St. Luke's Worship

"The apostle Paul says, “he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reaps eternal life" (Gal. 6:8).  Paul’s analogy is instructive.  A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain.  He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain.  This is the way it is with Spiritual Practices- they are a way of sowing to the Spirit.  The Practices are God’s way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us and transform us.  By themselves the Spiritual Practices can do nothing; they can only get us to a place where something can be done.  They are God’s means of grace.  The inner righteousness we seek is not something that is poured on our heads.  God has ordained the Practices of the spiritual life as the means by which we place ourselves where he can bless us. 

In this regard it would be proper to speak of "the path of disciplined grace."  It is "grace" because it is free; it is "disciplined" because there is something for us to do.  In "The Cost of Discipleship" Dietrich Bonheoffer makes it clear that grace is free, but it is not cheap.  The grace of God is unearned and unearnable, but if we ever expect to grow in grace, we must pay the price of a consciously chosen course of action which involves both individual and group life.  Spiritual growth is the purpose of the Practices.

"Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people.  Leo Tolstoy observes, 'Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.'  Let us be among those who believe that the transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort."
Excerpts from "The Celebration of Discipline" - Chapter 1 by Richard Foster