Reflections on Life Together

Over the summer, a small group gathered weekly to read and discuss two books: Martin Luther King Jr’s Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. Rev. Kathleen Davie participated in these discussions and shares the following reflections. — CJG
I have been attending two sessions a week, one on Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the other on Where do we go from here? – Chaos or Community by Martin Luther King. Both books emphasize the imperative that humanity was created for community and each book in its own way has as its organizing principle the words of Jesus about Community.
Martin Luther King’s whole philosophy was developed from the idea of the community of humanity’s need for each other – whether they are black or white, or red, or yellow – they are all human beings.  Their differences are minor!
Life Together was written to help a group of people in Germany, mostly Pastors, during the years leading up to the Second World War, to become a Community of Believers and to realise how to live together. How their faith could be worked out through their individuality in the practice of certain behaviors –  some behaviors being carried out with others: such as worship, work, study, prayer, silence, and all of them realizing God as their focus. Although Bonhoeffer’s work was geared towards the underground community of pastors during the war, it certainly has implications for our churches.
When the early believers in Jesus Christ gathered together, their focus was on being a community of human beings worshipping God and helping each other worship God.
Each chapter is geared to helping believers understand the practices that would enable that focus: that Jesus Christ should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad (John 11:52).
Bonhoeffer’s first chapter on Community emphasizes that there is no shame in craving the physical presence of other human beings, calling them the source of incomparable joy and strength. Bonhoeffer writes of the visit of a Christian brother or sister; a letter written by a Christian to another, (he might have written about a phone calls or a text message if he had lived in the present era!) He says, “We belong to each other only through and in Jesus Christ.”
He speaks of human love versus spiritual love and that as followers of Jesus Christ  we can love each other with spiritual love.  
Then he writes of The Day with Others and I take that to be the way we as believers meet together to Worship God on Sunday mornings, and as we “fellowship” with each other over “Coffee Hour” and share our joys and our sorrows. It includes our “learning together” over the Word and through our discussion with each other about ways to implement our ideas to help others. Bonhoeffer writes of “our common life” and I see that as referring to believers dwelling together – such as Christian families. And one of the blessings of family life is reading the Bible together and praying together. And it is one of the precious memories I have of growing up in a Christian home, even when I did not understand some of what was read.
The Psalms are prayers that teach us to pray although some have said that they can’t pray the psalms because they sound so violent.  When one reads the Old Testament, one is more aware of the difficulties into which one may find oneself and although I may not be able to pray that prayer, one of my brothers or sisters may find it just the right prayer for them.  So says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I heartily concur.
All the suggestions that Bonhoeffer makes in Life Together are in fact suggestions as to how one may develop spiritually.  He follows The Day with Others with The Day Alone and he points out that “Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray and alone you will die and give an account to God.” And he follows with the fact that we need to be in community with others in order to be able to tolerate being alone.
The next chapter called simply Ministry points out the importance of true discipleship – and he breaks such ministry down to The Ministry of Holding One’s Tongue, The Ministry of Meekness, the Ministry of Helpfulness, The Ministry of Bearing one another’s burdens, and The Ministry of sharing the Word with other persons, and the genuine spiritual and practical service to others. This chapter describes the kinds of things one can do with and for others in the Christian Community – the Church.  And it points out the kinds of things NOT to do – sharing things confided by others – etc.
The last chapter deals with Confession and Communion. Because of the need for keeping things told by others confidential, we have lost the art and the blessing of confession of our sins and receiving the absolution of God through the ministry of another believer.
Even in the Roman church this is a practice observed rarely nowadays. And it all boils down to our trust of others. Yet this practice would make even more blessed the communion together as we remember our Lord who gave His body and His blood for us.
So Bonhoeffer closes his writing with the highest place where community takes place – as we gather around the Table of the Lord receiving the gift of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament of Communion
I believe that the churches of today have lost that sense of Community – the Beloved Community! Yes, we share with one another at the Coffee Hour, but many of us do not know the Biblical literature – we may know some of the stories we were told in Sunday School, but some of us don’t even know those, and we don’t know them in the setting and how they came about – how they fit into the history of Israel and how they became the background of our present life together. We have to find a way in our present culture to be the Beloved Community - Life together as a Christian Fellowship. We have to so order our lives that we take time, and simplify our lives so that what is really important to us is able to be carried out. It sometimes will mean giving up some things. But it will also enhance our lives as we become more of a Community of Believers.