At The Intersection – Three Vignettes
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for kindred to dwell together in unity…
Three Vignettes
I share with you three vignettes.
It is school dismissal time and Mrs. Frosdick leads our third grade class to the south side door. Walking home I cross the asphalt playground and my attention is drawn to a group of boys tormenting a fourth grade student named Jerome. They keep calling him a name I didn’t know. They yell other epitaphs. Upon arriving home, I ask Mom the meaning of what we now call the “N” word. In a wonderful Mom moment, she explains racial prejudice in a way that an eight-year old could understand. I remember reciting the Sunday School song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” “Yes,” she says, “that is the way God wants us to treat each other.”
Fast forward seven years. classmate Bill and I are in the locker room stuffing uniforms in a duffel bag as we prepare for the next evening’s playoff contest. Bill and I attend the same classes and serve together on the local Boy Scout Order of the Arrow council. He knows me well. Thus, the door is open for him to ask why I keep interrupting the teacher in history class (my favorite) with so many comments. Bill wonders whether I realize how much this irritates our classmates. I respond defensively. He inquires whether or not I want friends. Out of embarrassment, loneliness, pain… comes the declaration that I could manage life by myself.
Moving ahead three decades, we arrive at the churchwide office of the denomination. I am a recent hire in the Division for Congregational Life. Over the next fifteen months one experience after another crashes into my ideal of a group of people working in Christian solidarity to advance the mission of the church. These colleagues are believers, but myopic commitment to their work fed rivalries and discord. A wonderful friendship did take root (and has continued to blossom over the past twenty years). It was not sufficient, however, to persuade me to stay and navigate church politics.
The question embedded in each of these stories is whether it is possible for us humans to live together in unity. More to the point, Jesus said to his followers,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” … You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Okay, since this is what Jesus instructs, how do we who affirm our baptism into Christ Jesus and live according to his “Great Commandment.”
Life Together – Our Lenten Reflection
During the season of Lent we will dwell on this question as we follow what Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about Christian community in his book Life Together. Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer’s closest friend and first biographer introduces the book to the American audience when published in 1954:
This book grew directly out of his own experience of the deep meaning of Christian community found in life together in an ‘underground’ seminary established by the Confessing Church. What this experience should mean in the corporate fellowship of today’s Christian is here movingly documented …
At the time Bonhoeffer writes Life Together, the Nazi government seeks to command every aspect of German life, prepare the military for inevitable war, and begin efforts to purify the Aryan race. Amid this pagan onslaught, Bonhoeffer summons Christians to the salvation life in communion with the Triune God and with other Christians. For him only such communion can bring a person into the fullness of life and sustain such life through times of tribulation. He also presents the implications of the call Jesus issues when he says, If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).
Bonhoeffer believes that God creates us for communion with God and other believers. Ideally, we learn this in our families of origin. However, many do not. For those who are not as fortunate, Bonhoeffer posits that the family God creates, where all can have a home, prepares us for our everyday lives and for the life to come.
Bonhoeffer’s message is particularly poignant in America where according to a recent poll by the American Psychiatric Association, around 30% of American adults report feeling lonely at least once a week, with 10% saying they feel lonely every day. This translates to roughly one in three Americans experiencing feelings of loneliness regularly. More than half of young adults express such feelings of loneliness. Another report cites 25% of American teens 15-18 report feeling “very lonely” or “fairly lonely” with approximately 18% experiencing a major depressive episode. People are hungering for authentic communion.
Our Lenten exploration of life together is not about gathering a list of best practices for either helping folks get along or form friendships. Instead, Bonhoeffer directs our attention to what establishes true spiritual community — life centering on Jesus Christ as the foundation of unity. Only here do individuals recognize their shared identity is in the risen Lord and not based on personal qualities or shared experiences. Thus, a spiritual community differs from a “human community” which forms around natural human desires and social connections.
Daily Devotion
I encourage you to obtain a copy of the daily devotion prepared by the St. Paul Prayer Ministry Team. Each day a selection from Life Together is paired with a scripture text to guide your meditation. The Thursday evening Lenten service will offer a contemplative moment as the Spirit of God would help you consider steps into a more complete life together with the Triune God and Christian kindred. Those who would like to further examine Bonhoeffer’s teaching on Christian community can attend either the Sunday morning common group class studying Bonhoeffer or come to the parallel session I will present after the Thursday Lenten service.
What we discover is how good and how pleasant it is for Christian kindred to dwell together in Christ Jesus… and in doing so there is unity.
Be blessed+
Pastor Robert