Grace and the X Files

When you pick up a similar spiritual message twice in one day its quite hard to ignore it.

This morning Henry preached on the passage in Luke 18, where Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer, and observes that the tax collector, a sinner begging for forgiveness is closer to God than the self-righteous Pharisee, despite all his worthy acts. Henry spoke about how it demonstrates that God's grace does not follow the rules of human 'fairness'.


Anyway, a few hours later I'm in the cinema watching the new X Files movie, 'I Want to Believe'. Quite early on in the film, Mulder and Scully have to go and talk to a former Catholic priest who's a convicted paedophile, as he has been having visions that may help them in their investigations. When they get to the hostel where he stays, they find him praying, and he says he is seeking God for the salvation of his soul. Scully's immediate reaction is to say 'Why would God listen to you after what you've done?'

I'm not going to spoil the plot for anyone, but I think its fair to just say that Scully finds her initial assessment of this man and what he has to offer challenged as the film goes on.

For my own part, whilst, yes, it was 'only a movie', I came away at the end thinking again about what I'd heard at church this morning. I guess God and his grace do indeed move in mysterious ways.