Reflections on "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Recently, we started a new sermon series, “What is the good news?” where we’ll be examining some foundational questions around the meaning of the gospel and what that means for our lives.  Of course, there is only so much we can accomplish in a weekly sermon.  So we’ll also be recommending some books that provide more background on the ideas that have helped form our church, and exploring those ideas in our Catechism classes and in occasional articles. 

One such book that has been important in our formation is Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  We recently completed a five-week book study on Life Together, and wanted to share some of the lessons we learned together with you.

Many of you are probably familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was the brilliant German theologian who was executed by the Nazis for his opposition to Hitler, tragically just weeks before the Allies liberated Germany.  His Life Together is a short and practical instruction on living together in Christian community.  And considering he was writing during an epic time of political turmoil, racial injustice, physical isolation, and imminent threat to safety, his book bears a powerful witness to us today and provides some compelling insights into our life together at Rez. 

Out of the gate, he makes this observation which sounds like it could have been written yesterday:

It is easily forgotten that the community of Christians is a gift of grace from the kingdom of God, a gift that can be taken from us any day--that the time still separating us from the most profound loneliness may be brief indeed (p. 4).

How strongly this resonates with us today, having been separated from each other for months due to COVID-19.  And this was no mere rhetoric for Bonhoeffer; this was his lived experience.  Much of his life was marked by separation from beloved family and friends due to his participation in the German resistance.  Even the seminary that inspired Life Together was closed by the Nazis and the seminary work was forced to go underground.  Yet Bonhoeffer was wise enough to recognize that the time spent together in Christian community was a “gift of grace” from God.  

This is not to minimize the difficulty of separation, or to say that we should not lament being apart.  (Bonhoeffer also said, “The believer need not feel any shame when yearning for the physical presence of other Christians...”! (p. 3).)  But it should prompt us to consider how we are approaching our Christian community today.  Is it with a posture of thankfulness that we were together before, and will be together again, or an attitude of frustration that we are not together now?       

Bonhoeffer goes on to explain what Christian community should be about, and to clarify what it is not.  To paraphrase, because as Christians we seek salvation and deliverance in Jesus as expressed in God’s Word, and we find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, it is through Christ alone that we are united to each other.  As he describes it, 

Without Christ there is discord between God and humanity and between one human being and another.  Christ has become the mediator who has made peace with God and peace among human beings (p. 7).  

As for what Christian community is not, Bonhoeffer explains, 

Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community.  They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community that were denied them elsewhere (p. 11).  

With Bonhoeffer’s guidance, we are led to reflect on what exactly it is we’re seeking when we enter into Christian community.  Is it for the purpose of fulfilling our own emotional needs, perhaps for social connection, to satisfy a sense of internal obligation, or to find an “ideal” community of friendship and acceptance?  Of course, seeking out Christian community, whatever the reason, can be a wonderful step towards transformation into a faithful disciple of Christ, and for that we are grateful.  But seeking Christian community primarily for the purpose of fulfilling an emotional ideal can indeed be a fragile thing, because when the community inevitably falls short of the ideal, it risks falling apart.  Instead, Bonhoeffer explains, 

Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.  The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it (p. 13).  

So what does it mean to be a community “founded solely on Jesus Christ?”  Bonhoeffer explains by distinguishing between “spiritual” reality, which is created only by the Holy Spirit, and “emotional” reality, which comes from our natural human urges, strengths, and abilities.  A Christian community is a spiritual community, and in that respect “differs absolutely” from all other communities.  It is marked by “spiritual love … [which] comes from Jesus Christ; it serves him alone…. Only Christ in his Word tells [us] what love is.  Contrary to all [our] own opinions and convictions, Jesus Christ will tell [us] what love for [our] brothers and sisters really looks like” (p. 17).  Spiritual love is truth; light; the bright love of Christian service; the humble submission of Christians one to another; unsophisticated, non-psychological, unmethodical, helping love; simple and humble service to one another (p. 14).  

What a beautiful picture Bonhoeffer paints--who wouldn’t want to be part of such a community?  And a worthy challenge he issues, to reflect on our own motivations for seeking out Christian community, and to examine the type of love we are giving and receiving as members of our own community.   

In the fractured, tumultuous, frenetic world we’re living in, it might be tempting to dismiss Bonhoeffer’s words as idealistic or irrelevant.  But we have to account for the fact that Bonhoeffer’s times were no less challenging than our own; indeed they were arguably more so.  But now as then, a true Christian community is a place of “fruits that grow healthily under God’s open sky, according to God’s good pleasure in the rain and storm and sunshine” (p. 19).  It’s a place where we are inextricably bound together in Christ and offer each other, despite our otherwise differences, simple and humble service in His name.