By Rev. Paul Graves
The streets of America have exploded with political protests in the past four months. Resistance is both persistent and growing against the actions and policies of the Trump administration, against the actions of state legislatures and even school boards. So, when does resistance become an act of grace? When does grace result in an act of resistance?
Let’s explore those possibilities for a moment.
When was the last time you tried to get into someone’s good graces or to avoid someone’s bad graces? This kind of grace suggests good/bad favor. That may work for some, but don’t mistake this conditional grace for God’s grace.
Christianity and Judaism traditionally say God’s grace is an “undeserved favor.” It isn’t based on merit or worthiness (a topic for a future column).
Grace is based on God’s unconditional love. It is here that my personal spiritual wrestling begins. Is God’s grace as unconditional as we glibly declare? Perhaps. And yet …
“Undeserved favor” is easier for me to grasp. “Unconditional favor” is different. God’s passion is focused on justice and equal treatment. That sounds like a form of divine bias. I’ll buy that.
So I really wonder if God’s unconditional love is an actual spiritual problem. Perhaps we’re hung up over our own inability to accept God’s “undeserved favor” of others – and ourselves. We’d rather give grace only to the “deserving,” and can’t fathom why God doesn’t think like we do.
Stay with me here. ”Grace” isn’t another word for “favor.” Biblical grace is an unconditional gift, not a conditional, quid-pro-quo favor. We see God’s grace can be perceived as unconditional. Unfortunately, Grace offered by humans isn’t quite as generous.
Yet, when we partner with God’s grace somehow, I believe resistance can be an act of grace. Resistance is an act of radical root-deep grace when our root-deep desire is to seek justice for others.
But first, we must ask two one-word questions to bring grace into the resistance: Why? And how?
Why is resistance necessary in this situation?
How can resistance to the injustice being confronted happen so the persons being resisted are authentically treated with respect and love – even when respect and love are not returned in kind?
For many of my 83 years, I resisted the idea of resistance.
No more! For example, in the strong, persistent defense of diversity, equity and inclusion and in the spirit of being “woke,” resistance can be a redemptive action. I’m in!
It brings God’s grace – and ours as well – to bear on whatever form of violation happens in people’s lives. From God’s viewpoint, grace may certainly be unconditional, even when we can’t begin to replicate it in our own lives. Our inability to be unconditionally gracious mustn’t stop us from trying to be gracious.
WHY we resist a public action can be consistent with our passion and compassion about serving people, about rebalancing a severely unbalanced political proposal or action. HOW we resist can reflect even our limited willingness to be gracious.
Grace calls us to be authentically humble about our own strengths and limits. We’re called to be courageous enough to seek and tell truth to power as we understand that truth, and loving enough to offer respect and dignity to people we don’t really believe “deserve” that. We’re called to be patient enough to watch grace work.
Even if our methods become hard-edged, or our fears threaten to overtake our sense of decency, Grace can be our guide. Resistance and grace in holy tension. So here’s my last wondering: How do you balance your desire for resistance with the redemptive possibility of grace?
The Rev. Paul Graves is a retired elder member of the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.
