Addams
You Bet Your ASS Team
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Well we heard a most interesting homily today (sermon is another word for homily). The minister spoke about grace. She spoke really well. One story she told was the story from Les Miserables. Were Jean Valjean was caught by the police after he stole the silver from the Bishop's home. The police took him back to the Bishop (Valjean had a long criminal record already) and the bishop said how pleased Valjean had returned because he had forgotten to take the candlesticks and pressed them into Valjean's hands.
She talked about how grace often seems unfair whilst legalistic and tit-for-tat arrangements seem fair. However it is grace that makes us feel better and it is grace that has the power to change others. In the case of Valjean to turn his heart into a gentle kind and generous heart because of the grace that was shown to him.
The minister also mentioned that grace usually involves sacrifice. You give something up, some right, voluntarily. You may give up being acknowledged for something you did or you may even give up righteous indignation in order to be gracious to another person.
I have found this has stuck with me all day and oddly enough before going to church I was playing the hymn Amazing Grace and thinking about the words and the story of that hymn.
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