Cross-like Christianity

CROSS-LIKE CHRISTIANITY

'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.' (Matthew 16.24)

Those words of Jesus, were spoken to his disciples as he prepared them for his coming crucifixion and resurrection. They are recalled by St Matthew in his gospel for the benefit of the early church, as it began to face organised persecution, towards the end of the first century. Their message is very simple, namely, that just as Jesus suffered for what he believed, so his followers must not be too surprised if they too have to suffer for what they believe.

However, this is easier said than done, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, first published in Germany way back in 1937, just before the Second World War, and first published in English in 1948.

Bonhoeffer was born in Breslaw, Germany in 1906. He became a Lutheran pastor and lectured in Berlin University.

He belonged to a section of the German Lutheran church which frequently attacked specific policies of Hitler's government, especially their anti-Jewish laws.

Bonhoeffer maintained that his country's involvement in the Second World War was unjust, and, although working in America when war broke out, returned to Germany, so that he might be totally identified with his nation's suffering.

In 1942, he was appointed spokesman for the Confessional Church, and of the German resistance. As such he tried, though unsuccessfully, to win the co-operation of the British War Cabinet, to overthrow Hitler's government. To this end, he met with George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, in Stockholm.

Eventually he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a conspiracy against Hitler and the central government of the Third Reich. He almost survived the war, but, after the semblance of a trial, he was hanged at Flossenburg on the 9th April 1945.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, he suggested that Christians often want discipleship on the cheap, and are not prepared to pay the price, little realising that he himself would pay the ultimate price some eight years later!

He writes, 'Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession’. And he concludes, 'Cheap grace is grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.'

That is rather a lot to take in, so let me try to unpack what he is suggesting.

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance.

We all like to be assured that our sins are forgiven, but are we prepared to turn our back upon the attractiveness of sin, and thereby, never sin again? Alas, whilst we are happy to be assured of the forgiveness of our sins, often we have little or no intention of turning our back upon the causes of sin. So tomorrow we find ourselves in the same situation as we are today. We are not prepared to 'repent' and completely reorientate our lives.

Cheap grace is Baptism without church discipline.

Yes, people want to have their children baptised but seldom, if ever, consider the implications of baptism. For many, it is merely a rite of passage that must be gone through because it is the done thing, or because they wish to keep peace with nagging grandparents. Few, if any, consider it as a rite of initiation, whereby the newly baptised becomes a member of the Christian church, and, like joining any organisation, it involves the acceptance of certain rules and regulations designed to enable one to fulfil the aims and objects of the organisation.

Cheap grace is communion without confession.

Sunday by Sunday we come to church to receive Holy Communion, but how many of us take seriously the preparation of ourselves, before receiving Christ in the form of bread and wine? After all, if we were to go to Buckingham Palace to receive a decoration, we would certainly prepare ourselves for such an important occasion!

Yet, all too often, we are sloppy about our preparation for Communion. We dash in and dash out without giving a second thought to whom we are about to meet, or have met, in our worship.

Cheap grace is absolution without personal confession.

So often we rattle off the words of the confession without thinking about what we are saying, all to eager to hear the priest pronounce God's absolution. We show little thought about what we may have said or done or thought in the past week, for which we should be truly sorry, and wished had never happened. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of sacramental confession, namely it encourages one to take sin seriously.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.

The Greek word for 'disciple' means 'learner'. And to 'learn’ involves a degree of humility whereby we place ourselves in the position of a student before God. Alas, all too often, we think and behave as if we know everything and have the answers to everything. We are only too happy to tell God what he should do rather than listen attentively to that 'still small voice of calm.' We are often so full of our own importance that we leave little room for God.

And finally: Cheap grace is grace without the cross.

We want the new life of which the resurrection speaks, but fail to realise that we cannot experience it, unless we first crucify the old life of which Good Friday speaks. But crucifixion precedes resurrection. You cannot have one without the other, painful though it may be.

Yes, I think you will agree that Bonhoeffer is so right. We are seldom prepared to pay the price for being a Christian. We want our Christianity on the cheap.

We need to be reminded of those words of Studdart Kennedy, the first World War Padre, more commonly known as Woodbine Willy because of his generous supply of cigarettes to the troops in the trenches. Kennedy once said, 'Jesus offers us a cross and not a cushion'.

Or, to be reminded of the words of Jesus himself, when he said, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me.’

A cross consists of two lines. One is vertical and one is horizontal. The vertical line represents 'l' and the horizontal line crosses out the 'l' of self. That cross was placed on the forehead of each of us at our baptism to remind us of what Christianity is all about, namely, dying to self that we may rise in Christ as members of his body, the Church.

And when I consider the price some of my brothers and sisters throughout history, and never more so than today, have been prepared to pay for being a Christian, it makes me thoroughly ashamed of the poor excuses I make for justifying my half-hearted attitude towards my faith.

It makes me ashamed of the trivial things that I allow to dominate my life and cause so much unrest and distraction.

It makes me thoroughly ashamed of wanting my faith on the cheap.

And when I consider that he, whom I have chosen to follow, sacrificed his own life for me upon the cross I dare hardly raise my head.