Abraham Living Together in Unity with Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-68359-670-7
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

Reihe: Lived Theology

The church is Christ existing within community. The church needs community that is deep and real. In Living Together in Unity with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nicholas J. Abraham reclaims Bonhoeffer's vision for Christian community. By exploring Bonhoeffer's life and writings, Abraham identifies the foundations for community and how we can build upon them. Truly Christian fellowship is through Jesus and in Jesus. It is created by Jesus and maintained by the Spirit. Unity does not come through trending techniques or correct opinions, but through love, forgiveness, and God's word. Bonhoeffer provides a thoughtful and timely vision for life together in Christ.

Nicholas J. Abraham is lead pastor of Reformation Bible Church in Navarre, OH.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Abraham, Nicholas J.

Leseproben

CHAPTER 2

Christ and the Church

“For the first time, I came to the Bible. That, too, is an awful thing to say. I had often preached, I had seen a great deal of the church, had spoken and written about it—and yet I was not yet a Christian but rather in an utterly wild and uncontrolled fashion my own master.”1 In Bonhoeffer’s testimony of his conversion to faith in Jesus, he described great changes in his life in the early 1930s. He had been trying to balance three simultaneous jobs. His confession about having been in ministry and yet not being converted pointed to a struggle he faced during this time. Bonhoeffer wrestled between the two vocations of academic work and local church ministry. Initially opting more for the former, he began to be increasingly drawn to the latter. Bonhoeffer went into more detail in his testimony:

I know that at that time I turned the doctrine of Jesus Christ into something of personal advantage for myself.… I pray to God that will never happen again. Also I had never prayed, or prayed only very little. For all my loneliness, I was quite pleased with myself. Then the Bible, and in particular the Sermon on the Mount, freed me from that. Since then everything has changed. I have felt this plainly, and so have other people about me. It was a great liberation. It became clear to me that the life of a servant of Jesus Christ must belong to the church, and step by step it became clearer to me how far that must go.2

His participation in Christian community alongside others in a local church was a key component of this shift in his life. Bonhoeffer had tasted this in Barcelona, in London, and certainly later in New York, specifically in the church in Harlem. This struggle between vocations was the means by which Bonhoeffer came to understand the inseparable value and importance of Christ and the church. He recognized that Christian community, which he grew to love as he grew in his faith, was constituted by the relationship of Christ to his church.

THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

Many authors say that they come to understand a subject by writing about it. In a way, this happened for Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer’s appreciation for and understanding of Christian community culminated in his book Life Together. Bonhoeffer began Life Together by quoting one of David’s praises of community in the book of Psalms: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity” (Ps 133:1 NRSV). This verse captures the way that Bonhoeffer viewed community: he saw it as truly good and pleasant. Apart from simply quoting a verse, he set out to look at how the Scriptures can provide direction for “life together under the Word.”3 Bonhoeffer described the privilege that Christian community is—particularly living with other Christians. He declared, “visible community is grace.”4 As a stark contrast to the grace of Christian community experienced by believers, Jesus dwelt with enemies. This was true for him to the point of death on the cross. Therefore, those following Christ share in the same scenario he experienced, namely living among enemies or unbelievers. This encapsulates the purpose for Christians, that they live among unbelievers to proclaim and serve Christ. Jesus’ followers find themselves spread across the earth waiting for the day when they will be drawn together in him.5 Bonhoeffer declared, “Until then, God’s people remain scattered, held together in Jesus Christ alone, having become one because they remember him in the distant lands, spread out among the unbelievers.”6

During this time of waiting for Jesus to consummate his kingdom, Christian community anticipates the coming kingdom. Not all who follow Jesus are able to experience the grace of community. Yet, as Bonhoeffer explained concerning the apostle John in Revelation 1, even the lonely and exiled are comforted by their inclusion in the heavenly community in the Spirit, by the Word. Nevertheless, having other Christians around gives life and encouragement. As biblical examples of such encouraging relationships, Bonhoeffer referred to Paul’s relationship with Timothy or the way the apostle John addressed those to whom he wrote his epistles.7

One could say that typical Christian experience brings about a desire for company with brothers and sisters. Bonhoeffer reassured, “The believer need not feel any shame when yearning for the physical presence of other Christians, as if one were still living too much in the flesh.”8 He made this point by beginning with creation. God made humans with bodies. The Lord Jesus came in a body, suffered in a body, and was raised in a body. Bonhoeffer pointed to the receiving of Jesus in the body in the Lord’s Supper. Finally, believers will be resurrected in a body. Bonhoeffer wanted to make plain that the Lord affirms physical fellowship among believers as displayed in creation, the coming of Jesus as the God-man, and the surety of the resurrection for believers. Thus, Christians praise the triune God for the bodily presence of another believer. For Bonhoeffer, the presence of Christ is mediated through the presence of another believer.9 This was a central part of Bonhoeffer’s theology.

As much as community is to be a normal aspect of a Christian’s life, Bonhoeffer acknowledged that believers’ experience community can vary. “Therefore, let those who until now have had the privilege of living a Christian life together with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of their hearts.”10 The fact is that Christian community is a gift. The need to give thanks and to understand the variations of community among Christians only exemplifies the fact that it is a gift. Yet, Bonhoeffer explained that the desire for community is inherent in every believer.11

In his book Life Together, Bonhoeffer often preferred to call an assembly of Christians a Christian community, not a church. While that may seem like an unnecessary distinction to make, it is important for understanding Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of community for a couple of reasons. First, Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together after having lived with the seminary students he led. His seminary was a Christian community, which is why Life Together serves as a helpful text for groups other than a local church. Second, Bonhoeffer states in his preface that Life Together was written for the church.12 Those in Christian communities outside of the church need to be connected to local churches because Christ’s call is to himself and to his church. Furthermore, Bonhoeffer wanted to show the church that it needed to behave more like a Christian community. He grappled with this in real experience. Bonhoeffer learned this on the job as it were.

Bonhoeffer’s first official church position came some years before the events of Life Together in early 1928 as he received a call the year before inviting him to come to Barcelona, Spain to serve as an assistant pastor.13 He would be confronted by the idea of the Christian community he would later write about.

FIRST PASTORATE IN BARCELONA

Bonhoeffer finally arrived in Barcelona in mid-February 1928, after a week’s vacation in Paris.14 This was much later than the pastor he was serving under, Fritz Olbricht, would have liked. Olbricht was in desperate need of help. And Bonhoeffer’s tardiness, about three months late, caused the cancellation of some services at the Barcelona church. One biographer noted, “Bonhoeffer believed Olbricht had missed his true calling, ‘He would have been better suited as a forest ranger or an infantryman,’ Dietrich told his mother.”15 The young Bonhoeffer, though quite brilliant, was not without his opinions or his rather harsh way of looking at things. Furthermore, what is fascinating about Bonhoeffer winding up in a pastoral role is his lack of real experience with the church. Yet, it seems he had a fascination with the concept of church. That interest developed into his early doctoral work. What was missing from the young Bonhoeffer’s interests was Jesus. He had much to say about Jesus’ church but had not yet taken hold of Christ by faith. Yet, while Bonhoeffer served in churches, starting in Barcelona, he met Jesus in the Scriptures.

The church in Barcelona ministered primarily to German expatriates. His primary responsibilities in the church were in the children’s ministry and the high school youth group. In addition, he taught a few classes at the German school. He also shared in the pulpit ministry of the church. He saw the youth group grow from one to fifteen after a few weeks. Bonhoeffer also connected well with the adults of the congregation and was frequently invited into their homes and joined them on evenings out. People were attending and responding to Bonhoeffer’s sermons in a greater proportion than to those of the tired pastor of the congregation, which caused some friction between the two.16 Nevertheless, Bonhoeffer was invited in November 1928 to stay on as assistant pastor in Barcelona, but he declined. Bonhoeffer remained unsure at that point whether his long-term calling was in an academic setting or in the pastorate. The pastorate would require attending a preacher’s seminary, which he saw as unneeded at that time....