Musings: Notes From My Daybook

On reviewing material for a class this Sunday I found myself reading in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's simple, yet eloquent work called Life Together. In particular, I was reviewing a section on the practice of confession.

Bonhoeffer raises the question about who does one confess to. The concern, of course, is that once you get up the nerve to actually spill the darkness that lies within your soul, the person that you are sharing all of this with will either come to despise you, laugh at you, or simply choose to ignore you.

But at this point Bonhoeffer makes a remarkable statement about the nature of the cross and about the human situation in light of the cross. His reminder is worth remembering and repeating:

"Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him. Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother. Looking at the Cross of Jesus, he knows the human heart. He knows how utterly lost it is in sin and weakness, how it goes astray in the ways of sin, and he also knows that it is accepted in grace and mercy. Only the brother under the Cross can hear a confession." (Life Together, 118)

Bonhoeffer's comments heighten not only the practice of confession, but at the heart of human interactions, they speak to the practice of how we live with and for the men and women in our lives.__

Coming to grips with both the gospel and the rapidly changing culture is the challenge for many churches--including Northlake. One church that is wrestling with gospel and culture is the Garnett Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. See the article written by their ministry staff about their journey in Christianity Today.

From friend Don Haymes comes a statement on unity by Don Carlos Janes. Janes (d.1944) was a tireless advocate for world mission in the first half of the twentieth century among Churches of Christ. This statement comes from a journal article in 1937:

I will accept my personal responsibility and obligation
to help answer our Lord's prayer for the unity of all who
believe on Him.

I will not accept any extra-scriptural authority of any
sort, nor receive any human creeds of any kind,
whether oral or written, expressed or implied, but will
gladly cooperate with all followers of Christ so far as
they desire and circumstances may permit, seeking
always to manifest the spirit of Christ, without whom
no one belongs to Him.

I will give up anything except the Word of God, to further
Christian unity.

I shall not forget that it is only by the grace of God that
even friends can long abide in undisturbed unity.

I will see to it that honest differences on non-vital matters
shall be no bar to fellowship.

On disputed matters, I will give very respectful consideration
to the other side, and will endeavor to use discretion in case
there is an occasion to deal with such matters.

I will endeavor so to conform life, character, and doctrine to
the revealed will of God as to make fellowship possible to all
who love our Lord Jesus supremely.

I am prepared to forgive all who have trespassed against me,
even as I wish to be forgiven, and will no more allow myself
to harbor malice in my soul than I will permit myself to carry
deadly germs in my pockets.

I am fully persuaded that the unity enjoined in scripture teaching
is not an exact intellectual agreement on every item of Christian
activity, for Christians do not all have an even start; do not all
have equal opportunities; do not all apply themselves with equal
diligence; nor do they all approach perfection at the same rate.

I see, therefore, that love and forbearance must be exercised
for Jesus' sake and also for the desired end of a practical, working
unity.

I am mindful of my own serious imperfections, and while standing
steadfastly for my conscientious convictions, I shall not be too
eager to bring the whole church to my conception of the ideal state,
for that would mean the adoption of some error somewhere--unless
I am a perfect exponent of scripture, which no one believes.

God help us all to be more Christlike that we may be one in Him.