Yep - and the Liberal Post Isn't As Liberal As You Think

Actually, the one before it - Insane Grace - is a pretty liberal post, Michael. You see, most conservatives that I know will offer little dollops of grace - bite-sized gracelets... ugh. I think that I've shared with you before (though I think it was an email) that some of the most Grace-filled people I've met were wildly liberal in their theology. They didn't care that I bordered on fundamentalism, they wanted to share in Christ with me, as a brother or sister in Christ. Yes, we debated - argued sometimes - but it was NEVER mean-spirited, name-calling, "You're going to hell because you don't really know Jesus but He's MY best friend!!" It was always with an attempt to understand and to reveal to me (not to "make me see" - but to try to share in a way that I could understand) what they believed.

I'm not a fundamentalist anymore. I'm still pretty conservative, yet you and I agree on so many things.

I just overheard a conversation this afternoon. The woman who was talking is a devout Christian woman, she gives deeply of herself and her stuff. She serves God in so many ways. However. She has a problem with bitterness. Don't cross her, she won't forget (she might forgive...but...). So, anyway, she was complaining about the Amish - "Anyone who grew up near them like I did would NEVER say they are a forgiving people..." You know, I hear that over and over again. Yet I see one Amish community that at least seems to be trying.

Gracelets...

You're right, Michael, INSANE GRACE is the only kind. It's what a wife just a few weeks ago offered her husband who had had an affair, it's what a friend of mine offers her abusive ex-husband. It's insane - it doesn't make any sense at all.

It's grace.

So, since we're on the subject. I found another grace quote that's going into my hall of fame:

"During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Otherreligions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room."'What's the rumpus about?' he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, 'Oh, that's easy. It's grace.'"

After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path,the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional."

Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables."


Maybe we analyze and define too much. Maybe we just need to show grace. That's not liberal or conservative or whatever. That's Jesus...