GRACE, IN WHATEVER FORM!
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C
June 23, 2013
GRACE IN WHATEVER FORM!
Many years ago, the words used by Dietrich Bonhoeffer made a
big dent in my mind. He talked about “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Before I
proceed, let us get it straight from his mouth: “"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."
It is all
too easy for all of us to look only for the former, and ignore the latter. Why
not? It is nice to be comfortable and safely ensconced in our seats. It is hard
to rock the boat and even harder to
suffer unnecessarily.
That is not
what I gather from the readings today. The first reading from Zechariah speaks
about the Lord “pouring out” “grace and petition” – something pleasant and
unpleasant, something that would lead to gratitude and mourning at one and the
same time … growth as much as purification; mourning in the heart and fervent
petition from within.
I have
personally been through tough times in my life. I have been through happy
times, to be sure. It all comes in a package called the gift of life. Sometimes
you’re up; sometimes you’re down. Now, it is cheap grace … (Thank you, Lord!);
now it is costly grace … (My Lord, and my God, help me!)
But whether
I am drenched to the bone, cold and chilling to the max, or high and dry and
reveling under the warmth of the sun of people’s care and concern, I am led to
the same prayer that we had after the first reading: “My soul is thirsting for
you, O Lord my God!”
God’s people
had its share of grief and mourning. Today Zechariah prophesies more of such.
St. Paul says as much, reminding the Galatians that “baptism” cannot be had
without “discipline,” that we were all “baptized into Christ” and that we all
“have clothed ourselves with Christ.” Baptism is “cheap grace” – insufficient
by itself, incomplete all by itself. Christian life needs to be gritty. It needs
to have substance. It needs to have bite. It needs more than just fiduciary
faith. It thrives on performative faith, and when one stands up to perform,
then one had better be prepared to be pelted by life with tomatoes and
everything else besides!
I have been
pelted with more than just tomatoes in my life. Do good. Strive and work for
the good, and just as surely as night follows day, criticism and
dissatisfaction will follow suit. St. Paul knew it all: the factionalisms among
the Corinthians, the division of the early Christians between those who rooted
for him and those who rooted for Apollos … Name it, Paul experienced it …
floggings, imprisonment, shipwreck and all! This is the same Paul who begs us
now never to focus only on cheap grace, but work also for costly grace: “no
longer male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor freeman” for we “are all one
in Christ Jesus.”
One day, at
perhaps a low moment in Christ’s life, the Lord made a little survey … “Who do
the crowds say I am?” Perhaps he, too, was looking like we all do at times, for
a little affirmation, a little reassurance …
But know
what? When Peter told him the best, the utmost, the highest … “You are the
Christ of God!” he capitulated. He got back to form and said the unthinkable.
He did not want to remain with the “cheap grace” of shallow accolades, and even
shallower appraisals of people around him.
He chose
costly grace. And he began to talk about substantial matters – the very reasons
for which He was sent, the reason for which He came …
“The Son of
Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and
the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised!”
Lord, in my
selfishness and desire to look for the easier way out, help me! Bring me back
to form and lead me to work, not only for cheap grace, but for costly grace! My
soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God!
Need I say
more? “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for my sake will save it.”
I rest my
case … I want your grace in whatever form!
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