“The Christ in one’s own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of a brother or sister.”

“The Christ in one’s own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of a brother or sister.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together.

This was quoted in Schnase’s book that I referred to in my previous entry. Somehow in the presence of others we are greater. We struggle to do it alone. In matters of importance we will only be able to go so far without the company of others. Their role in our lives is to encourage us when we are slacking, prompt us when we are being insightful and raise our hopes that we will achieve far more than we expected when we began. Gaining willing company in the various activities of our lives will show ourselves to be the people we were ought to be.

mini me or pro me

Martin Luther wrote, “ So it is one thing if God is there, and another if he is there for you.” We can speak about God as being outside of our existence but another thing to speak of God as having a relationship with me. I get tired of hearing the word ‘relationship’ in the Church. We get told umpteen times that it is all about ‘relationship.’ The problem is that we know its importance but most of us are completely baffled as to how this relationship works out. I preached yesterday on the ‘sheer silence’ that followed the wind, earthquake and fire that confronted Elijah and how he had to come to terms with the silent Universe as a vehicle of God’s communique. A relationship with God is a different kind of relationship and in some parts the analogy of human relationships suffices but the relationship with God is often beyond our comprehension. Bonhoeffer uses the term ‘pro me’ to describe the Christ event, the God-man Jesus is never to be understood as separate from the church, the community, you and me. Listen to it, “God is only God pro me, Christ is only Christ pro me.” It sounds a little egocentric of us to say this, but he makes the point (I think!) that the Christ event, the death and risen Lord is a contemporary experience, thus not for a relationship with humanity before our time, but for us now.
If this gives you a headache on a Monday morning, then as one of my deeply spiritual members will say, “don’t pray, take an aspirin!”