Grace – what should be our response?

Grace – what should be our response?

Grace, she takes the blame

She covers the shame

Removes the stain

It could be her name

Grace it's a name for a girl

It's also a thought that changed the world

And when she walks on the street

You can hear the strings

Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she's got the walk

She's got the time to talk

She travels outside of karma

She travels outside of karma

When she goes to work

You can hear her strings

Grace finds beauty in everything

Grace, she carries a world on her hipsNo champagne flute for her lipsNo twirls or skips between her fingertipsShe carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurtWhat once was frictionWhat left a markNo longer stingsBecause grace makes beautyOut of ugly things

Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

Grace is not about what I do, but about what God is doing.

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‘the furious love of God.’

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Matthew 9:9-13Passing along, Jesus saw a man collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, "Come along with me." Matthew stood up and followed him.

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and said to Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?"

Matthew 9:9-13

Jesus heard that. So he said, "Those who are healthy don't need a doctor. Sick people do. Go and learn what this means, 'I want mercy and not sacrifice.'—(Hosea 6:6) I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me. I have come to get sinners to follow me."

Ragamuffin Gospel

• When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and I get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty, I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

Ragamuffin Gospel• To live by grace means to acknowledge my

whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God’s grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, “A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.”[Manning,]

Luke 18

Luke 19

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New International Reader's Version)

God's grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn't come from anything you do. It is God's gift. It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it.

Paul Tillich

"You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask the name now, perhaps you will know it later. Do not try to do anything, perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything, do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.”

But he said to me, "My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak." So I am very happy to brag about how weak I am. Then Christ's power can rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Ragamuffin Gospel

The Kingdom belongs to people who aren't trying to look good or impress anybody, even themselves. They are not plotting how they can call attention to themselves, worrying about how their actions will be interpreted or wondering if they will get gold stars for their behavior.The child doesn't have to struggle to get himself in a good position for having a relationship with God; he doesn't have to craft ingenious ways of explaining his position to Jesus; he doesn't have to create a pretty face for himself; he doesn't have to achieve any state of spiritual feeling or intellectual understanding. All he has to do is happily accept the cookies: the gift of the Kingdom.

Our response?

A matter of the heart..

The difference between faith as "belief in something that may or may not exist" and faith as "trusting in God" is enormous. The first is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart. The first can leave us unchanged, the second intrinsically brings change.