I preach grace. And when I am done preaching on grace I usually preach another sermon on grace!
Preaching grace is easy. Living grace is hard. The alternative to grace, judgment, is just as easy to preach and it is a lot easier to live, too. Most of us have an inner Pharisee, an aspect of our personality that can easily fall into the pattern of judging and looking down our noses at others.
Jesus was always around the sort of people that I tend to judge. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus was called “a friend of sinners.” That’s good news for all of us but sometimes it’s hard to accept. People in his day (and in our day, too), wondered if it was possible to be a non-judgmental person.
Brian McLaren writes about this, “Jesus debated the Pharisees not so that his super-orthodoxy of the exclusively right could finally prevail over theirs, but so that his generous orthodoxy of God’s saving love for all could open wide the doors to God’s house, with a special welcome for the poor, the brokenhearted, the prisoners, the sick and yes, even the mistaken.”
Jesus wanted his detractors to see how generous God was with God’s love. Jesus teaches us to love like that too. He invites us to let go of our inner pharisee so that we can be embraced by the love of God as we open our hearts to the world.
Sometimes we have a hard time doing this because we are not sure that God will really accept us. We hold back on following Jesus closely because we are uncertain that he will really welcome us to join him in his generous love.
Do you remember the old gospel hymn “Just As I Am?” It is one that was sung at the end of revivals for many, many years. The four-word title is accurate, JUST AS I AM. God invites you and me, just as we are, to receive the forgiveness of God and then God sends us out to the world to share that same message of grace.
Saying goodbye to our inner pharisee will help us find the joy of a life lived in the light of God’s forgiving and empowering love.
Grace and peace to you,
-Glen
