Fresh off a visit to San Francisco last week and being that it is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, I have been thinking about grace a lot. I know you’re probably thinking, “What do Woodstock and San Fran have to do with grace?” Well, before I left for my very first visit to California last week, I read an article in the NY Times entitled Woodstock: A Moment of Muddy Grace. The author of the article reminisces about his time at Bethel, NY (that’s right! For those of you who didn’t know it did not happen in Woodstock, NY) all those years ago, and he was struck by the fact that the event really did exemplify grace among people. There was no violence and all different sorts of people gathered (estimated any where from 300,000 to 400,000) for a couple days to listen to some fantastic music. The gracious spirit stood out to the author because of the events surrounding Woodstock: Vietnam, the riots of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the violence of the Altamont Festival just a few months later, and so on. It was a tumultuous time in our country’s history, and yet at the largest music festival ever (up to that point), nothing violent happened. People gave space to one another.
Then, while I was away in San Francisco, I couldn’t help but have The Mamas & the Papas song “San Francisco” (as performed by Scott McKenzie) pop into my head repeatedly. Remember that one? If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. If you’re going to San Francisco, you’re gonna meet some gentle people there. Sorry for putting that in your head:)
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5 responses to “Grace: More Than Tolerance”
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Great point Sean; tolerance and grace are entirely different matters. Being nice/kind to people by not becoming violent at a concert seems to set the bar pretty low for defining grace.
God did not merely tolerate our sin, His act of grace involved actively meeting out punishment for it–every last squirming example of it, to be precise. Yet, it is ironic that, unlike the Woodstock example, this act of grace took a decidedly violent form.
Also, tolerance is not necessarily special as far as I am concerned, while it may have many incarnations, it does not require anything beyond a sort of benign neglect. I tolerate people all the time as I walk down the street with headphones stuffed in my ears. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure I've ever seen real tolerance in action…people like to talk about it, but I've never seen an example unless it is taken to mean something like 'not saying anything in disagreement when you really, really want to.' However, as you observe, that is a million miles from grace. Grace seems to imply that the gracious one has spontaneously entered into the chaos of the moment in order to bring about something which is infinitely good, undeserved, and most importantly–irrevocable!
My question is whether in order to be 'gracious', the grace-offerer also has to be a legitimately offended party? If so, I don't see how I could ever use grace to refer to a human action. I have a hunch that you are right…grace is better described as something received from God rather than exchanged between humans.
Thanks for grappling with definitions in this article. I am certainly guilty of labelling things as 'grace' when they could better be defined as 'manners', 'common sense', 'tolerance', etc.
Dylan,
You have offended me greatly with your comment, but I forgive you. Just kidding buddy;)
Seriously, thanks for your comment man. You brain is big:)
…more like a big head! 😉
could it be that part of distinguishing between these two views of grace (Woodstock v. gospel) is distinguishing between common grace (signals of God's goodness) and Jesus' costly grace, which demands response upon reception? i do like your point that gospel grace is the most complete picture of a truly good gift that is costly to give and receive.
mmm i was singing that same song when i drove into SF years ago with boards on my van…all i found in the haight district was Ben and Jerry's and a meth addict bleeding from a broken nose walking down the street spouting cusses at everybody…so where were the beautiful people?
There are none i suppose if we look at the reality that my daughter sings "we all fall down"…but we have our moments.
I just had lunch today with an old classmate from high school who is working with orphans in Vietnam… she's been interested in my work in Tanzania so we talked for some time…and she asked about how i got there…and that led to having my orders taken…which led to my story of a lesbian priest at my deposition defending me against the bishop…which of course was all very grace-filled because the girl i was having lunch with is gay…so we ended the meal talking about ancestor worship and what-not
…so i offered grace, i guess dylan, to the "party from the other isle"…because i understand the violent form of grace for my benefit…
NB i know the guy who was the chaplin at woodstock…he's an episcopalian and he got in a ton of trouble from his bsp for going….so there was no grace at woodstock that wasn't given without cost as well