Kate Bowler
Well, hello and welcome to The Life Together Apart Book Club, where we are reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together. My name is Dustin Benac and this is week two of our book club. We are so grateful that you're here. We're so thankful for the chance to gather around a common text and have some conversation about the various communities that we inhabit and the challenges that we face moving forward. And in this moment of uncertainty, transition, creativity, we're turning to Bonhoeffer and we're turning to one another because we believe that Bonhoeffer's words and wisdom, combined with the words and wisdom that each of you bring into this space, offers something back that can inform the way we pursue faithful and creative ways to move forward. And we recalled last week how Bonhoeffer wrote during this period of decisive cultural, ecclesial and social transition. It was this moment where it felt like the world had been turned upside down, the world was aflame. And even though there are profound differences between Bonhoeffer's time and ours, we similarly occupy this moment of transition, of uncertainty where it's not clear what the future may hold. Indeed, it calls to mind something Bonhoeffer wrote to a friend on the occasion of his friend's baptism. Bonhoeffer said "The church will have changed considerably by the time that you grow up". Indeed, for each of us, it seems that the church is changing and the type of change remains unclear. But we are turning to one another and the words and wisdom of previous generations and the event that they offer ways for us to move forward. We started last week by reading the preface and Bonhoeffer's short reflections on community, and we kick started the conversation by talking about the various challenges that we each encountered and the change that we hope to see in response to those challenges. I'm so thankful for the type of conversation we had last week, and I'm looking forward to similar conversation on the forum and with each of you throughout the week ahead. So this week we turn to week two where we're reading Bonhoeffer's short reflections on the day together. So if in the first chapter, Bonhoeffer gave this grand vision of the source and structure of community he transitions in chapter two to a very granular, precise, laser like focus description of the very ordinary, mundane, everyday practices that ground and structure a community of faith in a common life within it. So as we read this week, I want to direct our attention to three things. First, we want to pay attention to how Bonhoeffer describes the day together as emerging from the darkness. Much as we saw on our course on While It Was Yet Dark, the life of a community may emerge while it was yet dark for Bonhoeffer the life of a day together emerges in the morning out of the darkness while it was yet dark. So even in this moment of creativity, uncertainty and change, Bonhoeffer offers a vision about what may emerge from the darkness that patterns a common life according to a way that opens our lives in order to receive and see the reality and possibilities of God. So first, I want to attend to how it emerges out of the darkness. Secondly, what to attend to the very ordinary, everyday practices that Bonhoeffer describes. So he moves from this grand vision of community to a very particular, mundane, ordinary description of everyday practices, things like prayer, reading scripture, singing and Bonhoeffer devotes a laser like precision to the practices that ground and order a common life. And the third, we want to attend to the way that Bonhoeffer just describes a single day. As Bonhoeffer notes, late in this chapter, he says "It is enough to just maintain faith for a single day. The next day will have worries of its own". So for each of us, Bonhoeffer directs attention just to a single day. That's all we have to consider. So in the forum this week, I'd love for us to start the conversation by describing the everyday, ordinary practices that ground your life of faith and that of your community. If for you and your community, this is a time where it's no longer normal and you've had to adjust, innovate, explore new practices, please tell about us about those that as well. Or if for you this is a time where there's nothing ordinary, please feel free to describe the practices that you hope will guide your life of faith and that of your community. So in the form below, just post, what are the everyday ordinary practices that guide your life of faith? I'd love to see what we have in common and we'll kick start the conversation there and return later in the week to talk more about the text. Wherever you are, whatever the challenges you face today, please know that we just have to do today. That's all that we can control. That's all we can manage. We just have to explore how to order a common life together around a single day, because tomorrow we'll have enough worries for itself. I'll look forward to the conversation. So glad you're here. ................
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