In response to a number of requests, I’ve published my three studies on the theme of “Grace”, which I did for the United Reformed General Assembly 2006 last month. They are in the “pages” section. They can also be found on the Windermere Centre website - probably in more readable form! Cutting and pasting in this programme generates all sorts of layout difficulties, as you’ll see: when I have more time, I shall have a fifth go at getting the layout perfect!
I take three familiar Lukan passages or blocks, and look at how a failure to understand grace makes them appear far less radical than they are. My basic thesis is that we (Christians) actually don’t like grace! It’s unfair, it’s dangerous, and it drives a coach and horses through our settled world of just deserts. The resistance to grace innoculates us against seeing things in these familiar texts that are converting and transformatory. So I look first at Luke’s treatment of Jesus and John the Baptist, under the theme of “The priority of grace over judgement”. The second study is the parable of the Prodigal and his brother, under the theme of “The grace that refuses to disown us”. The final study is Luke’s account of the death of Jesus, and how grace saves us. The theme is “The grace that does not abandon us to the darkness of our choices”.
I’ll welcome any comments you have to make!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
That is so true! I just read through Jonah again. I never understood why that book was in the Bible. I used to ask God, “Why did You put that fish story in there, anyway?”
You know, we serve a God of mercy! He has compassion on all people, even the people we don’t like. Jonah couldn’t understand why God would want to show mercy to Nineveh, a crude city of great size and similar to Sodom and Gomorrah in many ways. Jonah knew that if he went to Nineveh and preached to them they’d repent. And Jonah didn’t think they deserved to repent; they needed to be punished for what they’d been doing (we’d think the same thing; we do every day.) But God showed them mercy anyway, even when they didn’t deserve it!
God shows us mercy too, even when we don’t deserve it. How much more—when we’ve been forgiven so many times—should we show mercy to others! Oh, this is such a powerful message for the Body of Christ! We need to grasp the importance of this message and make it our own. Un-forgiveness is growing rampant in the Church like a weed, and it’s choking out the life of her. Lawrence, you’re preaching the right thing. Please keep it up!
~Jonathan