Saturday, April 24, 2010

Today's dose of Bonhoeffer:

"With that we have articulated a basic criticism of the most grandiose of all human attempts toward the divine - by way of the church. Christianity conceals within itself a germ hostile to the church. It is far too easy for us to base our claims to God on our own Christian religiosity and our church commitment, and in so doing utterly to misunderstand and distort the Christian idea."

"One admires Christ according to aesthetic categories as an aesthetic genius, calls him the greatest ethicist; one admires his going to his death as a heroic sacrifice for his ideas. Only one thing one doesn't do: one doesn't take him seriously. That is, one doesn't bring the center of his or her own life into contact with the claim of Christ to speak the revelation of God and to be that revelation. One maintains a distance between himself or herself and the word of Christ, and allows no serious encounter to take place. I can doubtless live with or without Jesus as a religious genius, as an ethicist, as a gentleman - just as, after all, I can also live without Plato and Kant.... Should, however, there be something in Christ that claims my life entirely with the full seriousness that here God himself speaks and if the word of God once became present only in Christ, then Christ has not only relative but absolute, urgent significance for me.... Understanding Christ means taking Christ seriously. Understanding this claim means taking seriously his absolute claim on our commitment. And it is now of importance for us to clarify the seriousness of this matter and to extricate Christ from the secularization process in which he has been incorporated since the Enlightenment."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quotes from "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas

Friday, April 23, 2010

Quotes from Bonhoeffer



"Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness."


"It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, that a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity."


"Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued."


"The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one's bread; on the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing.  People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian."

- Detrich Bonhoeffer
Quotes taken from "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Subtitle: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy


____________________

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed for a plot to assassinate Hitler
____________________

After enjoying John Bird's review of "Bonhoefer" I've just purchased a copy for myself.  The subtitle alone is sufficient motivation for me to read this book, not to mention the subject of the bio. Biographies have historically not been my favorite type of literature for they are often to boring to keep my attention.  This biography is different.  John was right and I cannot wait to read more!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Seeing Blind Men

"One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
- John 9:25b (NIV)

Controversy regularly surrounds Jesus. This was the case when He lived, and it is still the case today. After reading John 9 I began to wonder how controversial could it be that a man who was born blind was made to see?

The religious people gathered to examine the evidence and to interview witnesses. Though it appears that they were trying to get to the truth, a closer examination reveals that they were not investigating at all. For the very nature of investigation is a pursuit of the truth. When people have already closed their minds to the truth there is no need for investigation - for there is no concern for the truth. This is clearly the case in John 9:22b: for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

How could it be that two groups of people could look at the very same event (the healing of a blind man) and come up with the exact opposite conclusion?

Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.
- John 9:16

Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
- John 9:39

Conversion is nothing less than men, blind from birth, receiving the gift of sight.


Blind?

Which eyes are more blind?
The eyes which cannot behold the sun and the stars,
Or those which cannot behold Your glory?

The eyes that cannot see all the beauty of creation,
Or those that cannot see that You have created it?

Which eyes are more blind?
The eyes that will never look upon a father’s face,
Or those that will never look upon You as Father?

The eyes which cannot see a loved one,
Or those which cannot see how much we are loved by you?

Which eyes are more blind?
The eyes which cannot see to read,
Or those which cannot see that You are the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us?

The eyes that cannot see fresh bread, hot from the oven,
Or those that cannot see that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord?

Which eyes are more blind?
The eyes that do not see to find the way,
Or those that do not see that you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

The eyes which will never see the beauty of many pearls,
Or those which will never see that You are the pearl of greatest price?


A. B. Seal
02-11-06
Poem written during a mission trip to Honduras with Vision Outreach International

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Bizarro World

Sometimes the upside-down-ness of our world still stuns me. Though I so often encounter the bizarre nature of the present state of our world that it seems I am quite used to it, every once in a while I'm reminded how backwards we really are. The latest incident still left me stunned though I've encountered it multiple times before. So here it is:

Last week I handled a breaking and entering of a garage in which the suspects stole about $3,500 worth of property. A few days later a suspect was identified, located, and arrested. The 17 year old was just old enough to avoid the foolishness of our juvenile court system and faces 3 felonies and a high court misdemeanor charge as an adult.

A local judge set the bond for this suspect at $10,000. It was an appropriate amount. As soon as the judge set the bond the 17 year old's parents were at the station with a bondsman. A surety bond was posted and 22 hours after he was arrested, I released the suspect to his parents in the lobby of the station.

Now for the bizarro world: Out comes the suspect who was arrested for multiple felonies to smiling parents and siblings who greet him with hugs and kisses. Almost as if to say, "Well done, nice job, we are so happy for you."

The thought occurred to me, that if I at 17 years old were to commit such crimes, my parents would have quite a different response. First of all they never would have bonded me out. Second of all if I were to get out I'd have to face the just wrath of my dad (which would no doubt be worse than any punishment the court could hand out). I most certainly would not be greeted with hugs and kisses. I would have more likely been greeted by a severe punishment which would have made me want to volunteer to return to the jail cell.

And so I guess the massive grace of having decent parents in my life is why I ended up being a police officer. In the same way the lack of such massive grace in that 17 year old suspect's life resulted in him not fearing to do that which I would have been terrified to do.

It is not surprising that the suspect's mother has a criminal history record that is longer than my arm.  It is one which her son would have to work at very hard for several years to exceed.

Still I'm shocked at how upside-down things can become once we lose the center of gravity of right and wrong. Things truly begin to look bizarre once we throw off the restraining grace of fearing the authorities which were set in place by God to keep the world from dissolving into anarchy.

I voiced my displeasure at releasing this knucklehead to his smiling family. One of the dispatchers who heard me said she thought that after so many years of doing this I'd be used to it. The sad thing is that after nearyly 10 years of doing this I am used to it, but it still bothers me.  I hope I never get to a point where it doesn't bother me.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Abandon Kansas: Close Your Eyes

What a great line: "Close your eyes and then we'll start to see."