I know William Willimon as an outstanding preacher as well as a professor and chaplain at Duke University. In this vignette, he gives an account of two elderly women who made a wrong turn into a sketchy part of town and proceeded to invite a most unlikely guest to their suburban church service. Verleen lived with her children in the projects and had never been to a church in her life, but she accepted the invitation of the two women, Helen and Gladys.
The next Sunday, Helen and Gladys proudly presented Verleen at the eleven o’clock service, along with her two feral-looking children. Verleen liked the service so much she said that she wanted to attend the Women’s Thursday Morning Bible Study. Helen and Gladys said they would pick her up on Thursday.
On Thursday, Verleen appeared, proudly clutching her new Bible, a gift of Helen’s circle, the first Bible Verleen had ever seen, much less owned.
I was leading the study that morning, a study on the lection for the coming Sunday, Luke 4, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. “Have any of you ever been faced with temptation and, with Jesus’ help, resisted?” I asked the group after presenting my material. “Have any of you refused some temptation because of your Christian commitment?”
One of the women told about how, just the week before, there was some confusion in the supermarket checkout line, and before she knew it, she was standing in the supermarket parking lot with a loaf of bread that she hadn’t paid for.
“At first I thought,” she confessed, “why should I pay for it? They have enough money here as it is. But then I thought, ‘No, you are a Christian.’ So I went back in the store and paid them for that loaf of bread.”
I made some approving comment.
It was then that Verleen spoke. “A couple of years ago, I was into cocaine really big. You know what that’s like! You know how that stuff makes you crazy. Well, anyway, my boyfriend, not the one I’ve got now, the one who was the daddy of my first child, that one, well, we knocked over a gas station one night—got two hundred dollars out of it. It was as simple as taking candy from a baby. Well, my boyfriend, he says to me, ‘Let’s knock off that Seven-eleven down on the corner.’ And something in me, it says, ‘No, I’ve held up that gas station with you, but I ain’t going to hold up no convenience store.’ He beat the hell out of me, but I still said No. It felt great to say No, ‘cause that’s the only time in my life I ever said No to anything. Made me feel like I was somebody.”
Through the stunned silence I managed to mutter, “Well, er, uh, that’s resisting temptation. That’s sort of what this text is about. And now it’s time for our closing prayer.”
After I stumbled out of the church parlor and was standing out in the parking lot, helping Helen into her Plymouth, she said to me, “You know, I can’t wait to get home and get on the phone and invite people to come next Thursday! Your Bible studies used to be dull. I think I can get a good crowd for this!”
(Adapted from William H. Willimon, The Intrusive Word: Preaching to the Unbaptized (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1994)
hello dear Philip,
just finishing readind whats so amazing about grace..
am i late? well,my comments are just to think… a litlle more..
how would be your book, after reading Mattew 16. 13-18 and specially Mattew 16.24.27
who is the church? A, B, C……D…F…..? Where is the church? Does the Bibble belongs to a selected group? or is it the Gods words… simple like that…
Mattew 8.11
God bless you Bro.
Mr. Yancey,
I’m romanian, involved in prison ministry.
Learning more and more about the inmates’ painful stories, I’m realizing that the need of God’s grace here is just tremendous.
Recently I brought your book “What’s so amazing about grace” (translated in Romanian) to some of the girls in prison.
The feedback was, as one of the girls puts it, “this book it kinda shook my grounds. I’d like to know more about grace”. (This particular girl is struggling with forgiving herself for what she has done.)
It filled me with joy to hear that, knowing from experience that His grace, it’s the only one that can heal broken hearts/lives even when all else fails.
Just a quick note: generally speaking, our culture, as a post-communist country it’s rather legalistic-oriented. And somehow even Christians here, very few get the concept of God’s grace.
I’m very grateful for your books and wanted you to know that His comforting light got to shine a bit brighter in a dark place and in wounded hearts, thanks to your writings.
Diana
This warms my heart, Diana. I have a special fondness for Romania after a visit to Cluj a few years ago. Prison is a great place to learn about grace, and I’m so glad to hear you are there dispensing it. –Philip
Thank you for your reply, Mr. Yancey !
I do live in Cluj. 🙂
And so is the prison that I visit located.
Just the past week I’ve learned that you’ve been here few years ago and that your conference was a hit.
I’m sorry I did not get to attend it. Maybe one day I’ll have the privilege to hear you live.
Up until, I’ll just get your next book.
May you find inspiration and strength to write many more !
Your writings are needed and are very helpful to so many of us that struggle on this faith journey.
Thank you !
Diana
Hello,
I have a passion for reading but this had been dwindling due to my present location. That not withstanding, I have got to learn that no matter where you are and what you do, what you are will always present itself. I was reading a mail from “memory delight” a site I subscribed to. Then I read a definition of grace gas defined by you “”Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more–no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes.
And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less–no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder.
Grace means that God already loves us as much an infinite God can possibly love.” I was moved coupled with what my pastor has been telling me about grace as an unmerited favor. Honestly speaking it was my first time of hearing about you and from this one definition, I had to search your name on google. Please I wish to be more inspired by your books but don’t know how to get them.
Thanks
Julio