Easter

In advance of the Easter weekend, I wanted to share with each of you a blog (this word "blog"---what does it mean and why do I think I am hip enough to use it?) that JR Vasser wrote yesterday. Enjoy it.


Grace on the N,R,W

A couple of weeks ago, my family got on a subway to head home from an outing downtown. On to the subway walked a homeless man who was probably the poorest person I have seen in the western hemisphere. He was covered in filth. It appeared that he had never shaved or had a haircut. He was carrying a Styrofoam box that contained a chicken club. He sat down on the subway car floor just a few feet away from me and begin to tear the sandwich apart. With his blackened hands, he picked through the sandwich trying to find the bacon. After consuming that, he re-assembled his sandwich and holding it in one hand, scooted around the cart on his knees stretching out his other hand to beg.

I thought about that guy for several days. I wondered how he ended up there. I wondered how is one supposed to help a guy in that condition. I wondered if I should have given him anything. And then a thought came to me that shocked me, "Maybe I should have knelt down and embraced him." Imagine that. Stooping to embrace one who is covered in filth and grime and stench. Taking one in my arms who is poor and weak and who can do nothing for me. I must be honest, the thought of doing that made me cringe. It sounds absurd, unrealistic, unsanitary, and beyond my boundaries. It sounds like grace.

This is the gospel: a loving God stooped and lavished his love on people who were filthy, weak, poor, and unable to do anything for Him. Yet, for some reason, I think it is less of a stretch for God to do that for me than for me to hug a bum. Apparently, I have not really grasped this grace thing. I have not seen my own poverty and Jesus' wealth. And I have not seen him becoming poor for my sake so that through his poverty I might become rich. If I really savored the stooping love of God He lavished on me, one who is bankrupt of righteousness and no better off than a streetcar begger, then maybe stooping to love one a few rungs down on the social ladder would not be a jarring concept. I am not advocating we hug homeless people, though I think Jesus would and doing so might mean more to them than a fifth of vodka. I am advocating that we let God's grace turn us into stooping lovers who without prejudice lavish grace on all people.

See http://www.manhattanpastor.blogspot.com/ for more of JR's blogs.

Happy Easter to all of you.

P.S. Christine is inching closer to the computer at home. She's promised us a blog this weekend!