Grace N. Gratitude

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy. Philippians 1:2-4

As her steel-eyed gaze swept the congregation of the All Saints Holy Church of the Righteous Redeemer, Grace found the people in their proper places with their mouths closed and attention locked on the pastor. Woe to the one who stepped out of line in Grace's church and few indeed needed a reminder of her wrath. Children were silenced and crying babies quickly removed from the sanctuary in Grace's church; order in the service and discipline in the Christian life were the orders of the day. The name of Grace N. Gratitude was sadly ironic.

To all appearances, Grace lived the perfect life. Her house, a lonely place where the pastor and church deacons sometimes appeared before her for inspection and correction, held no objects that might cause temptation and was kept immaculately by a quiet housekeeper who lived quietly in a small house at the back of the property. Sometimes Grace even remembered her name. The gardener came daily and kept all things in order; he only mowed the lawn during Grace's three-hour Wednesday morning Bible study when she would be without exception gone from the home. Grace kept her vigil over her house and her church by her cold legalism and a stranglehold on the church finances. Grace was rich, you see, but not in the way of the grace our Lord gave to us by His sacrifice.

Self-righteous Grace N. Gratitude had never felt the need for grace and her only gratitude came when she found something in a neighbor to correct, and God knows, she thought, the world needed a lot of her particular corrective skill. The bank president, the town council, and every school teacher and official had felt the sharpness of Grace's tongue. For they too lived under her dominion. Without Grace's money, no bank loans for homes or new businesses could be lent. If a street needed to be paved, it was Grace who gave permission or denied it depending upon her whim. Grace was grateful that God had placed her in a town that needed so much correction.

Grace made sure on the first of every month that her last will and testament was in order, for one day her departure from this world would open the way for decadence if she did not work her will through her will, so to speak, as Grace allowed herself her one monthly chuckle.

Thursday morning, Grace presided over the funeral of her longtime pastor. Sunday morning she looked up at the new pastor and was horrified to discover the face of the very man she had voted down in the quickly-assembled church board meeting. The man was dirty, she noted, with sawdust in the lower folds of his ill-fitting trousers. The new pastor held up the giving lists, Grace's pride and joy with their names and system of bronze, silver, and gold stars for giving 10, 15, and 20 percent of income faithfully each month, and he burned them in the pulpit, setting off the church smoke alarm, the one donated by Grace, in the process. The filthy man pointed back to the confessional and penitence booths built by Grace's maintenance man at her expense and said, "Those will no longer be needed here, I will remove them this week." Grace N. Gratitude felt a lump of outrage swelling in her chest, tightening like her purse strings.

Control would quickly be reasserted at the next meeting of the church board tonight, she vowed, this lack of discipline before the law could not be tolerated!

The pastor threw Grace N. Gratitude off the church board.

And then the wretched man spoke a sermon of grace, mercy, and the forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus Christ. He spoke of breaking chains and living in love for God and neighbors. He spoke of depending only on the providence of God. The slightly unkempt man publicly forgave Grace N. Gratitude, right there in her former church. And something in Grace N. Gratitude's little head popped with an almost audible sound. Perhaps it was just a spiritual purse string.

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Bucky