fellow sailors.
Not only did he use the worst swear words you are ever likely to hear, he also created new ones – brains and vulgarity

As a consequence of his behaviour John Newton was punished severely

They withheld food from him, imprisoned him while at sea and chained him up like the slaves they carried.
Then he was made a slave himself and forced to work on a plantation in the British colony of Sierra Leone
After several months as a slave his father intervened and arranged for the rescue of his prodigal son

In 1748, while aboard a ship called the Greyhound in the North Atlantic, John Newton read a book called The Christian’s Pattern, which is a summary of Thomas a Kempis’ classic The Imitation of Christ

While on that same voyage a storm hit
It was so bad one of Newton’s crew members was swept overboard in the very place Newton had been standing
He and his crew mates fought for many hours to keep the ship afloat
During this time of fear and terror, Newton cried out in desperation ‘Lord, have mercy upon us’.
God did indeed have mercy on John and the crew – two weeks later the battered ship limped into port on the coast of Ireland.

During those two weeks John kept thinking about the words he’d spoken “Lord, have mercy upon us”

He began to ask if he was worthy of God’s mercy after all he had done
He had turned his back on God, mocking those who believed and denouncing God as a myth and yet he could not deny the hand of God’s providence in his life
As he contemplated this, the grace of God slowly went to work in John’s heart and mind.

John Newton’s conversion was not instant or quick (like the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus), rather it was more gradual

Despite his own experience of slavery John Newton did not quit the slave trade straight away
He continued in that line of work for several voyages and participated in many of the same activities he had before, except for his profanity
The prick of a severe illness helped to remind John Newton of God’s grace for him and it strengthened his resolve to walk in God’s ways but he wasn’t yet ready to give up transporting slaves from Africa.
To be fair to Newton though, we need to remember that slavery was simply an accepted way of life at the time, sort of like we used to accept plastic bags or burning coal or CFC’s or drinking and driving
Those things are frowned upon now but they were considered normal in the 1970’s and 80’s

Some things are deeply ingrained in us and don’t come out in the first wash

Sometimes we are slow to learn but the grace of God is patient, refining us like silver

In Psalm 66 we read…

Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; ⁹he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. ¹⁰For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver. ¹¹You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. ¹²You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Believe it or not, Psalm 66 is a song of thanksgiving, much like the song Amazing Grace. It recognises God’s hand of providence in painful events.

Verse 10 mentions the refining of silver.
Silver has antibacterial properties, which means germs can’t survive on it, which is one of the reasons it is used as a shared cup in communion – silver is a symbol of holiness and cleanliness.
The refining of silver in ancient times involved melting the metal so the dross rose to the top, then removing the dross
The writer of psalm 66 used this as a metaphor for the way God had tested and refined the Israelites
Although the process of being refined in a furnace is not pleasant at the time, the poet is able to look back and see God’s providence in it
Despite all they have suffered he is able to say, God preserved our lives and brought us to a place of abundance
It seems John Newton was familiar with this refining process
And, despite the dangers, toils and snares he went through, God protected him and he was able to praise God for his multi-faceted grace.

There is another verse of the song which celebrates the grace of God’s providence. It reads…

The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be, as long as life endures.

Our hope is based on God’s promises – God always keeps his word.

To say that God is my portion is to say that God provides all I need
The image of a shield is a metaphor for God’s protection – we are reminded of Psalm 28…

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. ⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

This was certainly true for John Newton – the Lord did hear his cry for mercy and eventually John wrote many songs of praise to God.

The grace of heaven:

So far we have considered the grace of forgiveness, the grace of fear and the grace of providence. Now we turn our minds to the grace of heaven

If the grace of fear is God’s stick, then the grace of heaven is God’s carrot

‘Kicking against the pricks’ only went so far in reforming John Newton’s behaviour. The thing that finally got him out of the slave trade and back on shore was his love for Mary Catlett – Mary was one of God’s carrots

John found it harder and harder to leave Mary as he went away on those long sea voyages, so around 1754 or 55 (about 10 years after his experience of God’s mercy during the storm at sea) he gave up his life as a ship’s captain and began studying Christian theology.
John was 30 at the time.
The Anglican church were reluctant to accept him at first, but in 1764 (10 years after he quit the sailor’s life) the Bishop relented and John Newton became the curate of Olney. (A curate is sort of like an apprentice priest.)
It was at Olney that John Newton met the poet William Cowper and they started writing Christian verse together
The transformation brought about by God’s grace is truly amazing
The young sailor who used to write obscene songs was now writing sacred hymns for the church.

God’s grace is multi-faceted – He uses the stick and the carrot. At least one of the verses of the song we sing alludes to the grace of heaven

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.

This verse may not have been written by Newton himself – some say it was added later in the 19^th Century as part of the African American gospel tradition.

On the mount of transfiguration Peter, James & John saw a vision of Jesus glorified, bright shining as the sun
In these lines of the song John Newton imagines heaven as a place where the Christian believer is transformed into the likeness of Christ – so that we too share in Christ’s glory, ‘bright shining as the sun’.
Heaven is also pictured here as a place of singing praise to God tirelessly forever – which implies that the goodness of God’s grace will totally absorb us and sustain us, so we will be saved from ourselves.

Conclusion:

The original version of Amazing Grace finishes with the verse…

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.

For many years this verse was dropped and replaced by When we’ve been there ten thousand years…

Only recently was it restored by Chris Tomlin, who did a modern version of the song with the chorus My chains are gone…
The imagery in this verse is misleading if you don’t understand the context. It seems to suggest that God is going to destroy the universe
And if you think that then you might end up thinking, we might as well trash the planet because it’s going to be burned up anyway
This is stinking thinking – it is not helpful
The bigger picture of Scripture indicates that God’s plan is to bring a new order to the earth – this new order is known as the kingdom of God
So we shouldn’t think this verse from Amazing Grace is talking about the physical destruction of the planet earth – that wouldn’t be grace
It’s using poetic language to talk about the destruction of the old order – the dissolving of evil power structures.

When John Newton wrote this verse of the song he may have had 2 Peter 3:10 in mind, which in the NRSV, reads…

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

To disclose something is not the same as destroying it

2^nd Peter 3 is talking about the second coming of Jesus (or as Johnny Cash would say, ‘When the man comes around.’)
It is clearly poetic language not intended to be taken literally
When snow is on the ground you don’t know what’s underneath, whether it’s grass or mud or rocks. But when the snow melts all is revealed.
The main point is that when Jesus returns in glory the true state of things will be disclosed
In other words, the true character of our deeds will be revealed
The wheat will be separated from the chaff
The old world order, which is false and without substance, will be dissolved. While that which belongs to the new order, that which has been done in love and truth, will shine like purified silver
So, with this in mind, we need to make sure we are living truly holy lives, in line with the new order of God’s kingdom.

John Newton practiced what he preached, eventually.

From about the 1780’s onwards he joined William Wilberforce in the abolitionist movement speaking out against slavery
Once again we see God’s amazing grace. God did not destroy John Newton but rather transformed him from a human trafficker to an advocate for the poor and oppressed.

God’s grace is multifaceted.

It reaches out to us with forgiveness
It corrects us with Godly fear
It provides what we need and purifies us so we are prepared for God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song, ‘Amazing Grace’. What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?)

Is there a pendulum effect in your life? What caused the swing?

What is grace? (What is not grace?)

God’s grace is multi-faceted. John Newton’s song touches on at least four aspects of God’s grace – i.e. forgiveness, fear, providence and heaven.
- Which of these aspects of God’s grace have you experienced? How?
- What other aspects of God’s grace are you aware of?

Which verse of Amazing Grace do you most identify with? Why?
- Which verse do you find most difficult? Why?

How might God go about refining us (like silver)?

Consider the line, ‘The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;’
- How are we to understand this line of the song in the light of the bigger picture of Scripture and in light of 2 Peter 3:10?

Outtakes:

Another of the song’s verses, which we don’t sing very often, also makes us think of heaven…

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

The veil here is a reference to death

The purpose of a veil is to hide something (like a curtain) – to prevent us from seeing what’s on the other side
In this life we can’t see what lies beyond the veil of death but for those, like John Newton, who place their trust in Christ, there is the hope of heaven – pictured here as a ‘life of joy and peace’.

This verse of the song may find its inspiration from Psalm 73 where the poet writes: My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The idea here is that God sustains us with the grace (or gift) of himself not just in this life but even through death.