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Ephesians 2:1-11

BY KEN WALKER

The first of many phone calls came into the office around eleven o?clock in the morning on Monday, April 16. The caller simply asked, 'Is Kyle okay? There?s been a shooting at his school.' That one phone call began a roller coaster week for not only myself, but for many people who have children at Virginia Tech, know of someone who attends, or was simply struck by the pure violence and massive loss of life.

My son, Kyle, is a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in finance. Fortunately he has been studying in Denmark this semester so he was nowhere near the carnage that unfolded that day. However, we have several other young adults from our congregation that also attend college there. While they are physically safe, there is no doubt that there will be emotional and spiritual pain for some time to come ? for all of us.

I, like many other people, am struggling with where God is in this whole event. It has left me very distracted, numb and saddened over the last several days. And as someone who others look for answers from, I have had a difficult time finding my own voice in this particular event.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8 'For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.' In events like this it reminds me that I can?t save anyone. We have one Savior and I?m not him.

I think that some of the pain that we all experience in the midst of crisis is a very real sense of helplessness. We want to save someone. We want to save those young people. We want to save their parents. We want to do something, virtually anything to make a difference. We want to provide some kind of help.

Brennan Manning defines grace in his book 'The Ragamuffin Gospel' as 'the active expression of God?s love.' We have each been recipients of God?s love over and over again, often without being aware of it.

Every phone call and e-mail that I have received asking if we are okay has been an active expression of not only the sender?s love, but also God?s love. It is easy for us to forget that God uses us to remind others of his love. This very caring congregation that I am a part of has reminded me of God?s loving presence in my life. In that sense, each call, e-mail and visit has been a means of receiving God?s grace.

The events in Blacksburg, Va., should remind us that we cannot ultimately save ourselves or anyone else. We are saved by God?s grace through our faith in our savior Jesus Christ.

However, through our words and actions, we can help others find their voices in the midst of crisis by reminding them of God?s loving presence. The ministry of Christian presence, where we are simply present with someone without trying to save them, is an active expression of God?s love. Through this means of grace we represent Christ to one another. In many ways, I believe that this is perhaps the greatest and sometimes most difficult ministry that we can provide to another person. And yet it comes from a common experience as people who need God?s saving grace in our lives.

Sometimes the only voice we can find is that of God?s grace.

The Rev. Kenneth Walker is the pastor of Lexington Park UMC in Lexington Park.

A Devotional

Celebrate: In your devotions today, make a list of times you have 'heard the voice of God?s grace' through the love and concern of someone else: a phone call or a note or a loving smile at a moment when you needed it. Turn your list into a litany by adding something like: Thank you God, for the gifts you send - gifts of grace, love, and peace.

Connect and Serve: Ken Walker has written about how he heard the 'voice of God?s grace' through others reaching out to him and his family at a time of horror and fear. Who may need to hear the 'voice of God?s grace' from you? Call them. Today.

Develop: Read up on grace. There is a basic article on grace, including the Wesleyan doctrine of Prevenient Grace available at http://en.wikipedia.org/-wiki/Prevenient_Grace.