The Rule of Grace page 1

Christianity seems like a confusing morass every time I walk into a bookstore with any size of religion section. How does one begin to find their way into this faith in a man whose whole collected sayings could take up a small pamphlet? As a pastor, priest, and teacher of the Gospel of Jesus, I have been banging my head against catechism from the beginning. The theologian in me wants to begin in one place, and the Biblical scholar (amateur) wants to begin in another. And, no, they are not the same place! The historian wants four years, and the deacon want to put you on the streets tonight. The beginning place I am going to argue for ultimately is the Rule of Grace. I lifted it, of course, from the Sermon on the Mount. So we can all agree to that at least. Theologians, scholars, historians, deacons and priests. The Rule of Grace is this: we are to act towards others as God-in-Jesus has acted towards us. It is said in various ways throughout the Gospels. You are to love as you have been loved, forgive as you have been forgiven. It really is that simple. The rest is explanation and commentary, catechism and formation. It could take us years or millennia to work out what all that simple command means, but it is our touchstone. If you want to know how your day went, ask that question. If you want to plan tomorrow, plan to be that. There is, of course, a lot to be written about how we arrive at that line understanding who that God-in-Jesus is and was and how to actually live out such a broad statement. We have to see the Rule of God along the way and come to understand ourselves in some new and exciting ways. But I want to divert for a moment to tell you why you never hear it put quite that way anywhere else. Most people, including pastors, fail to believe in the God of Jesus. We just cannot comprehend, much less trust, that God sees us, knows us, hates our separation from him, and then loves us beyond all social mores and broken hearted waiting on us to return from the pig fields we have woken up in. But that my sister, is the message of the Gospel. God loves you. God came to us, embodied in a man who gave up all claims to power and prestige to give us the picture of the anti-kingdom. God came when we couldn't' find our way home. Most of us just can't get that. We are unprepared for such a relationship by our lives and current culture. But that is the good news of it all. And the cultures' other appearance of truth is why Paul reminds us that faith is trust in things unseen.