August 8, 2021
Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, Arlington, Virginia
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

We are all like Absalom if Absalom had narrowly avoided that tree and was restored to the Father who loves him. And that is because another King’s Son rode on a royal donkey to a tree. In his body on the tree, on the cross, he suffers the curse that belongs to every David and Absalom, every Goliath, every apostle, every saint, and every sinner. The curse that belongs to you and me. So, it’s not just that our sins have been forgiven. It’s bigger than forgiveness.
The sword departs every one of our houses at the cross.
No more does Nathan say, it will never let up because of what you did.
Sin has consequences, yes, but they are borne by another for you.
Grace is the opposite of karma. It is offensive sure, but it is also amazing.
Grace tells us that the way the world is, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is not what God had intended. Grace defies the logic we have accumulated from the way the world appears to be ordered. Grace interrupts the just consequences of our unjust actions. We would be in big trouble, every one of us, if karma got the last word. But Grace tells us that in the Kingdom of God we will never reap what we sow and that is the best news we could ever hear because for my part I know what I’ve sown. The Grace of God in Jesus Christ says that we do not have lean on our own religiosity

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