Lenny:  Good quote.  (You may have noticed I edited it because you wrote “with discipleship” when you meant “without discipleship”—an administrator’s privilege!)

I resonate with what Bonhoeffer says, though I wish he hadn’t called it “cheap grace.”  All grace is freely given—nothing could be “cheaper,” but it is costly to receive; costly in the sense that it entails commitment and sacrifice and conversion, as Bonhoeffer taught so well. 

David:  Point taken.  Though I would not be quite as bold as Bp. Robinson and would say rather, “in Christ, we both have reason to hope for heaven through.”  I’m a bit more reticent about presuming to know that I or anyone else am going to heaven.  But that’s probably more personal baggage having to do with the “once saved, always saved” brand of fundamentalism in which I was raised than any serious quibble with that statement in its essence…

I think we must focus so much on our disagreements because we want to force God to take action to vindicate us in the here-and-now.  We want not a Final Judgment at the Eschaton, but Kingdom Come.  So much impatience is wrapped up in visions of a realized eschatology, that is, a vision of a pure Church.

Thank you (no public domain versions to copy and paste, and spell check certainly doesn’t pick that up).  Actually the “cheap grace” wording is a quote from Rev. Adam Clayton Powell of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem where Bonhoeffer frequented during his post-doctorate studies at Union.  Within that context and Bonhoeffer’s social ethics I think the wording is fitting.

So much impatience is wrapped up in visions of a realized eschatology, that is, a vision of a pure Church.

I hear you.  It’s been a slow come around for me to more of a “mixed multitude” understand of the Church than the “holy club” understanding I was first introduced to as a young believer.