April Marquee- Something to think about as people walk by the church
“A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings of God in the world.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We have just finished another Easter season. Every year the church commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus. For some, belief in the resurrection of Jesus is the absolute standard of faith. If you believe, then you are a Christian and if you don’t, then you are not. But not everyone sees belief as the ultimate standard.
The Bible is notoriously unclear as to what it means to be a Christian. No bright line test is set forth, and the different Biblical writers give us different views of Jesus. If different views of Jesus exist in the Biblical writings, then belief in any one of the views cannot be the criterion for being a Christian. Throughout history different groups have argued about what makes a person a Christian. Most of the standards were based on either what one believed, or what one did. But whatever the standard, it never seemed able to grasp what faith is all about. People with obvious faith failed to meet the criteria while people whose goals and actions were indistinguishable from the surrounding culture met it. We want to believe that faith can bring something of God into the world. But if people of faith do nothing but support the status quo then we may well question whether faith has value.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer no doubt worried about the same issue. In his time, 1930’s Germany, most Christians were perfectly willing to go along with their culture and the rising Nazi movement. But any sane outside observer could look at the situation and conclude something was horribly wrong. The Christian message cannot be reconciled to a culture that is producing mass suffering. If the Christians of that time believed that it could, then new ways of articulating the message were needed. Bonhoeffer’s quote is an important step in that direction. He asks us to look primarily to our emotions as an indicator of faith. Sharing someone’s suffering is primarily an emotional response to that suffering. It involves emotionally connecting with the suffering and allowing the suffering to affect oneself.
A faith focused on God’s suffering in the world is different than a faith focused on God’s glory and power. A faith focused on God’s glory and power can probably be reconciled with any culture. But a faith focused on God’s suffering in this world cannot be reconciled with a culture that is causing the suffering. Seeing God’s suffering in the present world means that we pay attention to the present world. We stop and look, we see who is suffering, and we let ourselves be moved and changed by it. That is the faith journey for the modern world.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We have just finished another Easter season. Every year the church commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus. For some, belief in the resurrection of Jesus is the absolute standard of faith. If you believe, then you are a Christian and if you don’t, then you are not. But not everyone sees belief as the ultimate standard.
The Bible is notoriously unclear as to what it means to be a Christian. No bright line test is set forth, and the different Biblical writers give us different views of Jesus. If different views of Jesus exist in the Biblical writings, then belief in any one of the views cannot be the criterion for being a Christian. Throughout history different groups have argued about what makes a person a Christian. Most of the standards were based on either what one believed, or what one did. But whatever the standard, it never seemed able to grasp what faith is all about. People with obvious faith failed to meet the criteria while people whose goals and actions were indistinguishable from the surrounding culture met it. We want to believe that faith can bring something of God into the world. But if people of faith do nothing but support the status quo then we may well question whether faith has value.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer no doubt worried about the same issue. In his time, 1930’s Germany, most Christians were perfectly willing to go along with their culture and the rising Nazi movement. But any sane outside observer could look at the situation and conclude something was horribly wrong. The Christian message cannot be reconciled to a culture that is producing mass suffering. If the Christians of that time believed that it could, then new ways of articulating the message were needed. Bonhoeffer’s quote is an important step in that direction. He asks us to look primarily to our emotions as an indicator of faith. Sharing someone’s suffering is primarily an emotional response to that suffering. It involves emotionally connecting with the suffering and allowing the suffering to affect oneself.
A faith focused on God’s suffering in the world is different than a faith focused on God’s glory and power. A faith focused on God’s glory and power can probably be reconciled with any culture. But a faith focused on God’s suffering in this world cannot be reconciled with a culture that is causing the suffering. Seeing God’s suffering in the present world means that we pay attention to the present world. We stop and look, we see who is suffering, and we let ourselves be moved and changed by it. That is the faith journey for the modern world.
