Grace stands at the center of Christian life and Presbyterian doctrine. The power of grace is transformational. It starts with God's grace for his creation and its creatures, particularly the humans who as a species have figured out how to sin with stunning persistence.
The love from which God's grace comes to us is meant to be reflected in the lives of the faithful in their encounters with others. It brings healing to relationships, like that of a mother and daughter pictured, or between co-workers, or between spouses, or between neighbors, and any other relationship you can imagine.
Yet this grace is hard to digest. We turn back to Joseph and his exchange with his brothers following father Jacob's death and see the brothers still unable to comprehend the grace of Joseph. Of course, Joseph had many times experienced the grace of God in his own life, and reflecting it in his maturity was the sign of lesson learned well.
In Matthew, last week's discussion of a manual for correcting the unrepentant in church life now turns to the nature of forgiveness and the grace required to bring healing. Peter's question about forgiveness, How many times, Lord? Seven times? brings Jesus' remark blowing away such a limit - Try seventy seven times! Jesus then gives the parable of the unmerciful servant to illustrate the crazy nature of grace, in particular the crazy nature of God's grace given to each of us.
Check out the sermon video below (nice face again; thanks YouTube!), download the Fairfielder answers and the the sermon text at the links tucked beneath the video panel.
The love from which God's grace comes to us is meant to be reflected in the lives of the faithful in their encounters with others. It brings healing to relationships, like that of a mother and daughter pictured, or between co-workers, or between spouses, or between neighbors, and any other relationship you can imagine.
Yet this grace is hard to digest. We turn back to Joseph and his exchange with his brothers following father Jacob's death and see the brothers still unable to comprehend the grace of Joseph. Of course, Joseph had many times experienced the grace of God in his own life, and reflecting it in his maturity was the sign of lesson learned well.
In Matthew, last week's discussion of a manual for correcting the unrepentant in church life now turns to the nature of forgiveness and the grace required to bring healing. Peter's question about forgiveness, How many times, Lord? Seven times? brings Jesus' remark blowing away such a limit - Try seventy seven times! Jesus then gives the parable of the unmerciful servant to illustrate the crazy nature of grace, in particular the crazy nature of God's grace given to each of us.
Check out the sermon video below (nice face again; thanks YouTube!), download the Fairfielder answers and the the sermon text at the links tucked beneath the video panel.
| 09-14-14-ff-answers.pdf |
| 09-14-14-healing_grace.pdf |