Chapter 3: The Day Alone
Bonhoeffer’s introduction to this chapter asserts that many people join a fellowship simply because they cannot stand to be by themselves. This, he states, will end in disaster because:
“…only as we are in within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship.”
90. “The Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium.” (76) What do you suppose Bonhoeffer was getting at with this statement? Isn’t the Christian faith expressly for the purpose of curing souls?
91. There seems to be a double edged sword in this chapter. What two cautions does he give the Christian regarding aloneness and community?
Solitude and Silence
Being community and having alone time are part of the balanced Christian life. God is present in both localities, though in different ways. Following is a quote on Luther regarding the trouble with community:
“The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone….I will not be with you then, nor you with me” (Luther)
And another quote from Luther giving encouragement to the faithful who suffer and die alone:
“If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer they [the fellowship] suffer with me” (Luther)
92. For the Christian, then we have a chicken/egg paradox. Which came first, community or solitude? (78)
93. When do they begin? (78)
“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone”
94. None of us are perfectly “even-keeled”. We will tend to gravitate toward one thing or another when given a choice. Which direction do you tend to lean; toward fearing solitude or shunning community?
95. What is the danger to you if you succumb to that preference?
96. What might you do in order to fend off this tendency and enable a more balanced spiritual life for yourself?
97. According to Bonhoeffer, silence is a servant to what? (79)
98. At what two times is silence particularly important?
99. How does silence serve the Word in our lives?
100. By what is the silence of the Christian marked by? (80)
Meditation
Meditation, along with prayer and intersession are three things which must go along with solitude and silence. Bonhoeffer deems them not only as useful, but required by God. But meditation is not to be seen as a lonely business which might “let us down into void and abyss of loneliness; it lets us be alone with the Word. And in so doing it gives us solid ground on which to stand and clear directions as to the stops we must take.” (81)
101. In chapter two Bonhoeffer encouraged families and small group fellowships to read whole chapters of the Old and half chapters of the New Testament. But when it comes to personal meditation, what is his advice regarding the amount of scripture to ponder?
102. Which is most necessary? (Eph. 3:18) (82)
103. How long does he suggest we meditate on a passage of scripture? (82)
104. What do we seek to receive in our meditation? (82)
105. How might we begin our meditation time so that it might be most profitable to us? (82)
106. As a time of struggling with the Word, what might we expect to often be the fruit of that struggle? (83)
“It is not necessary, therefore, that we should be concerned in our meditation to express our thought and prayer in words. Unphrased thought and prayer, which issues only from our hearing, may often be more beneficial.”
107. Beneficial for whom? How?
108. On page 83 he describes our meditations as something akin to Mary “pondering in her heart” the things the shepherds told her at Jesus’ birth. How might these “ponderings” affect us? (83)
109. So, what attitude should we take regarding these various experiences? Should they concern us?
“Seek God, not happiness”—this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness; that is its promise.”
Prayer
Though he spend much time on this in the previous chapter, here it gets precisely 1 page as it seems he sees it as part and parcel of the time the Christian spends in solitude.
110. On what shall our prayer be guided? (84
111. When we are in prayer, for what should we be ready? (84)
112. What surprises might you discover or encounter in your prayers? Might this be a reason why we avoid it at times?
113. But, yet, as scary as it may be at times, what promise to we have in prayer? (85)
114. How might prayer join together our mental meanderings and the meditation from which those thoughts distracted us?
“Because God’s Word has found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, all prayers that we pray conforming to this Word are certainly heard and answered in Jesus Christ.”
Intercession
At the heart this section is that we need to be praying personally for all those in our lives. To not do so is a great neglect of their well-being.
“A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.”
115. If we are in “reality” connected to each other through Christ, as we proposed earlier in this study, When are we not connected to each other in Christ? Since we are so connected, then what happens when we pray for each other, especially those with whom we have troubles? (86)
“Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day. The struggle we undergo with our brother in intercession may be a hard one, but that struggle has the promise that it will gain its goal (of overcoming disunity).”
116. How does this happen? How does intercessory prayer “fix” and “fix” things going wrong in the church? (86)
117. How might intercession be the great equalizer (my emphasis, not DB’s)? In what do we share through intercession?
118. What if I deny someone my prayer? (87)
119. How are we to pray on their behalf? (87)
Bonhoeffer in his zeal for us to pray constantly also realized that there are far more people and situations to pray over than we have time. Christ commanded prayer, but clearly we fail at executing it fully and properly. Bonhoeffer therefore tells us that “it will be come evident that intercession is a gift of God’s ___________ for every Christian community and for every Christian.” (87)
120. How will knowing this affect your prayers?
121. However, to ensure we don’t engage in “cheap grace” what does Bonhoeffer suggest we do so that we might give intercession the time and attention it deserves?
The Test of Meditation
While only two pages long, I have marked nearly every line of it in my copy of the book with a highlighter pen. This section is where the “rubber hits the road” so-to-speak.
“Every day brings to the Christian many hours in which he will be alone in an unchristian environment. These are the times of testing.”
122. What is the big “payoff” to meditation? How will we know it has “worked” for us? (88)
123. When the individual finds themselves surrounded by non-Christians, is he/she ever alone? What/Who else is there?
124. Even when away from the fellowship, whom does the Christian represent to the world around them?
125. Therefore, for whom do acts of self-control serve beside the individual? (89)
126. Who is harmed when we sin and behave badly among non-Christians?
127. Therefore everything we do serves the __________; “either to its health or to its destruction.”
128. But regardless of whether we are alone or with the fellowship, where does our strength come from? (89)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Life Together: Chapter Two
Chapter Two: The Day with Others
While Chapter One focused largely on issues of fellowship, and the basis for our community of faith, Chapter Two centers around what we do as we gather—worship and pray.
Though much of the chapter focuses on the devotional life of the family, we must remember that Bonhoeffer was at this time living with a bunch of young, college aged men studying to be pastors. They were, for all intents and purposes, a family unit. He writes this chapter, not only with this present assemblage in mind, but with the knowledge that most of them would eventually, one day, find themselves in their own family, as the head of that family, and as an example to their parish.
The focus of this chapter then, whether we find ourselves in a family, or in the larger family, the church, is, “How do we spend our time together with Christ?” He begins with Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians:
“Let the word of Christ Dwell in you richly” (Colossians3:16)
The Day’s Beginning
In the Old Testament the “day” began at sundown, thus one went to bed with the expectation and wonderment of what God would provide the next day. “Would this be the day the Messiah comes?” But Bonhoeffer points to fact that the New Testament day begins with daybreak. It’s a time of fulfillment.
26. Of what fulfillment does the breaking of a new day remind us?
27. Read Malachi 4:2 and Judges 5:31. What was the Old Testament Church expecting?
28. How was deliverance and fulfillment of God’s promise pictured in their minds and in their poetry?
Ancient people and cultures had a fear of the dark—that it might not end and that a new day may not arrive. We now know better and do not have that fear. But this idea of expectant daylight should not be lost on us. (41)
29. From what deliverance or expectation can we associate with the rising of the sun?
30. Since our deliverance is found in Christ, and since (as we learned in chapter one) our fellowship in Christ presents us with a divine reality that we are in fellowship with all other believers, then to whom/what does the dawn belong? (bottom of 41)
Given this understanding, that the daybreak is an ever-repeating reminder of the re-birth of the Sun/Son of God, and therefore, our resurrection and our fellowship under that sun/Son, its no wonder then that the church, in both Old and New Testaments saw this time of day as the time of worship as a community.
31. What do the following verses say about mornings?
Psalm 5:3,
Psalm 88:13,
Psalm 57:7-8,
Psalm 119:147,
Psalm 63:1,
Psalm 46:5
Lam. 3:23
[Have it] “known that we must prevent the sun to give thee thanks, and at the dayspring pray to thee.” The Wisdom of Solomon 16:28 (Appoc.)
[Of the Bible Student,] “he will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High.” Ecclesiasticus 39:5(Appoc.)
32. However, in the New Testament, mornings take on even more importance. Describe Ephesians 5:14.
The important men of God arose early in the morning to seek out God and to do his commands.
33. Which men of God do the following verses show arising early to speak with God? (43)
Genesis 19:27
Exodus 8:16,
Exodus 9:13,
Exodus 24:4
Joshua 3:1
Joshua 6:12
Mark 1:35
34. According to Psalm 127:2, for what reason should we NOT rise early in the morning? (44)
The Psalter
35. According to the New Testament, what book did the early church apparently rely upon most in the morning? (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16) (pp. 44 ff)
Bonhoeffer rightly asserts that the Psalms are God’s word (44) and that, with few exceptions, are the prayers of men as well. He then goes on to reason that as we pray the Psalms they are at the same time the Prayers of God.
36. If we then follow this understanding and, remembering our conversation last chapter about being a community rooted in and through Christ, when we pray the Psalms, who else then is praying?
37. Some of the Psalms are particularly difficult for us to pray—we cannot seem to ‘identify’ with them. What does Bonhoeffer say regarding this? If we don’t feel as if this Psalm is our prayer, then whose is it? (bottom 45)
“Only in the whole Christ does the whole Psalter become a reality, a whole which the individual can never fully comprehend and call his own. That is why the prayer of the psalms belongs in a peculiar way to the fellowship. Even if a verse or a psalm is not one’s own prayer it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certainly the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his Body on earth.
38. When put in this perspective, how do we approach not only the psalms, but the Prayer of the Church?
39. How could this knowledge of the Body praying in unity help you in your prayer life?
40. Though we may never experience the full range of the emotion and experiences in the psalms we still pray them because who has experienced them? (47)
Next Bonhoeffer speaks of the structure of the Psalms themselves, as even their structure speak to community.
41. Read Psalm 5. What rhetorical devise is employed? What might this say about how it was prayed? (49)
Is this not a hint that one who prays never prays alone?
Reading the Scriptures
Bonhoeffer, having thrown the Psalms into a special hybrid category which is part Word of God, part prayer and part song, now turns his attention to the other portions of scripture as an important part of our Life together. In particular he encourages his students not to think of it as “individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.”
42. What it his suggestion for families (and, shall we assume, congregations?) as they read the scriptures? (middle of 51)
43. But what is the problem with reading scripture? (top 52)
44. So, then, what is the purpose of reading the scriptures if there is such a broad range of understanding? What shall we expect from our reading it? (middle 52)
To this it must be said that for the mature Christian every Scripture reading will be “too long” even the shortest one.”
45. What does this mean?
46. Where do we find the answers—even to the scriptures? (Col. 2:3)
47. Because of our divine fellowship with all believers across time and space, what does Bonhoeffer say we share? How are we part of the lectio continua, or, ‘continuous reading’ of scripture? (53-54)
We must learn to know the Scriptures again, as the Reformers and our fathers knew them. We must not grudge the time and the work that it takes. We must know the Scriptures first and foremost for the sake of our salvation. But besides this, there are ample reasons that make this requirement exceedingly urgent. How, for example, shall we ever attain certainty and confidence in our personal and church activity if we do not stand on solid Biblical ground?
48. According to Bonhoeffer, on what should we NOT base our authority when making crucial decisions? (55)
49. In order to build up this scriptural authority in the home, who should read the scriptures? (bottom 55)
Singing the New Song
Here is where Bonhoeffer rubs many a Lutheran the wrong way, though his points are worth examining for what is at their heart. Like many of us, he loves the hymns of the church, not because of their musical value, but because of what the music does for the prayers they offer.
50. What is the focus of the Christian hymn? (58)
51. How do our songs compare to those of heaven? (58)
52. What makes our songs palatable to God? (58)
“Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19). The new song is sung first in the heart. Otherwise it cannot be sung at all. The heart sings because it is overflowing with Christ.
53. According to Bonhoeffer, when we find ourselves unable to sing in church, what is lacking?
54. Can the Christian ever be without Christ? How then, can He, at times, not be in our hearts? (58-59)
55. What might one do then, if one is found without the joy of Christ in one’s heart?
56. What type of singing does Bonhoeffer advocate when we sing as the Church? (59)
57. Why does he feel unison singing is the best form of singing?
58. To what is the music always bound?
“Unison singing, difficult as it is, is less of a musical than a spiritual matter.”
59. What are some of the results of singing together (in unison!) as a congregation? (61)
Saying Our Prayers Together
In this section Bonhoeffer encourages the brethren to pray together. He begins with talking about the prayers we offer up singly within a group, something most people find very difficult, yet which he encourages and says is even necessary.
60. What are some reasons why we should gather to pray together in small groups? (62)
61. How might we encourage free and open prayer? (bottom 62)
62. What reminder does Bonhoeffer give us regarding even the most halted of prayers? (62)
While all types of prayer are encouraged to be said by any and all in the fellowship, Bonhoeffer does point out that certain prayer should be certain persons at certain times. (63)
63. Why does he assert the head of the house, or at least one designated prayer, should pray the prayer at the end of the family devotion? (63)
64. What is also understood of the fellowship for whom the leader is praying at the close of the devotion? (63)
65. Likewise, what covenant does the lead pray-er have with the fellowship he/she is praying for? (63)
66. How does this person stay on track and on task? (bottom 63)
67. “Thus, the prayer will become more and more the ________ __________ of all.
It will happen again and again that the person who is charged with offering the prayer for the fellowship will not feel at all in the spiritual mood to do so, and will much prefer to turn over his task to another for this day. Such a shift is not advisable, however. Otherwise, the prayer of the fellowship will too easily be governed by moods which have nothing to do with spiritual life.
68. What does the fellowship do when the one who offers up their joint prayer is burdened and feels unable to lift up that prayer? (bottom 64)
69. What encouragement does scripture give in this regard? (Romans 8:26)
70. How does Bonhoeffer feel about “Prayer Fellowships”? (65)
71. What must be incumbent upon such gatherings?
72. What must the fellowship guard against?
The Fellowship of the Table
Here Bonhoeffer sets forth a short description of the necessity and the purpose for celebrating bread of life with earthly bread at a shared table. He notes that Jesus shared three types of table fellowship with the disciples: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord’s Supper, and the final table fellowship in the Kingdom of God. “But in all three the one thing that counts is that “their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” So, to be at table within the fellowship is to know Jesus.
73. How do we first know Jesus through table fellowship? (bottom of 66)
74. The second way is similar, but takes into account that we would not enjoy the first if not for this second acknowledgment of Christ, which is what? (top of 67)
75. Thirdly, when the congregation prays, “Be our guest” in what is it confessing? (67)
76. The festive nature of table fellowship is rooted in what reality? (top 68)
77. Does this impart new meaning to our understanding of “Sunday Dinner”?
78. What might Bonhoeffer say about our habit to very often eat meals in isolation whether that is in our cubicle at work or at the coffee table in front of a television?
79. What obligation does table fellowship imply according to Bonhoeffer? (bottom 68)
The Day’s Work
With all this praying, singing and eating, what else is a person to do? Work! The last six pages of this chapter are devoted to the subject of work and its relation to prayer and faith.
80. Which should come first, prayer or work? (bottom 69)
81. Moreover, can one have one without the other? Why or why not? (top 70)
82. What is the purpose of work in Bonhoeffer’s (and Luther’s) eyes? (middle 70)
83. Bonhoeffer talks about an “it”/”Thou” relationship. What is it? (70-71)
84. How does Colossians again help us in our understanding of Life Together?
Colossians 3:17
Colossians 3:23-24
Noonday and Evening
85. What shall we do at mid-day? For what must we give thanks?
86. What noon-time event might we contemplate over our bologna and cheese and how is that relevant to our daily routine of work and prayer?(72)
“At the end of the day” is a common expression. Bonhoeffer too seems to know is as he posits, “A day at a time is long enough to sustain one’s faith; the next day will have its cares.”
87. How, then, does he suggest the day end? (73)
88. What petition should be particularly included in the evening fellowship? (74)
89. What special accommodation might one consider for this special time in the evening when prayers and petitions are offered by the fellowship to our heavenly father? (74)
The day is thine, the night also is thine. Psalm 74:16.
While Chapter One focused largely on issues of fellowship, and the basis for our community of faith, Chapter Two centers around what we do as we gather—worship and pray.
Though much of the chapter focuses on the devotional life of the family, we must remember that Bonhoeffer was at this time living with a bunch of young, college aged men studying to be pastors. They were, for all intents and purposes, a family unit. He writes this chapter, not only with this present assemblage in mind, but with the knowledge that most of them would eventually, one day, find themselves in their own family, as the head of that family, and as an example to their parish.
The focus of this chapter then, whether we find ourselves in a family, or in the larger family, the church, is, “How do we spend our time together with Christ?” He begins with Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians:
“Let the word of Christ Dwell in you richly” (Colossians3:16)
The Day’s Beginning
In the Old Testament the “day” began at sundown, thus one went to bed with the expectation and wonderment of what God would provide the next day. “Would this be the day the Messiah comes?” But Bonhoeffer points to fact that the New Testament day begins with daybreak. It’s a time of fulfillment.
26. Of what fulfillment does the breaking of a new day remind us?
27. Read Malachi 4:2 and Judges 5:31. What was the Old Testament Church expecting?
28. How was deliverance and fulfillment of God’s promise pictured in their minds and in their poetry?
Ancient people and cultures had a fear of the dark—that it might not end and that a new day may not arrive. We now know better and do not have that fear. But this idea of expectant daylight should not be lost on us. (41)
29. From what deliverance or expectation can we associate with the rising of the sun?
30. Since our deliverance is found in Christ, and since (as we learned in chapter one) our fellowship in Christ presents us with a divine reality that we are in fellowship with all other believers, then to whom/what does the dawn belong? (bottom of 41)
Given this understanding, that the daybreak is an ever-repeating reminder of the re-birth of the Sun/Son of God, and therefore, our resurrection and our fellowship under that sun/Son, its no wonder then that the church, in both Old and New Testaments saw this time of day as the time of worship as a community.
31. What do the following verses say about mornings?
Psalm 5:3,
Psalm 88:13,
Psalm 57:7-8,
Psalm 119:147,
Psalm 63:1,
Psalm 46:5
Lam. 3:23
[Have it] “known that we must prevent the sun to give thee thanks, and at the dayspring pray to thee.” The Wisdom of Solomon 16:28 (Appoc.)
[Of the Bible Student,] “he will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High.” Ecclesiasticus 39:5(Appoc.)
32. However, in the New Testament, mornings take on even more importance. Describe Ephesians 5:14.
The important men of God arose early in the morning to seek out God and to do his commands.
33. Which men of God do the following verses show arising early to speak with God? (43)
Genesis 19:27
Exodus 8:16,
Exodus 9:13,
Exodus 24:4
Joshua 3:1
Joshua 6:12
Mark 1:35
34. According to Psalm 127:2, for what reason should we NOT rise early in the morning? (44)
The Psalter
35. According to the New Testament, what book did the early church apparently rely upon most in the morning? (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16) (pp. 44 ff)
Bonhoeffer rightly asserts that the Psalms are God’s word (44) and that, with few exceptions, are the prayers of men as well. He then goes on to reason that as we pray the Psalms they are at the same time the Prayers of God.
36. If we then follow this understanding and, remembering our conversation last chapter about being a community rooted in and through Christ, when we pray the Psalms, who else then is praying?
37. Some of the Psalms are particularly difficult for us to pray—we cannot seem to ‘identify’ with them. What does Bonhoeffer say regarding this? If we don’t feel as if this Psalm is our prayer, then whose is it? (bottom 45)
“Only in the whole Christ does the whole Psalter become a reality, a whole which the individual can never fully comprehend and call his own. That is why the prayer of the psalms belongs in a peculiar way to the fellowship. Even if a verse or a psalm is not one’s own prayer it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certainly the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his Body on earth.
38. When put in this perspective, how do we approach not only the psalms, but the Prayer of the Church?
39. How could this knowledge of the Body praying in unity help you in your prayer life?
40. Though we may never experience the full range of the emotion and experiences in the psalms we still pray them because who has experienced them? (47)
Next Bonhoeffer speaks of the structure of the Psalms themselves, as even their structure speak to community.
41. Read Psalm 5. What rhetorical devise is employed? What might this say about how it was prayed? (49)
Is this not a hint that one who prays never prays alone?
Reading the Scriptures
Bonhoeffer, having thrown the Psalms into a special hybrid category which is part Word of God, part prayer and part song, now turns his attention to the other portions of scripture as an important part of our Life together. In particular he encourages his students not to think of it as “individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.”
42. What it his suggestion for families (and, shall we assume, congregations?) as they read the scriptures? (middle of 51)
43. But what is the problem with reading scripture? (top 52)
44. So, then, what is the purpose of reading the scriptures if there is such a broad range of understanding? What shall we expect from our reading it? (middle 52)
To this it must be said that for the mature Christian every Scripture reading will be “too long” even the shortest one.”
45. What does this mean?
46. Where do we find the answers—even to the scriptures? (Col. 2:3)
47. Because of our divine fellowship with all believers across time and space, what does Bonhoeffer say we share? How are we part of the lectio continua, or, ‘continuous reading’ of scripture? (53-54)
We must learn to know the Scriptures again, as the Reformers and our fathers knew them. We must not grudge the time and the work that it takes. We must know the Scriptures first and foremost for the sake of our salvation. But besides this, there are ample reasons that make this requirement exceedingly urgent. How, for example, shall we ever attain certainty and confidence in our personal and church activity if we do not stand on solid Biblical ground?
48. According to Bonhoeffer, on what should we NOT base our authority when making crucial decisions? (55)
49. In order to build up this scriptural authority in the home, who should read the scriptures? (bottom 55)
Singing the New Song
Here is where Bonhoeffer rubs many a Lutheran the wrong way, though his points are worth examining for what is at their heart. Like many of us, he loves the hymns of the church, not because of their musical value, but because of what the music does for the prayers they offer.
50. What is the focus of the Christian hymn? (58)
51. How do our songs compare to those of heaven? (58)
52. What makes our songs palatable to God? (58)
“Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19). The new song is sung first in the heart. Otherwise it cannot be sung at all. The heart sings because it is overflowing with Christ.
53. According to Bonhoeffer, when we find ourselves unable to sing in church, what is lacking?
54. Can the Christian ever be without Christ? How then, can He, at times, not be in our hearts? (58-59)
55. What might one do then, if one is found without the joy of Christ in one’s heart?
56. What type of singing does Bonhoeffer advocate when we sing as the Church? (59)
57. Why does he feel unison singing is the best form of singing?
58. To what is the music always bound?
“Unison singing, difficult as it is, is less of a musical than a spiritual matter.”
59. What are some of the results of singing together (in unison!) as a congregation? (61)
Saying Our Prayers Together
In this section Bonhoeffer encourages the brethren to pray together. He begins with talking about the prayers we offer up singly within a group, something most people find very difficult, yet which he encourages and says is even necessary.
60. What are some reasons why we should gather to pray together in small groups? (62)
61. How might we encourage free and open prayer? (bottom 62)
62. What reminder does Bonhoeffer give us regarding even the most halted of prayers? (62)
While all types of prayer are encouraged to be said by any and all in the fellowship, Bonhoeffer does point out that certain prayer should be certain persons at certain times. (63)
63. Why does he assert the head of the house, or at least one designated prayer, should pray the prayer at the end of the family devotion? (63)
64. What is also understood of the fellowship for whom the leader is praying at the close of the devotion? (63)
65. Likewise, what covenant does the lead pray-er have with the fellowship he/she is praying for? (63)
66. How does this person stay on track and on task? (bottom 63)
67. “Thus, the prayer will become more and more the ________ __________ of all.
It will happen again and again that the person who is charged with offering the prayer for the fellowship will not feel at all in the spiritual mood to do so, and will much prefer to turn over his task to another for this day. Such a shift is not advisable, however. Otherwise, the prayer of the fellowship will too easily be governed by moods which have nothing to do with spiritual life.
68. What does the fellowship do when the one who offers up their joint prayer is burdened and feels unable to lift up that prayer? (bottom 64)
69. What encouragement does scripture give in this regard? (Romans 8:26)
70. How does Bonhoeffer feel about “Prayer Fellowships”? (65)
71. What must be incumbent upon such gatherings?
72. What must the fellowship guard against?
The Fellowship of the Table
Here Bonhoeffer sets forth a short description of the necessity and the purpose for celebrating bread of life with earthly bread at a shared table. He notes that Jesus shared three types of table fellowship with the disciples: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord’s Supper, and the final table fellowship in the Kingdom of God. “But in all three the one thing that counts is that “their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” So, to be at table within the fellowship is to know Jesus.
73. How do we first know Jesus through table fellowship? (bottom of 66)
74. The second way is similar, but takes into account that we would not enjoy the first if not for this second acknowledgment of Christ, which is what? (top of 67)
75. Thirdly, when the congregation prays, “Be our guest” in what is it confessing? (67)
76. The festive nature of table fellowship is rooted in what reality? (top 68)
77. Does this impart new meaning to our understanding of “Sunday Dinner”?
78. What might Bonhoeffer say about our habit to very often eat meals in isolation whether that is in our cubicle at work or at the coffee table in front of a television?
79. What obligation does table fellowship imply according to Bonhoeffer? (bottom 68)
The Day’s Work
With all this praying, singing and eating, what else is a person to do? Work! The last six pages of this chapter are devoted to the subject of work and its relation to prayer and faith.
80. Which should come first, prayer or work? (bottom 69)
81. Moreover, can one have one without the other? Why or why not? (top 70)
82. What is the purpose of work in Bonhoeffer’s (and Luther’s) eyes? (middle 70)
83. Bonhoeffer talks about an “it”/”Thou” relationship. What is it? (70-71)
84. How does Colossians again help us in our understanding of Life Together?
Colossians 3:17
Colossians 3:23-24
Noonday and Evening
85. What shall we do at mid-day? For what must we give thanks?
86. What noon-time event might we contemplate over our bologna and cheese and how is that relevant to our daily routine of work and prayer?(72)
“At the end of the day” is a common expression. Bonhoeffer too seems to know is as he posits, “A day at a time is long enough to sustain one’s faith; the next day will have its cares.”
87. How, then, does he suggest the day end? (73)
88. What petition should be particularly included in the evening fellowship? (74)
89. What special accommodation might one consider for this special time in the evening when prayers and petitions are offered by the fellowship to our heavenly father? (74)
The day is thine, the night also is thine. Psalm 74:16.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Building Church Leaders Newsletter
If you are interested in how we as the church might faithfully incorporate visual elements into worship and teaching, then perhaps this article would be of interest to you. An exerpt of the opening paragraphs follow the link.
Building Church Leaders Newsletter:
"Visualcy."
No, it's not a real word. Not yet anyway. It was coined by author Andy Crouch to describe a new skill needed in our image-soaked society.
'Just as the shift to writing required the skills we call literacy,' writes Crouch, 'so visual culture requires its own skills—for lack of a better word, visualcy.'
What does visualcy have to do with ministry? Everything! Today people expect a church service to engage their ears and eyes. Even more traditional churches that shun technology can't avoid using visual media entirely. Remember when carousel slide projectors were a staple of missionary presentations?"
Building Church Leaders Newsletter:
"Visualcy."
No, it's not a real word. Not yet anyway. It was coined by author Andy Crouch to describe a new skill needed in our image-soaked society.
'Just as the shift to writing required the skills we call literacy,' writes Crouch, 'so visual culture requires its own skills—for lack of a better word, visualcy.'
What does visualcy have to do with ministry? Everything! Today people expect a church service to engage their ears and eyes. Even more traditional churches that shun technology can't avoid using visual media entirely. Remember when carousel slide projectors were a staple of missionary presentations?"
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Study on "Life Together"
Life Together: A Discussion of Christian Fellowship
The book was written in 1935 in Finkenwalde near Stettin, where he shared a common life in emergency-built houses with twenty-five vicars. Originally published in 1938 as Gemeinesames Leben. It was here that he also wrote The Cost of Discipleship and The Prayer Book of the Bible: An Introduction to the Psalms which more fully explores the themes in chapter two of Life Together. Shortly after this last publication the Gestapo shut down the underground seminary.
Plan
Session 1
Introduction and I Community 33 pages
Session 2
II The Day with Others 36 pages
Session 3
III The Day Alone 14 pages
Session 4
IV Ministry 20 pages
Session 5
V Confession and Communion 12 pages
Introduction/Biography
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” Tertullian 160-220 AD
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -1-
Born - February 4, 1906in Breslau, Germany
Died - April 9, 1945 (age 39) in Flossenbürg concentration camp
Church - Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union Confessing Church
Education - Doctorate in theology
Writings - Author of several books and articles (see below)
Congregations served Zion's Church congregation, Berlin German-speaking congregations of St. Paul's and Sydenham, London
Offices - held Associate lecturer at Frederick William University of Berlin (1931-1936)
Student pastor at Technical College, Berlin (1931-1933)
Lecturer of Confessing Church candidates of pastorate in Finkenwalde (1935-1937)
Title - Ordained Pastor
Family - Father was a noted physician and first to occupy a Chair in Psychiatry in Germany. One of seven children who were always close and played with the VonHarnack and Delbrueck children (Famous scholar and historian)
As Hitler rises to power in Germany and the church ‘cooperates’ with the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer leaves the country to serve in England and to study in New York City. It was there that he gained a great appreciation for African American Gospel music as he worshiped in Baptist congregations. Preparing to visit Gandhi, in India in order to pursue an interest in pacifism, he is contacted to lead a group of men from the “confessing” church in their studies at an unapproved, “illegal” seminary which was at Zingst and then moved to Finkenwalde.
Now immersed again in the world which was Nazi Germany, and in which many of his family were involved in the resistance, he too became involved in the plot to over through Hitler being led by Genera Beck and others. Thus, “The man who felt all the force of the pacifist position and weighted the “cost of discipleship” concluded in the depths of his soul that to withdraw from those who were participating in the political and military resistance would be irresponsible cowardice and flight from reality. “Not,” as his friend Bethge says, “That he believed that everybody must act as he did, but from where he was standing, he could see no possibility of retreat into any sinless, righteous, pious refuge. The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility. He saw that sin falling upon him and he took his stand.” -2-
April 5, 1943 he was arrested, along with his sister Christel and her husband Hans von Dohnanyi, and sent to Tegel, a military prison. During his time there the guards recognized him as a strong pastor and secretly arranged for him to minister to other prisoners despairing in their cells. They preserved his papers, essays and poems and even established a courier system to get these to his family and friends outside the prison.
After the Putcsch of July 20, he was transferred from one prison to another including Berlin, Buchenwald, Schoenberg, and finally Flossenburg, when all his contacts to the outside world were severed. His last weeks were spend with Russians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians and Germans. On April 8, 1945, the day before his execution, he gave his last sermon to them, the text of which was based the words ‘With his stripes we are healed.” He was taken from them by guards as he finished his last prayer and was never seen by them again.
Chapter One: Community
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” Ps 133:1
“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians." -3-
1. This, the second, non-scriptural, sentence of the book, is quite amazing, considering the title, Life Together, would seem to speak of some sort of community of believers. Why would it be important for Bonhoeffer to start off his book with this phrase?
Bonhoeffer shows the example of Christ right at the start (17). Jesus did not hide from those he disagreed with nor from those who were clearly leading people away from God. He says Christ was “in the thick of foes.”
2. Who/what might our spiritual foes be? What does it look like for us to be “in the thick” with them?
3. Contrast our times and our setting with 1935 national socialist Germany; though we and the church are protected by our government through the First Amendment, what other pressures do we as the Church face today?
The “confessing” church was a group of believers who could not, by conscience, participate in the “German Christian” church which the Nazi’s had orchestrated and by which most protestants had followed into. This made them easy targets for arrest and harassment.
4. When we make decisions to join one church or another, what “confessions” do we make? What consequences do these confessions bring?
“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.” -4-
5. As Lutherans (and Bonhoeffer was Lutheran) we believe in the solas: Grace alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone. So, how can/do we arrive at a place where we can agree with the quote above?
Bonhoeffer explains this statement in three parts (21)
6. “First, a Christian needs others because of Christ.” In what/where do we meet and discover that need?
7. “Second, a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ.” Why is this true?
8. “Third, in Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.” How are we united with Christ? With others?
Note: Bonhoeffer’s comments on what makes us brothers and sisters in Christ (25) is not our “Christianity” but what we are in/to Christ.
“The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes (in Christ, remember) the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity.” -5-
9. What can we expect if we grow closer to each other in community?
10. And how is this closeness in community realized? Or, is it just a pipedream? (see ital. at end of second para. Pg. 26)
“By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world…Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial” -6-
11. What are some of the ‘Wish Dreams’ we might get caught up in as an organized church?
12. What are some of the personal ‘Wish Dreams’ we might try to inject into our Christ-centered community?
13. When our ‘dreams’ don’t come true, who do we blame? Where does the blame lie?
14. How do we then ‘plan’ for ministry? What is our guide?
“We enter that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.” -7-
15. How does this statement then organize us as a community?
16. How does this statement inform our interactions with each other--especially when we are at odds with one another? (bottom 28)
17. How does being thankful affect the community? How does God respond? (top 29, bottom 30)
“Because Christian community is founded solely on Jesus Christ, it is a spiritual and not a psychic reality. In this it differs from all other communities. …The basis of the community of the Spirit is truth; the basis of human community of spirit is desire. The essence of the community of the Spirit is light, for “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) and “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”(1:7)-8-
18. In this line of reasoning where the community of the Spirit in truth seeks light, which is God, what might a human community of spirit seek? i.e. what is at the center of community based upon the human ‘spirit’ as the world defines it? (top 33)
19. How are spiritual love and human love at odds with each other? (35)
We sometimes think that in order to show ‘Christian love’ we need to make them love us back if they are to be saved. But Bonhoeffer says, “I dare not desire direct fellowship with them.” -9-
20. How, then, can we be community, if we are not desiring fellowship with each other? (bottom 35)
21. In whom is our fellowship based, and thereby are we joined to each other?(36)
22. Therefore, spiritual love proves itself in __________. (middle 36)
23. Which is more profitable, to speak to a brother or sister about Christ, or to speak to Christ about a brother or sister?
24. So, then, our love for others is completely bound up in what truth about them? (top37) (see also III John 4)
25. What is Bonhoeffer’s caution about failing to project our human relationships and communities into our Spiritual community? (bottom 38)
“It is not the experience of Christian brotherhood, but solid and certain faith in brotherhood that holds us together.” -10- And that faith is built on our brotherhood with Christ, the hub of community.
End notes:
-1- “Born” through “Title” taken from table found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer as of 2/18/2010.
-2- Bonhoeffer, Deitrich, Life Together: A Discussion of Christian Fellowship. New York, Harper and Row, 1954
p. 11
-3- Bonhoeffer, D p. 17
-4- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 21.
-5- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 26
-6- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 27
-7- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 28
-8- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 31
-9- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 35
-10- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 39
The book was written in 1935 in Finkenwalde near Stettin, where he shared a common life in emergency-built houses with twenty-five vicars. Originally published in 1938 as Gemeinesames Leben. It was here that he also wrote The Cost of Discipleship and The Prayer Book of the Bible: An Introduction to the Psalms which more fully explores the themes in chapter two of Life Together. Shortly after this last publication the Gestapo shut down the underground seminary.
Plan
Session 1
Introduction and I Community 33 pages
Session 2
II The Day with Others 36 pages
Session 3
III The Day Alone 14 pages
Session 4
IV Ministry 20 pages
Session 5
V Confession and Communion 12 pages
Introduction/Biography
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” Tertullian 160-220 AD
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -1-
Born - February 4, 1906in Breslau, Germany
Died - April 9, 1945 (age 39) in Flossenbürg concentration camp
Church - Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union Confessing Church
Education - Doctorate in theology
Writings - Author of several books and articles (see below)
Congregations served Zion's Church congregation, Berlin German-speaking congregations of St. Paul's and Sydenham, London
Offices - held Associate lecturer at Frederick William University of Berlin (1931-1936)
Student pastor at Technical College, Berlin (1931-1933)
Lecturer of Confessing Church candidates of pastorate in Finkenwalde (1935-1937)
Title - Ordained Pastor
Family - Father was a noted physician and first to occupy a Chair in Psychiatry in Germany. One of seven children who were always close and played with the VonHarnack and Delbrueck children (Famous scholar and historian)
As Hitler rises to power in Germany and the church ‘cooperates’ with the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer leaves the country to serve in England and to study in New York City. It was there that he gained a great appreciation for African American Gospel music as he worshiped in Baptist congregations. Preparing to visit Gandhi, in India in order to pursue an interest in pacifism, he is contacted to lead a group of men from the “confessing” church in their studies at an unapproved, “illegal” seminary which was at Zingst and then moved to Finkenwalde.
Now immersed again in the world which was Nazi Germany, and in which many of his family were involved in the resistance, he too became involved in the plot to over through Hitler being led by Genera Beck and others. Thus, “The man who felt all the force of the pacifist position and weighted the “cost of discipleship” concluded in the depths of his soul that to withdraw from those who were participating in the political and military resistance would be irresponsible cowardice and flight from reality. “Not,” as his friend Bethge says, “That he believed that everybody must act as he did, but from where he was standing, he could see no possibility of retreat into any sinless, righteous, pious refuge. The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility. He saw that sin falling upon him and he took his stand.” -2-
April 5, 1943 he was arrested, along with his sister Christel and her husband Hans von Dohnanyi, and sent to Tegel, a military prison. During his time there the guards recognized him as a strong pastor and secretly arranged for him to minister to other prisoners despairing in their cells. They preserved his papers, essays and poems and even established a courier system to get these to his family and friends outside the prison.
After the Putcsch of July 20, he was transferred from one prison to another including Berlin, Buchenwald, Schoenberg, and finally Flossenburg, when all his contacts to the outside world were severed. His last weeks were spend with Russians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians and Germans. On April 8, 1945, the day before his execution, he gave his last sermon to them, the text of which was based the words ‘With his stripes we are healed.” He was taken from them by guards as he finished his last prayer and was never seen by them again.
Chapter One: Community
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” Ps 133:1
“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians." -3-
1. This, the second, non-scriptural, sentence of the book, is quite amazing, considering the title, Life Together, would seem to speak of some sort of community of believers. Why would it be important for Bonhoeffer to start off his book with this phrase?
Bonhoeffer shows the example of Christ right at the start (17). Jesus did not hide from those he disagreed with nor from those who were clearly leading people away from God. He says Christ was “in the thick of foes.”
2. Who/what might our spiritual foes be? What does it look like for us to be “in the thick” with them?
3. Contrast our times and our setting with 1935 national socialist Germany; though we and the church are protected by our government through the First Amendment, what other pressures do we as the Church face today?
The “confessing” church was a group of believers who could not, by conscience, participate in the “German Christian” church which the Nazi’s had orchestrated and by which most protestants had followed into. This made them easy targets for arrest and harassment.
4. When we make decisions to join one church or another, what “confessions” do we make? What consequences do these confessions bring?
“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.” -4-
5. As Lutherans (and Bonhoeffer was Lutheran) we believe in the solas: Grace alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone. So, how can/do we arrive at a place where we can agree with the quote above?
Bonhoeffer explains this statement in three parts (21)
6. “First, a Christian needs others because of Christ.” In what/where do we meet and discover that need?
7. “Second, a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ.” Why is this true?
8. “Third, in Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.” How are we united with Christ? With others?
Note: Bonhoeffer’s comments on what makes us brothers and sisters in Christ (25) is not our “Christianity” but what we are in/to Christ.
“The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes (in Christ, remember) the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity.” -5-
9. What can we expect if we grow closer to each other in community?
10. And how is this closeness in community realized? Or, is it just a pipedream? (see ital. at end of second para. Pg. 26)
“By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world…Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial” -6-
11. What are some of the ‘Wish Dreams’ we might get caught up in as an organized church?
12. What are some of the personal ‘Wish Dreams’ we might try to inject into our Christ-centered community?
13. When our ‘dreams’ don’t come true, who do we blame? Where does the blame lie?
14. How do we then ‘plan’ for ministry? What is our guide?
“We enter that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.” -7-
15. How does this statement then organize us as a community?
16. How does this statement inform our interactions with each other--especially when we are at odds with one another? (bottom 28)
17. How does being thankful affect the community? How does God respond? (top 29, bottom 30)
“Because Christian community is founded solely on Jesus Christ, it is a spiritual and not a psychic reality. In this it differs from all other communities. …The basis of the community of the Spirit is truth; the basis of human community of spirit is desire. The essence of the community of the Spirit is light, for “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) and “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”(1:7)-8-
18. In this line of reasoning where the community of the Spirit in truth seeks light, which is God, what might a human community of spirit seek? i.e. what is at the center of community based upon the human ‘spirit’ as the world defines it? (top 33)
19. How are spiritual love and human love at odds with each other? (35)
We sometimes think that in order to show ‘Christian love’ we need to make them love us back if they are to be saved. But Bonhoeffer says, “I dare not desire direct fellowship with them.” -9-
20. How, then, can we be community, if we are not desiring fellowship with each other? (bottom 35)
21. In whom is our fellowship based, and thereby are we joined to each other?(36)
22. Therefore, spiritual love proves itself in __________. (middle 36)
23. Which is more profitable, to speak to a brother or sister about Christ, or to speak to Christ about a brother or sister?
24. So, then, our love for others is completely bound up in what truth about them? (top37) (see also III John 4)
25. What is Bonhoeffer’s caution about failing to project our human relationships and communities into our Spiritual community? (bottom 38)
“It is not the experience of Christian brotherhood, but solid and certain faith in brotherhood that holds us together.” -10- And that faith is built on our brotherhood with Christ, the hub of community.
End notes:
-1- “Born” through “Title” taken from table found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer as of 2/18/2010.
-2- Bonhoeffer, Deitrich, Life Together: A Discussion of Christian Fellowship. New York, Harper and Row, 1954
p. 11
-3- Bonhoeffer, D p. 17
-4- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 21.
-5- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 26
-6- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 27
-7- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 28
-8- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 31
-9- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 35
-10- Bonhoeffer, D. p. 39
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)