Thursday, November 05, 2009

Bonhoeffer: Church and Community

"Since I as a Christian cannot live without the church, since I owe my life to the church and now belong to it, so my merits are no longer my own but belong to the church. Only because the church lives one life in Christ, as it were, can I as a Christian say that the chastity of others helps me when my desires tempt me, that the fasting of others benefits me, and that the prayers of my neighbours is offered in my stead" ~ Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio, p. 183.
h/t Alex

3 comments:

Mike W said...

Yes!
Lets get away from this bizzare ecclesiology that see's church as a cosmic flashmob, as though the gospel is a text message or e-mail, that people arrive to 'church' on a Sunday and then disperse unconnected.
By Christ we live one life!

I was trying to explain this to some people the other day, the sense that I got up the mountains that the life of each of the members of church was the church life. Church didn't stop being when it's members went out, so their obedience and faithfulness was joy for everybody.

Mike W said...

O by the way, is spally in a promotional shot with a kid jumping on her for Anglicare, it looked like her on the website

Matthew Moffitt said...

No, although I know the photo you're talking about. She actually thinks it looks like a female version of a guy we went to uni with...