“It All Starts With Grace“, by Rev. Tom Duley
The United Methodist Book of Discipline is the rule for the order and theology of our denomination. It’s our law book; it’s the way we order our life together. I’m not going to kid you, there’s some extremely dry reading in it. I’m talking about some dusty material. For instance, you can read all about “Audits and Bonding of Local Church Officers,” or you can find everything you need to know about “Administrative Fair Process.” Are those topics important? Yes, but they’re not exactly what most folks think of as real page turners.
But, at the same time some of the most meaningful and beautiful passages I’ve ever read are in our Book of Discipline. The material discussing “The Local Church” and “The Ministry of all Believers” is downright inspiring to me. The Book of Discipline also lays out the United Methodist theological understanding. If you want to know what we believe about God and what it means to be God’s people in the world it’s in the Book of Discipline.
Some of that material is among the most meaningful I’ve ever read as well. Under the section titled “Distinctive Wesleyan Emphases” we read these words. “Grace pervades our understanding of Christian faith and life. By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited and loving action of God in human existence through the ever present Holy Spirit.” I love that. It’s one of the primary reasons I’m a United Methodist. We recognize that in a very real way we live and move and have our being in God’s grace. Today we will think about God’s grace and the crucial role it plays in the United Methodist understanding of the Christian faith.
~Tom Duley
The Word
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
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