19 September 2006

We now return to excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on grace (cheap and costly) from "Discipleship."

Costly grace is grace as God's holy treasure that must be protected from the world and which must not be thrown to the dogs. Thus, it is grace as living word, word of God, which God speaks as God pleases. It comes to us as a gracious call to follow Jesus; it comes as a forgiving word to the fearful spirit and the broken heart. Grace is costly because it forces people under the yoke of following Jesus Christ; it is grace when Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In Robert Farrar Capon's book "The Mystery of Christ"...and why we don't get it, he attempts to show what a treasure is this notion of costly grace. It is as though it is hidden from us...and yet...it is so available that it is unbelievable. It is too much...it is beyond our comprehension.
Costly grace is this Word that "God speaks as God pleases" and in the hearing of that Word we come to life in a whole new way. No power and no person can change this Word into something other than a word of liberation, hope, and new life.
One great image of such a upside down notion of life is given in the gospel lesson for this Sunday. The disciples are arguing about who is greatest. Jesus upon hearing the discussion, brings a child (a nobody) into the center of the circle. The center of the circle is the place where someone is put when that person is about to be stoned. But there in the center of that circle, in a place that is thought to be a place of unholiness - blasphemy - Jesus takes the nobody into his arms and on his lap. It sounds like Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham - the rich man wouldn't give Lazarus the time of day or anything to see him through the day...but now look at what is real and eternal in God's Reign! Grace comes into the center and wraps us up and it is costly as it invites us to do likewise...walk into the unholy circle and be that presence for others - now.

Connection: What might be the unholy circle into which we will be invited to walk as this day unfolds and what will this grace of God bring to all who go there?

Wrap us up in your Love, O God. It is within your arms that we are given the strength and encouragement to extend your love to those around us. Your Spirit of Life takes us beyond the limits we imposes on ourselves when we are afraid to follow your way of new life and so we ask that your Spirit lead us now. Amen.