1 September 2006

September begins with Dietrich Bonhoeffer writing about "costly grace" in "The Cost of the Discipleship.

Such grace is costly beause it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a person (his) life, and it is grace because it given a (person) the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies sthe sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of (God's) Son: "ye were bought at a price, " and what has cost God did cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon (God's) Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Here's another argument for the importance of the incarnation. Before there is the suffering and the death and the resurrection, God takes a chance on being human...being one of us in the midst of us. What a predicament...and yet it is our predicament through which we must all pass. God so loved the world that God...came into it all. What a story! This was no step down 'in the spirit' so as to float around through life but not really deal with the down and dirty - ordinary and common - the corruption and the death. God so love the world that this love was to be among us in order to see how contrary such love really is...and to show what the power of the world will always do to it. This is costly grace. Step in...enter the game...get dealt the same hand as any other...and do it all with a love that is beyond my comprehension but is now quite human. God for us, Emmanuel, what a radical idea. This is not God trying to make us "do good." This is God being God and showing us the way to be in union with that life that is as real as....you and me.

Connection: Some days it is difficult to see how God is present within the world around us. Sometimes we are looking to far and not looking in the mirror or at those all around us. Take a look around today.

O Lord of Grace, we long to touch your love and yet we so often remove ourselves from others. How can you touch us if we are not willing to be touched and held and encouraged and supported by those around us that come in your name. Remind us of your presence in the very flesh and blood all around us. Amen.