A 'fool' for grace

Partly as a function of age, I'm not a sound sleeper. Nature calls too often. When sleep does come, though, my dreams tend to be optimistic.

Nightmares, more common early in life, are quite infrequent now.

In my nocturnal state, wars are resolved, enmities are ended, pain is eased, relationships are reconciled, et al.

I'm able to forgive anyone and anything in sleep.

When my eyes open, of course, this changes, which is why the concept of grace is so difficult -- not only for me, but virtually everyone.

Explaining grace

Grace, as I discuss in my New Testament Literature class at Southeast, is extending forgiveness when we perceive it has not been deserved or earned.

To put a fine point on it, grace is the inverse of transactionalism, upon which so many relationships seem to be built.

In a transaction, when we order a beverage at a coffee shop, we pay for it after it arrives. It's not free.

Transactional relationships are much the same.

If I do something for you, the expectation is you will reciprocate in some way.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

Business networking is built on this understanding and it makes sense.

In the interests of complete transparency, since the pastorate is part of my past, I can now safely say I gave more attention to parishioners who treated me well.

That's transactionalism. It's a Pavlovian response. It's human to react in this fashion.

Breaking with transactionalism

So, to go a different direction, to extend grace, unmerited forgiveness, to those who have done little or nothing to earn it, seems counterintuitive.

It may seem foolish.

The Pennsylvania radio station for which I worked as a young broadcaster had a program called "Fools for Christ."

The show was unmemorable, but the show's title had relevance.

Jesus of Nazareth regularly confused his own disciples with ideas that to them may have sounded foolish in a dangerous society dominated by Romans.

I'll share some of those ideas below but first we look at how the second person of the Trinity met his temporal demise.

Crucifixion was a penalty meted out by the world's dominant empire in the first century C.E. to keep those in occupied territories in their place.

On a cross, you die by asphyxiation and crucifixion was the form of capital punishment used with the worst of Rome's enemies.

Asphyxia has its origins in Greek, the original language of the New Testament and literally means "without a pulse."

Jesus was executed in this fashion.

St. Paul was fixated on the manner of Jesus' death and often resorted to rhetoric about it that on first hearing was downright dumbfounding.

"We preach Christ crucified, a stumbiing block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles ... for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (I Corinthians 1:23, 25)

You and I can spend the rest of our lives unpacking the Apostle's words and trying to live them.

Jesus' words

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for them who spitefully use you and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

In other words, Jesus promoted a way of behaving toward others that seems, on its face, to be foolish.

I won't presume to speak for you, but if someone else had said the aforementioned, I'd tend to disregard the recommendations with immediate effect.

Can't ignore Jesus, though, so I must give serious consideration to what the gospel writer reports he said.

A co-worker of mine likes to use the acronym EGR to describe difficult folks, meaning "extra grace (is) required" in dealing with them.

It's difficult to follow Jesus' path and frankly, a large part of my mind resists it but if we want to have peace with others, the Master's policy is the only truly successful path forward.