Saving Grace

I was just getting ready to turn the TV off last night when an episode of Saving Grace began. I had seen commercials for the show but had never seen an episode, so I decided to stay up and see what it was all about.

If you are not familiar with the show, click here for an overview. In a nutshell, Holly Hunter plays Grace Hanadarko, a cynical detective who lives hard and fast by drinking too much, sleeping with numerous men (most of them married), and defying authority. One night she cries out to God for help after hitting a man while driving drunk. Suddenly an angel appears and begins to spend time with Grace trying to help her straighten out her life.

Before I go any further...I am not endorsing this show. It is laced with profanity and sexual overtones, so if you choose to watch it, you have been warned.

I am, however, stating that it is an interesting collision of the secular and the sacred. My gut is telling me that most Christians would condemn the show; however, in doing so they are also unwittingly condemning Scripture. Let me explain...

Throughout the Bible, we encounter people just like Grace. Think of the woman at the well (John 4:1-42).

We read her story without truly grasping who she was. We sanitize the story to make ourselves feel better. We read that she had five husbands and was living with a man who wasn't even her husband, but we don't dwell on that fact because we prefer to fast-forward to who she was after she encountered Jesus.

That's the way we like our Christianity - clean, safe, and sanitary. Unfortunately, the people who really need to encounter Jesus live messy lives.

We watch shows like Saving Grace and are repulsed by Hunter's character, but we don't stop to think that these are the very people that God loves and wants to embrace the most. Remember Jesus words, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." (Matthew 9:12)

If we are to be a people and a church after God's own heart, then we had better get used to spending time with and getting to know people just like Grace. It will be messy at times, but it is what God desires the most.