Amazing Grace

Perusing the books in a local, independent book store, I noticed a colorful volume prominently displayed on a shelf of its own. The colorful cover caught my attention, but it was the title, Amazing Grace, that drew me closer. It turned out to be the history of a local parish. 

If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was a fitting title for any book about a church. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the book describes a place where all are loved, all are invited into the grace-filled arms of God. But the fact is, I do know better, and I turned and walked away in disgust.

The parish whose history is told in the book is one of many in the Episcopal Church choosing to leave the denomination because of the decision to ordain homosexuals. Still stinging from the decision to ordain women in the seventies, I suppose, this recent decision by the Church was simply too much. Now, such churches want to join the more conservative Anglican Church, as they call themselves, but the decision comes at a significant cost – they can leave but can’t take the buildings with them.

I came to Christ because of God’s amazing grace. I was so far from who I was created to be, so far from someone deserving God’s forgiveness and love, which makes it impossible for me to shut the door of the Church on anyone. I have had friends hit me over my head with their red-letter edition of their King James Version of the Bible and tell me how wrong I am, but “here I stand,” to quote Martin Luther. 

When grace is offered to someone as underserving as I, it’s then hard to pick and choose to whom it will be offered next. Who knows, maybe it should even be offered to churches and people who see things differently than I. 

That would be amazing.