The Simple Pastor
By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer
RT @lukedvd: Hope his resignation from the England manager job will allow @JoelVirgo to focus on his church duties #nomorehairdye 16 hrs ago
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my spiritual heroes, a man of action, deep faith, author of great books, sharp theological mind and practised in simplicity and community. He is most of the things I wish I was. His The Cost of Discipleship has been one of the most influential books I have ever read. I am therefore a fan.
This short book is a great way for anyone to be introduced to the man, his life and something of his legacy by someone who knew him well. Renate Bethge was Bonhoeffer’s niece and wife of Bonhoeffer’s biographer and closest friend Eberhard Bethge. No one did more than her late husband to make Bonhoeffer known to the wider world in the aftermath of the second world war.
Containing photos, reflections, poems and a straight forward outline of his life this book does all you’d hope for in just 88 pages. It was a privilege to spend an hour reading this and being reminded of a 20th century martyr whose life and work continues to exercise a profound influence on many.
You can watch more of these videos here
HT: Peter Ould
“The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organised church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost.”
and
“We gave away the word and the sacraments wholesale, we baptised, confirmed and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard.”
I think a case can be made for those words applying to Britain in 2009.
Every now and then I mention the Koinonia blog and this time because author Scot McKnight mentions one of the books that most influences me, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship.
It’s always a shame when church buildings cease to function as a home to a church but if they’re going to be used as anything then a bookstore seems like a good choice to me. This place looks incredible
People aren’t reading newspapers so much (me included) and Mint.com shows the death of the newspaper in the US
This shows how e-books are expanding fast! (HT: Tim Challies)
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs us our life, and it is grace because it gives us the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of God’s Son: ‘you were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon God’s Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Anyway, in his sermon he said:
“You know, whatever you think makes you unworthy, I don’t think God wants to hear it any more. All you have to do is turn up and open up your heart.”
Today I read this from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it seemed remarkably apt:
“Is the price that we are paying today with the collapse of the organized churches anything else but an inevitable consequence of grace acquired too cheaply; we performed baptisms and confirmations; we absolved an entire people, unquestioned and unconditionally; out of human love we handed over what was holy to the scornful and unbelievers. We poured out rivers of grace without end, but the call to rigourously follow Christ was seldom heard. What happened to the insights of the ancient church, which in the baptismal teaching watched so carefully over the boundary between the church and the world, over costly grace? What happened to Luther’s warnings against a proclamation of the gospel which made people secure in their godless lives?… Cheap grace was very unmerciful to our Protestant church.”
So whatever makes you unworthy doesn’t matter? Have we absolved ourselves from the responsibility to repent for sin before a holy God?
“Hasn’t the individualistic question about personal salvation almost completely left us all? Aren’t we really under the impression that there are more important things than that question (perhaps not more important than the matter itself, but more important than the question!)? I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But fundamentally, isn’t this biblical? Does the question about saving one’s soul appear in the Old Testament at all? Aren’t righteousness and the kingdom of God on earth the focus of everything, and isn’t it true that Romans 3:24ff is not an individualistic doctrine of salvation, but the culmination of the view that God alone is righteous? It is not with the beyond that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved, subjected to laws, reconciled and restored. What is above this world is, in the gospel, intended to exist for this world; I mean that, not in the anthropocentric sense of the liberal, mystic, pietistic, ethical theology, but in the biblical sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
What I get from this, is a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now, in that when we preach the Gospel we make it about the individual and what God wants to save us from. Therefore essentially the Gospel is about me. This is not the whole story. It’s perhaps more true to say what God wants to save us for! To save us for His glory, to save us for the liberation of creation, to save us for His kingdom to advance amongst the nations and the gospel preached to the poor. None of this can happen while we are still in darkness so he must rescue us and redeem us. It isn’t about us, the Gospel isn’t merely about forgiveness of personal sins (but it certainly isn’t less than that) but about the glory of God and His righteousness. Which is why we seek that first I guess….
“The church confesses that it has witnessed the arbitrary use of brutal force, the suffering in body and soul of countless innocent people, that it has witnessed oppression, hatred, and murder without raising its voice for the victims and without finding ways of rushing to help them. It has become guilty of the lives of the weakest and most defenseless brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ….The church confesses that it has looked on silently as the poor were exploited and robbed, while the strong were enriched and corrupted. The church confesses its guilt toward the countless people whose lives have been destroyed by slander, denunciation and defamation. It has not condemned the slanderers for their wrongs and has thereby left the slandered to their fate. The church confesses that it has coveted security, tranquility, peace, property and honour to which it had no claim, and therefore has not bridled human covetousness, but promoted it.”
From “Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters…”
“We realize more clearly than formerly that the world lies under the wrath and grace of God. We read in Jeremiah 45, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up….And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh…but I will give your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.’ If we can save our souls unscathed out of the wreckage of our material possessions, let us be satisfied with that. If the Creator destroys the Divine handiwork, what right have we to lament the destruction of ours? It will be the task of our generation, not to ‘seek great things,’ but to save and preserve our souls out of the chaos, and to realize that it is the only thing we can carry as a ‘prize’ from the burning building.”
- Letters and Papers from Prison 157-158
This is quite different from many altar calls I have heard. ‘You have sinned, God can forgive you – be guilt free’ but what Bonhoeffer is saying, which I think is more biblical is that to follow Christ is to die to the old self, not just it’s sinfulness but also it’s attachments. In light of our consumerist disease that may mean the new kitchen, the upgraded car, the luxury holiday, the promotion to pay for it all, the retirement plans and all our wants and desires for newer, better, more may just have to wait. Before that comes seeking first, the kingdom and righteousness.
I’m attached to new stuff, I quite like it. Nothing wrong with it but maybe I’m called to give up the desire for that and if I need it, I’ll trust God to provide for what I need and not what I want.
“Even in this new situation all the members of the community are given their special place; this is no longer the place, however, in which they can most successfully promote themselves, but the place where they can best carry out their service. In a Christian community, everything depends on whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. The chain is unbreakable only when even the smallest link holds tightly with the others. A community which permits within itself members who do nothing will be destroyed by them. Thus it is a good idea that all members receive a definite task to perform for the community, so that they may know in times of doubt that they too are not useless and incapable of doing anything. Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community.” – Life Together, 95-96
“This text speaks of the birth of a child, not the revolutionary deed of a strong man, or the breath-taking discovery of a sage, or the pious deed of a saint. It truly boggles the mind: The birth of a child is to bring about the great transformation of all things, is to bring salvation and redemption to all of humanity. As if to shame the most powerful human efforts and achievements, a child is placed in the centre of world history. A child born of humans, a son given by God. This is the mystery of the redemption of the world; all that is past and all that is to come is encompassed here.”
“No priest, no theologian stood at the cradle of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology finds its beginning in the miracle of miracles that God became human.”
“When God chooses Mary as the instrument, when God wants to enter this world in the manger in Bethlehem, this is not an idyllic family occasion, but rather the beginning of a complete reversal, a new ordering of all things on this earth.”
“The miracle of all miracles is that God loves the lowly….God is not ashamed of human lowliness, but goes right into the middle of it, chooses someone as an instrument and performs miracles right there, where they are least expected”
“Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting, however, is an art that our impatient age has forgotten….We must wait for the greatest, most profound, most gentle things in the world; nothing happens in a rush, but only according to the divine laws of germination and growth and becoming.”
This is another attractive gift book with Bonhoeffer in the same vein as Who Am I? and makes for a thoughtful gift for Advent (it’s a bit late for such recommendations but never mind there’s always next year). The format is the same with a reflection, phrase or thought from the great man and they really did make me stop and think about the season we’re in.
I’m a bit jaded about Christmas, it doesn’t have much wonder for me and I’ve been seeking how to celebrate what it really means in a way that has integrity to the event itself. So for example the way we share the Lord’s Supper (while by no means perfect) seems fitting to the event I’m remembering, but I just can’t say the same about Christmas. So to genuinely pause again in awe at what happened was a pleasant surprise. So I’m going to post some of the quotes in the last few days before Christmas day.
I get sent so many books and there are literally hundreds on my shelves that I want to read but haven’t yet got to, the pressure of the backlog sometimes kills the joy of reading. As a result I sometimes just pick the shortest book I can find, so I can read it quick and move on to the next one. The aim being to reduce the pile of unread books not enjoy the experience of reading. This book was one such choice.
Bonhoeffer is a theological hero of mine, his theology, his bravery, his involvement in the pains of his people and his experience of community all drew me to him. In prison he wrote among other things a number of excellent poems and this coffee table gift book reflects on just one: ‘Who Am I?’ Part Psalm, part deep soul searching it provides worthy material for meditation and self-reflection. Here’s a line that struck me about community:
It is infinitely easier to suffer in community than alone
Perhaps as our society becomes increasingly fragmented and isolated so our ability to handle suffering is diminished.
One of the interesting things I’ve learnt was that after his conversion Augustine immediately began experimenting with community. First in Italy in a villa by Lake Como (very nice) and then he insisted on a monastery community when forced into the priesthood at Hippo, north Africa.
His preference was for a scholarly community, but what is interesting to me is that there seems to be something about a shared life together that is very attractive and constant throughout the history of Christianity. So here’s my question what other greats of our faith have been drawn to community over the centuries?
I’ll add Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the 20th Century, to Augustine, to kick us off. Any others?
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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