From This Place. . .

Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. . .

I would like to tell you a story about an influential book on my shelf. It looks like any other book really. It has a plain tan and gray cover. It has 147 pages. It has a nice title (though you can’t see it from the front). But like some other books, this book has a characteristic that we don’t often think about when we read. This book is peopled.

Peopled: What does that mean? It means that this book wasn’t written in a vacuum. Behind all the pages, there is a community. Even though they might not be explicitly named, there are specific individuals in the author’s mind from cover to cover. This book is called Life Together, and it was written by a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1939. And when we read this book – and maybe some of you have -- it’s amazing how a community can create meaning and influence for others by simply living as the community it’s called to be. That’s the case with this book.

Some of you may have heard of Dietich Bonhoeffer before. He’s a very influential theologian, and he was an important figure in Germany when the Nazis came to power. He was a professor, a pastor, and a writer. And when Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer publicly opposed his leadership from the beginning. That was only the first step though. He would eventually go down a road that he couldn’t have anticipated. . . His brother-in-law worked for the Abwehr, the German intelligence agency, and that intelligence agency knew a great deal of what Hitler was actually doing behind the scenes – including his forced humiliation and slaughter of the Jewish people. The Abwehr responded. The agency began forming a plot to overthrow Hitler, and this plot involved an assassination attempt. Diectich Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law asked him to get involved – to use his connections with ecumenical churches around the world, particularly in England, to see if his clergy contacts could approach their governments and ask them to help in the Abwehr plot.

Eventually, Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law were arrested when it was discovered that they were helping Jews escape to Switzerland, and while they were in prison, the plots of the Abwehr were discovered. Three different assassination attempts had failed. Bonhoeffer was sent to a concentration camp and hanged in April 1945. He was only 39 years old.

But he left behind some important works, and his theology has been incredibly influential. And part of that theology lies within this very popular book. So let’s set the scene for Life Together.

Hitler came to power on January 30th, 1933. Two days later – on the day Hitler was installed as Chancellor - Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address against Hitler’s leadership and against the ways that people were granting so much power to him. Bonhoeffer believed that Hitler was setting himself up as an idol to be worshipped and that the people were giving him that power. It’s probably no surprise to us that Bonhoeffer's radio address was cut off mid-sentence. In July – six months later - tensions began to develop in the national church. At that time, there was only one Protestant church in Germany. But that church quickly began to align itself with the German Christian movement, which upheld a strong anti-Semitic theology that looked to Hitler to be the supreme leader of the nation and the church. Bonhoeffer and others believed this to be heretical and profoundly destructive. So the Confessing Church was born – an illegal church that broke away from the national church, a church that taught quite the opposite of what the German Christian Church was teaching. The ministers and leaders of the Confessing Church were putting themselves in danger on a regular basis.

And so, a number of them did just that in a little German town called Finkenwalde. Bonhoeffer was called to move there and to set up an illegal seminary in the town. Ministers came from across the country to study there but in an underground sort of way. Can you imagine studying like that? They knew that they would stay at the seminary to learn, grow, and become equipped to do a difficult job – to serve the church in a time of crisis, to serve at a time when they knew that they wouldn’t be paid (German ministers were paid by the state), and to serve at a time when they knew they could be drafted, arrested, or murdered at any time. But they did it anyway because they knew they were called to live as a community in faith toward God and one another. They believed that they were called to preserve a way of Christian life when it was becoming increasingly difficult to live as a Christian. This is the community behind the book I've mentioned – Life Together. That illegal seminary gave us a theology and practice of prayer and a concrete way to live in Christian community. That book is peopled. It was actually lived. It was practiced and written down, and preserved for us and others.

And thousands of years before it, another community was forming, and even though these communities were distanced in time, we could definitely say that they were connected. “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak and taught them.”

Let’s try to imagine the scene for a moment. Jesus - teacher, healer, one who called the Son of God – is gaining not only a reputation but a following. Large crowds are following behind him. It’s like Jesus is leading a procession of people who are hoping to change their lives – who are hoping to step into a reality that is deeper than the mundane, a reality of God’s Kingdom here on this earth. They’re following the one who is leading them into this new reality – a new reality that isn’t simply “out there somewhere” like a giant carrot on a stick in front of them. No, this new reality is right here, breaking forth into this world, into this mundane life. This is a procession I imagine that many would want to find themselves caught up in. I bet it’s one we want to find ourselves caught up in as well.

Jesus steps up that mountain. All eyes are on him. He sits – the stance of a teacher. And then, his disciples climb. They join him on that mountain. And in the midst of the crowd that is listening, we really have two crowds. Let's picture that: There are those at the foot of the mountain listening – perhaps that mountain served as an amphitheatre of sorts – and then there are those at his feet, his disciples, those who have joined this procession. And Jesus seems to put this community of procession-followers on display.

Jesus turns everything upside down on a mountain. The Kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit – those who know that they depend on God for everything. Comfort belongs to those who mourn – those who grieve for the wrongs and pains of this world, those who hope for the new reality to bring a lasting comfort right in front of their eyes. The earth will be inherited by the meek – those who have strength in gentleness and self-control. A fullness beyond our imagination belongs to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – those who chase after it with their very lives. We could go on and on. . .Mercy will be given to the merciful . .God’s face will be shown to the pure in heart. . .God’s adoption will belong to those who work for peace. . .And the Kingdom of Heaven will always belong to those who are persecuted for righteousness – those who are maligned unjustly. Even in the midst of injustice, God stands tall in the presence of those who suffer. God will call and equip disciples to live in Christian community – to serve the suffering - even when a Christian life seems to be difficult. Jesus turns everything upside down on that mountain.

And he puts his community of procession-followers on display. Here he is speaking to his disciples in front of that large crowd at the foot of that mountain. Here he is calling them blessed – though they are simple people. As procession-followers, God chooses to usher in that new reality in and through them. Though they are but poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven is realized in and through them. Astounding.

He seems to be saying that from here, from a simple mountain, these rag-tag followers who have made their way into a procession of the kingdom, will change the world! It all seems to start from here, from this place on a mountain.

And community after community after community has begun. And community after community after community has sat at Jesus’ feet. And community after community after community as followed, joining the procession. Community after community after community will continue to live toward that Kingdom – that realization of what is most true, lovely, just, and life-giving. And it has all been done in and through Jesus Christ, who embodies in human-life what is most true, lovely, just, and life-giving.

And so, where are we in that? We’re also a community that is joining that procession. We’re also rag-tag disciples who fall and make mistakes and yet who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be salt and light in this world. What does that look like? How can you simply live as the ones you are created to be – the ones we’re created to be together?

Life Together – a simple book – began in the life of a community. That book is peopled. It was written in a time of adversity. But beyond that time, this book about prayer, song, and Christian living has sold more copies than we can count. That community made a mark on the world as it sat at Jesus’ feet together.

I wonder, if our community became a book, what would it look like? If we left a testimony to the others what would it be? Twenty years from now or a hundred years from now, how will our message be peopled?

Let’s sit on that mountain.

Let’s sit at Jesus’ feet.

Let’s discover who we are and Whose we are and Where we are called.

Amen.

Renee Roederer

Director of Young Adult Ministries

PPC L.I.F.T.