Joseph Yoo

”Grace is fucking offensive” – Nadia Bolz-Weber.

Have you been offended by grace yet in your faith journey?
And if the answer is a “no”, I don’t want to pass judgment on anyone’s faith journey… but I do wonder… “why not?”
Because grace is offensive.
Even to the point where (pastor and author) Nadia’s words ring true: grace is fucking offensive.

Why?
Because God doesn’t have the system of sorting people as we do.
Perhaps, God doesn’t have a sorting system period. (You know, when you speak you can say “period” to emphasize a point, right? But like in writing — do you still have to add a . after typing “period”? Or do I even need to type “period”? Obviously, I can’t ever write anything without some side notes).

All of us have a “who’s in” and “who’s out” kind of list.
Some just are far more open and vocal about it.
But we all have a sorting system.
And if you say you don’t, you’re just being a pious, delusional jackass with no self awareness. But I say that with love.
Actually, if you say you don’t have a sorting system, well bless your heart, child. Bless your heart, indeed.

And grace is offensive because it’s extended (freely, unconditionally) to people who aren’t part of our “in crowd.”

Jesus ruffled the feathers of religious leaders because he kept opening the gate to those who the religious system worked on keeping out.

We’re not too different today.
We often are gate keepers and Jesus (through grace) keeps opening that gate. That pesky Jesus. He’d make a horrible bouncer because he’d let anyone in.

… which I mean, is the point, right?
To not be gate keepers but gate openers?
To not be wall/fence builders but table elongaters? (Elongater is not a word, but it’s fun to say out loud. The baristas just shot me a funny look because I kept saying elongaters and giggling. Why is it funny? I don’t know. But like how the heart wants what the heart wants, the funny bone’s gonna laugh at what it wants to laugh at).

Do you recall the story about Philip in Acts?
And the Ethiopian eunuch?

The eunuch was one of the first gentile converts (maybe the first in the book of Acts).
Think about that for a second.
One of the first Gentile converts is a foreigner of a black man that is also a sexual minority.
I mean… a foreigner; a minority; and a sexual minority. The Eunuch is like a walking billboard of fear for some of our Christian siblings.

Philip is confronted with a very controversial question.
After helping the eunuch understand a passage that he was reading, Philip was asked: Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?

Why is this beautiful question controversial?
Because of who the Eunuch is.
First off, the Eunuch was coming back from Jerusalem, after worshipping there.
Which, you know, he’s not supposed to be there.
No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall come into the assembly of the Lord. Deuteronomy 23:1 (NRSVUE)

How did Philip answer that question?
“Well, I’d love to, but first we need you to go to conversion therapy.”
“Well, I’d love to, but first we need to address the sins in your life.”
”Well, I’d love to, but first you need to repent of your Gentile-ness.”
”Well, I’d love to, but you are incompatible with our scripture.”

Because, let’s face it.
We are gatekeepers, and we only let ppl who we deem acceptable to walk through the gates we so desperately keep.

The Eunuch stopped his chariot.
He and Philip got out, they walked to the water, and Philip baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch. (And then Philip disappeared into thin air. Like, teleported. One minute Philip looks like he’s drowning a man in the water and the next minute, he’s in Azotus. I don’t really know where that is. But like, was Philip’s clothes dry when he arrived to his new destination? I mean, if only God still did that, these prosperity peddling televangelists wouldn’t need private jets).

Nadia writes:
[I can] think either it’s my job to change people so they fit or it’s my job to extend the roof so that they fit.

As a pastor of a church, I can view my job is making people change who they are so they fit in
OR
we can work on extending the table so people belong.

”Either way,” Nadia continues. “It’s misguided because it’s not my [church]. It’s God’s [church].”

May you experience just how offensive grace and be because only then can our horizons be extended and expanded.
Only then, can we graduate from being gatekeepers to a no-good bouncer who lets everyone in.
Only then, can we begin to grasp the edges of understanding just how vast and wide God’s grace and mercy was, is, and always will be.