An Unappreciated Grace

Have you ever had a friend hit you with an unexpected but pleasant surprise? This happened to me yesterday as I was reading an email. I had sent my friend an email asking them to look at some lesson notes I had prepared on the topic of the purpose and mission of the church. The response I got back has encouraged and haunted me ever since I read it.

I have long since taught about the grace that is found in Christians living life together in unity and love. I believe that it is a tool God has created for our mutual encouragement, and as a means to display the gospel. The notes that I had this person look at included such a point because this understanding is central to the purpose of the church. In the reply I got, my friend included a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer….It is this quote and my subsequent reflection on his life and the life of one of his contemporaries, Paul Schnieder…, that has stirred me deeply. Take a minute to reflect on Bonhoeffer’s words:

“It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

If there were two men who knew the value of community it was Bonhoeffer and Schneider. These two German pastors stood against the Nazi regime and refused to compromise the gospel. They broke away from the government sanctioned church and were instrumental in starting a new church that remained faithful to the gospel. This church they rightly called the confessing church.

Because of their faith and fidelity to the gospel, both men learned what it meant to be deprived of Christian community. Both men were removed from their families and loved ones and placed into concentration camps. Bonhoeffer was eventually hanged with piano wire and Schneider, who was imprisoned at Buchenwald concentration camp, was worked to death and eventually murdered by lethal injection but not before earning the title pastor of Buchenwald because he served his fellow inmates and preached the gospel to them from his cell.

I’m sure that many who will read this article will think its topic strange and hard to grasp. It should come as no surprise in a day of iPods, laptops, movies on demand, TV’s in every room, and a million other distractions that Christian community is at best a novelty and at worst an interruption. I think it wise that he who would be ready for heaven would spend time getting to know his heavenly neighbors here on earth. Let me challenge you to stop and consider your calendar, consider Bonhoeffer and Schneider, consider your brothers and sisters in Christ. Don’t let community with your heavenly family remain an unappreciated grace.

By: Mike Hall
Executive Editor

Copied from Inquest.org 9/2010.