Mark 10.45 

The Son of Man came not to be serve but to serve…

Philippians 2:5  

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

Reflection

Bonhoeffer did a great deal of writing during his two years in prison, much of it published as ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’. It includes an ‘Outline for a Book’ of no more than a hundred pages, from July/August 1944. In the proposed third chapter he focuses on the role of the Church and says, 

“The church is only the church when it exists for others…(it) must share in the secular problems of ordinary, human life, not  dominating, but helping and serving…It must not under-estimate the importance of human example (which has its origin in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching); it is not abstract argument but example which gives its word emphasis and power.” 

At a time when church attendance and church membership are declining, and many churches closing, not least in the URC, it is tempting to focus on our own survival and to devote much time, energy and money to this end. Like all temptations, this one is to be resisted. Similarly, fellowship is an important aspect of the life of any church, but churches are not intended to be religious clubs. The Church is the Body of Christ, who was “the man for others”, to use Bonhoeffer’s phrase, and we are called to serve others as he did; showing the love of God, which was seen supremely in him, through our words, our deeds and our example, in the hope that people will both experience it and respond to it. 

In the words of the hymn writer, F Pratt Green,
 
Then let the servant Church arise, 
a caring Church that longs to be
a partner in Christ’s sacrifice,
and clothed in Christ’s humanity.

We have no mission but to serve
in full obedience to our Lord:
to care for all, without reserve,
and spread his liberating word. 
(Rejoice & Sing 636)

Prayer

Loving God, we pray for the help of your Holy Spirit, that we may live Christ-like lives as individuals and that our churches may be Christ-like communities. Separately and together may we serve people, not only in the name of Christ but also in the spirit of Christ. Amen.

4 October 2024
 

Bonhoeffer 4  Wisdom

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.  For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

Reflection

I read that human knowledge is doubling every twelve hours. Where did I read this? On the internet, of course, the fount of all knowledge these days! But has this huge increase in knowledge given us any more wisdom or are we, to quote a phrase, ‘none the wiser’?

A poet once wrote ‘Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? / Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?’ These words, which sound strikingly relevant to our situation today, were actually written in 1934 by T S Eliot. 

Not many years later Bonhoeffer began work on what would have been his ‘magnum opus’. He made several starts but never finished it. The material he wrote has been edited and published under the title ‘Ethics’. (The German word ‘Ethik’ has a broader meaning than the English translation.)  In it Bonhoeffer writes this concerning wisdom:

“Only that person is wise who sees reality in God. Knowledge of reality is not just knowing external events, but seeing into the essence of things. The best informed person is not the most intelligent…the best informed people are in danger of missing the essential amid the variety…the wise person will seek to obtain the best possible information about the course of events without becoming dependent on it. Wisdom is recognizing the significant in the factual.”

Bonhoeffer’s relating wisdom and God may remind us of the words ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Proverbs 9.10), remembering that ‘the fear of the Lord’ means ‘reverence for the Lord’ not ‘being afraid of the Lord’.  

The words from the letter of James quoted above suggest that wisdom has an ethical dimension; it is ‘peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy’. James also suggests that if we lack wisdom we should ask God for it, and God will give it to us (1.5). Is this something you pray for?

Prayer

Loving God, help to recognize what is significant in all the information and knowledge which confronts us and sometimes overwhelms us. May your Holy Spirit so mould our lives that wisdom is seen in the kind of people we are and the kind of things we say and do. Amen. 

Booklets for October and November

Dear Friends,

After Sunday’s Psalm we start a two week series I have written looking at how our faith has a variety of resources to sustain us in the difficult times in which we live.  

The large print version is here.
The A5 version is here.

We then move into the Epistle to James which is divided over two booklets

James 1 large print is here
James 1 A5 Booklet is here.

James 2 large print is here.
James 2 A5 Booklet is here.

Then, to mark Safeguarding Sunday on 17th November I have written 8 reflections on Safeguarding.

Safeguarding large print is here
Safeguarding A5 booklet is here.

Finally we read through St Luke’s Gospel between mid November and Easter next year.

Luke part 1 large print is here
Luke part 1 A5 booklet is here.

I’ll send December’s material as soon as I have it all in.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Bonhoeffer 2 – Gratitude
 

St Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 

Reflection

In his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, published in German in 1937, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death.” Eight years later those words became a reality for him when he was hanged by the Nazis, following their discovery of his association with those who had tried to kill Hitler in July 1944. 

Bonhoeffer was nearly 27 when Hitler came to power in 1933. The Lutheran Church, into which he had been ordained two years earlier, had a strong tradition of supporting the government but, whilst the vast majority of Christians did support Hitler, Bonhoeffer opposed him from the start, and was instrumental in founding the Confessing Church. 

His activities were increasingly restricted and to rescue him from danger some of his friends worked long and hard to get him to the safety of the USA in 1939. But almost as soon as he arrived he realised that he had done the wrong thing. He wrote “I will have no right to participate in the restoration of Christian life in Germany after the war unless I share the trials of this time with my people.” So he returned to Germany, knowing the risks involved. He was arrested and imprisoned in April 1943, before being executed two years later.

We live in very different times from Bonhoeffer and our lives are not in danger for being Christians, but in the light of Jesus’ words quoted above, and Bonhoeffer’s comment on them, which was lived out in his life and death, we might ask which forms of evil we need to oppose and what there is in our lives which needs to die, if we would be true disciples of Jesus. 

And let us not forget that in many countries today our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted for their faith, many suffering imprisonment and even death. Is it not incumbent on us to pray for them and to support them in practical ways?

Bonhoeffer

Dear Friends,

I hope you have found Allen Creedy’s reflections over the last week moving; we keep him in our prayers.

Over the next week we are going to be exploring, with John Matthews a retired Baptist minister and member of Wellingborough URC, some ideas from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor,  theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church.   The Confessing Church opposed the Nazi take over of the German Church and was an irritant to the Nazi regime.  Bonhoeffer’s writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. 

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Adolf Hitler’s euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.  He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for 1½ years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Bonhoeffer was accused of being associated with the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler and was tried along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office). He was hanged on 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.

As we dip into some of Bonhoeffer’s ideas this week, guided by John Matthews, I hope we find them stimulating and useful for our own Christian discipleship.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Intercessions for Tomorrow

Dear Friends,

In addition to the intercessions in this week’s Worship Notes, the Revd Helen Everard has prepared some which can be downloaded here.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭30‬ ‭

“Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Reflection

Luke reminds the apostles and followers of Jesus that we are commanded to pray for healing from suffering, But it is clear that even though we may have faith, quite what response there is to our prayer is entirely up to God. Individuals who were suffering that encountered Jesus were healed: when they had faith, Bartimaeus, the woman who was subject to bleeding for twelve years, the leper, the servant of the centurion all were suffering, Jesus healed them.

Commissioned by Jesus, the disciples go out and heal, but initially cannot, and come to Jesus and ask why they couldn’t drive out a demon and heal a boy? Jesus replies, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  Quite clearly the disciples and apostles’ faith became sufficient for them to heal those who were suffering with so many examples in Acts and other books of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit was with the apostles and Jesus’ followers, and it was clearly God’s will that those they ministered to would be healed.

So what should our response be to the challenge of suffering? Should we pray for healing? Indeed Luke says “Stretch out your hand and heal” so absolutely we should pray for healing, but in doing so we must draw close to God, listen to the Holy Spirit, and direct our prayers to those to whom we are guided. In praying we must also acknowledge that we may not perceive or understand any healing that may take place, for it may be not for us to know the healing:  God may choose to heal spiritually rather than physically. Whatever happens when we pray for healing, we must trust God and remain confident in our faith as we continue to listen for God’s will.  

Prayer 

The Lord is near
do not be anxious
but it every situation
with prayer and petition
and with thanksgiving
present your request to God
and the peace of God
which transcends all understanding
will guard your heart and minds
in the love of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6