We begin with pieces from “Ethics” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The freedom of Jesus is not the arbitrary choice of one amongst innumerable possibilities; it consists on the contrary precisely in the complete simplicity of His action, which is never confronted by a plurality of possibilities, conflicts or alternatives, but always only by one thing. This one thing Jesus calls the will of God. He says that to do this will is His meat. This will of God is His life. He lives and acts not by the knowledge of good and evil but by the will of God. There is only one will of God. In it the origin is recovered; in it there is established the freedom and the simplicity of all action.
This is not to say that we will not have to enter much discussion about “the will of God.” It is to say that we are asked to discuss more than what is good and evil because this second discussion does not open up the vision of God’s Reign of Grace. Much of the scripture deals with vision. It is often imagery that is poetic and it draws us beyond rules and regulation…it takes us into the very heart/will of God. Unfortunately, we don’t always want to enter into that journey. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day wanted to stay on line with what is right and good…evil and good – they did not want to deal with the parables of Jesus that would disrupt their world and push everyone to consider the wealth of God’s Reign as the beginning of new life. To will one thing…ah…to walk together and be open to how the will of God unfolds is a grand gift we give to one another.
Connection: Freedom in this day can become a whole new experience as we begin to trust the vision of the Reign of God and keep asking one another to talk about the will of God for the life in front of us.
Lord of New Life, take us by the hand and lead us into the wonderful sights of your glorious Reign for we too often will not lift up our heads to see your glory. Grant us a sense of your creative will as we live within the community of saints. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment