Grace and Truth.

I don’t know of any Christians who don’t think these are essential values of the Christian faith. It is never a question of grace or truth. It is always grace and truth. We know both are necessary and we know that without either one, we would all be toast.

Truth – right knowledge of God, God’s will, God’s word, who we are as sinners in need of a Savior, etc. are absolutely essential to our faith. There are some truths – that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that the Bible is the only authority, that Jesus is the Son of God, etc – that are non-negotiable, for should any of these truths change or be compromised, we cease to be Christian.

Grace – that it’s all God’s grace, all of it – salvation, eternal life, kingdom living, purpose, meaning, joy – it’s all God. It’s all God’s gift. We are completely and absolutely undeserving of any of it. God’s love and plan for salvation for us purely God’s idea, God’s doing, and sustained by God. It’s all grace. No one is deserving. Not one.

This is not up for debate.

The question that is up for debate is in which order should these be applied to people and in relationship with others, particularly those who are not a follower of Jesus Christ.

The right ordering of grace and truth or truth and grace make a huge difference in how Christianity feels to those who are not Christians.

When truth, and people’s acceptance of God’s truth (or our interpretation of God’s truth), is demanded before relationship, that truth is often experienced as offensive, repulsive, and not good news – did you get that? it’s not gospel!

It is still truth, but instead of it giving life and being generous, such truth kills and destroys the possibility for relationship, conversations, and the possibility for someone seeking the Jesus of truth.

Truth is absolutely necessary. But it must not be first. Grace must come first.

Grace says, it’s not just you and others who need Jesus…I need Jesus! Anyone who is in need of Jesus is welcome, loved, and made to feel like they are someone whom Jesus would willingly sacrifice himself on the cross because Jesus could not imagine spending an eternity without you! That’s grace. That’s good news. That’s the gospel!

When such grace is offered and experienced, people are open to conversations, relationships, and opportunities to deal with truth – that we are all sinners in need of a savior.

Jesus doesn’t begin his conversations with people with “Sin, no more.”

That’s how he ends his conversations with people he has conversed with, healed, eaten with, hung out with, and eventually people he’s forgiven, and then he challenges them to “Sin no more” since God has forgiven and changed them.

Truth and grace are both present but grace is offered first.

That’s my aspiration. That’s my hope. That I can offer the grace of Jesus to all people, all sinners in need of a Savior – gay, straight, bi, trans, white, gray, yellow, red, black, young, old – all people, all sinners in need of a Savior – so they can experience the transforming truth of God through grace.

I have been resting, sleeping, watching golf and playing golf, reading, etc. And when not doing those things, I have been assisting Helen organize the house and moving the girls back home for the summer from college.

In the next few days, I will be celebrating the graduations of Karis from the University of Washington and Kailey from Lakes High School.

Here’s the first thing I am learning on Sabbatical: practicing Sabbath is harder than the idea of sabbath-ing.

One of the items that was left undone before I started the sabbatical is the consideration of the work that is required in an 80 year-old facility. We have some major work to do with the sanctuary, and I have been copied on the emails of the session and staff working on the steeple, siding, sanctuary, etc.

It has been soooooooo tempting to chime in. But I have been resisting it.

I want to practice Sabbath…rest…trust.

Here’s what that means for me:

• God is at work. This is God’s church. God knows what’s best for us
• God is at work in through our session and staff. The Little Church and Lakewood Grace has an amazing staff and fantastic leaders on the session. I trust fully in the session and staff’s capacity to listen for God’s guidance and to act on God’s voice

So looking forward to seeing how God will lead the Little Church and Lakewood Grace!

We are blessed with amazing leaders and staff at the Little Church and Lakewood Grace.

Grace is such a lovely word. Grace is so lovely. Grace is so, so pleasant.

While that is true, it is also true that grace sometimes absolutely sucks. Because grace is complicated, messy, stinky, hard. It would be so much easier if grace was nice and clean.

But then, if things were nice and clean, we wouldn’t need grace.

At my previous pastorate we got involved in mowing the lawns of senior citizens on fixed incomes. We learned that there was a city employee going around town handing out fines of $50 a pop for folks who’s grass was above the city ordinance height. This makes perfect sense. Everyone wants their city to look nice.

For most folks, this was not a problem. They mowed their own lawns, or payed someone to do it.

But the folks who were most often cited were senior citizens on fixed income. Not only could they not afford to pay their fines, they didn’t have the money to get their lawns mowed. Couple that with multiple straight weeks where the Texas temperatures hit 100 degrees plus in the summer. These senior citizens had no business getting out in that heat to mow lawns.

But wait…the church had a lot of young people. Young people who were either sleeping in on Saturday mornings or watching cartoons or playing video games.

So, the church challenged our young people to devote 4 hours a month to mow lawns. We were not in the business of putting lawn mowing people out of business. We just wanted to make sure that the senior citizens who couldn’t afford the citation or to have their lawns mowed wouldn’t get fined.

Here’s where grace is awesomely messy and difficult.

For the most part, people who got their lawns mowed were very much deserving. They really were folks in need and folks who really appreciated the help.

When church folks would show up to mow the lawns, and we always asked them to knock on the doors of the people so they knew who we were and why we were there.

And this is where grace got really messy and sucky. There were occasions where the door would open and our volunteers would see not only senior citizens, but young guys, able body guys, sitting in their pjs watching cartoon, playing video games, or sleeping on the couch!

Our volunteers would come back frustrated and angry.

Grace is messy. Grace is complicated.

If you’re in the business of grace, it’s going to get messy.

But stay at it. Still be gracious anyway. There are people who are being helped. There are lives that are being impacted. God knows.

Extend grace anyway.