God's Amazing Grace

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 16-17, 2016

We’ve been reflecting on the wondrous mystery of God’s grace. (I remember when I was in the seminary, we had a professor who always used to call it, “God’s Amazing Grace,” and whenever he did, a group of characters in the back of the room (I was one of them) would start humming the hymntune “Amazing Grace.” It helped lighten up what most of the time tended to be a very boring class.)

Anyway, where was I. Yes. God’s grace---this overwhelming gift of God that is unmerited, unearned, the grace that you cannot and do not have to do anything to get for yourself, the grace of God which brings with it ultimate forgiveness, and often takes those with the greatest faults and sins in their history to do great and wonderful things in the Kingdom of God.

Think, for example, of Moses, who murdered an Egyptian; Peter, who denied the Lord three times; David who committed adultery and then conspired to have the woman’s husband put to death to cover the fact that he had gotten her pregnant---and that was only one of his great faults throughout his lifetime. Think of Paul, who had set about imprisoning and murdering Christians in his Pharasaical zeal; Think of the one known as the “good thief”---who was a violent insurrectionist, who was welcomed into heaven simply because he asked Jesus to “remember me.”

Think of the power of grace in their lives. Think of the mercy and forbearance of the Lord. Think of the fact that these great sinners are the ones who become the principal players in salvation history.

And then think of yourself. Are you sometimes tempted to think that your failings or your weaknesses might separate you from God’s grace? Are you sometimes tempted to think that because of what you had done in your life, God would never use you to do any good at all?

Open your arms wide and accept the free gift which is more powerful than any other force in your life, no matter how lost you may be, no matter how guilty you may be, no matter how low your self-esteem or your ability to  make you way easily through life.

It is a completely free gift, and it is yours. Take it for yourself, and don’t bother yourself to think of the consequences. Leave that to God, and, once again, to God’s grace.

You are God’s work of art.

God bless you!