For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians)
Today in Morning Prayer, we read from the 2nd chapter of Ephesians. I found the last part of the lesson most interesting. There is enough doctrine in those few verses for the most strident Protestant or Roman Catholic to argue for hours. There is the strong word of “grace,”and the call to “good works.”
Paul presents these two concepts to say that the way of life for Christians is a “both-and” not an “either-or” proposition. Our salvation and wholeness comes because of God’s gift of grace, and not from our works. But we are created to live out our grace-filled life with good works. It is our way of life after all.
So today as I work to protect elders from abuse and exploitation, I am doing what I was created to do. My efforts to assist the homeless and needy in my community is just an extension of my way of life. My small endeavors to recycle and reuse for the good of the planet is just another response to the grace I have received.
May we always rememebr what we are created to do.