conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

bonhoeffer and the paschal mystery

Here is the paper, folks. Read at your leisure. I will miss this class.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. This is the paschal mystery. According to liturgical theologians from Dix to Berglund, this is the shape of the liturgy. In all things, it must speak to paschal mystery. Bonhoeffer is no exception. The atonement and resurrection of Christ are essential to Bonhoeffer�s anthropology and his theology. For Bonhoeffer, this is The Question and the Truth of faith. Without the cross, humanity cannot exist; individuals and communities are rendered unreal. Bonhoeffer resides in this claim in his understanding of worship as well. Worship is to be centered in Christ, in his atoning death and the salvation of his resurrection.

What is curious is that Bonhoeffer is again living in dialectics. There is to be no religiosity, no prescriptive ethic yet, there are liturgical practices, and pieties that are particular to Bonhoeffer�s understanding of Christian identity and action. In Life Together, Bonhoeffer outlines and dictates a regula for the Christian community that establishes a liturgical catechesis for Christian worship highlighting his own Christ-centered theology. By doing so, he succumbs to a pietistic religiosity that is prescriptive and not just doctrinal.

Firstly, let us establish Bonhoeffer�s liturgical structure. It would be correct to say that Bonhoeffer perceives a cruciform or Christ-centered aspect to all pieces of liturgy. Psalm, scripture, song and prayer all receive the same treatment. How they inform community in the midst of worship and how the community responds to them is related primarily to Christ and his concrete presence in the same community. Bonhoeffer�s structure is as follows: psalms, a hymn, scripture, a hymn, corporate prayer and finally the table.

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The Psalms, for Bonhoeffer, are the very prayers of Christ. He states �the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God�s judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. He it is who is praying here, and not only here but in the whole Psalter.� The scriptures are the Word of the Lord. This is a true statement for Bonhoeffer and not a simple �faith claim.� The Psalms are the prayers of Christ.

Thus, it is not for us to understand them from our own experience. Our experience fails us except where we suffer with Christ. We must pray the Psalter because Jesus did. We must enter into Christ if we are to pray these words. There is no historical context to comprehend, no colloquialism to master. When we pray the Psalms, we �encounter the praying Christ.�

For Bonhoeffer, this becomes an education in prayer. Through the Psalms, Christ teaches us to pray. We learn what prayer means. We learn that we should pray. We learn that we pray as a fellowship. It is the last that is most connected with Bonhoeffer�s other work. This is where the Body of Christ is the individual who is Christ. If Bonhoeffer�s claims stand true, that we enter into Christ through praying the Psalms because they are Christ�s prayers and not our own, then as a fellowship the same is also true. We are the Body of Christ. Praying the Psalms is a sacramental action. It is something we must do because it is who we are. We do this because Christ is praying with us. The prayer is the same. Christ�s prayers are to be ours as His suffering is to be ours.

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�The prayer of the psalms, concluded with a hymn by the family fellowship, should be followed by a scripture reading.� Bonhoeffer has a great love for Scripture and desires that others, too, perceive its holiness as a single unit and not merely a collection of edifying spiritualisms. �Holy scripture is more than a watchword. It is also more than �light for today.� It is God�s revealed Word for all men, for all times. Holy Scripture does not consist of individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.�

Here Bonhoeffer is very prescriptive in the use of scripture for community and personal devotion. �A Christian family fellowship should surely be able to read and listen to a chapter of the Old Testament and at least half a chapter of the New Testament every morning and evening.� He is frustrated by the perceived neglect of scripture by Christians. He believes that we are, as a whole, lazy when it comes to reading scripture, underestimating our own ability to listen at length and to comprehend what is read. If scripture is a whole, we need to ritualize its reading in longer passages to reinforce this notion. We cannot hear scripture when we only hear snippets in worship or private devotion.

As with the Psalms, there is a sacramental engagement with scripture. In reading the scripture, �we become a part of what took place for our salvation.� We are �listeners and participants in God�s action.� From here, we begin to see Bonhoeffer�s biblical conservativism, or at least his traditionalism. When we enter into scripture as he prescribes, our own experience falls flat. It lessens in importance when contrasted with the work of salvation. Our own concerns fall to the background and we concern ourselves only with the saving work of God. His suffering becomes our suffering. We can see the same dynamic in Letters and Papers from Prison. Our suffering matters not at all, except that it is Christ�s suffering.

From this understanding, Bonhoeffer suggests specific performance practices when it comes to reading scripture in worship. �Performance� would be an incorrect way to explain what Bonhoeffer is expressing. He wants the reading of scripture to be as non-performative as possible. Our selves, our egos, our personal experiences with scripture should not enter into the reading in any way. The reader should direct attention to the word and not themselves.

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The prayers of the psalms and the reading of the Scriptures should be followed by the singing together of a hymn, this being the voice of the Church, praising, thanking, and praying.

Bonhoeffer was a great lover of music. His treatment of hymn singing in the Church reflects this. Interestingly, it also reflects his tastes and less his usual focus upon the suffering of Christ and the sacramental function of the various parts of the liturgy though he does venture that direction as well. This may actually be appropriate given his understanding.

We must sing in unity. It is a �spiritual matter� and not a musical one. �Only where everybody in the group is disposed to an attitude of worship and discipline can unison singing, even though it may lack much musically, give us the joy which is peculiar to it alone.� He suggests specific hymnody to support this practice. In addition, he suggests that singing be a common and constant practice of the people. Times of worship are not the only time when the people of God should sing the Church�s hymns.

Only at the end of his discourse on singing does Bonhoeffer affirm his usual sacramental and Christ-centered focus. The Body of Christ, the Church, is singing, not we.

It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song. Thus all singing together that is right must serve to widen our horizon, make us see our little company as a member of the great Christian Church on earth, and help us willingly and gladly to join in our singing, be it feeble or good, to the song of the Church.

Once again, the individual is consumed in the midst of the Body of Christ. It is interesting to note again that singing has the least sacramental quality thus far. Most likely this is because it is our voice, the Church�s voice that is heard and not God�s. One could stretch this to make it fit the same sacramental quality as scripture reading and the praying of the Psalter. However, it is probably in appropriate to do so since Bonhoeffer did not.

Somehow, however, this seems inconsistent. Bonhoeffer�s clarity about the Christ-centered nature of worship seems diminished. It would have made more sense if he had referred to Christ and the disciples singing a hymn at the Last Supper. Then hymnody is given a sacramental context consistent with the rest of Bonhoeffer�s liturgical theology. Our own Lord did this the eve of his crusifixion. What could be a better faith claim? It is as though Bonhoeffer is struggling to remind himself of what he wrote in Sanctorum Communio about the nature of community. His notions of unity are critical to his understanding of the Body of Christ. It simply is odd that he chose hymn singing to be the liturgical locus for this idea. As we will see, he does allow the Table to carry this burden. It may have been better to allow that to be the only locus for his theology of unity.

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We have heard God�s word, and we have been permitted to join the hymn of the Church; but now we are to pray to God as a fellowship, and this prayer must really be our word, our prayer for this day, for our work, for our fellowship, for the particular needs and sins that oppress us in common, for the persons committed to our care.

Bonhoeffer�s prescription here is threefold, though founded upon scriptural mandate : one �brother� praying for all, the use of formal prayers, and special prayers of the fellowship. Bonhoeffer here enters his theological anthropology. Sin and need are expressed. This is where Bonhoeffer�s faith thinking becomes concretized. All that precedes in worship, the scriptures, the singing, are all embodied within this sinful people in need of prayer and the transformation afforded by it.

Firstly, when a person prays on behalf of the congregation, the gathered family, that person, ideally the head of the family, may only do so as far as the community intercedes on their behalf. All criticism must cease. All differences must be set aside so that the community may pray. This person �must know the cares, the needs, the joys and thanksgivings, the petitions and hopes of the others.� This is a great responsibility and it would behoove the community to do all in their power to support this person in this ministry. The prayer should be orderly. The prayer is to be a discipline for all involved. Prayer is not based on whims or �spiritual moods.�

It is precisely when a person, who is borne down by inner emptiness and weariness or a sense of personal unworthiness, feels that he would like to withdraw from his task, that he should learn what it means to have a duty to perform in the fellowship, and the brethren should support him in his weakness, in his inability to pray�Everything depends on the fellowship�s understanding and supporting and praying the brother�s prayer with him as its prayer.

Secondly, formal prayers have their place, but they should never stand in the stead of earnest and sincere free prayer of the people. The people are never to be led away from their own prayer. This attitude underscores the same servant ministry as mentioned before when the individual prays on behalf of the whole. Eloquence is not a prerequisite to prayer. Authenticity is the prerequisite.

Thirdly, there are opportunities for special prayers that extend beyond the regular disciplines of daily prayers or private devotions. Here Bonhoeffer suggests but one rule: �that such meetings should be held only where there is a common desire for them and where it is certain that there will be common participation in definite hours of prayer.� It is here that it becomes most clear that Bonhoeffer is addressing the seminary community at Finkenwalde specifically, and yet this is a word of warning to all the Church. If there is to be a common prayer life, common community, then no other discipline may conflict with that common prayer life. Otherwise, there would be a fracturing of community, and this is the demise of the Church. All of this is to be free and not coerced. �Let nothing be done by force; let everything be done in freedom and love.�

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We have been following the course of Christian community�s morning worship. God�s Word, the hymn of the Church, and the prayer of the fellowship stand at the threshold of the day. Not until the fellowship has been nourished and strengthened with the bread of eternal life does it come together to receive from God the earthly bread for this temporal life�To know Jesus Christ in the presence of these gifts � what does this mean?

To know Christ in this way is threefold for Bonhoeffer. First, we must know Christ as the giver of all things, as the creator of the universe �with the Father and the Holy Spirit.� Secondly, �all earthly gifts are given to [the congregation] only for Christ�s sake.� Thirdly, in the epiclesis the congregation �confesses the gracious omnipresence of Jesus Christ.� Bonhoeffer�s Christ-centered theology is its most clear in this understanding. We are created in the image of God as is all of the world. All we have is for the sake of Christ, these things, these gifts, are Christ�s. Christ himself is present in all of these gifts, in all of life. As community, we are to confess this; we are to proclaim this truth thus confessing the truth of our own humanity. All of these foci are held in tension proclaiming the centrality of Christ.

For this reason our salvation is afforded. Thusly, we should be glad when we partake of the Lord�s Supper. We are refreshed through Table Fellowship. The constant presence of Christ dictates that we should be glad in this knowledge. If Christ is present, we cannot be anxious. Instead, we are to be glad.

In his explanation of the rite, he is consistent with the place of our own finitude and sin in his theology. You cannot separate the incredible grace of Christ�s presence with the human condition. The one needs the other to be real, to be concrete.

The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in their Father�s house.

For Bonhoeffer, worship culminates in the Lord�s Supper, the pinnacle event of Christian worship. This one liturgical moment contains all of his theology.

The day of the Lord�s Supper is an occasion of joy for the Christian community. Reconciled in their hearts with God and the brethren, the congregation receives the gift of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and receiving that, it receives forgiveness, new life, and salvation. It is given new fellowship with God and men. The fellowship of the Lord�s Supper is the superlative fulfillment of Christian fellowship. As the members are united in body and blood at the table of the Lord so will they be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal. Here joy in Christ and his community is complete. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament.

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Two more components of Bonhoeffer�s liturgy are in need of attention. The first component is the preaching moment. What is interesting is that he gives the preaching moment very little attention in Life Together. It has a perfunctory role and is addressed on only two occasions. One is in the section on personal meditation on scripture. He suggests that his understanding of meditating on scripture may be useful for the preacher as the preacher�s own agenda and education can be laid aside so that scripture itself may speak through them to the congregation gathered. The other is in the negative in a section on �The Ministry of Proclaiming.� Bonhoeffer specifically says that this section is not addressed to ordained leaders whose ministry of proclamation is time and location specific. Instead, it is addressed to the remainder of the community.

Why this is the case is uncertain. Why he would seemingly ignore the preaching moment and not explicitly include it within his morning liturgy is unknown. We can only speculate. Perhaps he considered it unessential to worship. Perhaps he felt that the existing theology surrounding the preaching moment (which is doctrinal) was sufficient and needed no further explanation. We cannot be certain.

The second remaining component to liturgy cannot be overstated.

Though it is true that confession is an act in the name of Christ that is complete in itself and is exercised in the fellowship as frequently as there is desire for it, it serves the Christian community especially as a preparation for the common reception of the holy Communion�It is the command of Jesus that none should come to the altar with a heart that is unreconciled to his brother. If this command applies to every service of worship, indeed to every prayer we utter, then it most certainly applies to the Lord�s Supper.

Reconciliation is the prerequisite to the worship life of the Christian community. It demands that �rigorous honesty� that Bonhoeffer so loves. It demands constant attention and clearly discourages fragmentation of the Body. This attitude underscores our need for Christ, for salvation, and the constant presence of sin within the community. As odd as it seems, it underscores the community�s need of sin. Sin allows for reconciliation. The presence of Adam�s sin demands the Atoning Cross. The presence of the Second Adam and the resurrection of humanity speak to the presence of sin in the world. This is incarnation. This is the chaotic nature of the Church.

All of Bonhoeffer�s theology appears to focus on this one act, the reconciling act between members of the Church, between God and the world. As we die and are reborn every day, we reconcile ourselves to God and one another. This happens only through Christ and his suffering on the cross. �Reconciliation� may very well be the one word that is the summation of all of Bonhoeffer�s thinking.

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Life Together is a wonderful regula for Christian community as Bonhoeffer perceives it. It suggests a clear liturgical form, and in other sections, suggests personal guidelines for devotion and spiritual growth. It is a dear book. Yet, its very existence is problematic. Bonhoeffer wants to concretize the faith within ritual. To do so may actually be going against his own theology. Yet, he may have no choice. As he concretizes his thinking, there must be guidelines and specific attitudes and practices that center around worship. Life Together demonstrates how Bonhoeffer is facing increasing pressure from within the Church and from outside as his ministry at Finkenwalde continues. His work at Finkenwalde and his thinking in Life Together speak to this pressure and the strength of his own convictions.

Nevertheless, in the clarity of his prescriptions he may very well refute his own claims. It is unclear whether this is another dialectic, an absence of religiosity and piety on one hand and a very clear didactic treatise on �How to Be Christian� on the other hand. Yet, Bonhoeffer, in his idealism, never can escape this reality. There are realities, pastoral concerns at work. He only seems to fall prey to them. Is this the danger of Cost of Discipleship that he speaks of in Letters and Papers from Prison? For Bonhoeffer, there a danger in stating things so succinctly that they become fodder for the very thing he is trying to avoid: false religion.

Bibliography

Bethge, Eberhard ed. Letters and Papers from Prison Simon & Schuster, New York, NY USA 1997

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Life Together Harper and Row Publishers, San Francisco, CA USA � 1954

Posted by tripp at December 10, 2003 06:20 PM