Well it was about ten after seven when the call came in. I was driving home from a very nice little chore: buying a few gifts for Abbie’s second birthday. I was feeling kind of tired because I had spent the day organizing the new basement play room for the kids. It was extremely satisfying work. That area downstairs has started to look like a place I wished I had when I was a kid. And don’t parents love to do that? Actually getting things organized in the basement was bringing to a close a project that had dragged on way too long, way too long. But it was done. The carpets were down, furniture had been moved, and there was plenty of Play-doe within easy reach. Everything was as it should be. So I had that tired but relaxed and calm kind of feel, that is until the call came in.

Ann had that sound in her voice. It is the sound I hate because I know that there is something wrong. But my wife is a wonder and a love so she said very diplomatically, “Was there someplace you were supposed to be right now?” I thought to myself, “No I don’t think so.” And I said so. Ann went on, “Well a woman just called from the Kittle House and she said that there was a wedding . . .” My heart just sank. My stomach went in my throat and the rest of my anatomy was not where it was supposed to be either. (Obviously, my whole anatomy was supposed to be somewhere else! I was supposed to be at the Kittle House doing a wedding at 7 PM! Well, that self-satisfied little feeling that I was floating along on was replaced by the feeling I had only really ever experienced in nightmares.

And the worse was yet to come.

I was not dressed, I didn’t have a robe, it is ten minutes to church, and I have no service for these two people. Weeks before the wedding the bride had warned me that she gets very nervous. In fact she told me that the first time she got married she actually hyperventilated and the service had to be stopped as the priest tried to calm her down enough to proceed. I had listened to the story knowingly and then with great confidence. I assured her that there was nothing to worry about this time around. But at twelve after seven I was a little short on confidence about this wedding and I could only imagine what she was feeling.

I ran in my house, tore off my clothes, tried to answer some of Conner’s three thousand questions about what was wrong, and what was I doing, and where was I going, etc. etc. etc. It takes about ten minutes to get to the office from my house. I did it in less than that. I raced in to my office at about twenty five after seven. I had to create a wedding service very quickly. I pulled out a couple of old services hoping one would look approximately like what they wanted. Two of them kind of did. I did a quick synthesis. I was back in my car before seven thirty. Thirty minutes late isn’t that bad I thought. I was of course fooling myself.

7:36 PM I finally arrived over an hour after when I had told them I would be there. And I was sadly under prepared. But surprisingly, I was greeted warmly by the groom who was very relaxed, eerily relaxed, I thought. I blurted out a few lame excuses, he said don’t worry no one else is. They simply had decided to start cocktail hour early.

I said ok, where is the bride. Well, she was okay too. “Really?” I said. “Yep, no problem,” he said. I wondered if she was ok for the same reason everyone else was- now feeling no pain. Miraculously, it seemed as if I was off the hook. It was not nearly as terrible as I had imagined.

There was a little gentle ribbing and Megan Cody was there so she was pretty direct but actually the world had not ended. It was something I could not have been sure of just minutes before.

So it should have been okay. But then something strange happened. I could not relax. I could not get out of this state of agitation. I could not rid myself of that sinking feeling. For all the evidence I could not believe that I had not ruined their wedding. And though I should have been fine I stumbled through the service like I had never done a wedding. This completed the debacle for me but they just seemed happy to have accomplished it, no matter how it happened. I have been pondering this incongruence ever since.

Grace is such a hard thing to deal with and understand. I am not sure anyone really gets it even though we bank on it constantly. We all want to believe that we deserve and have earned all that we are and all that we have but if we really take a moment to think about it we know how absurd that really is. We should know Grace inside and out but we have to be taught. At least that is what Jesus thought because he taught about Grace all the time.

These two stories are great examples. The second is most telling and I will speak of it first. It is about a young man who wants to know how he might inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him if he is good enough. If you were good enough you would keep the commandments. The young man says something like I have even from my youth. That is great Jesus replies but in order to be good enough you must do something else, you must sell all you have and then follow me. Jesus pretty much tells him to give up his whole life, his family, his community, his social standing, and his wealth and become a poor wanderer of the earth.

Now it is possible that Jesus really does require all of this of all of us but I hope not. Because then we are all going to hell. But that is not his point. As said last week, Jesus did not teach about heaven and hell except to say that what comes next is entirely up to God. Your fate will be determined solely by the Grace of God just like your life has. And that is what he is trying to teach the young man. He has made it clear that no one is good enough to deserve God’s Grace. It is impossible for men and women. Jesus says so himself. But that does not mean we don’t enjoy it because all things are possible with God. In other words the point is that the Grace of God is just that. Grace. If it is Grace we can’t deserve it. God can only give it.

The young man wanted to know how he might deserve Grace Jesus says you can’t simply you can’t.

The part of this passage that precedes the young man is much the same. Jesus sets up an impossible situation. The Pharisees ask him a question. “Is it lawful to divorce?” Jesus answers it as a good rabbi would. He cites the law. And then he adds his interpretation and actually takes a stance that is stricter than the letter of the law. He does this I believe because he is teaching about Grace. Divorce is wrong. Anyone who divorces commits adultery, they break the commandments they are far from God. Bad news for those of us who have been divorced.

But that is not where this ends. Because I believe this whole section is about Grace. And that is what Jesus is talking about immediately after he has said these rather harsh things about divorce. Jesus uses a child as an example and says, “This is how you must enter the Kingdom, like a child.” How does a child accept things, with open arms, with an acceptance, with no difficulty. Grace is natural to a child. I think the example is placed here to remind those who ask about the lawfulness of anything that God’s Grace supersedes every law.

Grace is beyond our ability to be good; Grace is beyond our ability to be law abiding. The truth is that we can never deserve all that God has done for us. But then what do we do with such abundance? How do we respond to a God who is so very good to us?

I think God gave me a little insight into that just this week while I was still puzzling over the graciousness of the couple I nearly jilted. Every Thursday Ann and I have date night. Every once in a while we go down to New Jersey to see some friends that I still keep in contact with from the church I served there. Usually we go out but his past Thursday they invited us to their house. It was my job to bring the wine. So on my way to the wine store I called to find out what we were having for dinner. The least I could do was buy the right color. She answered the phone and we chatted and I said I was on my way to get wine would she mind telling me what was for dinner. She said something like Wasn’t I efficient buying a whole day before . . .oh my gosh that’s tonight isn’t it. I said yes sorry to say. She had the same sound in her voice that I had talking to the wedding couple.

It was a very warm feeling that came over me at that point. I said Carolyn don’t worry a bit about it you have made my day.