We begin with a piece from “Ethics” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The hearer of the word who is not at the same time the doer of the word thus inevitably falls victim to self-deception (James 1:22). Believing (oneself) to know and to possess the word of God (this person) has, in fact, already lost it again, because (this person) imagines that a (person) can possess the word of God for a single instant otherwise than in doing it.
The concluding words cut to the heart. The Word is always living. It is full of life and it brings to life that which was not alive previously. To simply hold it…to hold it like a stick that we can use to measure the worthiness of the world and all of the world’s people is absurd. For at that point, it is not involved in bringing to life anything at all. In fact we could argue that we have changed the Word into something it was never meant to be – an instrument of death and judgment to be at our own disposal. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are pressed into living…pulled out of our self-consumption so that we would engage life to the fullest – that is – in the midst of others. Engagement created by the Holy Spirit does not settle for the mere exchange of words as though we can speak our way into the Reign of God. Engagement by the Holy Spirit involves that Word pulling us into life so that our lives become its image. You could say our lives define the Word even as it defines our being…it is one in the same…it is a fluid movement of life.
Connection: We would do well today when we “for a single instant” not much more…just a “single instant” find ourselves within the Word as life…our life. Not simply knowing it…but, having it be in, with, and under the very fiber of our day.
You, O God, make us in your image. You Word dresses us with new life and gives us the instruments to take a living part within your gracious Reign. We give you thanks this day for bending over to touch us and lead us and guide us along your pathways. Amen.
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