The Need for Grace in Disgraceful Times
Sometimes I get a hankering for Southern cookng, so yesterday I settled on sweet tea, corn bread and Boston baked beans. Didn’t have any blackeyed peas in the pantry. Maybe, being thankful and making do with what you have, can turn simple meals into feasts of grace.
Food has a way of doing that. Last Sunday we celebrated Canada’s Thanksgiving Holiday with Kristina and Chad’s Canadian friends, Sian, Murry, Una and Clark. Sian’s cooking merits Michelin stars. So I love invitations to their home. Sunday celebrated friendship and the blessing of good neighbors, like the Whytes and Canada. Hospitality is grace making room at the table.
But the media also bears headlines about disgrace. Disgrace is “the loss of respect, honor, or social approval, typically caused by shameful or unacceptable behavior.” Disgraceful acts like rape, livestreaming executions, and spreading fear through lies about elections and vaccinations. Add to that, cutting funds to feed the hungry, research to fight disease, find cures. Meanwhile, measles spread, as do threats, arrests, and killing or wounding of innocent people. Some acts are disgrace-full!
But I refuse to linger on what’s wrong. It’s like a whirlpool that threatens to suck me under. I need a shot of hope. You, too? So, what feeds hope for you?
For me, the best place is Sunday at the communion table where hope comes through Jesus, who is Grace. We bring our guilt, shame, fears , sorrows to the table and feast on Christ’s forgiveness, mercy, and love.
Well, it’s lunchtime. I bought some curried pumpkin soup, I’d share, but there’s just enough for one. I could add water, like Mama did when someone unexpected showed up. Grace helps us stretch stuff and ourselves to make good things happen.
But I think I’ll just post this, eat undiluted soup, then reflect on C.S. Lewis’s words, ” You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Grace bridges the gulf between what was and is, to what’s possible in us and others.
That feels hopeful.
For you, too?