Here is a series of posts I wrote for our church family beginning in late April. I thought I would post them here.
Dear Grace Vancouver Family,
At the centre of any home with any sense of health, joy, togetherness, belonging and family... is a Table.
Today, I wanted to pass on a reading from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. This excerpt has been one of my favourites for almost two decades now, and is especially meaningful in light of the times we are in. I was especially moved to share it, after Dr. Ross Hastings talked a bit in our Q&A time last Sunday about how this pandemic has challenged the very notion of what it means to be human and also what it means to be human together. He commented on how the best way to love our neighbour these days has been to stay away from them; whereas, true love and honouring our humanity includes embraces, touch and in the context of the Body of Christ, participation together in the sacrament of communion.
I was so moved by Ross' comment that I thought I would do a multi-part series in the coming days on the meaning of the Table. How many parts to this series? I don't know; two? three maybe? More? We'll see.
The first part of the series here will begin with me mostly quoting Bonhoeffer, because there is so much to appreciate about what he has to say here. Bonhoeffer wrote in Germany in an underground seminary at a time when the world was very unstable, between world wars. He gets us to think about how often when fellowship and worship with other brothers and sisters in the Lord is readily available, that we too often take it for granted. I think in a way that we have never been as Jesus' Church, at least in my lifetime, we are more open than ever to hearing and receiving Bonhoeffer's message.
So here it is, taken from his Life Together:
"So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went 'with the multitude... to the home of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday' (Ps. 42:4). But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God's will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience they seize upon more fervently in faith. Thus the exiled disciple of the Lord, John the Apocalytist, celebrates in the loneliness of Patmos the heavenly worship with his congregations, 'in the Spirit on the Lord's day' (Rev. 1:10). He sees the seven candlesticks, his congregations, the seven stars, the angels of the congregations, and in the midst and above it all the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in all the splendor of the resurrection. He strengthens and fortifies him by His Word. This is the heavenly fellowship, shared by an exile on the day of the Lord's resurrection.
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. Longingly, the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his 'dearly beloved son in the faith,' Timothy, to come to him in prison in the last days of his life; he would see him again and have him near. Paul has not forgotten the tears Timothy shed when last they parted (II Tim. 1:4). Remembering the congregation in Thessalonica, Paul prays 'night and day... exceedingly that we might see your face' (I Thess. 3:10). The aged John knows that his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face instead of writing with ink (III John 1:14).
The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he years for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament (the Lord's Table) the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God's spiritual-physical creatures. The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. They receive each other's benedictions as the benediction of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!
It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." END QUOTE.
Reflection: when we are able once again to come back together and to assemble together as the Body of Christ, will we have spent meaningful time in our time of isolation, repenting of our complacency towards the local church where Christ organizes His people and pours out His "inexhaustible riches"? Will we reject the spirit of consumerism that tries to "get something out of church," whether inspiring sermons or great music or otherwise? Instead will we come to see Jesus' Church as that place, despite all its flaws and foibles, lack of having it together in so many ways, where we are called to press into a common life of "incomparable joy and strength" offered to those who by faith willingly see a remarkable work present by Divine Grace and through God's People gathered around the Word and His Table?
Next Message in this Series: Waiting Upon the Lord to Partake Together.
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