Amazing Grace

Today, aided by well loved hymns, I convicted.

My sermon was all about sin - about owning up to it - about no longer being ignorant to the amount of grace and mercy we receive.

There was Gospel, but the weight of the knowledge of sin was heavy.

Then as the Hymn of the Day we sang "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling...come home..." and most powerfully of all - "Amazing Grace" as I handed the bread to people who were sniffing, tearing up, fragile.

It hurts. I'm not telling them - or myself - anything that isn't true. I'm not making them feel any particular way. But, I am calling forth truth. And it's painful.

But the grace came in the meal - that overflowed with abundance - that helped people to know that they had been made right by God.

I'm still feeling fragile. I pronounced the post-communion blessing "May the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you, and keep you in his grace" a bit choked up and with tears dripping out of the corners of my eyes.