sailing along the narrow way...

I walked out of the front door this morning onto the street. taking a deep breath, the warmth closed in around me and the smell of the air was as lovely as a hug. summer is brewing...

last weekend i spent a few days on holiday with some wonderful people on a narrow boat in lancashire, exploring the Leeds to Liverpool canal over four days. It was brilliant. I highly recommend it, especially if you know someone kind enough to lend you their boat for free!! God is good.

Whilst enjoying the extreme slow down and the almost aggressive force of the narrow boat life making you rest and relax, I opened up a new book, which I've been meaning to read for a long time...the highly acclaimed, "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This is an excellent book. The bits I've read so far are extremely challenging; a strong call to fellowship with Christ as the only way to live out the Christian life, and the inevitable cost involved if taken. One thing that staggers me, is the timeliness of a book written 60 years ago, but so incredibly relevant for our present day.

He talks about the 'cheap grace' which a large portion of christians base their lives upon. The life that the christian lives under cheap grace is one that says "I'm ok, his grace is sufficient, his grace covers all, therefore it does not matter how I live my life, because my sins are forgiven." He argues, fairly strongly that this is no Christian life at all, and even a stark show of disobedience which is a fruit of disbelief. A christian life under cheap grace is no christian life at all. It is secular. Self-atoning. Self-focussed. Self-satisfying. A christianity without costly discipleship is christianity without Christ.

“Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace – for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace!”

“The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world…my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that all my sins are forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ…”

This is a grave contrast to the 'Costly Grace' shown in the new testament. Upon the call of Christ, the disciples leave their nets, their jobs, their families, their securities for something completely unknown. unknown securities, an unknown quality of life. Yet, by leaving their very lives for the sake of Christ, they find life in all its fullness.

“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life”

Jesus says that the Christian life is fellowship with him. Always. "Come, Follow Me". The level of devotion here, he notes, is somewhat monastic. He praises the various monastic movements throughout history as a "living protest against the secularisation of Christianity and the cheapening of grace." But in the end, he also notes that the very welcoming of monastic movements by the wider church created a two tiered approach to discipleship. On one hand we have the 'normal' Christian, and on the other, we have those 'special' people who give their lives, even unto death for the cause of Christ and his kingly rule. In the end, most monastic movements have strangely strengthened the very thing to which they were first opposed...

And later, there comes Bonhoeffer's well-known and well-quoted call to a new kind of monasticism. One which calls all Christians into a costly discipleship - costly because it demands our lives, our dreams, our ambitions and plans, our security - it is grace, because it isn't possible. But only possible through faith in Jesus, and welcoming his life and his presence to consume every aspect of our lives, our thoughts, our words, our very being.

“When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person. Christ calls, the disciple follows.”

The whole 'new monasticism' stream of Christianity has to be really aware of this stuff, in my opinion. In fact, all fresh expressions of church need to open the door to this call, banging itself on the outside longing to come in. Or maybe, longing for us to get out. We simply cannot have another stream of devoted Christians, only to be welcomed by the wider church and put in our own little corner, thus strengthening the one thing we long to see - the whole church of Christ being the active, lively, awe-inspiring body of Christ, revealing his Kingdom in every walk of life and society.

These fresh expressions also need to be aware of the cheap grace so freely offered, without any sense of call to fellowship with Christ. We don't call it grace any longer, the term distressingly abused these days is 'God is love'...God is love, but only in so far as he is according to His definition of Love. He is not Love accordingly to our popular definition of love, which is so often apathetic, wet, and even, cheap. Love these days does not come with cost, does not come with discipline, does not come with pain. But look at God and you will find a love that is full of these things.

Yes, love is all things in 1 corinthians 13, and God is all of those things too. But there is a danger in a 'cheap love' given freely to all whilst being used and abused as an excuse for all kinds of lifestyles as being labelled 'christian', when in fact they are far from it: "its ok, because God loves me"...The problem today is the same as in Bonhoeffer's time. We far too often excuse ourselves from entering God's call to 'fellowship with him' by our own interpretations of his love and his grace. The first step is to face up to this, and it is heart wrenchingly tragic, and true. By claiming God's love upon our lives, it is very easy not to continue walking with him, it is very easy not to enter into the life He calls us to, it is easy to think its ok to not give up our lives for the sake of his. To leave our nets and follow him.

It seems like foolishness. It seems like we'll lose so much, like we'll lose our freedom, like we'll lose our security. But on leaving the boat, we'll surely find life in its fullness, grace that is truly sufficient, a love that does not fade nor disappoint, a secure hope and a freedom to be who we were always meant to be...

“The issue can no longer be evaded. It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting the Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?”

Well. There you go. For now. And I'm only on chapter 4.