Heritage of the Saints: Bonhoeffer in Berlin (1932)

 When we consider our Christian heritage in relation to the Bible, we have to read it as God has directed it. Often, our interaction with the Bible comes NOT from our reading but from listening to what someone else tells us about their interaction with the Bible. However, our personal relationship with God is based on our reading of the Bible as He has directed us.

Many people, including family members, noticed a change in Deitrich Bonhoeffer when he returned from America. He seemed more serious about the church.

He was responsible for delivering the sermon at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Reformation Sunday in 1932. It was a day Germany celebrated Martin Luther and the cultural heritage of the Reformation. A day of celebration where Bonhoeffer opened his message with Revelation 2:4-5.

"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."

Such an opening scripture would have set alarm bells off throughout the congregation gathered for the celebration. His opening statement after the scripture would have put a nail in anything left. He stated,

"the Protestant church was in it's eleventh hour and it's high time we realize this."  Bonhoffer, Metaxas, page 122

Evidently, at that point, some people started leaving the church service. I suppose when you go to a service expecting a celebration message and the message challenges you, it might cause you to leave the service. Not only was the message unexpected, but it was particularly unexpected from Bonhoeffer. Something had happened, and even he knew it, as he stated in a letter written four years later.

"...something happened, something that has changed and transformed my life to the present day.  For the first time I discovered the Bible...I had often preached.  I had seen a great deal of the church, and talked and preached about it - but I had not yet become a Christian..."  Bonhoffer, Metaxas, page 123

Here is Bonhoeffer, who has two doctorate degrees, is an ordained minister, and is a lecturer at Berlin University, saying that he had not yet become a Christian with all he had done and studied. Our Christian heritage is not so much about what we know but who we become. Just as when we get married and "become one," we "become Christian."  There is a process of "becoming" that we must go through. He went on in the letter and said,

"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 plainer to me how far that must go."  Bonhoeffer, Metaxas, page 123

 The transformation that Bonhoeffer experienced is the same that we must undergo when we accept Christ. It is foundational to the heritage we enter into at the moment of our conversion. We need to expect and be prepared for such a transformation that those closest to us will note that something is different. It will cause us to speak unexpectedly, as Deitrich did on that Reformation Sunday in 1932.

"He also knew that a word might be delivered that had come straight from heaven and be rejected, just as the messages of the Old Testament prophets had been rejected and just as Jesus has been rejected....the prophet would share in God's suffering."  Bonhoeffer, Metaxas, page 123

The Apostle Paul eludes to the transformative power of scripture in his second letter to Timothy. After his transformation, Paul suffered much at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities. Deitrich Bonhoeffer was just stepping into the start of his persecution and had no way of foreseeing how bad it would get. The rise of Hitler and the National Socialist Party in Germany had not yet been fully realized, but it will be in the near future.

Paul tells Timothy to continue advancing in what he has learned and "become convinced of."  There is the process of "becoming" mentioned again. Timothy was "becoming" with the knowledge that "all scripture is inspired by God." 2 Timothy 3:14-17 ends with Paul making sure that Timothy understands the goal of being "fully capable and equipped for every good work."

"You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,  

and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; 

 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:14-17

As we gain a fuller understanding of our Christian heritage, we need to develop an interaction with scripture guided by the Holy Spirit to develop our unique relationship with God. Our unique relationship with God is not informed by someone else's interaction with scripture but by our personal interaction. While others can help us with interpretation, teaching, and training, it is wholly our own interaction that develops a true relationship. That relationship will be reflected in our lives in very practical ways.

In the end, the interaction with scripture informs our theology, and that theology must lead to the practical aspects of how we live as Christians. 

Heritage of the Saints: Bonhoeffer in America

 I recall sitting in the back of the church on a Sunday over a decade ago when the pastor introduced our guest speaker. I had not heard of the speaker, nor did anyone else act as though they knew him. However, he started his topic, which I'm not sure I remember, but he developed the message using cause-and-effect analysis. When he stated that he was using cause-and-effect analysis, he captured my attention.

What he could not have known, and others in attendance did not know, was that in the late 1980s, I was part of a contract team that performed Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Fault Tree Analysis on commercial nuclear reactors for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our team also developed models and methodologies for cause-and-effect and root-cause analysis for adverse event investigation. Our work required a deep knowledge of and a strict adherence to the analysis methodologies and principles.

As our guest speaker started, he seemed to understand the principles of cause-and-effect analysis and I was tracking with him. However, I don't recall any scriptural references in his message up to that point. After going through several logical steps, he suddenly leaped to his answer and the topic of his message. He effectively violated a foundational principle of cause-and-effect analysis, and as a researcher using the methodology under strict review, he completely lost me at that point. While others with less understanding of the methodology were happy to follow along, violating a foundational principle discredited his message completely. It seemed he had an answer in mind and only used the analysis to make it sound well-researched and credible.

I may have felt the same way Dietrich Bonhoeffer did when he attended Union Theological
Seminary in 1930. He said that he found the theological situation worse than he'd feared, writing,

"The is no theology here... They talk a blue streak without the slightest substantive foundation and with no evidence of any criteria....They are unfamilar with even the most basic questions.  They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, laugh at the fundamentalist, and yet basically are not even up to their level."  Bonhoeffer, Metaxas, page 101

 Bonhoeffer was of the opinion that a person could learn very little in America when he reported to the authorities in the German church. He even stated,

"The theological atmosphere of the Union Theological Seminary is accelerating the secularization of Christianity in America."  Bonhoeffer, Metaxas, page 105

I want to be careful not to imply that the issues here are isolated to pastors, particularly not all pastors. We can experience this secularization in discussions with groups of friends. Our Christian heritage would require us to look internally first. We must ask first, "Am I guilty?"

However, often, we start with an answer in mind. If I want to take a position or make a point in a message, I search for a scripture that justifies my position, even if it means taking the scripture out of context.

While this was Bonhoeffer's experience in America some 95 years ago, it may have worsened. A quote from Isaac Pitre just a few days ago,

"I've never heard so many SERMONS without SCRIPTURES!"

Have we moved so far that we don't start with an answer and then try to prove it with scripture? We just say it is so. What happened to the command Jesus left us with and the heritage we are grafted into. Does Paul point us today to that heritage he spoke to the Corinthians about in 1 Corinthians 15?

"1Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand,  

2 by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 

3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  

4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  

5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  

6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;  

7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 

8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.  

9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 

11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed."

 Our heritage and the commission from Jesus is to preach the "good news" of the gospel:

• Christ dies for our sins
• He was buried
• He was raised on the third day
• He appeared

Should this not be at the core of every sermon, discussion, prayer, intercession...?

Should it bother us, as it did Bonhoeffer, to see the lack of scripture?

Even Jesus addresses a similar situation to the Pharisees in Matthew 15,

"1Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,  

2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”  

3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves also break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  

4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’  

5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,”  

6 he is not to honor his father or mother.’ And by this you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition."

At what point do we recognize that we can ultimately "invalidate the word of God by not starting with scripture."  Our heritage is to validate and lift up the Word of God, the gospel's "good news."

Let's commit today to returning to our heritage and start everything—our discussions, conversations, interactions, and sermons—with Christ. 

Let's commit to validating the Word of God!

Heritage of the Saints: Bonhoeffer in Barcelona

 Our Christian Heritage has had us participating in and dealing with religious structures.   Most, if not all, of these religious structures we have erected ourselves and have to spend generations tearing down.    We do it to ourselves.

I believe the original religious structure was erected with Adam and Eve in the garden.   Recall that God told Adam before Eve was created from his rib,

"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”"  Gen 2: 17-17

When the serpent came to tempt, he did not tempt Adam, who heard the command directly from God; he tempted Eve, who likely heard it thirdhand from Adam.   Scripture says that the serpent was cunning; how cunning is it to test the student rather than the teacher?

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”" Gen 3: 1-3

 Notice that God said, "do not eat," and Eve replies, "do not eat or touch."  This may well be the first religious structure.    If I do not touch it, then I cannot eat it.   Religious structures can add rules that may be well meaning but get us in trouble in the long run.   While Adam was also told to tend the garden, how do you tend without touching the tree? It seems to help in one way and can have a more significant effect in another.

Jesus dealt with thousands of years of established religious structures in God's people. He was seen as a threat to those whose lives relied on those structures.   Through scripture, we see the constant testing by those most invested in the religious structures of the day.   They would often tag-team when trying to catch Him in some violation of the religious structure.

"One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”  Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one;  and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  And the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no other besides Him;  and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”" Mark 12: 28-33

Of course, everyone listening knew that Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5,

“Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.  You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. " Deu 6:4-9

They know the scripture because it was taught in their home, in the frontlets they wore on their heads and hands, and contained in the mezuzah on their doorposts that they touched when leaving and entering their homes.

However, today, some religious structures teach that Jesus was writing a new law to effectively replace the Ten Commandments—something new that says we just need to LOVE—love God and other people (however, we may define those people in a limited sense also). This religious structure ignores that Jesus was quoting scripture, not rewriting it.

If Jesus told us anything, it was the law was not external as for slaves or mercenaries but would be written on our hearts, internally, as with friends.  We follow God's law because it is who we are, not just what we do.

It is Our Heritage!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced some of the same threat issues as Jesus on his first assignment in Barcelona. He was assigned to the children's ministry, but the Pastor took an extended trip for several months. He started several programs for the children and young adults who were not getting much from the church, and it seems that when he spoke at church, the attendance was larger.    Of course, when the Pastor returned, he was concerned about having to keep the programs running when Bonhoeffer left and maybe a bit threatened by his attracting a larger audience.

It is Our Heritage!

I guess it comes with the territory.   Bonhoeffer did not seem to be much for religious structures.

""Factually speaking," he said, "Christ has given scarcely any ethical prescriptions that were not to be found already with the contemporary Jewish rabbis or in pagan literature."  Christianity was not about a new and better set of behavioral rules or about moral accomplishments.  He must have shocked his listeners, but his logic was undeniably compelling.  He then aggressively attacked the idea of "religion" and moral performance as the very enemies of Christianity and of Christ because they present the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts..."Thus," he said, "the Christian message is basically amoral and irreligious, paradoxical as that may sound."" Bonhoeffer, Metaxas, page 83

How often does our investment in religious structures get in the way of what God has planned and wants to do in our lives? A prophetic word from Chuck Pierce in 2014 referred to these religious structures.

I will send an awakening shaking against the last main religious structures that will topple that which is stopping the promise from manifesting.

We are not talking about religious denominations but religious structures that can twist the word of God and prevent the purposes of God from coming forth in your life, in a business, city, state, region, or nation.  These religious structures can prevent us from entering into an intimate, vital relationship with God.  We need to spend time examining areas of guilt, rejection, fear, and pride in our lives and the lives of our leaders, as that is where a religious structure can develop.  As Bonhoeffer discusses, calling out and removing religious structures is who we are as Christians.

It is Our Heritage!!