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Community Prayer Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The prayer of the Psalms teaches us to pray as a community. The Body of Christ is praying, and I as an individual recognize that my prayer is only a tiny fraction of the whole prayer of the church. I learn to join the body of Christ in its prayer. That lifts me above my personal concerns and allows me to pray selflessly. Many of the Psalms were very probably prayed antiphonally by the Old Testestament congregation. The so-called parallelism of the verses, that remarkable repetition of the same idea in different words in the second line of the verse, is not merely a literary form. It also has meaning for the church and theology…. One might read, as a particularly clear example, Psalm 5. Repeatedly there are two voices, bringing the same prayer request to God in different words. Is that not meant to be an indication that the one who prays never prays alone? There must always be a second person, another, a member of the church, the body of Christ, indeed Jesus Christ himself, praying with the Christian in order that the prayer of the individual may be true prayer.
-from “Life Together” 57 quoted in “A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Carla Barnhill p 145
God lets nothing go to waste. our resurrection
What Christ assumes, He redeems, He assumed our nature, soul and body, to return to its proper conditions that which was created by our Father. No half measures are possible. No merely spiritual resurrection is possible where Christ has risen bodily from the grave for us. Our Lord promises to lose nothing handed over to Him by our Father, so He rises bodily to indicate to us that we will be raised in body and soul, complete and whole, except without sin on that great Last Day. He feeds us on the bread of His flesh so that we who feed on it might receive from it the antidote to death and the promise of resurrection of the flesh.
“Jesus says ‘I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me’ (John 6:38). What is that will? This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day’ (v 39). Now, what had Christ received from the Father but that which He had Himself put on? Man, of course, in His flesh and soul. Therefore, He will not allow either of those parts that He has received to perish; neither a large portion nor the least part of either. If the flesh is, as our opponents slightingly think, but a poor part, then the flesh is safe, because not even a fraction of man is to perish. Therefore, no larger portion of man is in equally safe keeping with Him.
“If, however, Jesus does not also raise the flesh on the Last Day, then He would permit not only a fraction of man to perish but also (as I will venture to say, in consideration of so important a part) almost the whole of him. But when Jesus repeats His words with increased emphasis, ‘For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day’ (v 40) He asserts the full extent of the resurrection, He assigns to each nature the benefit that is suited to its services. To the flesh, for by it the Son was seen. To the soul, for by it He was believed… How could we be blessed, if we were to perish in any part of us?” (Tertullian “On the Resurrection of the Flesh”, 34
quoted in “A Year with the Church Fathers” Scott Murray p 178
Infant Baptism
Warfare armor against our adversaries the evil of the world
…”We can never be tired of hearing about the crowning of our Lord, and least of all in this most holy Golgotha … Let none be weary. Take your armor against the adversaries in the cause of the cross itself; set up the faith of the cross as a trophy against our opponents. For when you are going to dispute with unbelievers concerning the cross of Christ, first make with your hand the sign of Christ’s cross, and the gainsayer will be silenced. Don’t be ashamed to confess the coss, for angels glory in it, saying, ‘I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified (Matt 28:5)
Cyril of Jerusalem “Catechetical Lectures”, 13: 22-23 quoted in “A Year with the Church Fathers” Scott Murrray p 124
The Blood of the Lamb saved the Israelites, The Blood of Jesus saves us Scott Murray A Year with the Church Fathers pp 114-115
Maundy Thursday, the Doy of Commandment (Dies Mandate), most properly refers to the example of service given us by our Lord and the directive to love as we have been loved (John 13:34) Yet we must not forget the command given in the Words of Our Lord to “do this in remembrance of Me.” This day, with its commemoration of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, is set off from the rest of Holy Week as a day of festive joy.
The door posts and lintels of our hearts are smeared with the blood of the Passover Lamb, who was offered for us. The Passover in Egypt foreshadowed the complete salvation that was accomplished by the death of Jesus, the perfect Passover Lamb, who was able to be both victim and priest in one person (Heb 5: 1-10). Today we stand on the verge of the commemoration of the passing over of death, all wrapped up in the Triduum, the Three Days, which concludes with the Paschal Feast. The Passover’s sacrifice needs never again to be repeated (1 Pet 3:18). The sacrifice of Christ fulfilled what was promised in those old slaughters.
Our hearts have been set free from the fear of death because the blood of the Passover Lamb has been smeared upon the doorposts and lintels of our hearts. The blood that once was offered will be received this night when we drink of the cup of the testament. Our lips will by hyssop-spattered with the sign of His mercy toward us ( Ex 12:22). Death no longer appalls us. Its slavery no longer enthralls us. The Lamb who is “the firstborn of all creation” (Colo 1:15) offers Himself for every other so that His body might be received in the feast of His Supper. These signs are for our comfort God has no need of them. He knows those who are His. He gives them to us in the Supper so that we might know who we are, sprinkled and marked by the blood of the Lamb. The blood sets us free. ‘The blood of the Passover, sprinkled on each man’s doorposts and lintel, delivered those who were saved as Egypt, when the firstborn of the Egyptians were destroyed. For the Passover was Christ, who was afterwards sacrificed, as also Isaiah said, ‘Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter’ (Is 53:7). It is written that on the the day of the Passover you seized Him, and that also during the Passover you crucified Him (Jn 18:39). As the blood of the Passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will deliver from death those who have believed. Would God have been deceived if this sign had not been above the doors? Of course not, but I affirm that He announced in advance the future salvation for the human race through the blood of Christ.” (Justin Martyr, Dialogue, III )
God deals with the pressure we experience, makes us overcomers Pastor Chuck Swindoll
“…It is upon the platform of pressure that our Lord does His best work … those times when tragedy joins hands with calamity… when satan and a host of demons prompt us to doubt God’s goodness and deny His justice. At such times Christ unsheathes His sword of truth, silencing the doubts and offering grace to accept, hope to continue.
Hear Him well:
For whatever is born of God ovecomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.
Not a reluctant hunch. Not some fairy-tale dream… but an accomplished fact as solid as granite and twice as sure – overcoming vicgtory claimed by faith!
Is it for everyone? No. The majority? No. Read it again. It’s only for those who are ‘born of God’ … only God’s born-ones are the overcomers.
Does it mean, then, that we won’t have sorrow? No. It means we’ll be able to overcome it…. live in His victory in spite of it. How? By Faith, just as He promised. By staking my hope on the absolute assurance that He is aware of my situation, He is in charge of it … and He will give all the grace I need to sail through it, rough seas and all, one stormy day at a time.
Sorrow and her grim family of sighs may drop by for a visit, but they wont stay long when they realize faith got there first … and doesn’t plan to leave.”
-Chuck Swindoll Come Before Winter p 338
Solitude the soul develops senses
My wife, Marge, went to be in the presence of the Lord, it’s been five weeks now. It was not expected, it was a shock, I am nowhere near adjusting to this. She had serious physical problems. She had a stroke four years ago. Really couldn’t walk, no use of her left arm, a small amount of cognitive impairment. For four and a half years I was her care-giver. It was arduous, caring for Marge, which often required getting up in the middle of the night to help her, giving her meals, cleaning, toilietry, appointments, while trying to do effective ministry etc. All of a sudden I find myself in a solitude I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m not very happy with this.
Bonhoeffer’s “Farewell Maria”, which was a separation from his afianced who he would never see again, he talks about solitude:
…It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life. Therefore I have not felt lonely or abandoned for one moment. You, the parents, all of you, the friends and students of mine at the front, all are constantly present to me. Your prayers and good thoughts, words from the Bible, discussions long past, pieces of music, and books – [all these] gain life and reality as never before.” – “A Testament to Freedom” p 490
God has put me here, the circumstances certainly show His hand. He put me here for a reason, do I ignore this, or attempt to figure out, follow, pray over, etc how God intends for me to use this time? I’m sure at least that I need to journal what has transpired. How do I work with this, understand this?
Barnhill, Carla “A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer p 20
Christ uses bondage to witness to us and restore the Fallen “A Year with the Church Fathers” Scott Murray p289
The Apostle Paul spent some years in Rome under the surveillance of the Praetorian Guard while under house arrest. He used his time to proclaim Christ not only to those who visited him but also to the guardsmen whose duty put them there. This is what a preacher loves: a captive audience! The free had been bound to Christ through the instrument of bondage. Christ used the instruments of bondage, weakness, and imprisonment to create a powerful witness to His death and His power to forgive and restore the fallen…
God’s unfathomable love “A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer p 3
Behold God become human, the unfathomable mystery of the love of God for the world. God loves human beings. Good loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hospitality, namely real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love, God becomes human; and we must recognize that God will that we be human, real human beings. While we distinguish between pious and godless, good and evil, noble and base, God loves real people without distinction. God has no patience with our dividing the world and humanity according to our standards and imposing ourselves as judges over them. God leads us into absurdity by becoming a real human being and a companion of sinners, thereby forcing us to become the judges of God. God stands beside the real human being and the real world against all their accusers. So God becomes accused along with human beings and the world, and thus the judges become the accused. = From Ethics 84
Truly, fully human in Jesus
This is from a passage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer from a devotional “A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer” p 351
The human being, accepted, judged and awakened to new life by God – this is Jesus Christ, this is the whole of humanity in Christ, this is us. The form of Jesus Christ alone victoriously encounters the world. From this form proceeds all the formation of a world reconciled with God. The word ‘formation’ arouses our suspicion. We are tired of Christian agendas. We are tired of the thoughtless, superficial slogan of a so-called practical Christianity to replace a so-called dogmatic Christianity. We have seen that the forces which form the world come from entirely other sources than Christianity, and that so-called practical Christianity has failed in the world just aThis s much as so-called dogmatic Christianity. Hence we must understand by ‘formation’ something quite different from what we are accustomed to mean, and in fact the Holy Scripture speaks of formation in a sense that at first sounds quite strange. It is not primarily concerned with formation of the world by planning and programs, but in all formation it is concerned only with the one form that has overcome the world, the form of Jesus Christ … Formation occurs only by being drawn into the form of Jesus Christ, by being conformed to the unique form of the one who became human, was crucified, and is risen. This does not happen as we strive ‘to become like Jesus’, as we customarily say, but as the form of Jesus Christ himself so works on us that it molds us, conforming our form to Christ’s own (Gal 4:9). – from Ethics 92-63
This is from page 357
The issue is the process by which Christ takes form among us. Therefore the issue is the real, judged, and renewed human being. The real, the judged, and the renewed human being exists only in the form of Jesus Christ and therefore in being conformed to Christ. Only the person taken on in Christ is the real human being; only the person confronted by the cross of Christ is the judged human being; only the person who participates in the resurrection of Christ is the renewed human being. Since God became a human being in Christ, all thinking about human beings without Christ is unfruitful abstraction. The counter-image to the human being taken up into the form of Christ is the human being as self-creator, self-judge and self-renewer; these people bypass their true humanity and therefore, sooner or later, destroy themselves. Falling away from Christ is at the same time falling away from one’s own true nature. – From “Ethics” p 134
Pastor Jim Driskell 