Trouble, but no grace

Paul Scott Wilson, preacher/teacher par excellence, says that preachers tend to do very well talking about trouble, but not so well talking about grace. He has a pattern that is very helpful. First look at trouble in the Bible, then trouble in the world, grace in the Bible, then grace in our world. Part of the problem is that even when we are trying to talk about grace, we end up heaping more trouble.

Today's service was a lesson in point. While visiting family in TX, I attended a contemporary service with my niece and her husband. The music and energy was good. Their band had more players than we usually have at our contemporary service in total. Of course, AnnaMaria playing the keyboard makes up for 10 or more musicians. I digress. Music was good. An opening drama was good. The proclamation left something to be desired. It was titled "Sin." The preacher, while folksy and sometimes humorous, dealt with sin and trouble in the world (not even in the Bible), using a definition that sin creates conflict in our relationship with God, with each other and the world. That's all well and true. He left us with the admonition that we don't want to create this conflict, and so do better about it. That was the gist of the sermon. I thought maybe I was being a bit critical, as preachers are wont to be, until my younger compatriots spoke up on the way home. They had gotten the same point as I, and missed the grace as well.

The grace of God, as Paul the Apostle well knows, is all that keeps me from falling completely to my sin. In Romans 7:15-19, he speaks of willing to do good, but not being able to do it. Yes, I must cooperate with the grace and will to do the good, but all my willing will not make it happen. In the end, all I can do is give thanks to God for the overwhelming grace I experience in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. And so, bathed in that grace, I learn to live in grace and offer grace to all the others who are sinners like me. Thanks be to God!