There are times in cross-cultural work–in those nuanced, complicated relationships–that the differences dividing us seem simply too overwhelming. How can we possibly connect when we can’t even agree on that?
Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) has a lot to say about Christian community–and the obstacles we surpass. He notes,
“He is our peace,” says Paul of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14). Without Christ there is discord between God and man and between man and man.
….without Christ we also could not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego.
….What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give; ad the more meager our brotherly love, the less were we living by God’s mercy and love. The God himself taught us to meet one another as God has met us in Christ.
…..Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.
–Life Together, 1938
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