Amazing Grace

"Amazing Grace" was written by John Newton, first published in 1779. Newton's story is pretty amazing. The son of a sailor, he was sent to sea to learn to make a living there when he was only eleven. He lived a godless and hopeless life (by his own account), and was eventually flogged for deserting the Royal Navy. He became the captain of a ship engaged in slave trade at age twenty-two. At twenty-five, during a time in his life when he was reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, he found himself steering his ship through a violent storm on the Atlantic. He cried aloud to God several times during the 17 hours he steered the ship, asking for help, for deliverance from the destructive storm. This event was the start of his conversion to Christianity. He soon gave up slave trade and the life at sea to pursue ministry. In light of his story, the lyrics have deeper significance. 

And hopefully we can see our own story in the lines as well. Sure, we didn't run a slave-trader in the 18th century. But in the same way God opened Newton's eyes, God has opened our eyes. In the same way grace saved Newton, grace has saved us. In the same way Newton knows his hope is securely found in Christ, we can sing the same. And God still stirs our hearts, because in a sense we and Newton are living the same story of redemption in Christ.

There's a Greek word anamnesis, which connects past and present powerfully. Anamnesis is recognizing that when we recall God's saving deeds, we are able to experience those deeds because God is eternal, and God's saving deeds are for all time. It might seem like semantics, but consider what it means for our worship: we are connected — mysteriously but truly — to Jesus' death and resurrection through baptism. The death of sin and the resurrection life is more than something that happened long ago: it happened to us, too. It happened to John Newton. It happened to every believer who has gone before. Our stories intersect and resonate with one another through the eternal, ongoing, still happening, never-ending, story of Christ. That's amazing grace!