Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 26

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Resurrection instead of Immortality" based on 1 Corinthians 15:17

Easter does not celebrate a struggle between darkness and light that in any case must finally be won by light, since darkness is, in actual fact, nothing at all, and death is, after all, already life. It does not celebrate a struggle between winter and spring, between ice and sunshine. Rather, it remembers the struggle of guilty mankind against divine love, or better: of divine love against guilty humankind; a struggle in which God seems to succumb on Good Friday and in which precisely by succumbing he is actually victorious on Easter.

Do I recognize both the inevitability of Christ's victory, and its paradox?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 19

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Ecce Homo" (Behold the Man) based on John 19:5

God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world...

While we try to outgrow our being human, to leave the human being behind us, God becomes a human being, and we must recognize that God wants us, too, to be human beings, real human beings...

Whoever despises human beings is despising that which God loved, and, indeed, is despising the very form of the incarnate God.

Do I hate the fallen-ness in me, or do I hate myself? Am I despising the very thing - the very people - God loved and died for?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 18

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Treasures of Suffering" based on Romans 5:1-5

Those who acknowledge that they view suffering and tribulation in their own lives only as something hostile and evil can see from this very fact that they have not at all found peace with God. They have basically merely sought peace with the world, believing possibly that by means of the cross of Jesus Christ they might best come to terms with themselves and with all their questions, and thus find inner peace of the soul. They have used the cross, but not loved it. They have sought peace for their own sake. But when tribulation comes, that peace quickly flees them. It was not peace with God, for they hated the tribulation God sends.

Do I love the cross of Christ, or do I love the "perks" that come from it? Am I willing to accept whatever God sends, however He sends it?

Lent Reading: Thoughts on Day 14

Today's readinf was from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Judas" based on Matthew 26:45-50.

No quote today - there was no single pithy sentence or phrase that captured the thoughts triggered by today. My own summary might be "Jesus is SO MUCH the King of Kings, that Satan could only harm him by using one of His own."

If you look through the gospels, the people or the Jewish leaders or the pharisees try to kill Jesus again and again. But each time, he walks away unharmed. The fact is that Jesus, as God incarnate, is ultimately invulnerable to any outside force. (Even Death, ultimately, is powerless as on the cross "Jesus gave up his spirit". It could not be taken from him.)

And yet, Jesus had to die in order to save us. So, Satan is given an instrument for that task, without being given the power directly. Jesus delegates to the Twelve - and later to his disciples in general - Power to cast out demons, heal the sick, and do miracles. It is THIS power - his OWN power - that can harm him. And ultimately, that is the tool Satan uses. He enters Judas, and uses that delegated power to betray Jesus and hand him over to earthly authorities. And those authorities - also empowered only by God - hang Jesus on a cross.

We, given the gift of free will, tend to underestimate the sovereignty of God. But the fact is that His absolute Sovereignty and our Free Will are not in conflict. God let's us choose, but has created the universe to channel our free choices to his freely chosen ends. Even the end of his own death on a cross.

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 10

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Suffering in Solidarity".

Christ avoided suffering until his hour had come; then, however, he went to it in freedom, seized it, overcame it. Christ - so scripture tells us - experienced all the suffering of all human beings in his own body and as his own suffering (an in comprehensibly lofty notion!), and took it upon himself in freedom...

Although we are not Christ, if we want to be Christians we must participate in Christ's own magnanimous heart by engaging in responsible action that seizes the hour in complete freedom, facing the danger...

Inactive "waiting-and-seeing" or impassively "standing-by" are not Christian attitudes.

When I avoid suffering, is it a logical avoidance of unnecessary pain, or is it a fearful act which shows more fear of pain than of God? Will I face the danger and seize the hour, when Godly suffering comes?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 9

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Truthfulness".

The truthfulness Jesus demands of his disciples is self-denial that does not conceal sin. Everything is visible and clear.

Precisely because truthfulness is concerned first and last with uncovering human beings in their entirety of their being, in their iniquity before God...

Do I really understand how naked I stand before God, that He is fooled by nothing and that everything will one day be known?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 8

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "God's Love for Human Beings".

The peace of Jesus Christ is the cross. The cross, however, is God's sword on this earth. It creates disunion...

God's love of human beings on the one hand, and human beings' love of their own kind on the other, are much too dissimilar. God's love of human beings means cross and discipleship, and yet precisely as such is means life and resurrection. "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 10:39)

Do I love like God, or do I love like human beings? Am I embracing His love, or looking for Him to love me like humans do?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 7

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Worldliness".

Without or against the proclamation of the cross of Christ, there is no realization that the world is god-less, without God, and has been left to itself by God. Rather, what is worldly will always try to satisfy its unquenchable longing for deification.
(Emphasis his)

What in my life tries to deify itself, because it stands alongside the cross of Christ instead of below it? Am I idolizing (i.e. turning into an idol) anything or anyone?

(You didn't miss the Day 6 quote. I didn't post one. The reading didn't lend itself to excerpt.)

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 5

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Discipleship & the Cross" based on Mark 8:31-38 (Jesus rebukes Peter for rebuking him).

Just as Christ is Christ only in suffering and rejection, so also are they disciples only in suffering and rejection, in being crucified with Christ...

The mediation of this inalienable truth to the disciples, however, begins, strangely enough, with Jesus once again giving his disciples complete freedom. Jesus says: "If any want to become my followers." That is to say, this is not self-evident even among the disciples themselves. No one can be coerced, nor can it be experted of anyone; rather: "If any," despite despite all of the other offers made to you, still want to become my followers... So once again, everything depends on one's decision. (Emphasis his)

While I remain firm in my belief of the sovereignty of God, He clearly has placed our fate in our own hands. We must choose Christ. The choice is not thrust upon us. Will I continue to choose Christ, even after I have chosen the first time and then later realized all of the other ways I can live?

(By the way, you didn't miss the Day 4 quote. I didn't post one. The reading didn't lend itself to excerpt.)

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 3

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "The Path of God" based on Luke 4:5-8 (Jesus temptation by the Devil).

As the Messiah of Jewish dreams, he could have liberated Israel and led it to glory and honor. His entry procession could have been that of he visible king of this world. What a remarkable man he was, a man to whom dominion over the world is offered even beore he begins his own work. And he is all the more remarkable in that he rejects the offer.

When am I too eager to accept any means to a good end, rather than making sure not only my goal is good, but also my path to the goal?

Lent Reading: Quote of the Day 2

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Meditations on the Cross, the chapter entitled "Back to the Cross" based on Matthew 17:1-9.

The message of the resurrection is there that we may obey the Lord Jesus in life. There is no abiding and enjoying the visible glory here. Whoever recognizes Jesus as God, must also immediately recognize him as the crucified human being, and should hear him, obey him.

How much of my faith is pure intellectual/philosophical, and how much do I actually translate into action?