Being Religious, Being Christian

In all our debates about faith, what is it that we are seeking?

In some of our national debates, it is the discipline of spirituality of the devout Muslim that is admired.

Within the church, we often admire those with particular gifts or charisma.

But what does God call us to?

These words of Bonhoeffer, often quoted, (Letters and papers..., 21st July 1944) are perhaps helpful:

"The Christians is not a homo relgiosus, but simply a man, as Jesus was a man - in contrast, shall we say, to John the Baptist. I don't mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the busy, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this worldliness, characterised by discipline and the constant knowledge of death and resurrection".

can we therefore learn a spirituality of this world? It will be one that affirms creation, as Christ did at Bethlehem; that is full of a this-world godliness (the wedding at Cana) but also full of faith and death and resurrection. 

Later in the same letter, Bonhoeffer continues:

"I remember a conversation I had in America... with a young French pastor... He said he would like ti become a saint (and I think its quite likely that he did become one). At the time I was very impressed, but I disagreed with him, and said, in effect, that I should like to learn to have faith. For a long time I didn't realize the depth of the contrast. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life... I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself...  By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In doing so we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world - watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, if faith; that is metanoiai; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian."

I suspect these last few words in the second quote are less commonly quoted. But in the light of daily life, and in the light of Haiti, they take on a deeper resonance.