lenten blog | April 9, 2025

A modern day martyr

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for April 9th:  Psalm 20; Habakkuk 3:2-15; and Luke 18:31-34.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer came to the United States in 1930 to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  He was unimpressed by what he perceived as the frivolousness of American academic theology.  However, while here he met a Black seminarian, Frank Fisher, who introduced Bonhoeffer to the African-American Church, and Bonhoeffer was impressed.  He appreciated its active proclamation of liberation and dignity in Christ.  The faith they lived was taught and reinforced in the church, but lived actively in the world.  He returned to Germany in 1931with this new outlook and was Ordained.  Two years later the Nazis came to power and immediately Bonhoeffer was a vocal opponent, using his faith to make a difference in the world – all because of that fortuitous meeting with a fellow seminarian who happened to be Black.

The church establishment acquiesced to Nazi propaganda even to the point of seriously considering the removal of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) from their Bible.  Feeling unwelcome and unproductive, Bonhoeffer accepted a pastorate in England to two German speaking congregations.  Feeling guilty for abandoning the German church at such a critical moment in history, Bonhoeffer returned to Nazi Germany in 1935.  Bonhoeffer ran an underground seminary in Germany.  Just before World War II was about to start, Bonhoeffer traveled to the United States and returned to Union Theological.  However, his conscience troubled him terribly and in less than a month he returned to Nazi Germany.

Bonhoeffer was persecuted by the Nazis and finally arrested in April 1943.  Two years later Hitler would personally order his execution, and Bonhoeffer at the age of 39 was hanged on April 9, 1945, 80 years ago today.

While Bonhoeffer was running the underground seminary, he wrote “The Cost of Discipleship.”  In this book he coined two famous phrases:  “cheap grace” and “costly grace.”  He contends that Christians have relied so much on Christ's forgiveness that they do not challenge themselves enough to actually follow Jesus’ word to their best ability, instead relying on God's grace to save them when they fall.  This is “cheap grace.”  Only after they have striven to the best of their ability to do the will and work of God should God's grace come into play.  This is “costly grace.” 

“Cheap grace” is the easy path of discipleship, of following Jesus, of following a crucified Saviour.  “Costly grace” comes into play as we work with and in Christ to continue the work and ministry of the gospel even when, especially when, that work comes with a heavy cost.   As I mentioned, these phrases have crossed over from the theologian’s argot and have entered the common vocabulary of believers in general.  President Barack Obama, for example, signaled an awareness of Bonhoeffer’s teachings recently at a lecture at Hamilton College.  He said, “It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it. Now we’re at one of those moments where, you know what? It’s not enough just to say you’re for something; you may actually have to do something and possibly sacrifice a little bit.” (https://barackobama.medium.com/conversation-at-hamilton-college-0c44228ac0bd)

The prospect of “costly grace” is off-putting and hard to process, it seems.  This is nothing new.  In today’s Gospel selection, Jesus reveals for the third time that He will suffer and die in Jerusalem.  His disciples are unable to process this news.  They cannot reconcile their expectations of Jesus’ Messiahship with the apparent failure of Jesus’ execution.  They hear the words, but not the Word.  And we are told:  “But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  Lent is our chance to better appreciate and work with the idea that Christ gave all for the gospel, and if we are to be honest disciples we must try to our best to imitate His example, to live up to the potential and power of “costly grace.” 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.