An Odd Work of Grace: An Odd Work of Grace

Saturday, January 24, 2015

An Odd Work of Grace

The name of this blog comes from something by Charles Grafton (1830-1912), the 2nd Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac:

Rest in the smile of Jesus, be detached from self, even from your own growth in grace. Don’t be worried if you are not getting on, try, but do not worry. It hinders His work, be patient, leave self to God, and pray Him to make you what He would have you to be. He has His plan for each soul, and so, we can have no plan of saintliness: be willing to be like one of the “queer things” in the medley among beautiful pictures and statues, one of His odd works of grace, different, singular, peculiar, hard to make, but having its own place in the owner’s heart. (Meditations and Instructions, p. 12)

Rest in the smile of Jesus. Don't be worried. Be patient. Trust in God's plan. Take your place among the beautiful things that God cherishes in his own heart.

I love the whole quote. It captures something of the mercy and delight of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. I am coming to think that almost everything in Christianity flows from the assurance of God's mercy and delight and the summons to live in light of that assurance. The assurance of God's mercy and delight is liberating. But it is also demanding inasmuch as we are not very good at receiving it or living it out with one another – Be detached from self, God does desire to make of each of us something more than we can quite imagine.

And I consider myself, in more ways than one, to be an odd work of grace. Fundamentally, all of creation is an odd work of grace.

This blog will explore the above themes as well as serve as a place to post occasional sermons and thoughts on various things. I hope you'll check in from time to to time. And feel free to leave a comment.

1 comment:

Karen D. PowersJanuary 24, 2015 at 9:45 PM
Thank you for sharing Bishop Grafton's words with us over the last several months on FB. I keep being amazed at how "thoroughly modern", "up-to-date" even "cutting edge" his writings and comments were. Was he a brilliant visionary or is it that so many of the issues we deal with today were the same 100 years ago?
"An odd work of grace" is a scintillating jumping off point. I look forward to reading more.
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The Blog Title

The phrase is from something by Charles Grafton (1830-1912), the 2nd Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac:

"Rest in the smile of Jesus, be detached from self, even from your own growth in grace. Don’t be worried if you are not getting on, try, but do not worry. It hinders His work, be patient, leave self to God, and pray Him to make you what He would have you to be. He has His plan for each soul, and so, we can have no plan of saintliness: be willing to be like one of the “queer things” in the medley among beautiful pictures and statues, one of His odd works of grace, different, singular, peculiar, hard to make, but having its own place in the owner’s heart.”

I love the whole quote. It captures something of the mercy and delight of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. And I consider myself, in more ways than one, to be an odd work of grace.