Summary

Chapter two walks through the Christian’s day and offers insight into how life in light of the resurrection might look.  The beginning of the day “does not belong to the individual, it belongs to the Church of the triune God, to the Christian family, to the brotherhood.”  Bonhoeffer argues that morning is the time Christians should worship together in order to set the day right.

For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day‘s work.  At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it.  All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word.  All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him.  Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs.

Bonhoeffer goes on to unpack the various aspects of the Christian’s life in community  throughout the day.  Some of the topics covered include:

• Reading the Scriptures — This section discusses the importance of reading the Word of God to one another, especially at the beginning of a day.  Bonhoeffer stresses the importance of lengthier passages read in their contexts instead of simply reading a “verse of the day” divorced from the larger text.  He even tells the one who would object that reading the Bible is too hard for him that this is to be his shame and should propel him to learn the art of daily reading, arguing that the “one who will not learn to handle the Bible for himself is not an evangelical Christian.”
• Singing the New Song* — Bonhoeffer stresses the need for the church to sing not only psalms taken from Scripture, but also the “new song” that the psalms command us to sing so often.  He argues that just as Moses sang a new song after God delivered the people from Egypt, so Christians should sing a new song as they are re-awakened to the mercy of the cross.  Bonhoeffer diverts people from turning this to law, arguing that the “new song” is “sung first in the heart…otherwise it cannot be sung at all…the heart sings because it is overflowing with Christ.”
• Saying Our Prayers Together — Christians are to bring their prayers to the Lord in their own words, and prayer is often done best in community.  For the one who might not feel like praying in public because he is weighed down with “inner emptiness and weariness or a sense of personal unworthiness” Bonhoeffer tells him “he should learn what it means to have a duty to perform in the fellowship and the brethren should support him in his weakness, in his inability to pray.  Perhaps it is right here that one will realize the profound truth of Paul’s words [of the Spirit interceding for us].”
• The Fellowship of the Table — When Christians gather together for a meal, they ought to recognize that God “is the giver of all good gifts; and beyond this, as the true Gift; the true Bread of life itself; and finally, as the One who is calling them to the banquet of the Kingdom of God.”  When we share bread together, we are reminding ourselves that we share one bread now that we may share one meal when we are united with God at death, and so we enjoy our meal, praising god and rejoicing in the midst of daily strife.
• The Day’s Work — Bonhoeffer states that “prayer and working are two different things.  Prayer should not be hindered by work, but neither should work be hindered by prayer.”  He goes on to say that “without the burden and labor of the day, prayer is not prayer, and without prayer, work is not work.”  He goes on to argue that we etend to take our bread as reward for our labor, but he argues that “we cannot simply take it for granted that our work provides us with bread; this is rather God’s order of grace.”

But perhaps the most interesting section in this chapter is “The Secret of the Psalter.”  Here Bonhoeffer wonders that we can repeat much of the Psalms as our own words, but there are times when we cannot personally speak with the psalmist (for example, Psalms of innocence).  How are we to pray through the Psalms, and what are we to make of these sections we cannot claim?  Bonhoeffer offers the following solution:

A psalm that we cannot utter as a prayer, that makes us falter and horrifies us, is a hint to us that here Someone else is praying, not we; that the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God’s judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself.  He it is who is praying here, and not only here but in the whole Psalter.

This great “secret of the Psalter” is a beautiful reminder to us because it is true not only of the Psalter, but of our Christian lives.  When we near the end of a day and feel as if we have failed and are stained by sin, unworthy to come before a holy God (though we might have done everything in our power to follow after Christ), we can rest in the knowledge that we have a mediator between God and man–Christ Jesus!  Hear what the writer of Hebrews says:

[Christ] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

We can rest because Christ intercedes on our behalf before the Father.  He takes our sin-stained, weak, pitiful offerings of worship, prayer, and good works; he covers them in the blood that he shed for us on calvary; and he gives this new sacrifice to God, who is fully and gladly satisfied with what began as a meager, pitiful offering.

This is the truth that we should joyfully share with others! How freeing is it to recognize that Christ takes our pitiful offering that is offered in faith and takes it before the Father who accepts it because it has been purified by Christ the High Priest?  How should this truth spur us on in service?  What other insights did you glean from the reading this week?  Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Don’t Forget…

Next week we will cover chapter three of Life Together, so read ahead and take notes!

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*In this section Bonhoeffer has a discussion about singing in unison that I found to be thoroughly entertaining.  He finds singing in parts (i.e., bass, alto) atrocious.  It’s worth going through this section again, if you missed it the first time.