CSN - LightWing Messages - From the Resurrection to Faith in Action! 4/7/2024
The Vine and the Branches
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
This is my command: Love each other. John 15:1-17 (New International Version)
FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:
At this juncture In human history, the Easter celebration is behind us. The situation of those who followed Jesus until the crucifixion was much different from those who are cruising in relative comfort on their proverbial couches in many American communities across the nation. Across the world in many locations, many communities are being ripped apart by war or terrorism of the twenty first century variety. Collectively, those who self-identify as Christians as well as others of faith, are challenged to not make excuses, not turn their heads away, not to sit in their sanctified “ivory towers.” Or, is it safe to shove our collective conscience down into the basement of our consciousness.
Yet, over the past four Easter celebrations, in America and in the world, much has transpired that seems to portend even more difficult days ahead for humanity. Of the messages we have posted in the LightWing Messages on past Easter Sundays, one was from excerpts from a book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” It is a moving book and shares a much different message from the messages of the “woke Christian establishment” in America today. This post-Easter edition of the LightWing Messages will touch on the unique messaging of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in two ways though a message from him and a message I wrote in reflection on the comparison Bonhoeffer made between “Costly Grace” to “Cheap Grace.”
Bonhoeffer’s works are quite challenging, as were the words of Jesus. His message in this edition is entitled: “The Resurrection of Christ is God's Yes to Us.” Bonhoeffer’s messages are quite appropriate for our time because he truly reflected deeply upon Jesus’ words and their application to his time. Our time can be compared to the dangers of evil he faced in his time.
In “The Cost of Discipleship,” Bonhoeffer compared “Costly Grace” to “Cheap Grace,” which Bonhoeffer had offered to the world in 1938. His words do not just challenge one to think, but to take action against evil. His words resonate with me and that is why I am offering a message I wrote based upon reflecting on the challenge of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is titled, “The Challenge of Practicing Faith.” Both messages are offered for your deeper understanding and practice.
Tomorrow, we will hold our regular Zoom call discussion.
We invite our readers to call in and check in with other like-minded readers for mutual support in such turbulent times. We will discuss the concept of “Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace.” Our readers can choose to participate in the question and answer session, or just listen. If readers are not already on our list to receive a link to the call, please send an email request to this address: d.jamzon@gmail.com We’ll add you to our mailing list. We continue to hope those folks who are seeking more from the Citizens Sentinels Network are able to join us on the Monday Zoom calls. Our LightWing discussions have been successful from last year, and in 2024, they are only getting better.
CSN LightWing Mission – Zoom call Monday 4/8/24 at 5:00pm PST Mondays at 5pm PST (6pm MST; 7pm CST; 8pm EST).
These words are being freely offered to you – intended to shine light unto our paths, as written: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 - KJV
We hope our readers will enjoy both of our messages today. Read, absorb and share, and practice what is within you. Become the light!
May God bless our readers and all of their loved ones. May God bless All His Children!
May we, who are called by His name, humble ourselves and truly receive the gifts that God has given with deepest gratitude – especially His Mercy and His loving Grace. May we also repent, and turn from the realms of spiritual apathy or of the actively wicked ways of the world - but to even to be able to pick up our cross and follow God’s ways as we take courage to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness.
The Resurrection of Christ is God's Yes to Us
By Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1940
The following is a theological letter, essentially Pastor Bonhoeffer’s “Reflections on Easter” that was commissioned by the Pomeranian Council of Brethren, Berlin, March 1940, translated by Douglas W. Stott
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s yes to Christ and to his atoning work.
The cross was the end, the death of the Son of God, curse and judgment upon all flesh. If the cross were the last word on Jesus, then the world would be lost in death and damnation without hope, and the world would have been victorious over God. But God, who alone affected salvation for us all — ”all this is from God” (2 Cor. 5:18) — raised Christ from the dead. That was the new beginning following the end as a miracle from above, though not like the springtime according to a fixed natural law, but rather according to the incomparable freedom and power of God that shatters death. “Scripture has proclaimed to us how one death devoured the other” (Luther). Thus did God commit himself to Jesus Christ. Indeed, as the apostle is able to say, the resurrection is the day that Son of God is begotten (Acts 13:33, Rom. 1:4). The receives his eternal divine glory back, and the Father receives his Son back. Thus is Jesus confirmed and glorified as the Christ of God who Jesus was from the very beginning. But so also does God acknowledge and accept the vicariously representative, atoning work of Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus cried the cry of despair and then commended himself into the hands of his Father, who was to make of both him and his work whatever he pleased. The resurrection of Christ confirms that God said yes to his Son and his Son’s work. And so we do now call upon the Resurrected as the Son of God, the Lord, and as Savior.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s yes to us.
Christ died for our sins, and was resurrected for our righteousness (Rom. 4:25). Christ’s death was the death sentence over us and our sins. If Christ had remained in death this death sentence would still be in effect; “we would still be in our sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). But because Christ was raised from the dead, our own sentence has been repealed, and we have been resurrected with Christ (1 Cor. 15). This is so because we are ourselves in Jesus Christ by virtue of God’s acceptance of our human nature in the incarnation. What happens to him, happens to us, for he has accepted us. This is not a judgment from experience, but God’s own judgment that seeks acknowledgement in faith in God’s word.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s yes to the creature.
It is not a destruction of the embodiedness, but rather the new creation of embodiedness that takes place here. The body of Jesus leaves the tomb, and the tomb is empty. Just how is it possible or conceived that the mortal, perishable body is now present as the immortal, imperishable, transfigured body remains a mystery to us. Perhaps the different versions of the disciples’ encounter with the Resurrected help to make clear that we ourselves are unable to imagine what is meant by this new bodiliness of the Resurrected. We do not know that it is the same body — for the tomb is empty; and that it is a new body — for the tomb is empty. We do know that God has judged the first creation, and has created a new creation in the exact image of the first. It is not an idea of Christ that lives on, but the real, physical Christ. That is God’s yes to the new creature in the midst of the old creature. From the resurrection we know that God has not abandoned the earth, but has re-conquered it, has given it a new future, a new promise. The same earth that God created bore God’s Son and his cross, and on this earth the Resurrected appeared to his disciples, and to this earth Christ will return on the last day.
Whoever affirms Christ’s resurrection in faith can no longer flee the world, but neither can they fall prey to the world, for in the midst of the old they have recognized God’s new creation.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ demands faith. The one consistent witness of all these accounts, as divergent as they are in telling what occurred and was experienced here, is that the Resurrected appeared not to the world, but only to his followers (Acts 10:40f). Jesus did not present himself to some impartial authority to attest before the world the miracle of his resurrection, thus coercing the world to acknowledge him. He wants to be believed, proclaimed, and believed again. The world as it were, sees only the negative, the earthly impression of the divine miracle. It sees the tomb and explains it (albeit in conscious self-deception) as a pious deception on the part of the disciples (Matt. 28:11ff.) It sees the disciples’ joy and message, and declares it to be a vision or an auto-suggestion. The world sees the “signs” but does not believe the miracle. Only where the miracle is believed do the signs become divine signs and thus an aid to faith.
For the world, the empty tomb is an ambiguous historical fact. For believers, is the historic sign — one following necessarily from and confirming the miracle of the resurrection – of the God who acts in history with human beings. There is no historical proof of the resurrection, only a plethora of facts that are extremely peculiar and difficult to interpret even for the historian. For example, we have the empty tomb. For if the tomb had not been empty, this strongest counter-argument against a physical resurrection would certainly have become the basis for an anti-Christian polemic. Nowhere, however, do we encounter this objection. In fact, the opposing side confirms the empty tomb (Matt. 28:11). Or we have the sudden turn of events two days after the crucifixion. Any conscious deception is excluded psychologically by virtue of the disciples' entire earlier and subsequent behavior, and also by the divergent nature of the resurrection accounts themselves. Self-deception through visionary states is rendered virtually an impossibility for the unbiased historian, given the disciples’ own initially quite unbelieving and skeptical rejection of the message (Luke 31:11, et passim.), together with the considerable number and manner of appearances. Hence the historians’ evaluation of this matter, which from a scientific perspective remains such a riddle, will be dictated by presuppositions contained in their worldview. But this robs their conclusions of any interest or import for faith, which is grounded in God’s acts in history.
So for the world an insoluble riddle does remain, but not one that in and of itself could ever coerce belief in the resurrection of Jesus. For faith, however, this riddle is a sign of the reality which it already knows, an imprint of divine activity within history. Research can neither prove nor disprove the resurrection, for it is a miracle of God. Faith, however, to whom the Resurrected attests himself to as the living Christ, recognizes precisely in the witness of scripture the historic nature of the resurrection as an act of God which in its miraculous nature can only be a riddle for science. Faith receives the certainty of the resurrection only from the present witness of Christ. It finds its confirmation in the historic imprints of the miracle as recounted by scripture.
It is the blessing of Jesus Christ that he does not yet reveal himself visibly to the world, for the very moment that happened would be the end and thus the judgment on unbelief. So the Resurrected withdraws from any visibly salvaging of his honor before the word. In his hidden glory he is with his community, and is attested through the word before all the world, till at the Last Judgment he will come, visible to all human beings, to judge them all.
For those not truly familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer took part in resisting the Nazi government during World War II. He was the first of the German theologians to speak out clearly against the persecution of the Jews and the evils of the Nazi ideology. In spring of 1935, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was called by the Confessing Church in Germany to take charge of an “illegal, ”underground seminary at Finkenwalde, Germany (now Poland). He served as pastor, administrator, and teacher there until the seminary was closed down by Hitler's Gestapo in September, 1937.
In 1937, Bonhoeffer completed two books: Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship. They were first published in German in 1938-39. Both books encompass Bonhoeffer’s theological understanding of what it means to live as a Christian community in the body of Christ.
In the seminary at Finkenwalde, Bonhoeffer taught the importance of shared life together as disciples of Christ. He was convinced that the renewal of the church would depend upon recovering the biblical understanding of the communal practices of Christian obedience and shared life. This is where true formation of discipleship could best flourish and mature. His
teaching led to the formation of a community house for the seminarians to help them enter into and learn the practical disciplines of the Christian faith in community.
He became a modern Christian martyr known for conspiring to overthrow Hitler, and helping Jews escape Germany. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo in April 1943. On April 8, 1945 he was hanged by the Gestapo as a traitor in the Flossenburg concentration camp. As he left his cell on his way to execution he said to his companion, "This is the end – but for me, the beginning of life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s best-known work is a Christian classic: The Cost of Discipleship. One good source:
https://www.christianboochristianbook.com - The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“The Challenge of Practicing Faith”
By Dennis Jamison
Revised from an article April 15, 2022
Prior to Easter in 2019, I offered a message regarding repentance. It was written in reflection upon Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Costly Grace vs. Cheap Grace.” The memory of Bonhoeffer was revived last week as the anniversary of his execution was on April 9, 1945. It was less than a month before Hitler’s Nazi government in Germany surrendered to the Allied forces, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged with six other dissenting ‘deplorables.’
Bonhoeffer delivered his message on costly Grace in 1938, and it is a testimony to why he was willing to give up his life in the fight for freedom. Today, the world is in dire need of more Dietrich Bonhoeffers. Indeed, there needs to be a critical mass of Christians like Bonhoeffer. I do not believe Jesus would have rebuked him or called him a stumbling block.
But what of us? Do we have in mind the concerns of God – or only human concerns? As we are taking account of the world as it is today, not what it once was, or what we wish it to be, we need to make time to take inventory of our souls. Each of us needs to look within the mirror of our souls. As we were taking account of the world in the time of Easter, we truly need to self-examine - take personal inventory of our own dimensions of faith. It is more productive as we move along our pathways of faith than bunnies and eggs, or the Easter celebrations of how things used to be once upon a time.
The genuine meaning of Easter is that God’s son was willing to obey his Heavenly Father and do the most difficult task of laying down his precious life for the sake of God’s other children, and he was given life back in the Resurrection. Christianity would not have commenced upon the cross. It commenced from the Resurrection based upon his own teachings.
It is Jesus’ magnificent faith that he demonstrates in refusing to yield to the lies of the world that he demonstrates total obedience to God’s Will. This needs to be compared with the refusal of Adam and Eve to live by God’s Word and the Commandment in the Garden, who demonstrate willingness to go against God’s Will by doing exactly what their Heavenly Father asked them not to do. Jesus, the Second Adam, is able to reverse this practice of faithlessness in the Garden of Eden through his suffering and sacrifice on Golgotha.
Christians may rely on whatever part of the Bible they choose to use to justify their faith, but the words and actions of Jesus provide the genuine measuring stick – not much else. Those who were disciples had an incredibly high standard to follow. Faith is only the foundation upon which we put our faith into action. A complete manifestation of faith is what Jesus taught:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
At the time Jesus rebuked Peter, he had just told his disciples of what the future held for him. The disciples must have been in shock. His words may not have aligned with what their basic expectations were of the coming Kingdom that Jesus had been preaching about in earlier years of his ministry. Peter’s response was the only one recorded. But, it also must be realized that this response came just after Jesus told Peter that he was going to be given the “keys to the kingdom.” Yet in the next moments, Jesus rebuked Peter and likened him to Satan and stated that “you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Peter requires correction from Jesus several times according to the Gospels.And, Peter will ultimately betray Jesus three times before morning arrives after the night of the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. As we reflect on this, as we take inventory of our spiritual lives, our souls, how much like this Peter, are we? It is not a question regarding St. Peter, but the one who is just beginning his journey of faith. Who rebukes us when we do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns? Who is watching as we may deny our linkage to Christ? Who corrects us as we cannot deny ourselves and make sacrifices for our family or friends, or communities?
Where then, do Christians fit in within such a framework?
Faith is only the foundation upon which we exercise our belief. Faith is the belief; what we have done” is how we have practiced our faith. Jesus gives many examples, but those who choose to do nothing with their faith are rewarded accordingly.
Adam and Eve knew God before they fell. Adam and Eve knew they were God’s children before they fell. Adam and Eve knew God’s word before they fell, they knew His Will. Yet, they did not do what their Heavenly Father asked. They were rewarded accordingly.
Jesus held on to God’s Word and followed God’s Will to the point of denying himself and giving his life for the sake of all who choose to become disciples. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer gets at in his explanation of the difference between what he viewed as cheap Grace vs. costly Grace. It is God’s Grace that came at great cost for those of us who realize how precious that forfeit of his life was for Jesus. He truly understood the value of life more than anyone else on the planet. Physical life is precious. Yet, the primary point is that one’s spiritual life is even more important. One’s soul is more precious than the whole world. This is the essential takeaway.
What was it that Lucifer told Eve? “You will not surely die...” “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” But, Adam and Eve did die - the spirit in them died. They had the name of being alive - though they were dead. They chose to not obey the “concerns of God,” and they put into practice the opposite of what God’s Will was for them as the first couple and for all of their descendants.
Do God’s children understand that today? Do those who call themselves Christians understand that the spiritual life is more real, more essential than their physical lives? If it were so, a world of corruption, depravity and evil would be shrinking rather than metastasizing. It is the pursuit of pleasure (and all sorts of evil) not the seeking of the Kingdom that has led humanity to what the world ;ooks like at this point in human history.
Bonhoeffer was just a man, but he chose to obey the concerns of God and chose his course of self-denial. He gave up his life for truth and what he sincerely believed as he followed his conscience and not the lies of the secular world that were being propagated by the ministers of propaganda in Nazi Germany. Bonhoeffer enlightened us on his point of costly grace: “Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.” Bonhoeffer practiced his faith in a dramatic and most memorable way.
Jesus of Nazereth, not all of those who claim to be his disciples, gave future Christians the clearest blueprint for us all to practice faith:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it…”
A Bit of History
From christ.org: Judas Betrays Jesus “Does Your Faith Have a Price?”
From History.com: Anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged
From The Incredible Journey: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Story of Courage and Faith – 9/25/23
From The American Minute with Bill Federer: American Minute for April 4 – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
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