Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (12)

 

 

On page 201 Bonhoeffer turns our attention to Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12.

 

“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:4 – 5).

 

“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).

 

Each of us retains our own identity, place, and function in the Body, in fact, we find our identity as a hand, a foot, a mouth, a leg, only in the community of the Body.

 

Then Bonhoeffer looks at the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit “brings Christ to individuals (Eph. 3:17; 1 Cor. 12:3),” the Holy Spirit “builds up the church…even though in Christ the whole building is already complete (Eph. 2:22, 4:13; Col. 2:7),” He “creates community (2 Cor. 13:13) of the members of the body (Rom. 15:30, 5:5; Col. 1:8; Eph. 4:3).” The Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17).”

 

The whole of Scripture forms Bonhoeffer’s vision of the Body of Christ, as it should ours. He does not view Scripture in an isolated, piecemeal fashion, but rather as a whole, and as a whole Bonhoeffer sees Christ Jesus and His Body. We will not see what Bonhoeffer sees if we do not read and meditate on Scripture. While what Bonhoeffer writes is true, and I think true beyond what we can possibly fully imagine, only the Word of Christ can sustain such a vision, only the Word can cause such a vision to grow and to live within us as our Way of Life.

 

We must be able to say as the Samaritans, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). That is, we must see and believe and accept and enter into the Word of God for ourselves. Yes, we do so in community. Yes, others help us. Yes, it may take time. Yes, we cannot do so without the Holy Spirit.

 

We may come because others have spoken to us, but we all need our “Ah ha!” moments in Jesus – and once we “see” we can tell others, not just because Bonhoeffer wrote it and we believe him, but because what Bonhoeffer wrote brought us to a place in the Christ of Scripture, in His Word, where we irresistibly see for ourselves. It is not so much that we capture Bonhoeffer’s vision, or even St. John’s vision, but that the visions of St. John and Bonhoeffer and Paul capture us.

 

As we read the Bible passages that Bonhoeffer cites, and read them we must or we are wasting our time, truly we are, let us recall his counsel on page 199, “While we are used to thinking of the church as an institution, we ought instead to think of it as a person with a body, although of course a person in a unique sense.”

 

Then at the bottom of page 201 we read:

 

“The life of the body of Christ has thus become our life. In Christ we no longer live our own lives, but Christ lives in us. The life of believers in the church - community is truly the life of Jesus Christ in them (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:15).” What other passages could you add to these? I immediately think of John 15:1 – 5, 14:16 – 17, 14:23; 17:20 – 26.

 

Is this the way we think of the Church, of the Body of Christ? Do we live like this? Is this the way our congregations think? Our movements and denominations?

 

Read this quote from page 201 again, then read it again, read it out loud so as not to miss it. Is this the way I live my life? Is it the way you live your life?

 

Are we living in Divine organic unity in koinonia with the Body of Christ?

 

The Incarnation not only continues within us as individuals, but it most especially continues within us as His Body, His Temple. As Bonhoeffer writes on page 200, “Just as the fullness of the godhead became incarnate in him and dwelled in him, so are Christian believers filled with Christ (Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19). Indeed, they themselves are that divine fullness by being his body, and yet it is Christ alone who fills all in all.”

 

While I cannot speak for Christians in other lands, in the United States professing Christians have no sense of this identity and calling. I cannot even write that we have abdicated our calling and identity, for to abdicate something means that you are aware of what you are leaving and rejecting. We are worse than Esau who sold his birthright for a stew. We are worse than the exiles who returned from Babylon with the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple, but who focused instead on building their own houses while the House of God lay waste (see the prophet Haggai), for we are rejecting Jesus Christ and our heavenly City.

 

We are selling ourselves to innumerable “lovers” while our Bridegroom waits for us, while He yearns for us, while He continues to love us, while He desires to shower us with His love and care and compassion, while He desires that we know Him intimately so that we, in turn, can bring others to Him. We make Gomer (Hosea 1:3) look like a faithful spouse.

 

In Bonhoeffer’s Germany the professing church sold itself to economics and nationalism. The poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalized, the disabled, the defenseless, the alien, the racially “impure” were crushed – and Christians justified it, or turned their eyes elsewhere so they did not have to confront the evil; a few, such as Bonhoffer, called Christians to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to one another and to serve those in danger. They were marginalized, imprisoned, and some were executed.

 

An irony is that some in our own land have used Bonhoeffer to justify the very things he stood against, just as they use the Bible to justify their harlotries.

 

It is a tragedy that the beauty of the True Church has been desecrated by our foolishness, sectarianism, and failure to trust the Head of the Body to honor our faithfulness and obedience to Him.

 

Well, what to do?

 

All I know to do is to be faithful to Jesus and His Body as we are given grace, whether anyone sees His glorious Presence in His Temple (Ephesians 19 – 22), whether anyone is interested in Christ’s Church, which is beyond our churches. We are still called to lay down our lives for our brethren, for our brothers and sisters. We are still called to see them as Jesus Christ sees them. We are still called to declare the Name of our Father to them.

 

If Jesus came to His own and was rejected, it is no big thing if the same thing happens to us, indeed, we should reckon it an honor.

 

As I ponder Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, popularly known as The Cost of Discipleship, I realize that most, if not all, of the quotes I have read from it over the years come from the first part, the part mainly focused on individual discipleship. Why is this?

 

Perhaps it is because we dare not take Part II seriously, the challenge is too great, the threat to our little fiefdoms too pronounced, the call onward and upward too demanding, to open the treasures of what Bonhoeffer has written.

 

Are we to live as the Presence of Christ, or not?

 

Are we to live as His Body?

 

There is but one authentic witness to the world, our love and unity in the Trinity as the Body of Christ.  (See John 13:34 – 35; 17:20 – 23).

 

Let us claim and proclaim our identity.

“Take Courage”

 

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

 

Jesus tells us the truth about tribulation and persecution and rejection so that we may have peace. He says these things in the context of our Father’s abiding love for us, of the Vine and the branches, of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and of His overcoming the world and the enemy.

 

“These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told you of them” (John 16:3 - 4).

 

“Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe” (John 14:29).

 

Jesus speaks to us of our hearts not being troubled (14:1, 27), of giving us His peace and joy and love (14:27; 15:9, 11). He speaks of the Trinty living within us (John 14:17, 23) and of us living in the Trinity (John 17:21).

 

Yet, He also tells us of persecution and rejection and the hostility of the world.

 

When we fail to teach the truth of tribulation in the world we not only fail to teach the Gospel, we fail those we call to know Jesus Christ. If we do not experience conflict with the world it is not likely we are living as disciples of Jesus Christ, for God’s ways are not the world’s ways, and when we come into conflict with the world’s ways we must be obedient to the commands and Way of Jesus Christ.

 

We fail those we call to know Jesus because we fail to inform them that they will have tribulation. We fail to teach them that, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

 

“You [spiritual] adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4; see also 1 John 2:15 – 17 and our earlier reflections on John 15:18 – 16:4).

 

If we would call people as Jesus calls people (Mark 8:34 – 38), people would know what to expect for they would come into the Kingdom with a right way of thinking about life, about Christ, themselves, and the world. How foolish we are to be seeker – sensitive when we are called to be God – sensitive and to call all the world to be Christ – sensitive.

 

False teachers call us to make ourselves the center of life, Christ calls us to give our lives to Him and to others, to live as His brothers and sisters, laying down our lives for others. Christ calls us to the Cross as our Way of Life, and this Way is necessarily the Way of crucifixion and rejection…and yes…of resurrection. Football players are not surprised when they are knocked on the ground, soldiers are not surprised when they face the challenge of battle, marathon and ultra marathon runners are not surprised by the pain they must endure to finish the race – O but American Christians are surprised by the least amount of rejection or resistance or displeasure they encounter for Jesus Christ.

 

If someone at work makes a disparaging remark toward a Christian, that Christian often reacts as if he or she has faced the lions in a Roman colosseum. Why, we won’t even share Jesus lest there be a backlash, making excuse after excuse so as to avoid true identification with the crucified Lamb. We have no shame, do we?

 

Jesus gives us the assurance that in Him we can have peace. In Him! In Him! In Him! Not in “mindfulness,” not in “positive thinking,” not in “name it and claim it,” not in possessions or position or power or fame or in the esteem of the world, but in Him, in Him, in Him!

 

Jesus tells us that we can take courage for He has overcome the world. Why should we take courage in this? Because if our identity is in Jesus, if our life is in Jesus, if our hearts have been captured by an all – enveloping and all – encompassing love for Jesus Christ, then we are one with Him, we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and spirit of His Spirit – and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 8:28 – 39).

 

Soon the eleven disciples will be cowering in the Upper Room. They will have deserted their Master. He has been betrayed by one of their own, tortured, crucified, killed, and buried. These eleven will have the door locked “for fear of the Jews [the religious leaders]”.

 

Look at the whole wide world and then look at this little Upper Room in comparison to it. This little room is nothing, these eleven men are nothing. Why these supposed friends of Jesus abandoned Him – they didn’t even attempt to care for His dead body.

 

Look at the population of the world at the time these eleven were cowering, but also consider all the people who have ever been born from the beginning until our own time – what significance can these eleven fearful men possibly have? If we were to search all humanity for eleven men to lead us, is it likely we would choose these men? Fishermen, a tax collector, an insurrectionist? What qualifications do they have? Cowardice? Unbelief? Selfishness (“we want to be first, sitting on Your right hand and on Your left”)?

 

Yet Jesus says, “Take courage; I have overcome the world.”

 

The inside of the Upper Room is greater than the outside, for the inside is a portal into the Holy of Holies, into the Presence of God the Creator of all, the Father who knows me, who knows you, who knows us (Psalm 139). Those eleven men, and others, have been chosen to lead humanity to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, and the names “of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” will be with us for eternity (Rev. 21:14) as foundational to that City.

 

In the midst of their fear, of the memory of their cowardice, these men can take courage; even when they have residual doubt after the resurrection, they can take courage, for Jesus is their Shepherd, and the sheep can trust the Shepherd to bring them back to Him, to call them, to love them, to protect them, and to equip them to join the Shepherd as the Lamb, to also be sacrificial lambs so that others may have life in Christ.

 

If you have never suffered for Christ, take courage. If you have never witnessed for Christ, take courage. If you have not responded to Jesus’ call of Mark 8:34 – 38 to take up your cross and follow Him, losing your life for Him and others, take courage. It is not too late for you to cry out to Jesus, asking Him to draw you to Himself, asking Him to live His life in you and through you, asking that you may be broken bread and poured out wine for others, so that they may live in Him.

 

O friends, whether we have labored in the vineyard a virtual lifetime or a matter of hours (Matthew 20:1 – 16), the Master calls us to Himself. I’ll tell you one difference between this parable and the way it is in the Kingdom, in the Kingdom those who have labored in the heat of the day rejoice when new men and women come to labor alongside them, no matter when they arrive, no matter when they arrive. A besieged army does not complain to reinforcements, instead it says, “We are thankful you are here!”

 

As you ponder the Upper Room, as you hear and see the words that Jesus speaks to us, of His love for you, His laying down His life for you, His desire for deep relationship with you – what will you do? There is yet more to come, there is the Holy of Holies of John 17, which we will enter, the Lord willing, in forthcoming reflections.

 

But let us make no mistake, there is the Cross, and the Cross must not be only external and seen in time and space; it must not only be seen as rooted in eternity – eternity past and eternity future, the Cross must be a living Presence and Reality within us, it must be our source of Light and Life, it must be the animating principle of our lives – in fact our very lives must be cruciform, shaped and molded and formed by the Cross of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20; 6:14).

 

Twice Peter wanted to spare Jesus from the Cross (Matthew 16:21 – 23; John 18:10 – 11). Peter would finally learn to embrace the Cross and to teach others the glory of this embrace (see the theme of 1 Peter). As we read the courageous words of Peter’s letters, let us recall that this was the same man cowering in the Upper Room.

 

Wherever you are, whether you are in your own Upper Room or on the Road to Emmaus or even on the Road to Damascus, Jesus Christ is calling you to come to Him, to be one with Him, to live in intimate friendship with Him…embracing the Cross, having courage, sharing in His ironic and irenic Resurrection Victory, and to experience the joy that can only be known in giving our lives for Him and others.

 

Wherever you are, Take Courage!

 

Unfinished Thoughts on the Soul - Part 2

 

What of our souls?

 

We know that when God formed man that He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man become a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). We also know that our souls were marred, disfigured, and warped when our fellowship with God was broken…however we may understand the particulars, the image of God within us was desecrated.

 

There was also a deep interior death that occurred when we partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – hence on the day we ate it we did indeed die. It follows that we need a new birth in Jesus Christ, it follows that Jesus brings a New Creation into existence, it follows that we who were once dead in trespasses and sins have now been made alive, raised from the dead, in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1 – 10).

 

But I want to focus on the soul. I want to know if what we believe, if what we say, if what we do matters. Because if it does not matter, I will stop writing and I will stop speaking and I will enjoy tea and crumpets from now on and not care for the church or the people of the world…and I should think I might have a very good and peaceful time. It may take me a while to get over the habits of a lifetime, but I will try.

 

There has been a lot written and said and taught about spiritual formation the past few decades, and while I have used the term and will probably use it again, I have never been comfortable with it – for it lacks an object. It is like a license plate on a car that I know of that says “beleeve.” Of course it means “believe,” but what does it really mean? Do we believe simply to believe? What do we believe? What do we believe in? In thin air? In ourselves? In Mickey Mouse? (Many people do believe in Mickey Mouse and regularly go on pilgrimage.)

 

Jesus does not call us to a self-improvement project; He calls us to be transformed into His image. In fact, our calling is to be “conformed to the image of His [the Father’s] Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The thing is, transformation does not occur as we look at ourselves, but as we behold Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 John 3:1-3; Colossians 3:1-4), and herein is where I think much that passes for spiritual formation loses its focus, for it treats transformation as something that can be considered apart from intimacy with Jesus Christ and from the incarnational mission of Jesus Christ.

 

Now I am sure that good spiritual formation folks will say, “But of course we mean Jesus.” Then I will ask, “Well, why not explicitly say that we seek to be Biblically formed into the image of Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son?”

 

Let us return to the soul. Do our souls matter? Does the shape of our soul matter when we pass into eternity?

 

I think the Bible passages we considered above demonstrate that we, our souls, will be judged when we move into eternity. That our words and deeds matter; they matter in terms of the effect they have had on others, they matter in how we have treated others, they matter in how they have affected the beliefs of others – they matter in whether we have been Christ to others.

 

We ought not to be so foolish as to think that what we believe is somehow a card that trumps what we do, that glosses over our actions toward others and toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer wrote about “cheap grace.” Discipleship without cost, witness without cost, Christianity without cost.

 

I think while the above passages in 1 and 2 Corinthians speak of accountability, that they also, and perhaps more importantly, speak to us of intimacy, of knowing Jesus and being transformed into His image. After all, must not accountability have an object, a purpose? What is the point of being accountable just to be accountable? What is the goal of accountability? What is the point of obeying Jesus Christ?

 

Jesus says, in effect, “Be obedient to Me so that you will know Me.” Likewise, “As you know Me you will learn obedience to Me.”

 

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).

 

Paul writes about presenting every person complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28), or as one translation puts it, “Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” What of those who enter eternity immature? What of those who enter eternity having brought with them wood, hay, and stubble? What of those who have paid no real attention to discipleship, to living a cruciform life?

 

Do we really think the Bible teaches that we all will advance across the stage and graduate with honors?

 

Our Father and Lord Jesus desire relationship, they are not focused on moving us along from one grade to another whether or not we have learned from them, whether or not we have entered more deeply into koinonia with the Trinity.

 

It seems to me that if we took our souls seriously, that we would seriously want to grow into Christ and help one another grow up into Christ. It seems to me that if pastors took the souls of their people seriously that they would move beyond Sunday morning group therapy sessions, entertainment, and what Tozer termed “scribal Christianity,” a Christianity lacking a deepening encounter with God. We can emphasize correct doctrine but miss knowing Jesus Christ and miss being Christ to others.

 

These are my unfinished thoughts…how might you continue them?  

Unfinished Thoughts on the Soul - Part 1

 Good morning,

A few months ago, I began making notes on the soul. Do you think about the soul often?

When I was a child my mother taught me a prayer that many children learned in those days:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

I remember wondering what the "soul" was. I never asked my Mom, and I'm sorry I didn't. I neglected to ask her many questions that I wish I had. When she died at almost 43 years old there was no longer an opportunity to ask her anything.

To my young mind, the soul seemed like something mysterious, weighty, and important. To my old mind it still seems that way.

As I reflect back on pastoring, I wonder why I didn't preach on the soul, why I didn't explore it with my congregations. This is akin to what I've been experiencing with my health in this season of life, it demonstrates my ignorance. 

Like many older folks I have a cardiologist, a hematologist, I've seen a neurologist, I have a rheumatologist, and one or two other "ologists." I have wondered how I got to be so old and know so little about my own body, I've lived in this tent for over 75 years and have only just started to really learn about how it works (or not!) and how fearfully and wonderfully made I really am. How could I have been so ignorant for most of my life?

Below are some of my thoughts on the soul, some of my questions and ponderings.    

What thoughts do you have?

Much love,

Bob

 

The Soul – Does It Matter?

 

Have you wondered why it matters?

 

Why does what we believe matter? Why does what we do matter?

 

Is it a matter of reward and punishment beyond this life?

 

Is it a matter of ultimate salvation beyond this life?

 

Can we envision a God who says to one person, “Because you have believed this creed you are rewarded,” and to another person, “Because you have not believed this creed you are judged”?

 

Suppose the first person hated people as a way of life, and the second person loved and served people as a way of life?

 

For those who believe that salvation is a transactional matter that can be signed, sealed, and delivered in a moment of time without further experience, why does what we believe beyond that matter? Why does what we do beyond that matter?

 

Why contend for the faith within the faith community if, when we die and enter eternity, what we have believed has no eternal and ongoing significance?

 

A fair reading of Scripture indicates that, as Christians, what we believe and what we do matters, it matters to the point that Paul suffered much so that Christians would believe and do the “right” things; not “right” in the eyes of man, including religious man, but “right” in the eyes of God – “right” in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Most of the letters of the New Testament, including Revelation, deal to some degree with correcting false belief and false living.

 

Religious falsity was more of a threat in the New Testament than the sin of the world, the flesh, and the devil; after all, we often can’t see that which is the closest to us. How we forget that the Pharisees and Sadducees crucified Jesus. As Paul points out in Galatians, those who are born of the flesh are ever persecuting those born of the spirit and promise (Galatians 4:29).

 

At this point, before I move on to the matter of the soul, I want to suggest that there are mysteries beyond the grave that we ought to acknowledge. I’ll likely return to these, but I want to raise an awareness of two of them right now. The first is found in 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 15 and 2 Corinthians 5:10, and the second is in 1 Corinthians 15:35 – 49.

 

In the first two passages we see that there is an accountability beyond the grave, and in the second passage I believe we can infer that this accountability results in dimensions of participation in the glory of God, “one star differs from another in glory.” Now this raises its own questions, and I can think of no better exploration of them than Dante’s Paradise, so I will leave the questions alone for now. (A wonderful survey with thoughtful commentary is Hans Boersma’s, Seeing God - The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition.)

 

But is “accountability” the best word to use? While it may be a word to use, is it the only word to use? I’ll return to this question.

 

Regarding the first two passages, contrary to the thinking of many American Christians, 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us that we will be held accountable for the “deeds done in the body…whether good or bad.” Forgiveness for sins is one thing, accountability is another. Whether we understand the dynamics of this or not, we ought to acknowledge the Bible’s teaching. What we do matters, our actions matter.

 

In Revelation 19:8 we read, “It was given to her [the Bride] to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

 

I imagine many of us would like to gloss over this verse, for we want it to read, “The fine linen is the blood of Jesus,” or “The fine linen is the righteousness of Christ,” but the verse doesn’t say that, it says that the fine linen is our righteous acts.

 

Now for sure all righteous acting and living flows from the Vine, the One who was made sin on our behalf so that we would be made the very righteousness of God in Him (John 15:1ff; 1 Corinthians 5:21). But let us not dismiss Revelation 19:8, for it is in the context of eternity.

 

Our actions matter. We will all appear before Christ’s judgment seat – we cannot hide in the crowd.

 

When we come to 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 15, we come to a passage that many Protestants gloss over lest we begin asking uncomfortable questions, for this passage surely portrays a process, an experience that indicates more than a brief “moment,” however we might think about time within eternity. There is a revealing by fire to come, one which we will all experience, just as we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

 

Here again we see that our works matter very much. We may build with “gold, silver, and precious stones,” or with “wood, hay, and straw.” Building material matters. The quality of our lives matters. They matter to the point where Paul writes, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

 

Does not our dear Lord Jesus command us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20)?

 

Just as I have pointed to Dante’s Paradise in considering 1 Corinthians 15, so I will point to Dante’s Purgatory in considering 1 Corinthians 3, as well as, once again, Boersma’s fine work. Dante’s Purgatory is a journey in spiritual formation, and I suspect it is better to experience it now rather than putting it off until after we die. Read what Dante says, not what your possible prejudices think he says. (I recommend the Sayers translation with its excellent notes).