Bonhoeffer takes a farther along this look at the call to Discipleship. There will be no devotion sent out tomorrow, Friday, October 20.
...it is not the works which create faith. Instead, you are given a situation in which you can have faith. The point is to get into such a situation, so that faith is true faith and not self-deception. Because the only goal is to have true faith in Jesus Christ, because faith alone is and remains goal ("out of faith into faith" Romans 1:17), this is an indispensable situation. Anyone who protests too quickly and in too Protestant a manner should be asked whether or not they are defending cheap grace. In fact the two statements , if they remain juxtaposed, will not offend the true faith, but if each is take alone it would cause serious offense. Only the believers obey - that is said to the obedient person inside the believer. Only the obedient believe - that is said to the believer in their obeying. If the first statement remains alone, the believer is prey to cheap grace, that is, damnation. If the second statement stands alone, the believers are prey to their works, that is, damnation.
The more I read Bonhoeffer the more I see the need for being connected to others who walk along this way of Jesus. Self-deception will win us over every time we attempt to go alone for no one ever goes alone along this way. The Lord of the Church leads "us." Sure we may sing "he leadeth me" but it there is no one walking with us that has no meaning. A lone Christian is an impossibility - except to him/her self. The tension held up between the two sentences underlined in the above quote throw us into a tension in which we must give up the notion of one or the other "faith or works". Rather we are thrown into the moment of life that comes upon us at the call of Jesus. Does the call come again if we stay back and contemplate the meaning of life and what it would be to follow Jesus? Of course! The call to follow continues to be an invitation into life. Faith and action become one experience. There is not the need to have "enough faith" to act and there is not the need to act to prove that one has faith. I suppose this means that no one else can judge my stance or my action. The call is directed to me. I am called to act. I am called to trust the one who calls. In the midst of all that, each of us finds out that there is a community that forms around such tension and life - the church.
Connection: Today will be just what is promised - an opportunity to be the followers of Jesus. We will each enter that way differently - and yet, in faith and through our action, we enter it together.
Take us by the hand, O God, and stir up our hearts that will will see the day unfold within your invitation to come and walk within a life that holds the promises of your Reign. Amen.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
18 October 2006
The discussion about obedience and call continues - from "Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
...the gracious call of Jesus Christ to discipleship becomes a strick law: Do this! Stop that! Come out of the boat to Jesus! Jesus says to anyone who uses their faith or lack of faith to excuse their acts of disobedience to his call: First obey, do the external works, let go of what binds you, give up what is separating you from God's will! Do not say, I do not have the faith for that. You will not have it so long as you remain disobedient, so long as you will not take the first step Do not say, I have faith so I do not have to take the first step. You do not have faith, because and so long as you will not take that first step.
Sounds like law doesn't it. To some that is the worst thing in the world. And yet, the call to come and follow Jesus does mean we follow...we go...we take that first step. I'm one who always defines repentance (turning around) as turning to that which call us. When we repent we "get on board the train that's a-coming." We hear and see the life within the Reign of God - the Good News - and we turn to grab hold and go with it. I have this view because in my history, repentance was simply a word of "Stop doing that!" In essence there was nothing beyond that - simply stop doing that or don't do that anymore. There was no Good News. Or...maybe, there was Good News but it was so under-played that I never heard it. Well, when I heard it, it had the power to pull and bring life. It is a power that shouts out, "Get on board...let's go!" Having said all of that, we do let go. We are called to stop clinging to that which demanded the attention and devotion of our lives. Could this be the obedience of faith!?!
Connection: The power that keeps us just as we are is quite powerful and it make tremendous sense - good old commoon sense, some would say. But in this day, we will be called to live within that Good News domain that may appear to be quite a bit of non-sense.
By your grace, O God, you take us by the hand and lead us into the life within your Reign. When we pull back and turn away from you to go our own way, do not forsake us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, touch our hearts so that we may see the brilliant light of your love and turn around to walk within it. Amen.
...the gracious call of Jesus Christ to discipleship becomes a strick law: Do this! Stop that! Come out of the boat to Jesus! Jesus says to anyone who uses their faith or lack of faith to excuse their acts of disobedience to his call: First obey, do the external works, let go of what binds you, give up what is separating you from God's will! Do not say, I do not have the faith for that. You will not have it so long as you remain disobedient, so long as you will not take the first step Do not say, I have faith so I do not have to take the first step. You do not have faith, because and so long as you will not take that first step.
Sounds like law doesn't it. To some that is the worst thing in the world. And yet, the call to come and follow Jesus does mean we follow...we go...we take that first step. I'm one who always defines repentance (turning around) as turning to that which call us. When we repent we "get on board the train that's a-coming." We hear and see the life within the Reign of God - the Good News - and we turn to grab hold and go with it. I have this view because in my history, repentance was simply a word of "Stop doing that!" In essence there was nothing beyond that - simply stop doing that or don't do that anymore. There was no Good News. Or...maybe, there was Good News but it was so under-played that I never heard it. Well, when I heard it, it had the power to pull and bring life. It is a power that shouts out, "Get on board...let's go!" Having said all of that, we do let go. We are called to stop clinging to that which demanded the attention and devotion of our lives. Could this be the obedience of faith!?!
Connection: The power that keeps us just as we are is quite powerful and it make tremendous sense - good old commoon sense, some would say. But in this day, we will be called to live within that Good News domain that may appear to be quite a bit of non-sense.
By your grace, O God, you take us by the hand and lead us into the life within your Reign. When we pull back and turn away from you to go our own way, do not forsake us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, touch our hearts so that we may see the brilliant light of your love and turn around to walk within it. Amen.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
17 October 2007
Again, Bonhoeffer writes of the external work of taking the first step in following Jesus.
...the external works have to take place; we have to get into the situation of being able to believe. We have to take the first step. What does that mean? It means that we take this step in the right way only when we do not look to the necessity of our works, but solely with a view to the word of Jesus Christ, which calls us to take the step. Peter knows that he cannot climb out of the boat (and across the water) by his own power. His first step would already be his downfall, so he calls, "Command me to come to you on the water." Christ answers, "Come." Christ has to have called; the step can be taken only at his word. This is his grace, which calls us out of death into the new life of obedience. But now that Christ has called, Peter has to get out of the boat to come to Christ. So it is, indeed, the case that the first step of obedience is itself an act of faith in Christ's word.
...the external works have to take place; we have to get into the situation of being able to believe. We have to take the first step. What does that mean? It means that we take this step in the right way only when we do not look to the necessity of our works, but solely with a view to the word of Jesus Christ, which calls us to take the step. Peter knows that he cannot climb out of the boat (and across the water) by his own power. His first step would already be his downfall, so he calls, "Command me to come to you on the water." Christ answers, "Come." Christ has to have called; the step can be taken only at his word. This is his grace, which calls us out of death into the new life of obedience. But now that Christ has called, Peter has to get out of the boat to come to Christ. So it is, indeed, the case that the first step of obedience is itself an act of faith in Christ's word.
How many times have I tried to get out of the boat on my own - do you know that situation in your life? I can do this...I can handle this...I will take this on and get it done. And yet, we are not called into the life of Jesus according to what we can or cannot do. If that was the case, nothing would be new and everything would run according to the way things have always been run. That step out of the boat means I'm going down - sinking. And yet, when we are called to follow Jesus, the way has already been set...Jesus is already ahead of us on the water and it is not my ability to do some water dance that keeps me afloat, it is that call to come to where Jesus is - already. But when we are not taking about boats and Peter, the whole story turns to us. The great fear about taking that step is that we have never been there previously. It is out of our domain. The promise is that when we go...when we follow, the Christ who calls will make all things happen. In this story, Peter eventually sinks when he sees what he is doing through the eyes of what he knows he can do. Sinking down in our lives can be a frightening experience - something we try to avoid. And yet, Jesus calls us out to follow him along a way we cannot comprehend completely. What will it bring? What happens when we become water-walkers - followers of the one who will go to the cross? I may just change how the day ahead of us turns around and looks at everything quite differently than in the boat or sinking beneath the waves.
Connection: The community of the church can be the environment that enables us to discern how we are stepping out within our lives. Is it under our own power to control and conquer and keep things as we know them...or...is it because we are being called forth within a new purpose that takes on the form of the cross?
When we are able to control what will happen to us, O Lord, we fall down for we really are not able to do what we promise ourselves. Remind us to look up to you and listen to your call that bids us to live beyond ourselves and yet always within your promise for life. Amen.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
16 October 2006
My records show that Friday's devotion did not go out even though I recall what I wrote about the piece by Bonhoeffer. Odd what stress and grief can do to one's memory. So today we continue with obedience and believing and the strange tension in which we find ourselves.
Only the obedient believe. A concrete commandment has to be obeyed, in order to come to believe. A first step of obedience has to be taken, so that faith does not become pious self-deception, cheap grace. The first step is crucial. It is qualitatively different from all others that follow. The first step of obedience has to lead Peter away from his nets and out of the boat; it has to lead the young man away from his wealth. Faith is possible only in this new state of existence created by obedience.
My mother died and we buried her ashes this past June. It was an observable fact - she was no longer at the other end of the phone - her e-mail would bring no reply - the house was up for sale. Usually people will say, "Life must go on!" But does life go on if there is dis-belief? I suppose another way to ask that question is "What kind of life goes on when we try to live within dis-belief?" This weekend up in Cleveland - my first trip back up to the hometown - was a clear situation of dis-belief and I didn't even know I was living in that empty place. Life...was going forward...wasn't it? And yet, much to my surprise, in some way I was trying to live without stepping forward into new life. I have been living as though death was not real and life could be as it always has been. If you would have asked me that a week ago I would have disagreed and said I have stepped beyond that power of death. But with tears flowing as freely as the rain falling on the umbrella as I stood at the grave of my father and mother, I realized that I wasn't only holding onto that umbrella. I was holding onto what was...I was holding onto my mother. I was staying in the boat. I was clutching onto my prized possession. I was living in dis-belief - un-faith. In other words, I was attempting to live as though I was in control of life - of what is and what was and what will be.
Jesus invites me - and all of us - to take that step into new life where Jesus is Lord, even when we don't think we need to be stepping anywhere at all! How am I to take the next steps in following Jesus after my mother's death if I have not been willing to take the first one. I was holding on so tightly to what was, my body is literally sore today - two days after that gravesite visit. Saying good bye in the middle of that gravesite rain has made me realize how hard it is to let go of what is so beloved and risk what will come.
The promise is for new life. The new life will be just that..."new." What I will need to learn along the way is how I will view this great gift given to me in my mother even as I go ahead and follow the one who calls me into a life I have yet experience. Dis-belief is not easily turned into belief. It takes a real step...a real turning...a real release. Then, in that new life the promise is for life that will bring forth life beyond my control and expectations. That is a helpful way for me to understand just how my mother will be returned to me - fresh, new, a gift that only comes as I let go and take the next steps within the Reign that is promised today and always.
Connection: The discipline of stepping is not always easy. It is always necessary. I wonder what will be within the next steps that will be taken today. What will yours be?
Come, Lord, Jesus, and be the life that brings peace in the midst of the storms that rage around us even when we are unaware of their presence. Amen.
Only the obedient believe. A concrete commandment has to be obeyed, in order to come to believe. A first step of obedience has to be taken, so that faith does not become pious self-deception, cheap grace. The first step is crucial. It is qualitatively different from all others that follow. The first step of obedience has to lead Peter away from his nets and out of the boat; it has to lead the young man away from his wealth. Faith is possible only in this new state of existence created by obedience.
My mother died and we buried her ashes this past June. It was an observable fact - she was no longer at the other end of the phone - her e-mail would bring no reply - the house was up for sale. Usually people will say, "Life must go on!" But does life go on if there is dis-belief? I suppose another way to ask that question is "What kind of life goes on when we try to live within dis-belief?" This weekend up in Cleveland - my first trip back up to the hometown - was a clear situation of dis-belief and I didn't even know I was living in that empty place. Life...was going forward...wasn't it? And yet, much to my surprise, in some way I was trying to live without stepping forward into new life. I have been living as though death was not real and life could be as it always has been. If you would have asked me that a week ago I would have disagreed and said I have stepped beyond that power of death. But with tears flowing as freely as the rain falling on the umbrella as I stood at the grave of my father and mother, I realized that I wasn't only holding onto that umbrella. I was holding onto what was...I was holding onto my mother. I was staying in the boat. I was clutching onto my prized possession. I was living in dis-belief - un-faith. In other words, I was attempting to live as though I was in control of life - of what is and what was and what will be.
Jesus invites me - and all of us - to take that step into new life where Jesus is Lord, even when we don't think we need to be stepping anywhere at all! How am I to take the next steps in following Jesus after my mother's death if I have not been willing to take the first one. I was holding on so tightly to what was, my body is literally sore today - two days after that gravesite visit. Saying good bye in the middle of that gravesite rain has made me realize how hard it is to let go of what is so beloved and risk what will come.
The promise is for new life. The new life will be just that..."new." What I will need to learn along the way is how I will view this great gift given to me in my mother even as I go ahead and follow the one who calls me into a life I have yet experience. Dis-belief is not easily turned into belief. It takes a real step...a real turning...a real release. Then, in that new life the promise is for life that will bring forth life beyond my control and expectations. That is a helpful way for me to understand just how my mother will be returned to me - fresh, new, a gift that only comes as I let go and take the next steps within the Reign that is promised today and always.
Connection: The discipline of stepping is not always easy. It is always necessary. I wonder what will be within the next steps that will be taken today. What will yours be?
Come, Lord, Jesus, and be the life that brings peace in the midst of the storms that rage around us even when we are unaware of their presence. Amen.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
13 October 2006
More on following the call by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The first step puts the follower into the situation of being able to believe. If people do not follow, they remain behind, then they do not learn to believe. Those called must get out of their situations, in which they cannot believe, into a situation in which faith can begin. This step has no intrinsic worth of its own; it is justified only by the community with Jesus Christ that is attained. As long as Levi sits in the tax collector's booth and Peter at his nets, they would do their work honestly and loyally, they would have old or new knowledge about God. But if they want to learn to believe in God, they have to follow the Son of God incarnate and walk with him.
This has nothing to do with being "left behind" like the series of books that try to make something of the way the authors interpret scripture. The step to which Bonhoeffer refers is simply the act of following. It would be what is traditionally called the power of the Holy Spirit that pulls us beyond our ways and our demands. As we all know, there can be any number of things in our lives that keep us in a state of what we perceive as comfort. This is the place in which we generally know where the day will go and how we will fit in and how we will be able to move it in our way and according to our desires. And yet, to take that step to follow Jesus, we move outside everything that is so easily used as an excuse to be just where we are and no place else. I especially like the note that this step has no "intrinsic worth of its own." It is simply what the call of Jesus creates. We are pulled into it and we move trusting that it will become our way.
Connection: Take the step...make the leap. Who knows what will take place when we take the next step!?!
When you move us, O God, you stir us up so that we can go beyond ourselves and take in the domain of your grace that transforms all things. We give you thanks for this daily gift. Amen.
The first step puts the follower into the situation of being able to believe. If people do not follow, they remain behind, then they do not learn to believe. Those called must get out of their situations, in which they cannot believe, into a situation in which faith can begin. This step has no intrinsic worth of its own; it is justified only by the community with Jesus Christ that is attained. As long as Levi sits in the tax collector's booth and Peter at his nets, they would do their work honestly and loyally, they would have old or new knowledge about God. But if they want to learn to believe in God, they have to follow the Son of God incarnate and walk with him.
This has nothing to do with being "left behind" like the series of books that try to make something of the way the authors interpret scripture. The step to which Bonhoeffer refers is simply the act of following. It would be what is traditionally called the power of the Holy Spirit that pulls us beyond our ways and our demands. As we all know, there can be any number of things in our lives that keep us in a state of what we perceive as comfort. This is the place in which we generally know where the day will go and how we will fit in and how we will be able to move it in our way and according to our desires. And yet, to take that step to follow Jesus, we move outside everything that is so easily used as an excuse to be just where we are and no place else. I especially like the note that this step has no "intrinsic worth of its own." It is simply what the call of Jesus creates. We are pulled into it and we move trusting that it will become our way.
Connection: Take the step...make the leap. Who knows what will take place when we take the next step!?!
When you move us, O God, you stir us up so that we can go beyond ourselves and take in the domain of your grace that transforms all things. We give you thanks for this daily gift. Amen.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
12 October 2006
This is the final day to look at part three of Bonhoeffer's reflections on a parable.
Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." and Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, " Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for your, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57-62).
The third one called, like the first, understands discipleship as an offer made only by him, as his own self-chosen program for life. But in contrast to the first, he thinks he is justified in setting his own conditions... He wants to follow, but he wants to set his own conditions for following.
Noted in a footnote, it says in Bonhoeffer's book Creation and Fall, "the expression 'Let me first...,' is used to characterize a potential disciple's fleeing into mere possibility of following Jesus." This possibility of doing something first makes the reality of following not a reality. For first, there are conditions. What will that say about later...will there be more conditions. Also, we must consider that the call to follow is the only reality within the Reign of God. If there are to be prerequisites then how do we come around to the way of following Jesus. How many conditions will be put on us before we follow? In this third disciple there is voice I hear in myself when I know the way to go and yet I come up with one, or two, or a whole basket full of things that must be done first. When these are met...when I am in the right place....when the conditions are fitting...then I will follow. Unfortunately, conditions keep us from catching the train or the chariot or taking up our cross. I find this whole parable a hard saying when I allow myself to hear me in each of the roles and speaking from my own predicament and in my own voice.
Connection: What agenda today is standing in the way of being a part of that gracious Reign that bids us to come and live?
We are a people who hesitate and want to control the way in which we move through our lives. By the power of your Holy Spirit, O God, stir up our hearts that we will act and move and face what is promised when we do leave all things to follow you. Amen.
Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." and Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, " Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for your, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57-62).
The third one called, like the first, understands discipleship as an offer made only by him, as his own self-chosen program for life. But in contrast to the first, he thinks he is justified in setting his own conditions... He wants to follow, but he wants to set his own conditions for following.
Noted in a footnote, it says in Bonhoeffer's book Creation and Fall, "the expression 'Let me first...,' is used to characterize a potential disciple's fleeing into mere possibility of following Jesus." This possibility of doing something first makes the reality of following not a reality. For first, there are conditions. What will that say about later...will there be more conditions. Also, we must consider that the call to follow is the only reality within the Reign of God. If there are to be prerequisites then how do we come around to the way of following Jesus. How many conditions will be put on us before we follow? In this third disciple there is voice I hear in myself when I know the way to go and yet I come up with one, or two, or a whole basket full of things that must be done first. When these are met...when I am in the right place....when the conditions are fitting...then I will follow. Unfortunately, conditions keep us from catching the train or the chariot or taking up our cross. I find this whole parable a hard saying when I allow myself to hear me in each of the roles and speaking from my own predicament and in my own voice.
Connection: What agenda today is standing in the way of being a part of that gracious Reign that bids us to come and live?
We are a people who hesitate and want to control the way in which we move through our lives. By the power of your Holy Spirit, O God, stir up our hearts that we will act and move and face what is promised when we do leave all things to follow you. Amen.
11 October 2006
This is day two of Bonhoeffer's comments on a familiar parable.
Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." and Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, " Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for your, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57-62).
The second disciple...knows what he wants to do and has to do. First he must fulfill the law; then he will follow. Here a clear command of the law stands between the one called and Jesus. Jesus' call forcefully challenges this gap. Under no circumstances is anything permitted to come between Jesus and the one called, even that which is greatest and holiest, even the law.
Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." and Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, " Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for your, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57-62).
The second disciple...knows what he wants to do and has to do. First he must fulfill the law; then he will follow. Here a clear command of the law stands between the one called and Jesus. Jesus' call forcefully challenges this gap. Under no circumstances is anything permitted to come between Jesus and the one called, even that which is greatest and holiest, even the law.
Bonhoeffer goes on to say that "Jesus here opposes the law and bids the man follow him." Remember this is not a suggestion that the law can be thrown out. Rather the radical call of Jesus is the last word. It is grace beyond anyone's comprehension. As we have heard previously, the call comes before any act of obedience to the law. The call demand obedience to whatever will be the way Jesus calls us to go. It is that call into the gracious Reign of God that comes before any attempt to fulfill a law - no matter how strong and central that law may be. It is like the first commandment that first states the ground of all the commandments: I am the Lord, your God. From that point on, the only reality is the one in which God is Lord of all. So to with this call of Jesus. Everything must be viewed from the life that is and will be shaped by Jesus. Fulfilling the law - doing what is thought to be right - will always pull us away from the gracious call of Jesus and when doing the right thing according to the law pulls us, there is no following that will take place. Next, there will be another rule or law to fulfill and the call is put on hold.
Connection: We are a called people. We live within a new reality and we are invited to make that our day. That call may run in a different direction than the way we have always thought is the way we must go no matter what.
Be for us a Light, O God. A light that will show us the way when we are pulled to move away from you. Bring us into your Reign and empower us to walk and live within this domain. Amen.
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