Which New Testament book has the most Old Testament quotes?

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: August 8, 2008 at 1:41 pm by Cathleen Falsani

2008-08-08T13:41:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

GODSTUFF

“SAVING GRACE”: EMBRACING THE SACRED MESSINESS OF LIFE

Grace is, by my definition, something unexpected.

So it should have been no great surprise to me to discover a great blessing of grace in, of all places, a television program.

In its second season, the TNT series “Saving Grace” is the best thing on television and one of the most articulate treatments of spiritual material I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in years.

The series follows Oklahoma City police detective Grace Hanadarko, played by Oscar-winner Holly Hunter in a virtuoso performance that rightly earned her an Emmy nomination this year.

Grace is a complicated, deeply faulted, entirely engrossing character. She drinks too much, chain smokes, cusses like a sailor and sleeps around with random men and, most perilously, with her married partner, Detective Ham Dewey (Kenneth Johnson).

She’s a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and a family-survivor of the Oklahoma City bombing, where her sister was killed.

When we first met Grace last season, she was chewing up the screen and her life, living recklessly and without apologies for her sins, until one night, driving drunk, she hit a pedestrian and killed him. Kneeling over the man’s bleeding body in terror, she asks aloud, “God, help me.”

And with that, Earle appears. He is, we (and Grace) soon learn, her last-chance guardian angel, a tobacco juice-spitting, T-shirt-wearing, tabbouleh-loving, drawling messenger from God, come to save her (or, more accurately, help her find salvation).

Before you roll your eyes, make no mistake: “Saving Grace” is no “Touched by an Angel,” and Earle (Leon Rippy) is a whole lot grittier and more real than the ethereal Roma Downey.

“Saving Grace” doesn’t end each episode quaintly, all the messy ends tied up in a pretty bow. Grace doesn’t see the light, at least not at first and in some life-altering way. But the God of “Saving Grace” is a patient, persistent being who pursues her relentlessly, not unlike the God described in Biblical accounts.

Grace is a modern-day King David, a woman after God’s own heart despite — or perhaps because of — her fallen-ness. She makes the same mistakes over and over with troubling and sometimes tragic results. And yet, God doesn’t stop extending grace to Grace, giving her chance after chance after chance to change her life and get healed.

Earlier this week, I chatted with Nancy Miller, the creator of “Saving Grace.” I wondered how she might see grace — the notion, the spiritual concept — in her own life.

“I think of it as a gift from God,” Miller said. “An answered prayer. Grace is something that’s just given through love, pure love. And I don’t know if we deserve it, but I guess we do because God gives it to us. That’s what I think of grace. I’ve seen it in my own life, I’ve seen it in others.”

Earle the angel is a delightful, deeply moving character. He’s the voice of a gracious God, who assaults Grace with equal parts love and the truth.

“Earle dispenses a lot of grace,” Miller said. “And the man himself, Leon Rippy, is just walking love. Oh my God. He’s so talented as an artist, but as a man — I’m gonna cry just talking about him. He really is just wonderful and meant to play this part. He’s the kind of angel I would need in my life, and he’s just a graceful, patient, loving angel.”

That’s how I like to believe God is.

“So do I. He delights in humans and what we do and how we try so hard. Several times in the show, he holds Grace — that’s God, to me, holding us when we’re ashamed of something we’ve done and just there with his arms around us,” Miller said.

While “Saving Grace” is an adult drama — with explicit sex and violence, it’s not for the faint of heart — it’s also funny. “I think that helps these moments that are very emotional and very deep … and then just butt up against that and make you laugh because I think God has a sense of humor,” Miller said.

If the feedback on the Web site TNT has set up to accompany the show, www.embraceyourgrace.com, is any indication, there are not a few people who find the show upsetting. “There are a lot of people who are appalled and hate the show and tell me I’m going to hell and better be ready to meet my maker,” said Miller, a self-described “practicing Catholic.”

Those who do find it appalling are missing the point. The show is dressed in the trappings of sensational plot lines and torrid encounters, but it’s smartly layered and never preaches.

Miller says she intends the show to present many questions, but not necessarily to give hard-and-fast answers. That’s because, even though she is a person of deep personal faith, she leaves room for the possibility that she doesn’t have all the answers.

“We very clearly state that there is a God. How you get there, what you believe, is all up in the air. But that’s not the message of the show as much as there’s this woman who God gives this amazing life, this gift of life and so many pleasures in it,” she said. “And Grace is a woman who eats it up.

“But does she have a relationship with the place that comes from, and what should that relationship be? Grace represents all of us. All of us are Grace. All of our good and our bad, all of our appetites for pleasure and even the conflicts of life. She’s not afraid of those things.”

Grace’s journey to grace isn’t over yet. I’d urge you to tune in to TNT at 9 p.m. Mondays to see for yourself.

Embrace the sacred messiness of life and, perhaps, your own grace.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 5, 2008

Next Post

August 11, 2008

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which New Testament book has the most Old Testament quotes?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Matthew Romans Hebrews Revelation