Grace

Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
- Thomas Cramner, "Book of Common Prayer"

I heard a sermon recently by Earl Palmer of University Presbyterian Church entitled "Unforgettable Breakthrough". The Scripture was John 5, which has the story of an ill man who had been by the Bethesda pool in Jerusalem for a long time. This pool was supposed to heal people if they went in the pool when the water was stirred up by angels. Jesus went to the pool, and saw this man who had been there for so long. He asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man was so frustrated and beat down that he couldn't even answer the question Jesus asked him. He didn't really seem to hear what Jesus was really asking him. He didn't even know who Jesus was. His response to Jesus was that whenever the water is stirred up, there is no one who would put him in the pool, and other people always get in the way and get there first. Jesus healed him, even though the man didn't answer his question, and didn't know who he was and what Jesus could really do for him. It was an act of sheer grace by Jesus.

The point that Palmer was making was that Jesus simply acts even when we can't hear or don't know what to say. This is comforting to me: that God can work in my life and help me even when I am blind to God's presence in my life or am not able to ask for what I really need.

Another point made in the sermon is that we need to preserve God's freedom. Jesus/God can do whatever God wants whenever God wants. It is striking to think that we as humans think we know what God would or wouldn't do for us. I guess we do this when we judge other people and think we know what God thinks about the people or the situation.

Christ died for us before we were born.
- Pascal