19 October 2006

Bonhoeffer takes a farther along this look at the call to Discipleship. There will be no devotion sent out tomorrow, Friday, October 20.

...it is not the works which create faith. Instead, you are given a situation in which you can have faith. The point is to get into such a situation, so that faith is true faith and not self-deception. Because the only goal is to have true faith in Jesus Christ, because faith alone is and remains goal ("out of faith into faith" Romans 1:17), this is an indispensable situation. Anyone who protests too quickly and in too Protestant a manner should be asked whether or not they are defending cheap grace. In fact the two statements , if they remain juxtaposed, will not offend the true faith, but if each is take alone it would cause serious offense. Only the believers obey - that is said to the obedient person inside the believer. Only the obedient believe - that is said to the believer in their obeying. If the first statement remains alone, the believer is prey to cheap grace, that is, damnation. If the second statement stands alone, the believers are prey to their works, that is, damnation.

The more I read Bonhoeffer the more I see the need for being connected to others who walk along this way of Jesus. Self-deception will win us over every time we attempt to go alone for no one ever goes alone along this way. The Lord of the Church leads "us." Sure we may sing "he leadeth me" but it there is no one walking with us that has no meaning. A lone Christian is an impossibility - except to him/her self. The tension held up between the two sentences underlined in the above quote throw us into a tension in which we must give up the notion of one or the other "faith or works". Rather we are thrown into the moment of life that comes upon us at the call of Jesus. Does the call come again if we stay back and contemplate the meaning of life and what it would be to follow Jesus? Of course! The call to follow continues to be an invitation into life. Faith and action become one experience. There is not the need to have "enough faith" to act and there is not the need to act to prove that one has faith. I suppose this means that no one else can judge my stance or my action. The call is directed to me. I am called to act. I am called to trust the one who calls. In the midst of all that, each of us finds out that there is a community that forms around such tension and life - the church.

Connection: Today will be just what is promised - an opportunity to be the followers of Jesus. We will each enter that way differently - and yet, in faith and through our action, we enter it together.

Take us by the hand, O God, and stir up our hearts that will will see the day unfold within your invitation to come and walk within a life that holds the promises of your Reign. Amen.