Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (24)

 

“Christians are to remain in the world, not because of the God-given goodness of the world, nor even because of their responsibility for the course the world takes. They are to remain in the world solely for the sake of the body of the Christ who became incarnate – for the sake of the church-community. They are to remain in the world in order to engage the world in a frontal assault. Let them ‘live out their vocation in this world’ in order that their ‘unworldliness’ might become fully visible. But this can take place only through visible membership in the church-community. The world must be contradicted within the world” (pages 226 – 227).

 

From this paragraph Bonhoeffer will move into our vocational callings in daily life, but first he must write, “This can take place only through visible membership in the church-community.” That is, we can only be sustained in our individual callings as we experience koinonia within the church-community – going it alone may not be impossible, but it is close to impossible. For sure, if we cannot find koinonia close by us, then we must find it elsewhere in the communion of saints – such as in Hebrews 11.

 

I suppose I must state the obvious, “membership in the church-community” means substantive relationship in Christ, it means relationship we cannot live without – it means that we are desperate for one another for we are “members of one another” in Christ. It does not mean having our names on a membership list, it does not mean “joining” a church.

 

This does not mean that we should not have membership lists, it does not mean that we should not “join” a church, I think we have liberty in this matter and there can be sound reasons for membership on practical and spiritual levels. However, we ought not to confuse the form from the substance; we can have form without substance, it is difficult to have substance without form.

 

Regarding the latter, the life of God in us must have manifestation and that manifestation will hopefully take Biblical form…if allowed to mature, if informed by Scripture, if lived in koinonia, if not quashed by the scribes and Pharisees.

 

Regarding the former, do we truly have organic membership in local congregations, in denominations, and in those who style themselves non-denominational? I have been challenged by this as long as I can remember; the gulf between the Biblical portrayal of koinonia and our experience, at least in the West, has been wide and deep to my thinking in my generation.

 

This is not to say that we don’t have glimpses of koinonia, it isn’t to say that we don’t have shafts of light and beauty, but it is to say that this isn’t the American Christian way of life. We tend to live in isolation from those who we sit behind on Sunday mornings, we tend to not really know them, we seldom need them, and they seldom really need us.

 

If we can live without one another, we aren’t likely members of one another.

 

I suppose I could live without an arm or a leg, or even without both arms and both legs, but I’d rather not contemplate the possibility.

 

(How is it that we can experience seemingly harmonious Sunday morning gatherings, with smiles and handshakes and hugs, and yet have leadership and congregational meetings rife with discord and acrimony? Why can’t we be honest about the condition of our souls?)

We must live out our distinctive calling as the Body of Christ, as the People of God, if we are to live out our individual vocational callings – an arm, a leg, an eye ought to be attached to a body, it is to function as a member of a body. This is one reason why Discipleship has two parts, the first part focuses on our individual calling, the second on our collective calling to life together. (Paul structures Romans in a similar fashion.)

 

“They are to remain in the world solely for the sake of the body of the Christ who became incarnate – for the sake of the church-community.”

 

What might Bonhoffer mean here?

 

My sense is that we remain here to continue Christ’s Incarnational witness. We are here for the benefit of our brethren in Christ (Philippians 1:21 – 25), here to partake in filling up Christ’s sufferings (Colossians 1:24), here to participate in the perfection of the Body (Hebrews 11:40; Ephesians 4:14 – 16).

 

“They are to remain in the world in order to engage the world in a frontal assault.”

 

We are also here to witness to the people of the world and to confront the system of the world, striving in Christ to set others free from the bondage and death of the world. We are on a rescue mission on one hand, and on a mission to dismantle the world – system on the other hand; both are accomplished as we live in Christ, as we obey Him, as we overcome evil with good. Our collective witness accomplishes this, as does our individual witness – we need both, we are called to live both incarnationally.

 

Our obedience matters, it matters for the salvation of others, it matters for the protection of others. We have no life-giving witness without obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

In our current climate, I read Matthew 25:31 – 46 and wonder where our obedience is. It seems we have hidden ourselves in caves and forests and beneath rocks, lest we should be identified with Jesus Christ who gave his life for us that we might give our lives for others.

 

I read the Sermon on the Mount and wonder where our obedience is. I wonder if the Incarnation isn’t a myth, an illusion; if it is true, then where is it? If the Incarnation was true 2,000 years ago, then it must be true today – Christ lives within His Body; if so, then where is He?

 

Well, of course the Incarnation is true, of course the Body of Christ lives; the God who so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, who continues to give His Son, continues to give the Body of His Son; as Augustine teaches, as with the Head so with the Body.

 

When we wonder whether our lives matter, let us remember:

 

“Through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

 

This is the calling of the Firstborn Son, it continues as the calling of the many-membered Son.

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (17)

 

On page 210 Bonhoeffer tells us that the Body of Christ takes on visible form in the preaching of the word, in baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper; all three of these are sacramental, all three of them mediate Christ Jesus, and community in Christ, all three form us as Christ’s community. While forgiveness of sins is indeed present in the sacraments, Bonhoeffer writes:

 

“Nether the gift of baptism nor the gift of the Lord’s Supper is fully understood if we interpret them only in terms of the forgiveness of sin. The gift of the body conferred in the sacraments presents us with the Lord in bodily form dwelling in his church – community” (page 211).

 

On pages 211 – 213 Bonhoeffer touches on expressions and forms of the visible church – community. He does this both quickly and in-depth, yes, this seems like a contradiction. He does it quickly in that he points us to a number of Biblical considerations in just three pages, but he also does this in-depth if we will read and ponder the Scriptures to which he points us. There is no point in reading Bonhoeffer is we are not going to read the Bible, if we are not going to read and ponder, in context, the Scripture passages which are his frame of reference and his authority.

 

“This community is a differentiated whole. The body of Christ as church-community includes both differentiation and a common order. These are characteristics essential to the body itself. A body lacking differentiation is in the process of decomposition” (page 211, italics mine). Bonhoeffer cites Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12ff.

 

Bonhoeffer is saying that the visible church-community will have common expressions everywhere it gathers, and that it will also have expressions peculiar to its time and place. These expressions ought to all originate in Christ and be sustained by Christ, and we can anticipate that they will change over time – after all, the visible church-community is the Living Body of Christ; it is a Person, yes, a unique Person, but nevertheless a Person.

 

On pages 211 – 213 Bonhoeffer cites around 30 Scriptures to help us see the visible Body of Christ and understand the Holy Spirit’s working within us as God’s People. He emphasizes that the “order” of the church is of “divine origin” and that it is intended to serve and not to be served. The offices of the church are appointed by God within, but not by, the community. “Even where the church-community itself assigns offices, it does so in complete submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2)” (page 212).

 

Bonhoeffer holds that “different congregations require different offices or ministries.” This is, I think, a high view of the organic Nature of the Body of Christ and the Headship of Jesus. Bonhoeffer trusts Christ to lead and care for and form His Body – that is a higher trust than most of us are likely to have ourselves and tolerate in others. Bonhoeffer writes that the “specific form [of our visible expression] is open to change” (page 212).

 

Can we imagine a local church climate in which congregations are seeking to sense and respond to the Holy Spirit and our Lord Jesus as a way of life? A climate in which we are open to changes in the forms of our expressions, in ministry offices, in the forms of our gatherings?

 

Bonhoeffer sees all ministry offices and gifts as functioning “for the benefit of the church-community,” and as being “servants of the church-community” (page 212). This is hardly a picture of the clergy – laity dichotomy that we see today, or of the sacred – secular dichotomy.

 

A visible church-community is more than a group of people who gather to listen to others, to give money, to pray as they are given permission, and to whom baptism and the Lord’s Supper is a routine.  We are to be living and vibrant expressions of the Incarnation, members of one another and members of Christ Jesus. We are to each share the grace of God and the life of Christ with one another – we all have faith and hope and love to share. We ought to be encouraging one another in the koinonia of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:14 – 16).

 

There is always a cost of discipleship, both as individuals and as a people. Those who follow the Christ of the Cross will always be a minority among professing Christians, as will those groups of disciples who seek to be expressions of the Body of Christ – new wine cannot be contained in old wineskins.

 

The Church of Jesus Christ must always be separate and distinct from the world, for its Nature is Christ and He is transcendent.

 

Bonhoeffer’s German contemporaries sought to maintain the status quo, most of them rejected his Biblical teaching as they sought alliance and accommodation with the social and political and military forces around them.

 

Just as we are doing today.

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (16)

 

 

“The body of Christ takes up physical space here on earth” (page 207).

 

“A truth, a doctrine, or a religion needs no space of its own. Such entities are bodyless. They do not go beyond being heard, learned, and understood” (page 207).

 

“The body of the exalted Lord is…a visible body, taking the form of the church – community” (page 208).

 

I have read and pondered the first pages of The Visible Church – Community and am struggling with how to communicate what I’m reading, for Bonhoeffer is leading me on quite the dance of point and counterpoint. It could be that he sees more than he can succinctly communicate, or it could be that I simply can’t see clearly. I am loath to distill what I may not fully understand, so I won’t pretend to do it. This is my disclaimer, it is also my endorsement of Discipleship, for it challenges me in the best way possible, it stretches me, it calls me further up and further in, as Lewis might say.

 

I hope you are reading and pondering The Cost of Discipleship, what I’m writing is meant to point us to Christ and to Bonhoeffer’s message, it is never meant as a substitute. As a reminder, I recommend the Fortress Press Reader’s Edition, under the title Discipleship.

 

I have chosen the above three quotations with which to move into Chapter 11, I think as we continue into the chapter that we’ll see treasures in our Lord Jesus Christ – I have my copy underlined and marked up.

 

“The body of Christ takes up physical space here on earth” (page 207).

 

“The body of the exalted Lord is…a visible body, taking the form of the church – community” (page 208).

 

Taking the first and third quotations: Jesus Christ took up space on earth during the Incarnation, and He continues to take up space, for His Incarnation continues in His Body. This goes back to what we’ve previously seen, the Church, the Body, the Temple, is a person rather than an institution or an organization, a unique Person, but indeed a Person. We ought to be thinking of the Church, the Body, the Temple, as a Person.

 

Now if you have ever thought about something a particular way for many years, and then changed your mind about it, you may know that it can take a while for your whole person to make the change. Sometimes it takes a while for our hearts to catch up with our heads, sometimes for our heads to catch up with our hearts, sometimes for conflicts within us to be resolved (and sometimes we may have to learn to live with loose ends). Isn’t this what we should expect? We are not machines, we are women and men created in the image of God in Jesus Christ with feelings, emotions, intellectual constructs, and so much else.

 

There are times when I think my intellect is engaged in bumper cars as I work through elements of Scripture and life, and the same is true of my emotions and feelings. The things that matter are often wrestled with for a lifetime.

 

Why are we so quick to insist on what people should believe, rather than teaching and modeling for them how to believe? Yes, yes, what we believe is critical, but the “what” without the “how” falls short. Belief and a life of faith is continuous engagement, it cannot be compartmentalized as Christians tend to do, it engages all of life, insisting that all of life must be in Christ and that Christ must be in all of life.

 

If we have spent our lives thinking of the Church as an institution or organization, rather than as the Person of the Body of Christ, then it is likely that a change in seeing and thinking will be a process, it is not likely that we can flip a switch and cross from A to C without experiencing a process, without working through B.

 

If we are rooted in a movement, a system of doctrine or practice, or in a denomination (and I daresay that we all are whether we acknowledge it or not), this will be challenging, for despite our protestations, our vision of the Church has been limited by our practice, if not also by our doctrine. Some of us have no qualms in asserting that our mother church is the only true church, while others may be nuanced but practically think the same thing – we just don’t advertise it or teach it as a matter of dogma.

 

For most of us, it takes time to learn to think of the Church as a Person, it takes time to read the Scriptures as they are written rather than through the filter of our religious and ecclesiastical conditioning. For others, to think of the Church as a Person may be an economic threat, for our livelihood may depend on maintaining a parochial view of church. For still others, social considerations may take precedence.

 

My own sense is that our God is able to redeem where we are and to use where we are to be a blessing to the Body of Christ – yes, there is risk, there is always risk – but are we not to lay our lives down (including our denominational and organizational lives) for the brethren? What opportunities we have!

 

What would it be like if we were to say, “Yes, I am a Baptist, but I am more than a Baptist. Yes, I am a Presbyterian, but I am more than a Presbyterian. Yes, I am Pentecostal, but I am more than a Pentecostal. Yes, I am Reformed but I am more than Reformed.”

 

There are deeply practical ramifications to thinking and living Biblically in Christ. There are ecclesiastical consequences, and for those in vocational ministry or education, there are vocational consequences – some will bring sunshine, some may bring storms.

 

As we learn to visualize the Church as a Person, let’s recall the words of Jesus to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:3 – 6).

 

When Saul touched the Church, he touched the Person of Jesus Christ. As Saul would learn and teach, the Church is not an organization or an institution, it is a Person, a unique Person for sure, but nevertheless a Person, a Person taking up space. 

 

The Lord willing, we’ll pick these quotations back up in the next reflection in this series.

 

 

 

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (15)

 

 

As Bonhoeffer concludes his chapter on the Body of Christ, he tells us that the Body is the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the temple of God in the Old Testament. The promise that God gave to David, that David would have a son who would build God a house, was fulfilled only as shadow in Solomon, but truly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The true temple is to be found in Jesus. “The temple which the Jewish people expect is the body of Christ. The temple of the Old Testament is merely a shadow of the body of Christ (Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1; 8:5)” (page 204).

 

“In this house God truly dwells, as does the new humanity, the church-community of Christ” (page 204).

 

As always, Bonhoeffer looks to Scripture for his vision and teaching. On page 205 he cites 1 Peter 2:5ff, Ephesians 2:20 – 21; 1 Corinthians 3:11,16; 6:19; Revelation 21:22.

 

“In whom [Jesus Christ] the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:20 – 21; see also Eph. 4:16).

 

Note that leading up to Ephesians 2:20 – 21, Paul makes it clear that there is now “one new man” in Christ, that Jew and Gentile have been made one in Christ. One new man, one Body, one Temple. This theme is carried into chapters 3 and 4, and how we can miss it is a mystery to me. The idea that God wants to build again what He has brought to an end by establishing another physical temple not only has no basis in the Bible, it blinds us to the glorious reality of our One New Man in Christ, and of our calling to be God’s Presence in the earth today.

 

As Paul writes, “The Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother” (Gal. 4:26).

 

I have watched, more than once, people in Sunday school and small group studies read Ephesians 2:11 – 22 and it never occur to them what they are reading. They never question whether what they believe about a physical temple being rebuilt and even animal sacrifices being reinstituted might be terribly amiss. They never see the contradiction between the Bible and the idea that God somehow has two distinct people groups with two distinct purposes and destinies. They never see that God has made us all One in Christ, that Christ “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (Eph. 2:14).

 

This is a particularly American blind spot, with vestiges in the UK, but Americans can generally take credit for this distraction which diverts us from Jesus Christ and our calling and identity in Him.

 

While Bonhoeffer did not address this distraction, it is likely because it was not an issue in Germany, in Europe, or in the Anglo – American circles with which he was associated. It was not the full – blown religious industry it is today, raking in its millions of dollars.

 

I am bringing this to our attention because it is likely that many readers have never critically thought about what the Bible really teaches about the One People of God in Christ, the One Body of Christ. If we believe what Bonhoeffer writes, which is based on Jesus Christ and Scripture, then we ought to be honest enough to realize that most of what passes for “end times” teaching is without foundation in Christ and the Bible.

 

“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt. 2:5).

 

“The temple of God is the holy church-community in Jesus Christ. The body of Christ is the living temple of God and of the new humanity” (page 205).

 

As we conclude Chapter 10 of Discipleship, Part II, I hope we will review and ponder what Bonhoeffer has written, for it is far and above what most of us have encountered in our lives, and it is deeply grounded in Jesus Christ and in His Word. I hope it challenges you; it most certainly challenges me.

 

If you have not yet actually read Discipleship (traditionally known as The Cost of Discipleship), I hope that you will do so. I recommend the Fortress Press reader’s edition.

 

In our next reflection in this series we’ll turn to, the Lord willing, Chapter 11, The Visible Church-Community.

 

Much love,

 

Bob

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.