By Father Casey

When we begin paying attention to how Jesus describes God, one of the first things we notice is that God is not what we were expecting.

We expect God to help those who help themselves, and instead Jesus says God is like a shepherd who leaves 99 good sheep to seek after one who is wayward.

We expect God to be constantly disappointed in all our mistakes, and instead Jesus says God is like a father won't even let a child who rejected him apologize before gathering him up and bringing him home.

We expect God to care a lot about keeping the "wrong sort" out of heaven, and Jesus says God is like a host who keeps sending his servants into town to invite more and more people to the glorious party he is throwing.

The God Jesus reveals to us is righteous, yes, but compassionate. Just, yes, but merciful. The God Jesus reveals is full of grace.

Grace is at the heart of who God is. Grace, as in undeserved, unearned love and favor. Grace, as in there is nothing we could do to make God love us more, and nothing we could do to make God love us less.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel we believe and profess as Episcopalians, is a gospel of grace.

Sadly, many of Jesus' followers today, especially in our nation, don't seem terribly interested in grace. American Christians are an angry lot, with a particular thirst for revenge. Our faith is founded in forgiveness, yet forgiveness is in scant supply in many churches. We are rare to give the benefit of the doubt, turn the other cheek, or offer to others what we ask from them.

Yes, Jesus reveals a God of grace, to which a whole lot of Christians reply, "No thanks."

The latest example of this is in the obsession some Christians have with crushing political enemies. A prominent public Christian died a terrible death last week – a death that should cause serious soul-searching in our nation and a reckoning with the demonization of our political opponents – but instead it has fueled a campaign of vengeance. What should be summoning us to deeper humility is instead conjuring our darkest impulses to destroy.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of grace, not coercion. God sent a savior to win the world by climbing onto a cross, not by putting his enemies on them. When the world becomes a place mostly filled with enemies to be defeated, rather than neighbors to be loved, we need to ask ourselves if it is still the gospel of Jesus we're following.

The world is starved for grace. We see it every time someone behaves differently than expected – forgives, for example, instead of retaliating, or publicly admits they were wrong and asks for forgiveness – and there is a collective gasp. There are many around us who don't know there could be a different way to live. There are many around us who don't know that God isn't actually what some have made him seem.

There are many who are desperate to feast on grace, but have never been invited to the table. Jesus would like us to show them the way.