The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams...Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
1 comment:
Such an interesting essay...it resonates with me, because so often Christian groups (schools, friends, youth groups, churches) fail to live up to their original promise. After a brief honeymoon, I discover that this group of folks is just as messed up and broken as the people I knew at my last church, or school, or whatever. And Bonhoeffer's point, I think, is that the 'honeymoon' vision is false and idolatrous. We should thank God for whatever messed up Christian community we're in, because we're bound together by grace and by faith, not by some special feeling of togetherness or unity or fondness or what-have-you.
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