Back in April and May, St. Paul’s Chattanooga used the Christian classic instruction, Life Together, for our weekly Sunday School study, and I can’t stop thinking about it as a gift for the church in pandemic. As we head toward the holidays, new griefs and losses are on the horizon for our families and communities, and as we navigate election season our conversations feel more fraught than ever. How are we a people apart? How are we a people when there’s so much vitriol, and human dignity seems to be up for debate?
Bonhoeffer points to the core virtue of our connection as the body of Christ:
“Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us… I have community with others and shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us.”
In this community, Bonhoeffer says, we offer each other the ministries of right and loving speech, considering each others’ needs first, listening, bearing one another’s burdens, and proclaiming God’s love for each other. Right now those ministries, so simple yet so hard, feel like essential nutrients for the church. So here’s a reminder for me and for us all, from the wisdom of saints before us.
May we speak with love and proclaim God’s love.
May we listen well.
May we consider each other and help each other.
May we pray for each other and with each other.