We had an incredible discussion at Pizza and God Talk tonight. We were talking about the issues that the church is going to have to deal with in the next 10-20 years. While speaking I shared a quote from Deitrich Bonhoeffer's classic, The Cost of Discipleship. If you don't own this book, go to Amazon and order it tonight. It's an essential for any library. I shared part of a quote from this book with our students tonight, and thought I'd put the complete quote in this blog. This is from a section of Bonhoeffer's book where he is dealing with the concept of cheap grace.Bonhoeffer wrote, ". . .this cheap grace has turned back upon us like a boomerang. The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organized church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available at all too low a cost. We gave away the Word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured fourth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard."
I wonder sometimes if we are guilty of this. What do you think?
5 comments:
Very guilty, perhaps even in some different ways than just the ones you articulated.
We have cheapened Christianity, period. Our distaste for anything difficult or uncomfortable (which could be attributed to being human, but is oh-so-cultural to America and the West) has cost us so dearly.
I would argue that the near rejection of the narrow way of the Cross is the wellspring of many if not most of the Church's troubles today. Biblical discipleship focuses the heart and mind and mitigates many of the intramural and theological squabbles we find ourselves in.
I know that many will argue that we just don't love God or people enough, and that's true, but at the heart of loving God is death to self (since loving really is focused on the beloved). And at the heart of loving people is doing what's best for them, no matter how much it costs me or how much it is unpleasant to them.
Bonhoeffer uses the term "humanitarian", which I might assume is being functionally equated with "humanisitc" (?). That reminds me of Ray Bakke's statement in one of his urban ministry books, where he tells the hypothetical story of a young woman in the 'hood who came to Christ, and who was living with her boyfriend and father of her baby. He said that in a case like that, he would not counsel her to leave the guy or separate since the man is a source of emotional and financial support.
Never mind that it offends a holy God and is detrimental to her soul...
I read that early in my ministry career, and was awakened to an entire world of theology that centers on people rather than God. Which seems to me to be a bit of a contradiction by very nature.
It is that very mindset, in my opinion, that ironically produces both pro-homosexuality and prosperity theologies among Christians, since people (and ultimately individuals) are the supreme concern.
So we aren't guilty of this just sometimes... cheap grace has sucked up the better part of the Western church. And it isn't by any means limited to Emergents, Liberals, or Word of Faith adherents, either. It is also reflected (among other things) in the very tolerant stance Evangelicals have towards multiple divorces and remarriages, a non-missional attitude in the conservative church, and a lifestyle of permissiveness and ease that asks "how much can I get away with and still go to heaven?" that is so prevalent among us.
Our apathy and complacency are direct the offspring of cheap grace.
Oh...
And I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't go all out for people - especially the 'least of these'. I think that a true desire for God's glory in no way works against loving people. In fact, I think the former is a requisite for the latter.
Steve,
Great points! I especially appreciated your quote, "I know that many will argue that we just don't love God or people enough, and that's true, but at the heart of loving God is death to self (since loving really is focused on the beloved)."
Death to self is hard. It's one of those things that we need to do several times a day. And, since the church is people, the church needs to be a community of walking dead people -- dead to sin, and alive to Christ.
We have an incredible responsibility to show people what it means to live lives that are dead to self and alive in Christ. And, I agree with your second post that living that way is showing love to the least of these. In reading that "Jim and Casper Go To Church" book this week, I was reminded that the unregenerate world has no desire for the plastic Christianity of cheap grace that is far too prevelent in the world. We need desperately to live lives that are counter-cultural and give people that are not of faith an idea of the revolutionary lives that true discipleship produces.
And you know, the kind of Christianity you're talking about will necessarily involve suffering reproach (at the very least) for Christ's name. That is why we are trying to find so many ways around it.
very true. You surely do need to be dead to sin in order to be alive in christ, however that type of surrender produces a type of pure joy that cant be experienced anywhere else. This joy is what non-believers, or believers who want more see. They see your holy joy and they ask, well how did you get that? You answer, by the grace of God, I am accepted to the kingdom of heaven and I surrender myself daily to his Word and his message.
What I'm getting at here is that Christianity is all of which you stated above, however, it is also the joy and the experince of the holy spirit descending on you that makes this religion so appealing and fun. It's supposed to be a happy and fun relationship with God our father, not all negative. So I do appreciate the vision that the church is giving about christianity, it could be better, but God is truly working wonders to advance christianity in our world right now, and I don't think we are in the position to judge how we're doing in converting people to christians. In fact it's only God who does that, not us.
Well, I hope I didn't sound like a babbling baffoon in that. God bless you guys and enjoy life. After all, isn't that why god put us here? To enjoy life and for Him and us to appreciate our presence? God loves us and wants us to be happy, shouldn't we take advantage of that and enjoy ourselves? If non-believers see that they couldn't be stopped from wanting to join our relationship, after all, who doesn't want to be loved?
Love, Johnny
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