Just A Little Grace

He probably was testing Jesus, doubting Jesus knew what He was talking about because Jesus was from that unremarkable and insignificant town of Nazareth. The people of Nazareth, in fact all Galileans, had a low reputation among the elite, the educated, the higher class.  Even Nathanael asked Philip: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” That was until he met the man named Jesus. Wanting to challenge Jesus because he wanted to be justified in his own beliefs, the law expert asked who is one’s neighbors, believing as some did that only righteous people were one’s neighbors not sinners or Samaritans, or non-Jews.  Because if one is a sinner, then the person can’t be a “neighbor” of a righteous person.  But Jesus obliterates his small-minded, prejudicial, and hateful view of who is righteous or who is a neighbor. 

Who is our neighbor? To whom do we give our time and talent, our resources, our love, and compassion?  We are to go beyond the walls of our church and seek those who need our help without expecting anything in return.  We are to look beyond the familiar and comfortable and stretch ourselves to embrace those who are unapproachable, to love the unlovely, to welcome the reprobate, the unlikeable; we are to serve the unappreciative, the hateful, the ones who throw our kindness back in our faces.  Those are our neighbors, too.

In 1 Peter 4: 10 Peter speaks of the manifold grace of God that He has bestowed on all of us. And we are to do the same. Just a little grace goes a long way in establishing the kingdom of God.  Each of us has grace to give to those we know and to those who are “strangers.”

God tells us His grace is enough for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness.  If God gives us grace, as His body, we are privileged and obligated to extend grace to each other and to others outside our intimate circles. 

I just need a little grace, as I offer you grace.

Lord, we dedicate this day and our lives to You, to Your service.  All that we have is from You; all that we give and receive is by Your bounty and Your grace.  We thank You for loving us and giving us of Your Holy Spirit so that we may graciously carry out the mandate Jesus left us to do Your work while it is still day.  Amen.