3 October 2006

Today's quote again comes from Bonhoeffer in "Discipleship" - again he distinguishes between cheap and costly grace.

When Faust says at the end of his life of seeking knowledge, "I see that we can know nothing," then that is a conclusion, a result. It is something entirely different than when a student repeats this statement in the first semester to justify his laziness (Kierkegaard). Used as a conclusion, the sentence is true; as a presupposition, it is self-deception. That means that knowledge cannot be separated from the existence in which it was acquired. Only those who in following Christ leave everything they have can stand and say that they are justified solely by grace. They recognized the call to discipleship itself as grace and grace as that call. But those who want to use this grace to excuse themselves from discipleship are deceiving themselves.

These illustrations are so helpful when it comes to trying to explain how grace can be considered cheap or costly. In one case, the race has been run...the journey taken on...the path followed and all that matters is the promise that was giving from the very first day - beloved are you. In such a case as this, within the realm of this grace, we risk to be who we are and to be the one beloved of God. In the other, we dare not live or risk or leap because there is no use to it - life is as we have it and want it...there is no need to experience what is not already in hand. The graciousness of our God in Christ, Jesus, is the power that grabs our heart and convinces us of a life to live that may take us beyond anything we would consider for ourselves. We follow Jesus because we see clearly the way Jesus goes and where he bids us to come. That will always take us outside of our self-centered world and into new life - unknown for now...but bursting open before us.

Connection: There is someone in need around us - what do we do. We could say we need not do anything because we do not need to do anything to live within the gracious realm of God. Then again, we can also turn that around and say because we live within this gracious realm of God we will respond to the need of those around us.

Come, Lord, Jesus, and be the one who guides our daily routines so that we find joy in the simple ways that your grace takes us and shapes us and uses the events of our lives as opportunities to follow you alone. Amen.