Sometimes, the Spirit begins with something very small. Grace can be sneaky. Someone forgives us—and we begin to believe we can live differently. Someone challenges an assumption we’ve never thought to question. An opportunity comes knocking and we respond. Or… we read Paul’s letter to the Romans for the hundredth time… and fall headfirst into the arms of God. That is what we celebrate today.
Grace gives us the room to ask forgiveness. To learn something we thought we already knew. To let someone love us. To ask ourselves, “What might I do with the life God has given me?”
Because the God who knows the whole truth about us…is loving us beyond our deserving, forgiving us beyond our failures, opening our minds and emboldening our hearts so we can love our neighbors, and freeing us for a future filled with grace and possibility!
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We have become extraordinarily practiced at contempt.
It is different from disagreement. It is different even from anger.
Anger says, “What you did is wrong.”
Contempt makes a judgment about what you are.
It is the eye roll. The sneer.
The little laugh when somebody we dislike says something foolish.
It is the pleasure we feel when someone on the other side gets humiliated.
It is taking the worst example of a group of people and using that person to explain everybody in the group.
A player misses the shot, drops the pass, strikes out, or makes the mistake that costs the game.
Within minutes, strangers who have never met him are flooding his social-media accounts.
You're worthless. You should never play again.
Sometimes they go after the player's spouse or children.
Think about that.
A human being failed at something while millions of people were watching.
Something every one of us has done—failed.
And our response can be: Make him hurt. That is contempt.
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The problem is that when we examine our own hearts—we find God's good seed and the bad seed growing together—both are present.
Every one of us knows what it is to love generously one day... and act selfishly the next.
The field isn't just out there. The field is in here. Inside our hearts.
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The Bible has a name for this: sin. It is not simply the things we do wrong, but the power within us that twists what is good. Sin is the power that turns freedom into selfishness. Sin is the power that turns love into possession, justice into vengeance, and neighbors into enemies.
If the problem were ignorance, we'd need better education. If the problem were bad laws, we'd need better legislation. If the problem were lack of discipline, we'd need more willpower. But if sin has taken hold of the human heart, then we need more than advice—we need redemption.
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“A decree goes out. Not a conversation. Not a question. Not a community forum. A decree. A registry. A journey demanded. A law passed in an office far away from those it would affect.
No one asked if Mary was tired.
No one asked if Joseph was worried.
No one asked where they’d sleep… or what they’d eat… or who would be there when the baby came.
Empire never asks those questions.”
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The temple must’ve been busy that day — sandals scuffing stone, prayers murmured in the air, incense curling toward heaven. Two men walk in. One stands tall and prays about all the things he’s done right. The other can’t even lift his head. He just whispers seven words: “God, make atonement for me, a sinner.”
And Jesus says that man — the honest one — went home right with God.
Because mercy isn’t something we earn. It’s what meets us when the pretending stops.
We live in a world that rewards performance — say the right thing, post the right cause, look like you’ve got it together. But mercy doesn’t live on the stage. It lives in the quiet places where we tell the truth and discover we’re still loved.
That’s what grace does. It finds us — Pharisee hearts and tax-collector hearts alike — and sends us home lighter, forgiven, and free.
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