Fields United Methodist Church

Jesus Along the Way: Words of Grace and Hope.                     Pastor Tom Joyce

October 20, 2020

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.”   Ephesians 2:8

In the midst of a pandemic, there is grace; in the midst of sickness and loss, there is grace; in the midst of an election cycle, there is grace. Grace is the greatest gift that our Lord Jesus Christ has given because Jesus is grace, that undeserved, unwavering, amazing love of God that has been with us from the time of our conception. Grace by definition is God’s love that has no boundaries, is not confined to place nor does it care about the color of someone’s skin, their ethnicity, nationality, or how they worship; it is a gift that sees all people as beloved and honored.  Growing up, my dad told me that electricity is always waiting for you to make a mistake, so be careful. I made a few mistakes and was shocked by the result…  But God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, is not waiting for us to make a mistake, Jesus is waiting for us to respond to the grace that has been instilled in our heart from the time it began to beat to turn back to the One who wants more than anything for us to accept what has been given. The crazy thing about grace is that once you have accepted it, it transforms every move, every thought, and every word to experience the joy of seeing the world and all within the world as gifts from God. Grace “saves us” from self-serving motives that do nothing to draw us closer to God and to each other. Maybe the gift is letting go of all that stuff that keeps us from truly celebrating life as a gift rather than a burden to bear.  You have been blessed today, truly blessed with the gift of God’s grace. The answer to the challenges that may be surrounding you today, the unrest and uncertainty of the age in which we live, is the grace of God given freely through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; you don’t earn it, can’t buy it but you can accept it and by doing so you will experience not only life, but life in abundance. It is all about that grace.

Rev. Tom Joyce