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.
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