Felicity's Sentence and Grace

Felicity Huffman, famous actress, will spend 14 days in prison.  She is an admitted criminal, having committed fraud, helping her daughter cheat in her college admission tests.  She also will pay a $30,000 fine, spend a year under court-ordered supervision and serve 250 hours of community service.

If you research this story you will find ‘outrage’ voiced from those who believe her sentence is too light when compared to sentences given to other non-white criminals.  (See, for example, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/us/felicity-huffman-sentencing.html) That is a worthwhile discussion to have, whether our criminal justice system is really ‘blind’, meaning that it should render justice without any partiality to a person’s skin or status.  While I could join that chorus, I want to use Ms. Huffman’s sentence to get us thinking about another topic: the nature of grace.

God’s grace.  I wonder if we truly understand how scandalous grace really is. We sing about it as being amazing, but that is because we think about it in the context of God forgiving and accepting ‘me’.  We all, mostly, agree that it is amazing and wonderful that God should forgive ‘me’ for ‘my sins’.  But, what about Felicity?  Should God ‘remember her sins no more?’, which is one description of how completely God forgives us? Should Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross be used to cover the sin of fraud by a rich and famous white woman?

You see, that is how grace works.  Here’s a little of what Ms. Huffman confessed to the Judge, which I am giving her credit for being a heart-felt statement of contrite repentance.  “I was frightened, I was stupid, and I was so wrong. I am deeply ashamed of what I have done….I take full responsibility for my actions." When God hears a confession like this, if it is sincere, God through Christ forgives the sin completely.  Does that make you happy or sad, this amazing grace we profess?

Human justice (imperfectly) serves society’s goals of retribution and rehabilitation.  God’s goal is to bring God’s children home. When I hear stories like Ms. Huffman’s I am thankful that God is a Judge who sees me just as I am and loves me anyway.  That is grace, and I want Ms. Huffman, and all criminal offenders, to know that scandalous and amazing grace.