Grace Comes First

In this week’s Dulin Weekly Podcast, Pastor James Henry returns to the word at the center of United Methodism and of Dulin life: grace. Grace is so familiar that we can lose our astonishment at it, so this reflection asks what grace actually means. Drawing on John Wesley’s teaching on prevenient grace, “the grace that comes before,” James explains why our relationship with God is not transactional. God does not begin loving us after we respond correctly. God’s love moves toward us long before we know there is a response to give. James connects grace to the idea of personal preciousness. We are not precious because we said yes to God. We are precious because grace was already holding us, and the words grace and gift share the same root. He then shows how grace makes calling possible, so that vocation becomes an invitation rather than a burden or a way of proving ourselves. Finally, he considers how grace changes the way we see difficult, different, and wounded people, since grace is not a scarce resource for us to ration but God’s intent to share with everyone. This episode is for anyone exploring Wesleyan theology and United Methodist beliefs. It also suits those discerning a call to ministry and anyone who wants to understand Christian grace as unearned gift rather than reward. Dulin Weekly Podcast is a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church, Virginia. In This Episode Why grace is the grounding of Dulin, of United Methodism, and of life itself How a familiar word like “grace” can lose its astonishment, and how to recover it Why grace is not a religious reward and does not make our relationship with God transactional Prevenient grace explained plainly: the grace that comes before we seek, pray, or believe The connection between grace and gift, and why preciousness precedes our response to God What it means to receive grace, and how that can be understood as saying yes How grace makes call possible, so that vocation is an invitation rather than a burden Passing grace on instead of hoarding it Seeing difficult, different, and wounded people as beloved by God A reframed starting question for faith: not “what must I do?” but “what has already been given?” Reflecting on last week’s episode about call