Grace That Runs Toward

I'm still thinking about grace experiences. How do we move beyond just talking about grace and learning about grace to actually encountering grace? How do we offer that as an experiential reality for those who need grace and seeking grace?

Pure and radical grace in Jesus Christ comes free of conditions. That's what makes it grace. It's what makes "Just As I Am..." a reality. Yet most churches by their very facility set conditions. So many congregations have permanent buildings. In essence we say, "If you find us, then you can have the grace we offer. If you figure out which door to enter, if you discover which hall leads to the place of worship, if you find your way around the specific way we do worship, then you'll get God's grace." Now, none of us intend to place conditions on the gift of God we want people to receive. Still, to the unreached person, we communicate this message by default: "Come to us, and you'll get grace." Intentional or not, that's a condition.

Contrast that with the grace which Jesus describes in the story of the "prodigal son" and the forgiving father. (See chapter 15 of the gospel of Luke.) The son has shamed his father and wished his father dead. (Asking for his inheritance immediately, the son basically says to his father, "I wish you were dead.") Yet, upon deciding to return home, his father sees him from far off. This means the father was actively looking for the son who had cursed him. When he sees his son dragging himself home, the father runs to him. Landed gentry in that culture did not run. It was hard to do in their long, flowing robes and it was beneath them to run to anyone for anything. But this father hikes up his robes and risks ridicule and shame to go to his son. Grace doesn't sit and wait to be found. Grace runs toward and seeks.

So somehow a grace experience is not one that sits and waits for people to take advantage of it. That creates a condition, and that is not radical grace. Somehow a grace experience needs to actively seek and run toward. How would we do that in these days?

On down a perplexing but important stretch of the river...