Grace & Peace
Feb 12th, 2008 by Amanda
Most of you know that I’ve given up TV for Lent in an effort to find an intimacy with God that has been missing in my life. So tonight, while my roommate was in the living room watching American Idol without me, I listened to a podcast from Mars Hill Church, of which Rob Bell is the pastor. The topic was Grace & Peace. I thought it was very fitting, since many of our contributors (2 of the 4) wrote about forgiveness this week. In fact, I thought it was so good that I’m listening to it for a second time while writing this.
Did you know that the apostle Paul began nearly every single letter (if not all with them) by wishing grace and peace to his audience? Everything he does he begins with “grace and peace to you.” What if everything we did began with “grace and peace to you”?
There are a few different definitions of grace, by different scholars…
I wish you favor, joy, pleasure, gratification, acceptance… and peace to you.
I wish you a favor done without expectation of return… and peace to you.
The absolutely free expression of the love of God finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of God… and peace to you.
Pretty cool, eh?
Joy, acceptance, favor, pleasure, every kind of good… to you.
I don’t know about you, but I like that. Rob is definitely right when he says, “I need grace and peace. I need people to speak grace and peace to me. I need to be reminded of it. ” He’s not the only one. I do too. It’s not often that grace and peace come from my lips.
Jesus says, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” One mystic says that to know everything is to forgive everything. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them.”
We need grace and peace for our enemies. Have you been wronged? Betrayed? Abandoned? Cheated on? Deserted? Stabbed in the back?
What would it be like to be so rooted and grounded in grace and peace…
So soaked and marinated in grace and peace that you could forgive people even as they’ve driven nails into your arms and feet?
Jesus forgives them while he’s still on the cross.
What would it be like to have that kind of grace and peace for your enemies? For the people you hate? For the people who have wronged you?
What would it be like if we could be so marinated and so alive in grace and peace that even to those that have most broken our hearts we could speak grace and peace?
It would change the world.
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Crossposted at Common Ground.
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