Grace

'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them', so the Pharisees and scribes grumbled about Jesus (Lk: 15: 1 - 10). Grumbling for us means a minor moan about something small and insignificant, but here it means they were really annoyed with Jesus. A moan that would ultimately lead the Pharisees to seek Jesus' life. To answer their grumbling, Jesus told them two parables about finding lost things and rejoicing over the find. He says it twice, 'there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents...'. Joy is the result of finding what was lost.

So much of our thinking about repentance and salvation is shaped by Christendom. We often associate it with coming to our senses, straightening out our act, giving up our bad behaviours, and trudging along the 'narrow' way. In this mindset, repentance also means abiding by rules and regulations often set for us by others. We act Christianly, and put on the right appearance, following the rules of Christian convention. However, I'm not sure Jesus quite sees it that way. What did repentance mean for the sheep in his parable, which didn't come to its senses and turn back, and for the coin, which cannot actually do anything but just be found? Is not the emphasis here on being found, rather than our act of turning back? Is it not about God's grace, rather than our righteousness?

Often God finds us while we are busy doing other things, and then leads us back to him bit by bit. Like the coin we can be buried under so many things that God needs to sweep away the garbage that is hiding the real us. When God does find us, the real us, the sinner and the outcast us, there is real joy, not only for God and heaven, but for us as well.

'I once was lost, but now I am found...' Amazing Grace!

Chris