Daily Lesson for May 4, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke 7 verses 41 through 43 and 47:

41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly. . . 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

If we were to understand the depths of God's mercy, compassion, love, and forgiveness then we could never say another does not belong.  We would know the fullness of God's own love for us and for others and then be in complete union with God and all others. The biblical word for this is reconciliation or atonement (at-one-ment).  Those who find this are at complete peace with themselves, God, and those around them -- even their enemies. 

But what keeps us from entering the fullness of this atonement with God and others is so often our own failure to comprehend the degree to which we have been forgiven and saved.  And how can we comprehend that degree of forgiveness and salvation if we do not yet comprehend the degree of our own perdition.  It is impossible to understand the potency of the medication a doctor prescribes, if you don't have a clue about the severity of the sickness. 

It's not really too great a wonder why we will often find more grace and compassion amongst those in the recovery community than we do those in the church. Those seeking sobriety know they are nothing more than sinners saved by grace. They know themselves -- their own sickness -- and the power of God's healing love; and they are willing to give this love to others. As Jesus said, "Those who are forgiven much love much."

I once pastored an elderly woman who was making plans for her funeral arrangements. She was the kind of woman who had everything in order -- right down to the flowers.  She also had a penchant for looking down on those who did not have everything together themselves. As a part of her funeral wishes, she wanted to make sure I had in my file that the hymn "Amazing Grace" was not be sung at her service.  Her problem was the stanza, "that saved a wretch like me."  "I," she said with a lift of her nose, "am not a wretch."

She has passed now and I bet she has finally learned to sing the hymn. And if not God is patient. For as the song says after 10,000 years she'll just be getting warmed up to sing God's praise for what God has done for her and all the other once blind but now blessed wretches who have finally come to understand just how amazing God's grace, love and forgiveness really are. P