perience, a few ideas have bubbled to the surface:+ First, Bonhoeffer's legacy is a deep and radical understanding of Christ's incarnation. Lisa Dahill clearly names this as a non-sentimental "Christmas" spirituality. She writes: it is an incarnate spirituality immersed in the complexity and particularity and messiness of the world – where the God who becomes flesh lives. In his writings he is not primarily interested in the triumph of Easter but in the deepening incarnation precisely into God’s own poverty, darkness, emptiness – and joy, mercy, sweetness, love – met for Christians in Jesus Christ. In a world today where Christians in our context too often tend to see ourselves in the place of the victor, the divine agent, the conqueror in the name of “God,” his is a refreshingly humble and open perception of divine reality, curious about the world as it is and eager to find precisely in the faces and alterity of every other the very face of God.
+ Second, Bonhoeffer's radical sense of incarnation is informed by both prayer and acts of solidarity -and he insists upon similar engagements to the discipline of prayer and compassion from those who would embrace his spirituality. Prayer - particularly praying the Psalms - forces individuals and communities beyond our own habits, prejudices and
ideologies. And serving broken people in a faith community as servants is another non-negotiable. South African theologian John W. DeGrunchy speaks of Bonhoeffer's role in helping him join the anti-apartheid movement like this: In many respects Bonhoeffer’s main contribution in South Africa has been his challenge to those of us there who are socially privileged and academically trained, as he was, and therefore numbered among an elite minority—even if we have sought to be in solidarity with those who struggled for liberation and attempted to identify with the victims of apartheid... for he insists that we keep confessing Christ here and now... from the perspective of those down below. He asks those who would explore his spirituality to search for Christ in prayer - in Scripture - and in solidarity with the most wounded.I am moved by the words spoken by Albrecht Schoenherr on the 40th anniversary of Bonhoeffer's death (we just marked the 65th such anniversary.)
There are things for which an uncompromising stand is worthwhile. And it seems to me that peace and social justice, or Christ himself, are such things" (quoted in Bethge, p. 155). With the Words "peace and justice" he hoped to make himself understandable to his brother, a social democrat. But then came these words -- "or Christ himself." It is notable that he could see all this together: the political, the ethical and the religious. For him, Christ stood behind the longing for peace and justice.
The Christ Bonhoeffer talks about is not the Christ of the idealists, who transmits the meaning of life or a harmonious world view. It is not the Christ of the individualists, who guarantees strength for life, happiness and eternal salvation. Bonhoeffer means the biblical Christ who is faithful to the earth, who lives among people and brings them together. He brings
salvation and healing from suffering and death, liberation from guilt and sin, liberation from the forces which are destroying the earth, among which war and injustice are the most terrible. Uncompromisingly to advocate this Christ is the motive that drove Dietrich Bonhoeffer.Life for him consisted not of different compartments, but of a single reality. This earth could not be considered apart from Christ’s footsteps, which are impressed in it. Christ’s manger stands on the earth, his cross is rammed into the earth, his grave is dug into the earth. Because God became human in Christ, there is only the one reality, which includes God, world and human persons. Bonhoeffer’s thought was not like ours, divided among different realities: employment and family, economy and politics. One does not find in Bonhoeffer any sneaked-in simplicity, in which a part of reality is ignored, or the kind of piety that only lives in and for the life beyond and lets things on this earth go as they will. Nor did he live in the kind of immediacy that knows no genuine obligations and only seeks personal wealth.
As the Community of Iona puts it: we are a community of faith that unites work and worship, prayer and politics, sacred and secular. And the key is the embrace - not one or the other - but both. Like the Psalmist says: Mercy and truth have met together, justice and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring up from the earth and compassion shall look down from heaven. (Psalm 85)
+ And third Bonhoeffer invites intellectuals and church leaders to listen more than we speak. Yes, we can listen together to the Psalms and the stories of the real lives of our people. Of course we can offer insights from our training. But the fact remains that Christ is always discovered together - almost always from below - not from abov
e. And so we listen... and watch... and wait. I suspect that much of the Tea Bag phenomenon - as well as the Palin/Bachmann fury - is more about people not being ignored and forgotten than anything else. These demagogues, however, are doing a much better job at feigning interest than any one else. So broken people facing mortgage foreclosure, job loss and a change in the social structure of their community are frightened and angry. Scott Brown in Massachusetts heard that - and responded. He is not a neo-facist like some liberals have suggested. He is a crafty, smart and often compassionate politician who listened to Bob Dylan: your really DON'T need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
As our experiment in praying the psalms deepens, I trust that it will open conversations - and then actions - that will help our faith community more deeply engage with the real wounds and fears of our community. Both are a part of a spirituality of Bonhoeffer.
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