Monday, 17 November, 2003

We begin with pieces from “Ethics” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.



The will of God may lie very deeply concealed beneath a great number of available possibilities. The will of God is not a system of rules which is established from the outset; it is something new and different in each different situation in life, and for this reason a (person) must ever anew examine what the will of God may be. The heart, the understanding, observation and experience must all collaborate in this task. It is no longer a matter of a (person’s) own knowledge of good and evil, but solely of the living will of God; our knowledge of God’s will is not something over which we ourselves dispose, but it depends solely upon the grace of God, and this grace is and requires to be new every morning.



It sounds as though the task of discerning the will of God demands our full engagement of the day and all the resources of our lives. There is no brief definition that can be learned that will give us complete understanding of the will of God. There are many ways we hear the will of God described in scripture but then we are called to bring that bit of the Word into the dynamics of the situation at hand. This is not like putting the right answer into a blank on a fill-in-blank test. We must take the Word and be aware of the time at hand and the context in which we live and our own lives and the dialogue with other saints. Then…we begin to have a glimpse of the Will of God that is greater than any answer that can be thrown out into a life situation.



Connection: Somewhere in the mix of all the parts of our lives we will be given a glimpse of the will of God within the routines and dynamics of this day. As followers of Jesus we are called to be eternally engaged in a life of discernment – keeping our eyes and ears open to the unfolding of God’s Reign.



By your Grace, O God, take us within the boundaries of your Reign so that we may begin to walk in a new way through the everyday parts of our life. Shape us by your Spirit and bring us into dialogue with other saints who are willing to engage us with visions of your Reign in action. Amen.