Reflection on the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sam.26:7-23/Cor.16:45-49/Luke 6:27-38

A drawing in the Missalette for this Sunday has Jesus speaking to the disciples. Jesus has his hand raised pointing at them as if to say, “I have a message for you, and you had better listen.” In reading or hearing today’s Gospel, you know the familiar words and what Jesus is teaching them. Here is the line that struck me: “For the measure, with which you measure, will in return be measured out to you.” 

In thinking about the word measure, I believe Jesus is talking about grace. The grace which comes to us when we act on the words of this Gospel from Luke: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, give up your cloak, do to others what you would have them do to you, love and stop condemning, forgive. The measure Jesus is teaching about in this Gospel is the grace to love.

I recently saw the movie “Bonhoeffer.” If you can, go see it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the perfect example of a person who responded in significant ways to Jesus pointing that finger at him. Many in Germany called him a pastor, martyr, prophet and spy. To try to figure out his motives he went to study theology at the University of Tubingen and Union Theological in New York. He finally refused to stay in the safety of America and returned to Germany during the war saying, “I have never regretted my return in 1939. The fact that I sit here now is participation in the fate of Germany, to which I committed myself. “

 But his life was a moral crisis. As a member of the German resistance movement, he was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and end the Nazi regime. But his conscience always made him feel that the act was not right. 

During the years of the Nazis oppression, he wrote the “Cost of Discipleship” and “Life Together.” He reawakened in many a love for the Scriptures. His preaching caused him to be in prison so long, they called him “pastor among prisoners.” People would say of him,  “He was one of the very few men that I have ever met to whom his God was real and close. 

His preaching and writings caused the Nazis to hang him Sunday, April 8, 1945, at the age of 39. The witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer began with the attempt to live and say what it is to be with Christ, and it ended with teaching what it is that Christ is with us. 

From the experiences of his life, Bonhoeffer says, “There is no paying attention to cheap grace. All grace is costly, otherwise I am not part of it. He writes, “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, without the cross, without the Christ. Costly grace is loving generously, it is going after the treasure in the field, it’s the pearl of great price, it’s the call of Jesus to forgive, to not judge, to be merciful.  Costly grace is the Gospel which we must seek and ask for, the words which must fill us and call us to follow Jesus. It is costly because it costs us to follow Christ.”

 Costly grace is the Incarnation of God into our life.

A last thought from today’s Gospel: “Give, and gifts will be given to you. A good measure…” These are no empty words. No self-deception. What a God we have! And how do we respond? What are the gifts I have been given? What is the measure of my giving back? What is the measure of my affection for God? For all of you?  For the cries of earth? What is the measure of grace that has been given to me, to each of us?  Do we use it?  Jesus is pointing his finger at me saying, “Donna – listen up, get with it! What are your priorities? How are you using the grace I give you?” 

The witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer began with the attempt to live and say what it is to be with Christ, and it ended with teaching what it is that Christ is with us.

Jesus is pointing his finger at us as he did to the disciples, to Bonhoeffer and to so many other followers in our time. It is our task to pay attention. And to say at this Eucharist today, “Thank you God, for Jesus. He is the measure of my life.”