Pastor Mike’s Blog

We are talking about discipleship–

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, wrting in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, contrasts cheap grace with costly grace:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.1  [It is] the grace that amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.  Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.2

Bonhoeffer goes on to contrast cheap grace with the costly grace of Christ:

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.  It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.  It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.  Grace is costly because it compels 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.”3

Cheap grace makes for powerless Christians and churches; costly grace is dying to ourselves, picking up our cross daily, following Jesus, and obeying his commands.

1 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.  The Cost of Discipleship.  1995.  43.

2 Ibid.  44.

3 Ibid.  45.

Back to a previous post…

Comedian Maher hates us (and all religions, I think).  A recent survey shows that many think Christians are unkind.  A local Reverend stands accused of fraud.  Yikes!  Of couse we are fallen and not perfect.  Of course Jesus tells us the world will hate us (Jn 15:18-19).  These are not what is on my mind.  What keeps me awake at night is what we, as Christians, do to add to the considerable offense the Gospel already holds for the world.

The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples.  Jesus tells us about discipleship in Lk 14:25-30:

Now large crowds were going along with [Jesus]; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”

Jesus also tells us to follow him; he equates discipleship with following Jesus.  For Jesus, it seems that “salvation” was a seemless process, a matter of turning to and following, or apprenticing to a new Master for life.  We have changed it into a two-step process: conversion, then sanctification, and we have made sanctification optional.

Is it any wonder that survey after survey shows that we are not very different from the world?  We are failing to follow our Master as his apprentice.

If you have looked at other blogs, you may see that others can comment on what the writer has written.  Well, due to legal constraints, we cannot allow that here.  For example, if someone were to endorse a political candidate in a response to something I wrote, it would jeopardize our tax-exempt status.  In other words, we are responsible for what anyone posts on our web site whether we write it or not.  So, no commenting back to us from this site…however, we’d love to hear from you via email, snail mail, phone, telegram, semaphore, megaphone, Morse code, text message, or whatever your preferred method of communication, including old fashioned face-to-face!

Come back next week and I’ll pick up the discussion point I started earlier this week!

Discipleship has been on my mind a lot lately.  I’ve been reading and re-reading the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20).  There is so much in that word.  How we understand it shapes how we view Jesus’ commands and his promises (think of the easy yoke and light burden).  There has been a drift over time in our understanding of the word as compared to Jesus’ use of it.

Comedian Bill Maher has recently made a movie called Religulous which he hopes to “stab [religion] to death.”  Denver area Rev. Acen Phillips is in court today being charged with “multiple theft and forgery counts.”  How do these things relate to discipleship?  Stay tuned; I’ll have more to say.

Welcome!

If you have read Dave’s blog, you will get a sense of how I feel: excited to use the technology, but a little shy about putting stream of consciousness thoughts in print.  But, the reward outweighs the risk, I think.  What you will see from me is a public journal…over time you will be able to follow along on my spiritual journey.  I hope that we can both look back across time at these posts and see God at work, perhaps occasionally through my interaction with you at church, in my life.  So, let’s get started.