Earning Grace
Dear Sutton and Savannah,
I am a firm believer in the old adage that no one should be defined by their worst moment. I have quite a few worst moments, and it is far too easy to ruminate on them and allow them to pummel my sense of self worth. If worth or identity is based on what I do, then I will always feel like I am climbing an endless hill, never reaching the top. But if my identity is based on who I am and the unearned, endless love of the Creator, then I can experience the peaks and valleys without my worth being identified by either. One of my best reminders of a welcomed, but unearned, moniker is being identified as your dad. That’s the best.
-Dad
Inside Out Lectionary Letters
Year A - 3rd Sunday of Easter (Texts, Art, Hymns)
Readings for Sunday, April 19, 2026
Acts 2:14a, 36-41 / Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 / 1 Peter 1:17-23 / Luke 24:13-35
Summary of Psalm 116
Psalm 116 is a personal song of gratitude that reflects a journey from distress to deliverance. The psalmist recalls a time of deep anguish. A cry for help produces a divine response marked by mercy, compassion, and preservation. The psalm then shifts to gratitude. It is a movement from desperation to devotion, from being held by fear to being held by mercy.
Scripture as a Mirror of the Soul
How do we respond to grace? To kindness? To forgiveness? To deliverance? Most of us would respond with gratitude. That is the response of the psalmist. And that spirit of gratitude leads the psalmist to specific acts of devotion.
In the words of the psalmist, because God listened, I will call on Him… (verse 2). How can I repay the Lord…(verse 12)? I will lift the cup…(verse 13). I will fulfill my vows…(verses 14 & 18). And, I will offer a sacrifice…(verse 17). These are beautiful responses, but they also appear to be very transactional. Our instinct is often to repay, to earn, to balance the scales.
In Psalm 116, the movement is: God helped me, so now I will respond appropriately by paying God back. This is reciprocal language. There is a part in all of us that understands life through this type of exchange: If I am helped, I should respond. If I receive, I should give back. If I am saved, I should prove that I deserved it.
This part of us is not bad, and certainly not evil. Rather, it is moral, sincere and responsible. It is an effort to create order and fairness in a world that feels unstable.
This part of us cannot quite believe that love might be freely given. When we don’t yet trust love, we try to repay it. We want to prove our devotion. That is Psalm 116.
Perhaps we could consider allowing ourselves to be held by something we do not have to earn. Transactional love keeps me forever defined by the situation that held me captive. The transaction becomes an essential component of my identity: I am what I earn. Unconditional love frees me, because sometimes the deepest change is not that I have been rescued from the struggle, but that I am no longer defined by it.