“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves,”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bless me Father for I have sinned
I have treated money as though it were an abstraction
And have placed the needs of people ahead of the GDP
Once when I was dreaming
And another time when wide awake
I have imaged to myself a world
Where workers keep the value they create
Where healthcare, housing, and dignity are available to all
I dreamed I looked a stranger in the eye
And felt the difference and sameness in between
I knew that what I saw in them was past my comprehension
And I did not need to judge them
Or to make them feel or think like me
Bless me Father
Cover me in grace
But not the grace that puts us back to sleep
Not the grace that covers over systems of oppression
Whose logic touches everything
And tells us there is nothing we can do
Come with me Father now
And leave these holy walls
First we will eat, then we sing,
Then we will study and sleep
Maybe you will have the dream
And wake up closer to Gethsemane
A little farther from the certainty
And cruelty of cheap grace
D.B. Ruderman