05-14-25

zECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 14, 2025
Guest Writer: Robert Cobb, a friend of Cypress Creek Christian Church
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…”.   Ephesians 2:8

“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love”.   Psalm 145:8

Richard Rohr in a recent meditation writes that Grace is not something God gives, grace is who God is. Grace is what God does to keep alive ,forever, all things that God has created in love. If we are to believe the primary witnesses- the prophets, the mystics, the saints, the transformed people- an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe, teaches Rohr.

He further tells us the concept of grace is first called mercy, or hesed in Hebrew: the ever faithful, covenant bound, infinite and eternal love of God. 

Rohr teaches that every moment is not obvious as God, and as grace; it looks quite simply like another ordinary moment. Yet our willingness to recognize it as gratuitous -as a free gift, as self-revelatory, as a possibility -allows it to be that way.   

John 1:16 reminds us that “From God’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

In this time when there is so much fear of others not like us, it seems to me we can remind ourselves that God’s grace is extended to all of creation, not just parts of it, therefore, it is truly meant for everyone.  We may often see someone who has an expression on their face that indicates they are struggling. Perhaps it’s due to illness, loss, anger over an unfair situation, even fear and it’s at that time we are called to silently ask the God we believe created us all to bless that person and give them comfort and, if we are fortunate to be able to do so, to reach out and hold that person with love. In either instance, we are the very instruments of God’s grace.

May each of us see and offer grace to all, even as we ourselves receive grace from the One who Created us and who is Grace.