Free and Cheap

A couple of weeks ago my senior minister made a comment in her sermon about grace being free but not cheap. For those theology students out there, you may recall this is not a new idea and was popularized by Bonhoeffer.

It got me thinking some about the difference in free and cheap, which I open to the larger wiser community.

This is where I have been musing...

Cheap things are cheap on both sides of the relationship.  Things are cheap to make and thus become cheap to sell.  Something that is "cheaply made" is "cheaply sold" and has little value to both the producer and the consumer.  Cheap costs little for both parties.

Free things, however, cost a great deal to the provider and cost nothing to the recipient.  For instance, hospitality is free.  It costs a great deal for those who are providing the meal, the place, the entertainment, the conversation, the drink and on and on.  But it is free for those who receive this hospitality.  Make no mistake, hospitality is not cheap - but it is free.

Likewise, in the church we are called to share all things free.

But make no mistake free is not cheap.

Perhaps this is why the Church is in decline?  We have made what is free cheap and thus it costs little to everyone involved.

How can we as a Church reclaim the idea of a free that costs and discard the idea of cheap?

Quotes on Thankfulness

Gratitude... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. 

 --Henri J. M. Nouwen

Resentment and gratitude cannot coexist, since resentment blocks the perception and experience of life as a gift. My resentment tells me that I don't receive what I deserve. It always manifests itself in envy.  --Henri J. M. Nouwen

Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. 

 --Henri J. M. Nouwen

Being thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground. Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life may be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings are slipping through our fingers.   --Craig Barnes

{The soul} must forget about {understanding}, and abandon itself into the arms of love, and His Majesty will teach it what to do next; almost its whole work is to realize its unworthiness to receive such great good and to occupy itself in thanksgiving.   --Teresa of Avila
 

You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.  --Charles Haddon Spurgeon 

The optimist says, the cup is half full. The pessimist says, the cup is half empty. The child of God says; My cup runneth over. 
 --Anonymous 

The most important prayer in the world is just two words long: "Thank you"   --Meister Eckhart 

We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?   --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful "in general." It's very strange. It's a little like being married in general.   --Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

Bonhoeffer: "Life together"

In November of 2009, a group of about eight people from my local church community attended a continuing education conference which was sponsored by our Conference (the larger jurisdiction of which our local church community is associated with). The focus of the conference was asking people to take a closer look at the book "The Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation" by Bishop Robert Schnase. After the conference, this group of eight made a commitment to one another to begin to discern what we think God is calling our church community to do and be in light of these practices. So we decided the best place to begin is to pray together.

So each Sunday (give or take a few) we have met to pray together. We have read a couple of books together which inform our conversation and we have even had a half day retreat for which we discussed what we felt God was telling us. It has been a wonderful group for one I cherish. They hold me accountable to different disciplines which I embark upon (such as my Lenten discipline).

One of our members, Reverend Nancy Allen, suggested that we read Bonhoeffer's book "Life Together". It is not a quick read despite not being very long. He uses several things in the book which the group found to be helpful as we discussed our life together in the church community we share.

Of the many things which spoke to me in this book, one thing sparked me to write out a 'T-chart' to help me see the difference between what he calls the "Community of Spirit" verse the "Human Community of spirit".

Here is the chart I made.

I was most struck by how my local church community works very hard and much of what we do is with good intentions but, I think, it is still located in the superficial (not bad, but more like "not deep") Community of the Human spirit.

I invite you to take a look at what Bonhoeffer is sharing with us and I wonder what you glean from this. Where do you find yourself living? What do you think your community strives to be in light of what it does as a church community? What steps can the UMC take to embody more of the Community of the Spirit and less of the Human Community of spirit?