Once again I have had the great privilege to attend the Council of General Synod meetings this past weekend, representing the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund. It’s a joint meeting with the National Church Council (ELCIC) so some sessions are together, as is all worship and meal times.
My lunch conversation Saturday veered delightfully to moments of grace. One person shared a good experience traveling through the home town of another, whereby a stranger’s simple act of kindness left a favourable impression.
Before we knew it, we were all keen to share stories of traveling mercies that we had received – from international adventures with sick parishioners to family members being assisted in airports to stranded folks being treated to various ministries of hospitality. Some of them were church related, some were not.
Throughout our conversation, however, we were all smiling. We were punctuating our stories with comments like “blessed!” and “Thank God for that person.”
How lovely, when the world is hurting and shocked and confused and angry, that we spent our time together focused on stories of grace.
How lovely, when the world can be easily caught up in the earthly response to temporal issues, that we spent our time keeping God in the conversation.
I expect that we all have, in our mind’s library, grace notes such as these. I expect that we all will have opportunity this week to share such a story. We have all been touched by kindness and love; we have all received abundant blessings; we have all delighted in the tones of God’s grace resounding through our lives.
And so I invite and challenge us to increase in the sharing of our stories. They are good news, and when we connect them to the Good News, they offer to surround God’s people with God’s abundant grace.
May we encourage ourselves and our loved ones to share the grace notes that sound in our lives. May they become the symphony of grace that breaks into the world. May we use these grace notes, together, to form the soundtrack of our common life in Christ.
May you find your grace note, and share it, to be part of the joyful noise in the world.
