Bonhoeffer: Scripture and understanding

Saturday, April 9, 2016
    Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
Meditation:
    And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
    —2 Peter 1:19-21 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Not only the young Christian but also the adult Christian will complain that the Scripture reading is often too long for him, and that much therein he does not understand. To this it must be said that, for the mature Christian, every Scripture reading will be “too long,” even the shortest one, [for] the Scripture is a whole, and every word, every sentence, possesses such multiple relationships with the whole that it is impossible always to keep the whole in view when listening to details. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the whole of Scripture, and hence every passage in it as well, far surpasses our understanding. It is good for us to be daily reminded of this fact.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 61 (see the book)
    See also 2 Pet. 1:19-21; Ps. 1:2-3; 19:7-9; 119:97; Luke 16:29-31; 24:44; John 5:39-40; Acts 17:11; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; 2 Pet. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to open the Scriptures to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Kraemer: steps to renewal

Friday, April 8, 2016
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
    —Matthew 10:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If one thing is clear as soon as the Church becomes serious about its missionary and ministerial calling for the world, it is that two difficult roads in particular have to be trodden: first, the road towards overcoming the scantiness of its knowledge of the world of today, and its ignoring of what really goes on in the world under its surface; secondly, the road towards reforming its spirit, atmosphere, and inherited structure, in so far as they give no room for new vitality.
    ... What can and must be said and resaid, with all gratitude for what in many places is already happening, is that a fearless scrutiny and revision of structure is one of the most urgent aspects of a renewal of the Church.
    ... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958, p. 177 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:16; Isa. 42:9; Luke 10:3; 43:19; 1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 5:15-17; Phil. 2:14-16; 1 Thess. 5:22; Rev. 21:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You be glorified in all the activities of Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Neill: the only remedy

Thursday, April 7, 2016
Meditation:
    And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
    —Luke 5:29-32 (ESV)
Quotation:
    This Christian claim [of universal validity] is naturally offensive to the adherents of every other religious system. It is almost as offensive to modern man, brought up in the atmosphere of relativism, in which tolerance is regarded almost as the highest of the virtues. But we must not suppose that this claim to universal validity is something that can quietly be removed from the Gospel without changing it into something entirely different from what it is... Jesus’ life, his methods, and his message do not make sense, unless they are interpreted in the light of his own conviction that he was in fact the final and decisive word of God to men... For the human sickness there is one specific remedy, and this is it. There is no other.
    ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), Christian Faith and Other Faiths, London: Oxford U.P., 1970, p. 16-17 (see the book)
    See also Luke 5:29-32; John 10:7-9; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 John 2:23; Rev. 20:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I embrace Your exclusivity. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Michelangelo: Now hath my life across a stormy sea

Wednesday, April 6, 2016
    Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564
Meditation:
You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
    O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
    —Psalm 30:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
On the Brink of Death.

Now hath my life across a stormy sea,
    Like a frail bark, reached that wide port where all
    Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
    Of good and evil for eternity.
Now know I well how that fond phantasy
    Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
    Of earthly art is vain; how criminal
    Is that which all men seek unwillingly.
Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed,
    What are they when the double death is nigh?
    The one I know for sure, the other dread.
Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
    My soul, that turns to His great love on high,
    Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, v. II, J. A. Symonds, London: J. C. Nimmo, 1893, p. 309 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 30:11-12; John 6:51; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 9:25; 1 John 2:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Raise me, Lord, to meet You.

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Lewis: authorities

Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Meditation:
    [Jesus concluding a parable:] “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
    “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
    —Luke 16:30-31 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The rejection as unhistorical of all passages which narrate miracles is sensible if we start by knowing that the miraculous... never occurs. Now I do not want here to discuss whether the miraculous is possible: I only want to point out that this is a purely philosophical question. Scholars, as scholars, speak on it with no more authority than anyone else. The canon, “If miraculous, unhistorical,” is one they bring to their study of the texts, not one they have learned from it. If one is speaking of authority, the united authority of all the Biblical critics in the world counts for nothing. On this they speak simply as men—men obviously influenced by, and perhaps insufficiently critical of, the spirit of the age they grew up in.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Fern-seed and Elephants, Walter Hooper, Fontana, 1975, p. 113 (see the book)
    See also Luke 16:30-31; Amos 4:6-11; Matt. 13:58; Luke 13:3; Rom. 1:20; Rev. 16:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I need Your power and grace in my life, and Your miracles in my struggles. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allison: heresy's victims

Monday, April 4, 2016
Meditation:
    If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
    —1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What happens to someone who follows heretical teachings? It became quickly and readily apparent how cruel heretical teachings are and how prevalent the heresies are in contemporary times. Victims of these teachings have been encouraged to either to escape the world and their basic humanity into some form of flight and death or to use religion to undergird and isolate further their own self-centered self from the need to be loved and to love...
    The conviction that heresy is cruel has given me a growing awe of and respect for orthodoxy.
    ... C. FitzSimons Allison (b. 1927), The Cruelty of Heresy, Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehead Publishing, 1994, p. 17 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 13:2; 1 Tim. 1:9-10; 6:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1; 2 Pet. 2:18-19; Rev. 2:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may your grace and mercy be extended to those who are trapped in heresy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tillotson: God's judgments

Sunday, April 3, 2016
Meditation:
The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
    —Psalm 110:5-6 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If, when God sends judgments upon others, we do not take warning and example by them; if instead of reflecting upon ourselves, and [questioning] our ways, we fall [to] censuring others; if we will pervert the meaning of God’s providences, and will not understand the design and intention of them; then we leave God no other way to awaken us ... to a consideration of our evil ways but by pouring down his wrath upon our heads, so that he may convince us that we are sinners by the same argument from whence we have concluded others to be so.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. X, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon CCLIII, p. 154-155 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 110:5-6; Mic. 6:9; Luke 13:5; Rom. 11:33
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have my attention. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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