"In Jesus Christ the reality of God has entered into
the reality of this world. The place where the questions about the reality of
God and about the reality of the world are answered at the same time is
characterized solely by the name: Jesus Christ. God and the world are enclosed
in this name . . . we cannot speak rightly of either God or the world without
speaking of Jesus Christ. All concepts of reality that ignore Jesus Christ are
abstractions. As long as Christ and the world are conceived as two realms
bumping against and repelling each other, we are left with only the following
options. Giving up on reality as a whole, either we place ourselves in one of
the two realms, wanting Christ without the world or the world without
Christ—and in both cases we deceive ourselves. . . . There are not two
realities, but only one reality, and that is God’s reality revealed in Christ
in the reality of the world. Partaking in Christ, we stand at the same time in
the reality of God and in the reality of the world. The reality of Christ
embraces the reality of the world in itself. The world has no reality of its
own independent of God’s revelation in Christ. . . . The theme of two realms,
which has dominated the history of the church again and again, is foreign to
the New Testament.
Such people neither steal, nor murder, nor commit adultery,
but do good according to their abilities. But they must close their eyes
and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can
they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible
action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let
them rest. They will either be destroyed by this unrest, or they will become
the most hypocritical of all Pharisees." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For the longest time, but especially after the 2008
presidential elections, I have lived with this nagging feeling in the back of
my head that, despite the fact that I am a Christian and I love the Lord, I am
somehow, not spiritual enough, not relying on Jesus enough, not trusting Him
enough. The reasons for this feeling? First, my tendency to focus on the present
darkness of the world and be angered by what I perceive to be an irritating
apathy amongst Christians here and everywhere else in the world regarding what
is happening and second the barrage of statements in songs, FB postings,
Christian articles, private conversations with friends, etc. that all seem to
say exactly the same things: "Trust God…", "This is supposed to
happen", "What can we do other than pray and believe God will take
care of us", "If this is God's will for the end of times there is
nothing we can do to stop it", etc., etc.… Being flooded with such things,
having the desire to do the right thing and feeling guilty about not "trusting"
God more, lately I actually started to believe I am, indeed, going about this
all wrong, that I am too much "of the world" and that I do need to
just trust God while continuing to live my life as if nothing is happening.
Because, after all, the end is inevitable and God places leaders in their place
and we have to respect them and so on and so forth! But then my husband started
reading the book Bonhoeffer, a biography written by Eric Metaxas and as he
started coming across some of Bonhoeffer’s quotes, he also started seeing
striking similarities between Bonhoeffer’s way of thinking and expression
regarding Christianity and Christians as it pertained to the times he lived in
and my own way of thinking and expression as it pertains to the times we are
living in now. My husband read to me many passages from this book but the above quote
commanded my attention especially. Now, I have no wish to be insulting or
offensive to anyone or prideful in any way. But… I have always had a tendency
to be my own worst critic, to believe that if it looks like I am at fault in
something or if it looks like I am doing something wrong then, more likely, I am! And this time
around was no different. However, as I read the above quote a light bulb turned
on in my head and I felt liberated! You see, Bonhoeffer lived in Hitler’s time
and was a Christian and a minister of the word, a pastor. But he did not become
known for his pastorship but rather for his dislike of what his people, the
Christians of the time, did or rather did not do when Hitler started to take
the steps necessary to becoming a vicious dictator who killed 6 million Jews
and countless of his own German countrymen that disagreed with him and, also, for his
own stand against this cruel dictator, which ultimately cost him his life. He
saw that at a point in time when the Christians still had power, when they
could have spoken up against what they were seeing loud enough that they could
have been heard and brought about change, most of them either chose to turn a
blind eye to the truth and follow and agree with the oppressors or buried their
heads in the ground as it were, lived in a bubble of wholesome sounding
spiritual words, invoking such things as “God is in control” and ultimately
sinning against their own conscience. Because in the end, when Hitler’s thirst
for blood became all encompassing and his vengeful and suspicious mind played
only the refrain of absolute obedience, it was no longer enough that people
just sat on the sidelines, neither for nor against his policies and beliefs but
they had to agree wholeheartedly with him or be executed. The point being that
in situations such as these, whether we take a stand from the beginning of our
own accord or are forced to take a stand in the end by the very usurpers we
pretended are not “that bad” after all, we will have to take a stand! Fast
forward to today… I personally believe that we live in a time very similar to
the one Bonhoeffer lived in and as such we are standing upon the brink of
seeing everything we hold dear be trampled under foot by evil men with evil
agendas until there is nothing left of the life we knew and loved. But, by the
same token, we are also, I believe at that point in time when we can still
stand up, speak, do, refuse to ignore and actually be heard!! And as Bonhoeffer
before me, the Christian “bubble” in which everything except prayer, is left up
to God to do for us, angers me! Because are we not His hands? Are we not His feet
and His mouth? Are we not His body? Are we really going to just sit on the side
lines, pretending that things aren’t as bad as they seem, chucking it all up to
“God is in control” and “it’s happened before and it all worked out”, making
those among us who dare to point out the truth feel guilty about “being too
involved in the world” and “not having enough trust in God”??? Are we really
going to pretend that being “a child of the most High God” means a cushy
existence with big houses, new cars, big TV’s and every comfort known to men at
our disposal while touting self righteous beliefs fueled by misunderstood scriptures
taken out of context to suit our own desires and not speak against evil for fear that our existence will be disturbed? Are we really going to have the
mentality that says let’s live our lives, eating, drinking, having a good time
with our friends, getting together in big, expensive buildings to “worship” God
while everything is crumbling around us because, after all we live here, in
America where we have laws against such Machiavellian things like the ones
Hitler did?? How do we “worship” God? What does “worship” really mean? Going to
church every Sunday, having spiritual gatherings during the week, getting fat
on the word of God and having prayer groups while quoting scriptures to those
in need or those who’s eyes are actually opened to the realities around us?? I
am not saying that I have the answer as to exactly what we can DO other than
prayer and belief but I am saying that refusing to even do as small a thing as
being vocal against what is happening because we don’t want to surround
ourselves with “negativity” is wrong! I am saying that putting our heads in the
sand and focusing only on our own personal little worlds while ignoring reality is
wrong!! I am saying that spouting spiritual sounding words in order to try and
silence those who are vocal about the reality around us because they are
stirring within us questions and fears we would rather not deal with, is
wrong!! I know there must be a balance, I know that no one can survive and stay
sane today on a steady diet of only the evil surrounding us. I know that trust
in God and belief in His love and His plan is vital in times such as these. But
I also know that we have a duty as Christians to step off the hallelujah cloud
and into reality and, at the very least, stand up, even if only verbally,
against the evil around us! I actually do believe what Bonhoeffer said – that
if we don’t, if we choose to, as he put it, close our eyes and ears to the
injustice around us, we will have to do so only at the cost of self-deception,
and that in all that we do, what we fail to do will not let us rest. And, in
the end we will either be destroyed by this unrest, or we will become the most
hypocritical of all Pharisees. These are his words but I believe they could be
true and I believe that these things he said may be one reason why many
Christians today feel unfulfilled and tired, even while doing “good works”,
with a constant gnawing at their soul that they cannot explain which leads them
either to apathy and sin or to super spirituality and self righteousness which
are also in themselves sinful! So what is the answer? I am not sure… But I am
convinced that each of us can learn something from the above Bonhoeffer quote
and that we can come before God and with a truly sincere heart ask Him to
reveal what He would have us DO! And that we can pray that He will give us the
strength to recognize the right thing to do and the strength to do it in every
situation that comes before us, regardless of fears, regardless of what is
popular, regardless of whom we end up offending!
Laura
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