Grace comes first !

Apparently when the Emancipation Proclamation was about to be signed in the United States all the papers were ready and the only thing missing was the President’s signature. Abraham Lincoln had been shaking hands with so many people that morning that his hand had swollen and he didn’t want his signature to be at all shaky. He refused to sign with his hand shaking because he wanted people to know that the signature was firm and represented his confidence in setting the slaves free.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians that we heard from this morning (2:15-21), is often referred to as the emancipation proclamation for the Church – it is written by Paul who had been set free from the slavery of corruption, hate, intolerance and his desire to persecute any Christians, and it defines the freedom of Christians won through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Of course Paul wrote at a time when there was a lot of controversy over the new Christians’ need to remain faithful to the Jewish laws and practises. There were some who believed that all of the old practises should remain, but Paul dismissed these thoughts. He suggested that to concentrate on finding ways of earning salvation, either through good works or any other special discipline, was throwing back the concept of grace into the face of Jesus.

Paul made it clear that salvation comes through the cross and that we are free not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done. A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and for all of World War II. He was a colourful character who used to ride on the New York City fire trucks, go on police raids, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday comics to the children.

One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, an old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.

LaGuardia looked sympathetic, but the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. He felt she had to be punished to teach other people a lesson. LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions, ten dollars or ten days in jail."

But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He took out the money and threw it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. He ordered the Court bailiff to collect the fines and give them to the defendant.

So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

Over and over again we spend time looking at things the Church should be doing, or thinking of the things we could be doing to get closer to God or to help to build his kingdom here on earth, and there’s nothing wrong with any of that, but first and foremost in our thoughts must be the recognition of God’s love and grace, what he has done for us…

Every part of our faith and every bit of inspiration we receive from it must be inspired by the grace of God. In the gospel reading Jesus demonstrates this grace (Luke 7:36-end) as he allowed the sinful woman to anoint his feet. Some of the others at the meal were horrified as they realised what Jesus was doing – associating with the lowest of the low, but he didn’t care. What he saw was a woman who was sorry and who genuinely wanted to give something good to Jesus.

The first thought of Jesus in every situation is love and compassion – how we respond to him will define us as people. Will we choose to be people who think we know enough and can do enough by ourselves to build real happiness and achieve success in our lives, or will we sit back and accept the grace of God and respond to that grace with lives of service to him, and care and compassion to our brothers and sisters everywhere.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus, he reached out to the poor, the destitute, those in despair, the friendless, the hungry, and the homeless. And today Jesus holds out his hand with his palm open to us, welcoming us to a place of peace and a place of rest that the world can not offer. It is only through the grace of God that we are humbled and moved to a new place in our relationship with God.

God's grace can not be earned, it can not be purchased, it can not be negotiated. God's grace heals and inspires. God grace is a gift of love that creeps into our souls and gradually transforms every part of us if we let it.

Today we have the opportunity to know that we too can sit at the feet of Jesus, just like that woman with her ointment, and we can sit, just like her, forgiven by the grace of God. AMEN