Mtr Kelli Joyce

I lift up my eyes to the hills; *
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.

Dear friends in Christ,

Today is the feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the government of Germany on April 9th, 1945. He was 27 years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. In his writing, he condemned what he called “cheap grace” - the abuse of the truth of God’s grace, twisted in service of our desire to be spared from the difficult moral demands of Christ. In his life, he practiced what he preached - he not only spoke out against the sins being committed by his government, he worked with those seeking to remove Hitler from power.

Bonhoeffer is quoted as having said “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” On this feast day when we remember his earthly martyrdom and his welcome into the arms of the God he loved enough to lay down his life, I am reflecting on the ways that I am too often content to be able to recognize injustice, and maybe occasionally bandage a victim or two. I feel convicted about how willing I am to accept the status quo, which benefits me even as I speak out against its sins. I am looking at my life, and where I have let a cheap notion of grace provide me with an excuse for acting in ways I know to be contrary to God’s will for this world.

Service is good, and when our fellow humans are wounded by the cruelly indifferent wheels of oppression, we are absolutely right to bandage them up. But I pray to God for the courage and wisdom to see where I and others, by actions large or small, have opportunities to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. I pray that we will never have to face the choice between faithfulness and our lives themselves - but I pray, too, that if we ever are, we will have the grace and strength to choose to bear the true cost of discipleship.

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli