Tuesday, 25 November, 2003

We begin with a piece from “Ethics” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.



Certainly the doer of the law must also be a hearer, but only in the sense that the hearer is always at the same time the doer (James 1:22). A hearing which does not at the same instant become a doing becomes once again that “knowing” which gives rise to judgment and so leads to the disruption of all action. If what is heard does not become doing, but it becomes this “knowing,” then, paradoxical as this may sound, it is already “forgotten” (James 1:25). No matter how long it may be stored up, reconsidered and elaborated as knowledge, it is forgotten as that which is essentially is, namely, as that which points solely and entirely towards action.



One good example of such doing and hearing and knowing is “Love the Lord your God… Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a great line to “know” but it is of no good for the life of our world if when we hear it we do not begin the journey of loving. There is so much about what we call the Good News that can simply be for us more things to know. Another example would be the Ten Commandments. The judge down south who put up a two ton monument to the Commandments is a caricature of such “knowing.” Who cares if the stone was 100 tons and out in the middle of the public square…t is utterly meaningless in such form. The Commandments are just as meaningless if we hold them only as something to recite…that is just another form of “knowing” as we avoid “doing.” It may sound good to know the law and be able to call forth the wonderful gift of the grace of God, but we are to encourage one another to step into it….to be graceful…to be loving…to be merciful…to live according to the laws that help us to live as people who actually do “love one another.” Jesus often resisted the “knowing” of the Pharisees for they knew much but did little.



Connection: We must be hearers. From that hearing, comes the potential to act in a new way. Today gives us the opportunity to hear and to live.



Lord of New Life you bring us this day and it is full of the life you have promised to all of us. Inspire us to shine with your mercy and love as we engage this day in your name. Amen.