The beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the Bible.
Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Tagged: Bonhoeffer RSS
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Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is his principles, his conscience and his virtue, who is unwilling to sacrifice all this when he is called to responsible action. … The ultimate question is how we are to extricate ourselves heroically from the affair, not how the coming generation is to live.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
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Bonhoeffer’s Life Together
I need to republish this book. A quote:
Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves… God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians which his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first the accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself…
Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but a thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is now what has been given us enough: brothers who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day?
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Seriously, isn’t that quote awesome?
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Seriously awesome, yes. I’ve been fascinated by Bonhoeffer for a long time.
As for republishing, Life Together is already in print with several publishers, isn’t it?
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No! Well, maybe. But the presently available editions are ugly.
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G 9:06 pm on January 12, 2010 Permalink
I must be missing something Austin, what is Bonhoeffer talking about? Sounds like he’s saying that the next generation can worry about themselves.