Moral Hazard
The term "moral hazard" has been bandied about much in the news of late and, if you haven't been hiding under a rock for the last two weeks, you'll know why. "Moral hazard" refers to economists' fears that an overly generous bailout of beleaguered financial institutions will lead to riskier behavior of other institutions in the future because they'll figure "if things go bad Washington will bail us out."
I know this is all very serious, but the term just makes me giggle. It's like we're playing golf on an ethical green and my ball just happens to land in the "moral hazard."
"Moral hazard" could aptly be applied to some Christian's conception of God's grace. The idea goes like this: I sin, I go to God, I ask for forgiveness, God forgives me, I go back out and do whatever I want. Lather, rinse, repeat. The concept perverts a simple truth about God, that God is merciful.
But this is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have called "cheap grace," that is forgiveness without discipleship. He warns in his book the Cost of Discipleship, which he wrote under the shadow of the Nazi regime, that the church was facing a crisis of increased secularization which cheapened its teachings by making its sacraments of baptism and communion perfunctory rites that required no real contrition, no real repentance, no real sense of belonging to Christ. As such the church became simply a place to have your children baptized, celebrate weddings, give rites for the dead, and, oh yeah, if you felt bad about something you'd done, you could go there to be absolved.
This, to my way of thinking, is a real "moral hazard."
To be clear, I do believe that God's grace is abundant and free. That it goes before us to make a way and welcomes us home. But I also believe that when we access this grace it is transformative. When we treat God's grace so cheaply it shows that we are not grateful.
This is not a new problem. It is not a modern issue. This is the same issue which the prophet Micah addressed when he wrote:
"With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
May you know grace in your life and may you respond in grace.