Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (10)

 

“The body of Christ is his church – community. Jesus Christ at the same time is himself and his church community (1 Cor. 12:12)…To be in Christ means to be in the church – community. But if we are in the church – community, then we are also truly and bodily in Jesus Christ. This insight reveals the full richness of meaning contained in the concept of the body of Christ” (pp. 198 – 199).

 

“Since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself. With this statement we are recovering an insight about the church which has been almost totally forgotten. 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” (page 199, italics mine).

 

If what Bonhoeffer says is true, then we have much to unlearn and much ground to recover.

 

The Apostle John writes that he wants his readers to have koinonia with him and his brothers and sisters, because John and his friends have koinonia with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). In other words, to have fellowship with John and his associates is to have fellowship with God. Put another way, to be in the same fellowship as John is, is to be in the fellowship of God. To be in the church - community is to be in Christ.

 

As Bonhoeffer points out, this is not about an institution but rather about a Person.

 

We simply don’t think this way, we simply don’t see the church – community this way, we do not see Jesus Christ this way. Yet, the Church, the Body, the Bride, the Temple is portrayed as a living and organic entity throughout Scripture, an entity that far surpasses and dwarfs our parochial concepts of congregations, denominations, and traditions.

 

Let us recall that Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

 

“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). This is not a metaphor, this is an organic reality. This is Christ. As Bonhoeffer writes, this is a “person in a unique sense.”

 

Perhaps the following may help us. When you read the name “Israel” what do you think of in a Biblical context? Most people probably think of a nation, a people whom God brought out of Egypt, through the Wilderness, into Canaan, and who had a varied history in the Ancient Near East. However, that is not the only way to relate to the name Israel in the Bible, it is not the only thing the name Israel means in the Bible.

 

In Genesis 32:24 – 32 Jacob wrestles with God and at the conclusion of the encounter God says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”  Later, in Genesis 35:9 – 13, God confirms Jacob’s new name, “Your name is Jacob; you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.”

 

When reading the Bible and coming upon the name Israel, sometimes it will mean the individual also known as Jacob, sometimes it will mean all of Jacob’s descendants, and sometimes it will mean the northern kingdom which came about after the death of Solomon. Beyond that, sometimes it will mean the People of God in Jesus Christ – from ages past to the present and into the future. Many times it will mean a combination! For now, I want to just think about the way “Israel” can refer to Jacob and also how it can refer to Jacob’s physical descendants.

 

When I say or write “Israel” do I mean the individual or the people? Context tells the listener or the reader which I mean. There is even a sense in which I can mean both at the same time because all of the physical descendants of Israel came from the individual named Israel. We might term this as seeing the body of Israel with Jacob Israel as the head of the body.

 

This imagery and way of thinking is found throughout the Bible, so don’t be too quick to give up on it, there is a lot at stake in understanding it. (Remember those passages in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 about “Adam” and “Christ”? You may want to take another look at them.)

 

In a similar fashion when I use the name Christ I may use it in the sense of the entire Body of Christ, such as in 1 Corinthians 12:12, or I can write, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and thereby refer to the Person of Jesus Christ. Or we can have a passage in which we see both the Head and the body in a living and dynamic relationship:

 

“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of every part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15 – 16).

 

St. Augustine, in his wonderful expositions on the Psalms, beholds Christ the Head and Christ the Church in psalm after psalm. At times he writes in effect, “The unity of Christ and His Body is such in this psalm that I cannot distinguish between the two, nor should I.”

 

While we may be taken aback by such language and vision, we ought not to be, at least we ought not to be if we believe Jesus:

 

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent me…I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and love them, even as You have loved Me” (see John 17:20 – 26).

 

We are called to be one in the Trinity, to know the koinonia of the Trinity, to share the life of the Trinity, to live in intimacy with the Trinity…and therefore with one another.

 

As the Bride of Christ the Church is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and one person with the Bridegroom; let us recall that Scripture begins with marriage and culminates with Marriage – let us embrace the glory of the Marriage of the Lamb and His Bride, that unfolding Divine mystery – there has never been a marriage march like that of Revelation chapters 21 and 22!

 

One of my lowest moments as a pastor was being in a Sunday school class that was reading Ephesians 4:11 – 16. The teacher read this passage aloud, paused a moment, and then said, “Let’s move on.” Since this passage has been a key in my life since the 1960s, since it has been an integral element of my vision, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing…well, yes I could.

 

For this “leader” and this congregation were steeped in ethnic identity, they were imbued with worldly political thinking, the collective leadership was controlling, and it was most certainly “their church” rather than Christ’s church. (I suppose they were not that much different from many congregations in one way or another.)

 

This teacher, a leader in the congregation, could not “see” Ephesians 4:11 – 16, so blind was she to the Body of Christ…and therefore to Christ. But she is not alone, is she? From seminaries to denominational leadership, to pulpits throughout the land (including so-called nondenominational churches), we do not see the Body of Christ – this is the way we have been raised, educated, and the way many of us make our living.

 

Jesus says in John 17 that the key to evangelism, if we can call it such, is our unity in the Trinity; but we think we know better so we ignore what He says.

 

The Church is not an institution but a Person, yes, a unique Person, but a Person we see from Genesis through Revelation. We cannot define this Person, but we can not only live in this Person, when we live in Him we are one with Him and He is one with us and we are one with one another. We are “members one of another” (Rom. 15:5; also Eph. 4:25).

 

There is indeed a chasm between the Body of Christ, the Church, as portrayed in the Bible and as understood and practiced by American Christians (and beyond our shores). As Bonhoeffer writes, we’ve forgotten that the Body of Christ is a Person.

 

The Good News amid the challenge of recovering lost ground is that Jesus will teach us to “see” and live in His Body, He will teach us to see Him throughout the Scriptures. The Lamb will teach us to love His Bride and serve her. Jesus will teach us as individuals, as husbands and wives and families, as congregations…and beyond.

 

However, He does not promise that others will understand us. Some have given up on the Body of Christ, the Church, and no longer want to hear anything about us as a People whom Jesus loves. Others will allow nothing to threaten their parochial view of church, they will not permit anything, include Jesus and the Bible, to open their eyes to the communion of saints – nothing must threaten control. (I want to emphasize that this includes so-called nondenominational churches and affiliated groups, as well as more traditional movements and organizations.)

 

A telling passage of Scripture is 2 Timothy 2:10, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also my obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.” Consider that Paul writes this in the context of the following two statements:

 

“You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1:15).

 

“At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them” (2 Timothy 4:16).

 

Paul’s commitment to the Body of Christ, to the Church, to those who are chosen, is not contingent on how he is treated by Christians. The Body of Christ which he once persecuted he now loves and serves whether or not his love and service is accepted. Christians may reject Paul, but Paul will not reject them.

 

The cost of discipleship, as articulated by Bonhoeffer, includes the cost of seeing and living in the Body of Christ, and there is a cost, make no mistake about it. The cost includes serving and laying down our lives for the Body of Christ (1 John 3:16; Colossians 1:24; 2 Cor. 4:12).

 

Bonhoeffer’s images and words and concepts are strange to most of us, but he is rooting and framing them in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. This ought to shake us, it ought to challenge us, it ought to cause us to wonder just what we believe and practice.

 

Does it?

 

“Since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself.”

 

Is this how your congregation sees itself?

 

Is it how the members of your congregation treat one another?

 

Is it how your congregation relates to other groups of Christians?

 

Is it how your congregation relates to the world?

A Life of Prayer – My Testimony

 

 

Before I share some of my testimony, a couple of comments. I am not very keen on teaching methodologies of prayer because “how to” approaches can become rote, legalistic, and are not, I think, relationally natural. If God is our Father, and if Jesus is our Elder Brother, and if the Holy Spirit lives within us, then conversation and communion with God and prayer in its many forms, is essentially organic. That being said, the Psalms provide 150 invitations to participate in prayer, along with many other prayers in the Bible. Also, as noted previously we have centuries of examples of prayer which are also invitations. The Scriptures ought to be our nexus for prayer, most Scriptures can be prayed in some fashion.

 

There are indeed principles in prayer, and models, Jesus speaks of these, but they are not mechanical but found in the context of filial relationship and servanthood.

 

Andrew Murray has two devotional books on prayer, each consisting of 31 days, With Christ in the School of Prayer and With Christ in the School of Intercession. These books contain daily Scripture readings with Murray’s reflections on how they speak to us of prayer. Because they are rooted in Scripture and point us to Jesus, they are foundational. Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence presents an organic and relational approach to praying as a way of life.

 

Now I want to share just a little about my life of prayer, and I’m going to use the workplace as my setting. Let me first say that I am a very imperfect person. I can be harsh, I can be angry, I can be abrupt, I can be sarcastic, I can be a real jerk. Thanks to the grace of God and the Holy Spirit I know what it is to apologize and ask forgiveness in the workplace. As I look back over my life in the workplace, I see times when I should have apologized and asked forgiveness but didn’t, I see things clearer now with advancing age. I see so many times I failed to abide in the Vine and missed opportunities to be a blessing to others and be a better testimony for Jesus.

 

Yet, I truly loved my people, both my direct reports and the people who worked for them. I loved my coworkers, and I worked with contractors whom I loved and had great affection for. I often took opportunities at large employee gatherings to not only share Jesus, but to tell my people that I loved them. I prayed with many people I worked with and received prayer requests from many more. It got to the place where folks expected me to pray for them when there was sickness or tragedy in their families. I have now been retired from business for over seven years, and I still receive prayer requests from former coworkers.

 

When a contractor’s father was in the hospital, I visited him and prayed with him. When another contractor was in the hospital for heart surgery, I was there to pray. When I visited apartment communities, it was not unusual for me to pray with my managers and others in their offices, and pray with residents of the communities, or with contractors doing work in the communities. When people had needs, I prayed. Sometimes I took their prayer requests, and other times we prayed on the spot.

 

I believed that my first calling was to be the Presence of Christ and to serve those around me.

 

I would pray for all the people in the office I worked in by visually walking down the hall and going into each office, I’d visualize the person and pray for him or her. I would also pray for their families and any specific needs I knew about. This is a practice (a method I guess!) that I used for decades.

 

If I had special meetings scheduled on a particular day, I’d pray for those meetings ahead of time, asking for wisdom, asking for help in preparation, asking to be a blessing to others in the meetings. During meetings I would also pray, asking my Father and Lord Jesus for wisdom, for peace, for grace and favor.

 

I had some particularly difficult clients, and meetings could be tense and stressful, but Jesus was always with me and I was always communing with Him during my meetings – this was my way of life in Him. I wanted my work to glorify God, to serve my clients, to serve my company, and to bless my employees and residents.

 

I worked in some fairly dangerous areas in housing, places where there was significant drug dealing, where people were shot and killed in broad daylight. I prayed for my people, the residents, and for my own safety when I walked those streets. Once, when I was inspecting a property with staff members and a representative from a state housing agency, we sought refuge in a vacant townhouse because of gunfire, gunfire which killed a drug dealer in a spot I had just walked by not less than 5 minutes before.

 

I was never afraid for myself, I was cautious but not afraid, my life belonged to Jesus. I was, however, often fearful for my people…and I prayed and prayed and prayed for them, and for the residents. Most folks living in difficult places are fine people, people who love their families and who do right by their neighbors, often working 2 or 3 jobs – it is a tragedy that they are marginalized by others in society and in the professing church. Shame on us.

 

Praying during conversations with others was a way of life for me, I was always asking my Father how I could be a blessing to the other person, how I could share the love of Jesus. O for sure there were times I missed opportunities. Sometimes I realized missed opportunities immediately, other times not until I’d arrived home. I can be dense and stupid and self – centered. When I am tired, I am more likely to miss a nice pitch over the plate than when I’m fresh. When I am in a hurry, I am more likely to miss being a blessing because I can be caught up in my own agenda rather than God’s. When I am stressed I can be particularly self-centered and not be attuned to the needs of others. All the more reason to live a life of prayer, for when my communion with God is interrupted by my foolishness, I am more likely to quickly sense it and ask God for help.

 

I believed the Trinity lived in me because this is what Jesus teaches in the Upper Room. The workplace was where God had me, and He had me there to serve others and be His Presence. I was willing to be misunderstood because of my rather simple faith, and I was also willing to take the heat for refusing to lie or place spin on problems and insisting on treating everyone with equity and respect, including paying them decent wages. I have put my job on the line for my employees more than once over the years – after all, I was in the workplace not to be served, but to serve.

 

I had a successful career, and better than that, I had a good testimony within my industry. My peers respected me and trusted me and honored me in a number of ways over the years. Of course, had the quality of my work not been superior, had I not offered my work to God, the story would no doubt have been different. My work was a form of worship, and the workplace was a place of spiritual formation to me, and then it was a place of witness for Jesus. God was always forming me into His image at work, and He was always using me as His Presence in the lives of others.

 

Since we have this treasure in jars of clay (2 Cor. 4:7), I realized that there was no need for me to pretend to be something I wasn’t, I could trust God to make it clear that any success I had was to His glory…and as I wrote above, I know what it is to apologize and ask forgiveness at work. When I made a relational mess of things, I saw it as an opportunity to make amends, to ask forgiveness, and to show the world that in Jesus relationships can be restored – the world does not see that very often. I do not recommend that we deliberately make asses of ourselves in order to share what reconciliation looks like in Jesus, but if we do make asses of ourselves, let us not waste the opportunity to be witnesses for Christ, to show others Jesus as the better Way to live.

 

I spent my days at work speaking to our Father and listening to Him, praying for others and looking for ways to serve them. I loved being with my people and coworkers. I loved being part of a team. I loved watching people grow.

 

I have had many people influence my understanding of our abiding in Christ, many of them lived long before me, and a few I have personally known. I am convinced that Jesus’ relationship with the Father is to be our relationship with the Father, I hope we are seeing this as we travel through the Upper Room, and I sure hope we see this when we move into the Holy of Holies of John Chapter 17.

 

There is no joy quite like the joy of praying with friends, where one minute you can be talking and the next naturally praying together. I have been blessed to have friends like these, even though with advancing age more of them are moving ahead of me into the City – but what shall it be like when we are all there! I trust those who have gone before are continuing to pray for me, I surely need it.

 

If we are going to spend eternity with our Father, doesn’t it make sense to spend our days with Him now? In much the same way, I once sensed our Father saying to me, “Bob, instead of thinking in terms of a prayer life, wouldn’t it be better if you learned to live a life of prayer? Instead of thinking in terms of intercessory prayer, wouldn’t it be better if you learned to live an intercessory life?”

 

Of the many influences I’ve had in my life of prayer, outside of the Bible Francois Fenelon may be the most vital, and since he influenced Andrew Murray this gives Fenelon a place of double honor. Fenelon’s life and writings speak to me many ways and continually bid me come up higher and deeper into Jesus. Fenelon is a great model for people in leadership in business, education, politics, and of course the church, for he served in the court of the Sun King, Louis IX, and influenced many at the pinnacle of power in the French court.

 

Fenelon was banished to his diocese for his refusal to abandon his friend, Jeanne Guyon, and his refusal to deny his understanding of our life in Christ. We must be willing to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, including in rejection (Hebrews 13:13). If we are not willing to be sacrifices for Christ and others we’ll never truly witness and our faithfulness to Jesus will always be contingent on ourselves – an unstable foundation, don’t you think?

 

Fenelon taught me to pray and listen to God while in conversation with others. I don’t recall how it began, but now it is as natural as breathing and I have not thought about it for many years, it is just what I do. I find great joy in listening to others and listening to God at the same time. We all do it, the question is how we do it. We’ve all been in a restaurant and engaged in conversation with a friend, while at the same time listening to a discussion at an adjacent table. Might it be more fruitful to listen to our friend and God?

 

Lives of prayer begin in the morning, when the page of the day is blank. We allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to make the first impressions on our hearts, minds, and souls. The only thing we should turn on may be the coffee pot as we began our daily conversation with God. No phone, no email, no radio, no TV, no news…just us and God…once the day begins this way it can continue this Way. There is only one first impression each day…ought it not be that of the holy Trinity?

 

My first mentor was George Will. George talked to God all the time, sometimes his conversations where quiet and within himself, and many times they were vocalized as naturally as if Jesus was right with us – which of course He was. He was like that in 1966 when I first met him, and he was still like that around 2012 when I last spoke with him over the phone. I imagine some folks thought him a bit crazy. Well, Jesus’s family and friends thought He was a bit touched too (Mark 3:20 – 21). Not bad company George, not bad company.

 

Much love,

 

Bob