Monday, January 30, 2012

Worshipful Silence

Through the years, possibly mainly because I lived in Germany and it is a land I deeply love, but I have become more and more enamored by Dietrich Bonhöffer. His 39 years of life were full and would amount to the lifetime's of 3 or 4 people. In 1933, he gave a series of Christology lectures at the University of Berlin. Here is a quote from those lectures about worshipful silence.

"Insofar as the church proclaims Christ, it must fall down in worshipful silence before the unspeakable. God's word is unspeakable. Speaking of Christ is the ground of speech. This is what it means to make an obedient response to the revelation of God that occurs in the Word. The speaking of the church through silence is the proper proclamation of Christ. Prayer requires both silence and crying out at the same time, both in the presence of God and in response to God's Word." Who is Christ for Us? Dietrich Bonhoeffer p.31

Ponder that a bit in view of the reality of church life in year 2012.