The church is the body of Christ, not as a metaphor, but in reality. –Dietrich Bonhoeffer I used to have high hopes for the church. Idealistic even. But a curious thing happened to me on the way to idealizing the church. I spent some time in it. And I became jaded. I suspect in this…
Over the years one sermon (titled, Learning to Die) from the pen of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has inspired nearly everything I’ve written. There have been numerous direct references to his works on this blog, in my book, and in my various and sundry publications scattered in magazines, but there is one paragraph in particular that has…
And God saw that it was good. As I sit down to write, I can hear my housemate working in his workshop. I think he told me earlier that he was building a birdhouse. I wonder how he will feel about his work when he is done. And I wonder if I will feel like…
Christ must become present to us in preaching and in the sacraments just as in being the crucified one he has made peace with God and with humanity. The crucified Christ is our peace. He alone exercises the idols and the demons. The world trembles only before the cross, not before us. –Bonhoeffer Sixty-seven years…
Lately I’ve been hitting something of a wall in my writing. I kind of feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk, telling his family about his odd jobs. One way he had found to make money was to give blood, which worked out just fine until “I cut myself shaving and nothing came out but…
I was talking with my new friend Phil over a cup of coffee when he brought up a word I had not thought of since my days as a seminarian- they seem so long ago. Somehow the conversation led to us talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, fear, freedom and the God who is for us (That…
I don’t know about you but I am terrible with details. I mean absolutely awful. I am totally that guy who sings along to my favorite band and doesn’t know all the words. You would think that with all my love for writing, I would know lyrics of the bands that serve as a soundtrack…
This man whom I am, Jesus has also been. Of him only it is valid to say that nothing human was alien to him. Of this man, we say: “This is God for us.” –Bonhoeffer I work with a guy who is bitter. When I say bitter, you should know that I have fairly high…
It really is weird to think about God walking around on earth. The Roman Caesars assumed that they were divine. The Egyptians kings- the Pharaohs, I hear, pretty much figured the same thing. If you think about King Tut’s palace or Mel Brooks’ great philosophical statement “It’s good to be the king,” it would…
In a decision that will no doubt shock you beyond your reasoning capacity, I thought it would be a good idea to start out the larger conversation of the Manhood of God with a little ditty from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Enjoy: The quest for the superman, the endeavor to outgrow the man within the man, the…
