If I had to choose five books to have with me on a deserted island, or in a prison cell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship would be one of those books. If I got two books, one would be the Bible, and the other would be The Cost of Discipleship. I was introduced to Bonhoeffer’s profound theological thinking and pastoral action my first year of seminary, and remember to this day how shaken I was. My understanding and practice of Christianity up to that moment had been child’s play in so many ways. Bonhoeffer was someone who didn’t dumb down the gospel message and the ethics of God’s kingdom as laid by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He left the bar as high as Jesus had placed it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Born on February 4, 1906. Martyred on April 9, 1945. He is proof that one’s life cannot ultimately be measured in the days, weeks, or years lived. He was thirty-nine years old when he was hung by the Nazi’s. His execution occurred just days before the allied liberation of the concentration camp where he was held. But it was the clarity of his vision and complete faith in Jesus Christ that reaches out to touch me today, some sixty-six years later. He truly was and is a towering figure that moved so many because he was so willing to give up his life for Jesus' sake. He didn’t talk about the cost of discipleship, he lived Jesus’ challenge from Matthew 16:24-25: Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
If you’ve ever heard the words, “Cheap grace,” or “Costly grace,” you’ve been introduced to one of Bonhoeffer’s most important contributions.
- "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
- Or, even more clearly, it is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship. In contrast to this is costly grace.
- "Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." "
So many, including Martin Luther himself, had read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and realized the absolute impossibility of fulfilling Jesus’ vision of Kingdom values. But instead of reaching for the higher bar Jesus set, Luther and others surmised the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to graphically demonstrate just how sinful we are. There is that angle to be sure. However, for Bonhoeffer, that completely missed the point. Yes, grace was necessary. Yet at the same time we were called to live according to a different ethic than the culture around us. It was and is an ethic based on “What is God’s will for me in this or that situation?” Jesus was calling for a radical new way of being, not just making a few adjustments and calling it “good.”
It is one thing to preach this stuff. It is something else to live it in real life. Bonhoeffer did both, and therein lies the power of his testimony that causes me to tremble today. This isn’t going to be a “fun” message in the sense we’re laughing our way to the truth. This is one of those messages in which the truth gets delivered with a sledgehammer.
Now for what’s on my desk…
Jeff Schadt is going to be with us again next Wednesday evening, August 24 at 7 p.m. This is a “don’t miss” preview for all of us with children and those of us concerned about the children of our community. Our session is so committed to this effort and what Jeff is doing that we’ve voted to encourage anyone who wishes to invest financially in what Jeff is doing, to do so through St. Andrew. Jeff has been offered $25,000 of matching funds, so every dollar we contribute becomes in effect two dollars. You can make out your check to St. Andrew, with Jeff Schadt’s name on the memo line.
Now you know what I know.
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