Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Practicing the Third Way

I preached a fun, but challenging, sermon this past week—about Jesus’ invitation to choose a radical, alternative Third Way whenever we are faced with the old, stale, ineffective binary options. I challenged us to be curious and creative in how we think about our engagement with other, and especially those who differ from us.

And yet, that’s really hard to actually do. Truthfully, I’m terrible at it. I regularly fall prey to the black-and-white, either/or, us vs. them mentality that currently plagues our world.


And yes, the radical way of Jesus is quite challenging, but sometimes we overthink it—and I was reminded of that by the words of this simple meme: “let’s respond with grace, even when others don’t.”

 

When I first read that simple phrase, I was floored by how perfectly it aligned with my sermon. Of course! What better Third Way could there be than grace?!

 

In a world of keeping score, holding grudges, negative political ads, Facebook fighting, bench-clearing brawls, and literal wars, grace is the most radical, transcendent, third way of living imaginable.

 

So, I need not say any more. As followers of Jesus—the one who came to bring ultimate mercy and forgiveness—let’s be people of grace, even when others aren’t.


[also, you can check out the whole sermon HERE]

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