So says Dietrich Bonhoeffer according to Thomas Pearson.
who posts a well argued and researched paper on the subject at the
Journal of Lutheran Ethics.
Especially apropos to our current situation in the ELCA is the following paragraph found near the end which turns the ELCA's current fascination with being "communities of moral deliberation" into further evidence that it is becoming less and less a church called into existence by the Word of God and more and more a social club with illusions of holiness sustained by its own busy-ness.
24] And Bonhoeffer would be likely bemused to hear a proposal that the Church should be "a community of moral deliberation." There are many venues in the secular world that might well serve as centers for moral deliberation - institutions, professions, community organizations, among others. But why the Church? Given Bonhoeffer's singular vision of the Christian Church as stripped of any pretense to ethical or religious expertise - or expertise of any kind - it would seem that the Church might be the last place to look for moral deliberation. Like the stricken hearers of Peter's speech in Acts 2, however, the Church seems forever obsessed with finding something productive to do. Ethics is a serious subject in our culture, even if more often observed in the breach. So the Church is regularly tempted to deflect its gaze from the center of its life, and to take up those matters which will keep it busy, including moral deliberation. In so doing, we squander our freedom. Bonhoeffer would have none of it. Bonhoeffer's last months at Tegel were not filled with ethical fulminations against an oppressive political regime that had abandoned all pretense of seeking justice. There is very little indication in his final letters that he was engaged in standard moral deliberation, of discerning causes or proposing solutions. Instead, he engaged in praying, preaching and pastoral ministry, those actions of ultimate significance for the Church, carried out in the midst of an extreme attenuation of the penultimate: a manifestation of his Christian freedom. Bonhoeffer was by that time quite starkly beyond good and evil, beyond "religion," where the cross of Christ was the only living icon for those who must surely die. In our day, as the Church faces its peculiar trials in a world pious but no longer religious, it is likely he would encourage us to do the same.
1 comment:
"...where the cross of Christ was the only living icon for those who must surely die."
I hear this as an echo from the empty tomb where the angelic preachers delivered their three-fold sermon to the bewildered, then worshiping women--a question, a statement, and a command.
The question: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"
The statement: "He is not here but has risen."
The command: "Remember how he told you..."
Metaphorically, these women were ultimate disciples: following Jesus all the way into the tomb. There, they met preachers (the Word, were confronted by the resurrection, remembered as commanded, and repented unto becoming believers. Upon becoming believers the only "doing" they engaged was to "go and tell."
Post a Comment