Topic: Grace

Jesus asks us to assess the legitimacy of any ministry by its transforming and liberating outcomes for the world and its peoples.

Jesus seeks out and embraces the outcasts, taking upon himself the hatred and hostility that had been directed at them.

The cross of Jesus can teach us to recognise the innocence of suffering, and so enable us to recognise our own dependence on God’s mercy and to stop digging our own hells.

Jesus’s parables always shock us, and few things shock us more than the outrageous graciousness that God shows us and calls for from us.

Our unwitting abusive treatment of the Royal family is a symptom of our entanglement in systemic persecution.

Jesus calls all who are worn out from maintaining appearances as hosts to relax into the humility of being guests.

Those who are insiders in the life of God are characterised by their love and compassion for all, especially those deemed unworthy of it, and by the humility to be schooled by outsiders.

All our dinners are an anticipation of the vision of a new world, where God’s very self dwells with mortals, all are welcomed, and all pain is taken away.

We come to be followers of Jesus, not when we believe certain facts about him, but when we hear his voice and follow what it says (even if we don’t know where the voice comes from).

The resurrection of Jesus opens a path and calls us to follow into a life that is no longer dominated by the crucifying powers that destroy some of us and dehumanise others.

All that matters about God, about sin and forgiveness, and about living with integrity and freedom, flows from the human encounter with the crucified and risen Jesus.

A close encounter with God in Christ can make us paralysingly aware of our own sin and failure, but the experience of grace can transform that into a solidarity and gratitude that empowers us.