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On August 22, 2019 By In Politics

Loving the Church: Lessons from Bonhoeffer

It is not always easy to love our fellow Christians. After all, they sometimes say things that we find embarrassing and embrace causes that we find repugnant. Their political opinions are hopelessly atavistic or thoughtlessly progressive. They believe the world will end tomorrow and think they can hasten the coming apocalypse. They think they will save their country and bring godliness to everyone. They make all Christians look foolish by their missteps, and we–their betters surely?–are reluctant to associate with them for fear of losing respectability.

How many of us have experienced this for ourselves? I freely admit that I have, and it’s a side of me that I quite dislike. In my youth I developed a burning passion for social justice, for helping the poor and oppressed and for ending the economic structures that hold them in their grip. This produced in me an anger towards anyone else in the church who was less aware of these issues than I. Of course, this included most of my fellow Christians who were busy making a living, raising families and giving time and financial resources to their church and other communities. At least temporarily, my attitude made it difficult for me to sit in church and to listen to sermons that failed to touch on what I had come to believe was so important to a genuine faith. Had someone attempted openly to correct me and thereby coax even a little humility into me, I doubt I would have listened.

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On October 15, 2013 By In Books

Giving Thanks for the Little Things

By Uri Brito

The results are in! Gratitude wins the day by a landslide. In fact, as a result of this monumental victory, psychology departments are developing entirely new areas of study on the little known fact of gratitude. According to Robert Emmons, author of Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, “Gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably change people’s lives.” a There are measurable benefits. Did you hear that?

Linked to this discovery is the helpful suggestion made by Michael Hyatt that keeping a gratitude journal can be immensely beneficial as we build an arsenal of gratitude pages. Ending the day by listing the reasons for thanksgiving, however small, can actually serve as a rich spiritual exercise.

Of course, we are aware that psychological journals are behind the times. Gratitude has always been a Christian virtue. St. Paul had already broken the news. Later, in the 20th century, Bonhoeffer alluded to this in his remarkable little book Life Together. There, he takes us back to the glories of gratitude in community life. For Bonhoeffer, if you don’t know where to start in the gratitude journey, start with thanking God for your community. He writes:

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

The Christian faith is a food religion. The heart of it is found in the death/resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. He became for the world the bread of life. This bread then becomes the food for hungry souls to feed. In the Christian tradition, it is articulated most clearly in the table of the Lord. The table is a table of joy and gratitude; so much gratitude that it is usually referred to as the Eucharistisc Table. The word eucharistia means “thanksgiving.” Emmons says that “when we feel grateful, we are moved to share the goodness we have received with others.” b It is this sharing of food that forms this table of thanksgiving.

Gratitude builds us in love and compels us share in the shalom of God with others. To whom much is given much is required. To those of us who partake of God’s goodness often and daily, we are called then to compel others with our own lives and words to share in this community of gratitude formed by the God who gave us His own life.<>разработка промо аяндекс реклама на е

  1. Thanks! page 2  (back)
  2. Ibid. 4  (back)

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On September 19, 2013 By In Theology

Life Together

By Uri Brito

Bonhoeffer’s Life Together is an apologetic for community life. But it is also a rebuke to those who take for granted the life in the community. Bonhoeffer sees community life as a privilege. The martyred prophet spoke of life together as an honor secured by the death of Jesus Christ. While many suffer the effects of aloneness, Bonhoeffer urges us not to forsake this blessed fellowship.

Life Together, life in the messiness of human existence– but the experience of messiness with other believers– is a gift of grace. The Lutheran writer spoke of community as a foretaste of the life to come. “It is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.” a Eternal life is the beautification and glorification of life together. Eternal life is the perfection of community life.

This common life is all of grace. It is a privilege that should not be forsaken. To live separate lives is to despise grace. “It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.” b “Do not forsake the assembly” (Heb. 10:25) is not only a call to gather for corporate worship–it is primarily this–but it is also a call to live together daily, dwelling together in unity (Ps. 133:1).

Life Together is life as God intended. It is the humanification of fallen creatures. Humans are most fallen when they live separated from others. They are most redeemed when they are together. They are most God-like when they enter into the communion of saints, participating in that Spirit-led body that the Father bought through the blood of the Son.<>mobile online games rpgпродвинуть в яндексе

  1. Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pg. 18  (back)
  2. Bonhoeffer, pg. 20  (back)

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