Ministry
The chapter for this week’s Bonhoeffer reading is called Ministry.
This chapter truly focuses on an extension of conversation about community. How sweet it is to talk about a Life Together that has been truly lived. My goal for this post is to point out three tidbits from this chapter which struck me as important. First, the ministry of holding one’s tongue. Second, a matchless discovery. Third, meekness.
Bonhoeffer suggests that if we held our tongues at the right time, the evil words that are unfit for speech would not be spoken. He acknowledges the difficult balance here. We must not speak evil against our brother but also we must not tolerate injustice. What is the key to understanding when to speak out and when to hold our tongues? Well, how is your heart?
In the next section, Bonhoeffer talks about a matchless discovery when you hold your tongue. How does someone go from harsh and hurtful words toward someone to kind and praising words toward that same person? “Where this discipline of the tongue is practice right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendancy over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be.” (92-93)
What is Bonhoeffer saying here? Anyone can do anything to anyone and not get scrutinized for it because we are all playing a game of only speaking kind words? Doubtful. One point that I think Bonhoeffer does make clear is how we really ought to delight in one another. When we consider each other as God sees us, then our perspective truly changes. Or as Bonhoeffer writes, “God did not make this person as I would have made him.” (93) What a beautiful thing indeed! God’s infinite creativity far surpasses our wildest and most outlandish dreams. We must seek to recognize God’s creativity and goodness at work in other’s lives. In that case, that troublesome person becomes, “...in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction.” (93)
Finally, life together looks like meekness. I once heard someone say, “I can’t have any ego because everyone else in this room has it.” Albeit a humorful approach to humility, still a good point. Pride and fear are far more common than humility and confidence. It was Jesus’ ministry that helps us to gain a clear picture of what true humility looks like. He was a man who came to serve the poor, marginalized, broken, destitute, and those who mocked him.
To fully understand the extent of the grace given to us, we must understand the deep, dark parts of our sin. Bonhoeffer writes, “Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the end of its tether when Jesus forgave him.” (95) The ministry of meekness allows walls to be torn down that keeps us from relating to others well.
This chapter truly focuses on an extension of conversation about community. How sweet it is to talk about a Life Together that has been truly lived. My goal for this post is to point out three tidbits from this chapter which struck me as important. First, the ministry of holding one’s tongue. Second, a matchless discovery. Third, meekness.
Bonhoeffer suggests that if we held our tongues at the right time, the evil words that are unfit for speech would not be spoken. He acknowledges the difficult balance here. We must not speak evil against our brother but also we must not tolerate injustice. What is the key to understanding when to speak out and when to hold our tongues? Well, how is your heart?
In the next section, Bonhoeffer talks about a matchless discovery when you hold your tongue. How does someone go from harsh and hurtful words toward someone to kind and praising words toward that same person? “Where this discipline of the tongue is practice right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendancy over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be.” (92-93)
What is Bonhoeffer saying here? Anyone can do anything to anyone and not get scrutinized for it because we are all playing a game of only speaking kind words? Doubtful. One point that I think Bonhoeffer does make clear is how we really ought to delight in one another. When we consider each other as God sees us, then our perspective truly changes. Or as Bonhoeffer writes, “God did not make this person as I would have made him.” (93) What a beautiful thing indeed! God’s infinite creativity far surpasses our wildest and most outlandish dreams. We must seek to recognize God’s creativity and goodness at work in other’s lives. In that case, that troublesome person becomes, “...in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction.” (93)
Finally, life together looks like meekness. I once heard someone say, “I can’t have any ego because everyone else in this room has it.” Albeit a humorful approach to humility, still a good point. Pride and fear are far more common than humility and confidence. It was Jesus’ ministry that helps us to gain a clear picture of what true humility looks like. He was a man who came to serve the poor, marginalized, broken, destitute, and those who mocked him.
To fully understand the extent of the grace given to us, we must understand the deep, dark parts of our sin. Bonhoeffer writes, “Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the end of its tether when Jesus forgave him.” (95) The ministry of meekness allows walls to be torn down that keeps us from relating to others well.
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