An Argument Arose Among Us
***The below is a fuller edition of a newsletter article I wrote for Trinity 15 +2022***
Dear Friends,
I’ve continued reading through Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together since I last wrote to you, and the book has profoundly impacted me. It convicts me of my own shortcomings and sin in so many ways. The book has also led me to believe it should be required reading for pastors and highly encouraged for the congregational leaders of the local parishes.
But for today, I want to share some of Bonhoeffer’s words, and I pray they will aid you as they support me this day.
Bonhoeffer begins the fourth chapter with a quotation from St. Luke, “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.” (Luke 9:46) What we have here is a reminder that the first Church also experienced discord and strife.
But Bonhoeffer goes on to say, “We do not think enough about the fact that no Christian community ever comes together without this argument appearing as a seed of discord. No sooner are people together than they begin to observe, judge, and classify each other.”
I believe Bonhoeffer is getting to this idea that we are constantly self-justifying ourselves while condemning and judging others around us. Further, our self-justifying and judging ways lead us to the corners of the church to whisper and conspire against our neighbors.
For this reason, he writes, “‘Those who keep their tongue in check control both spirit and body.’ (James 3:3ff) Thus it must be a decisive rule of all Christian community life that each individual is prohibited from talking about another Christian in secret.”
“Where this discipline of the tongue is practiced right from the start, individuals will make an amazing discovery. They will be able to stop constantly keeping an eye on others, judging them, condemning them, and putting them in their places and thus doing violence to them.”
Yet, Bonhoeffer turns our self-justifying views on their head as he writes, “Only those who live by the forgiveness of their sin in Jesus Christ will think little of themselves in the right way. They will know that their own wisdom completely came to an end when Christ forgave them.”
“If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then I am not yet recognizing my sin at all.”
So, where do we go from here? Bonhoeffer writes, “The first service one owes to others in the community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.”
“However, God has put God’s own Word in our mouth. God wants it to be spoken through us. If we hinder God’s Word, the blood of the other who sins will be upon us. If we carry out God’s Word, God wants to save the other through us. ‘Whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.’” (James 5:20)
In reality, the source of our arguments is sin and often the sin of self-justification or the judgment and condemnation of others, their ideas, or works. If the words of our mouths cannot be spoken publicly, then they are words we should strive not to speak at all. We should flee the dark corners of the Church and meet our neighbors in the light of Christ with His Word of grace and mercy.
God be with you and guide you always.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Rogness
