Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Self-denial

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

“Self-denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all thats self-denial can say is: “He leads the way, keep close to Him.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in Cost of Discipleship (New York: SCM, 1959) 88. I came across part of this quote in reading God is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which led me back to his classic work, Cost of Discipleship. A must-read for everyone!

Week two of Lent starts today. “Self-denial” comes into view.

Bonhoeffer calls us to focus on Christ versus self. In similar terms the Apostle Paul urges us to live according to the Spirit rather than the flesh (cf. Colossians 3:5-7; Romans 8:13). Why does it matter? All acts in the flesh are like filthy rags (cf. Isaiah 64:6), but a fruit of the Spirit is generosity (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). Apart from the Spirit, there is no generosity!

There is an “a-ha” moment that some experience in Lent. Not everyone gets it. I missed it for years. Here is its: Disciplines linked to self-denial are not seeking to rob us of anything; they free us to take hold of something better. I don’t know what God has for you this Lent, but deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. That’s the only way to find out.

“He leads the way, keep close to Him.”

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Matthew 6:25-27

“Lent provides us with the grace-filled opportunity to reflect upon, and name our own sacred struggles. To recognize and accept that which we are most anxious about, that which keeps us up at night, that which prevents us from growing in our faith, hope, and trust…Are there any prayer intentions that you’ve been hesitant to name? Sacred struggles you dare not ask God to meet? Healings or forgiveness that you aren’t sure whether you are prepared for? What are you most anxious about now? As part of our commitment to be people of prayer and to embrace our sacred struggles, I would like to invite you to…jot down your Lenten prayer intention…your “sacred struggle” if you will, that is preventing you from growing and thriving in your faith.”

Tony Zimmer in his homily entitled “Sacred Struggle” on 26 February 2017 at St. Anthony on the Lake in Pewaukee, WI. Thanks to my friend, John Stanley, for alerting me to this message, and to Ben Brzeski for getting a copy of it for me.

As the first week of Lent draws to a close, I would encourage you to make the most of the opportunity to go deeper in your experience of prayer this Lent. With Zimmer, remember that it’s a “grace-filled opportunity” to lift up to God anything and everything that brings you anxiety.

Such things become “sacred struggles” because we get stuck. We lose sleep. We worry. We start making other decisions that reflect the anxiety swelling within us. With Zimmer, let us give God our “sacred struggles” this Lent and see what happens to our faith.

How does this relate to generosity? When our lives are filled with worry and anxiety, we tend to hoard in fear rather than live open-handed, generous lives! Make the most of your prayer time this Lent, and I think your generosity will blossom along with your faith!

As a bonus for those who like to add music to their prayer time, click to listen to “Gracious God” by Jesse Manibusan. It’s a beautiful song that St. Anthony on the Lake is using this Lent. You will notice it speaks of the sacred struggle in the second verse. Enjoy it in your time with our Lord today.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:13-15

“Think of poverty. Even outward poverty, a hard and simple life, the dropping for love’s sake of the many things we feel we ‘must have’ is a great help in the way of the Spirit. Far more precious is that inward poverty of which is the sacrament; which frees us from possessions and possessiveness and does away with the clutch of ‘the I, the Me and the Mine’ upon our souls. We can all strive for this internal grace. This is an attitude of soul, and it is a very important part of the life of prayer. The Holy Spirit is called the Giver of gifts and the Father of the poor; but His cherishing action is only really felt by those who acknowledge their own deep poverty – who realize that we have literally nothing of our own, but are totally dependent on God and on that natural world in which God has placed us and which is the sacramental vehicle of His action. When we grasp this we are ready to receive His gifts. Some souls are so full of pious furniture and ornaments, that there is no room for Him. All the correct things have been crammed into a poor little villa, but none of the best quality. They need to pull down the curtains, get rid of the knick-knacks, and throw their premises open to the great simplicity of God.”

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) in Lent with Evelyn Underhill, ed. by G.P. Mellick Belshaw (Harrisburg: Morehouse, 1990) 20.

Underhill is spot on. Inward poverty “frees us from possessions and possessiveness” that seeks to dominate our souls. How do we take hold of this? Through the Lenten practices of giving, praying, and fasting, we realize “we have literally nothing of our own” but what God has given us. We embrace that we “are totally dependent on God” and only then are we “ready to receive His gifts” for us and others.

Can a cup that is full of water receive living water so that it never thirsts again? Of course not! Inward poverty is about emptying that which crowds out God and His good gifts to make room for that which is best. It’s what Jesus invited the woman at the well to grasp for her sake and for blessing her village (cf. John 4:1-42). Is there anything that is crowding out God and His good gifts for you and others? Any “pious furniture and ornaments” that need to go?

Father in heaven, we pause in solitude and prayer today to acknowledge our total dependence on You. Show us the things in our lives that crowd out You and Your good gifts. Help us by your Holy Spirit to identify and remove them. Fill us to overflowing so that we are satisfied and eager to share. Like the woman at the well, may our joyful sharing in the villages where You have placed us, help others find life in You too. Make it so we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

In purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 6:6-10

“Such exercises as fasting cannot have their proper effect unless our motives for practicing them spring from personal mediation. We have to think what we are doing, and the reason for our action must spring from the depths of our freedom and be enlivened by the transforming power of Christian love. Otherwise, our self-imposed sacrifices are likely to be pretenses, symbolic gestures without real meaning. Sacrifices made in this fashion would be better left unmade.”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in Contemplative Prayer (New York: Image Books, 1969) 52.

The Apostle Paul lived with intentionality. His focus, and that of his colleagues, was enduring anything in order to minister to others with love empowered by the Holy Spirit. Merton, and the rest of us much later, have to “think what we are doing” in order to do things for the right reasons. Fasting is one of those things.

Saying “NO” to something to say “YES” to other things wins no favor before God. It’s a waste of time and energy. So what should we do? Lent is about learning to say “NO” to the flesh so we can say “YES” to the Spirit. When we do, the transforming power of God works in us and “having nothing, and yet possessing everything” God makes us into generous conduits of His love.

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12:38-40

“The noonday devil of the Christian life is the temptation to lose the inner self while preserving the shell of edifying behavior. Suddenly I discover that I am ministering to AIDS victims to enhance my résumé. I find I renounced ice cream for Lent to lose five excess pounds. I drop hints about the absolute priority of meditation and contemplation to create the impression that I am a man of prayer. At some unremembered moment I have lost the connection between internal purity of heart and external works of piety. In the most humiliating sense of the word, I have become a legalist. I have fallen victim to what T.S. Eliot calls the greatest sin: to do the right thing for the wrong reason.”

Brennan Manning (1934-2013) in The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2005) 121.

Why beat this warning drum so early in Lent? Related to our generosity, God cares about the condition of our hearts, not our external “works of piety”. If our hearts are right, the works will follow suit.

How’s your heart condition today? Ask God that question in silence, and see how the Spirit speaks to you.

Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” John 4:31-34

“Fasting is not so much about abstaining from eating food as it is about finding an entirely new source of food…This is an intense idea. Food is a good thing, until it has become the main thing, and for so many of us (present company included) food has become the main thing. Can we just call it? My food is not to do the will of God but rather, pizza and steak and bar-b-que and lots of chips and salsa and Panda Express and I’ll stop there. My life, all too often, revolves around food. I think about it way too much. No sooner have I finished lunch than I start thinking about dinner.

Don’t you think Jesus would like to take us to this place with him — where we are fed at the deepest level from doing the will of God? Wouldn’t that be awesome?! Again, food is a good thing, until it has become the main thing. I think if my food were doing the will of God that normal food might taste even better.

So how might we get to such a place in our experience of Eternal Life? It brings me back to the practice of fasting. I’ve been learning a lot about fasting over the past couple of years. I’ve mostly thought about fasting in the same way I think about dieting — as a temporary alteration of my normal pattern in order to gain some kind of positive benefit. In my experience, dieting does not produce lasting change. I am coming to think that dieting is all wrong, because it just means swapping out one kind of food for another (until you can’t stand it anymore or the Swiss Cake Rolls come calling). What needs to change is not so much the food I eat but my overall relationship with food. With this kind of change, my diet will cease to be an aberration from the norm and begin to be a new normal.

The same might be said of fasting. What needs to change is not my technical practice of fasting but my overall relationship with God. With this kind of change, my fasting will cease to be an aberration from the norm and begin to be a new normal.

Now, the fascinating thing about fasting in the way of Jesus is it will not only change your relationship with God, it will change your relationship with food. I’ll push it a step further and speculate that my disordered relationship with food may actually be a symptom that I have a disordered relationship with God.”

J.D. Walt in “The Critical Difference Between Fasting and Dieting” blogpost on 2 March 2017.

This is an excellent summary of “the fascinating thing about fasting in the way of Jesus” for those who don’t understand fasting during Lent or the rest of the Christian life. I hope this is helpful.

This Lent, I am learning to let go of something I thought I needed to grab hold of God who is all I need. In so doing, I am already realizing He satisfies in a way nothing else does. Try fasting. See for yourself.

Fasting also shapes our generosity because the food God gives us is to do His will and finish His work. Our lives are fueled by more than food, but by the springs of living water that flow from Him.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. Luke 12:33

“About the same time also my wife and I had grace given to us to take the Lord’s commandment, “Sell that ye have, and give alms,” Luke xii. 33, literally, and to carry it out. Our staff and support in this matter were Matthew vi.19—34, John xiv. 13—14. We leaned on the arm of the Lord Jesus. It is now twenty-nine years, since we set out in this way, and we do not in the least regret the step we then took. Our God also has, in His tender mercy, given us grace to abide in the same mind concerning the above points, both as it regards principle and practice; and this has been the means of letting us see the tender love and care of our God over His children, even in the most minute things, in a way in which we never experimentally knew them before; and it has, in particular, made the Lord known to us more fully than we knew him before, as a prayer hearing God.”

George Müller (1805-1898) in A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller. Written by Himself. First Part (London: J. Nisbit & Co., 1860) 69-70.

Giving alms, that is, sharing your surplus to meet someone’s deficit, is not a suggestion from our Lord, but a command. People are afraid of it. The more money they have, the more they are afraid to let it go. Truth be told, Jenni and I were terrified too. We thought (wrongly!) that those who obeyed would end up empty, so we ignored Jesus. We did for about the first 17 or so years of our marriage.

No wonder Lent begins with repentance (Ash Wednesday)! The time for practicing selective inattention to “hard teachings” of Jesus is over. We must change directions (that’s what “repentance” means)! No one is immune to this. It applies to all of us.

As we enter Lent, it’s encouraging to read from the personal testimony of George Müller that after 29 years of giving alms and leaning on the “arm of the Lord Jesus” that Jesus not only heard their prayers, but ministered to them by meeting even “minute” needs.

What Müller discovered long before us, and what we have found to be true is this: when we obey this command of Jesus, we don’t end up empty, but rather, enriched for greater generosity, because our God is a prayer hearing God, and we are His hands and feet. Some times we get to bless, and other times we receive the blessing.

Give alms this Lent. Our Lord commands it. Your life will never be the same, and you won’t regret it because we serve a prayer hearing God!

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12

“Ash Wednesday…initiates a season of acknowledging our sinfulness. In very intentional ways, we invite God to search us and know us and (eventually) to lead us into resurrection life. The ashes marking our foreheads carry the same meaning contained in the Old Testament practice of covering oneself with ashes: they are an outward sign of an inward repentance and mourning as we become aware of our sin. This, too, is good for us because we live in so much denial. Facing our sin in the shadow of Christ’s cross and impending resurrection is the healthiest way to deal with our sin.

The inner dynamics of Lent have to do with fasting or abstaining from the ways we normally distract ourselves from what’s really going on in our lives spiritually — the reality of our sin and the deeply patterned behaviors that keep us from our calling to follow Christ. We allow some of the external trappings of our lives to be stripped away so that we can find our true identity and calling in God once again. We acknowledge the subtle temptations to which we are prone rather than pretending we are beyond temptation. We face the spiritual reality of the battle being waged for our very souls.”

Ruth Haley Barton in “Returning to God with All Our Hearts: Preparing for a Holy Lent” blog post dated 21 February 2017.

What does this have to do with generosity?

Remember that God does not need our money, He wants us to give him our hearts. When we come to Him in repentance and then pursue a season of giving, prayer, and fasting, it helps “reset” our lives. We take hold of our true identity, and through these experiences He transforms us into His generous people.

Let the Lenten journey begin (and do reply if you want PDF copies of the Lent Calendar, Lent Guide, and Lent Companion that Jenni and I have put together).

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

“Needs should not be the motivating factor in giving. The needs of the Jerusalem Christians were not motivating factors for the Macedonian Christians when they generously responded with gifts beyond their ability. Their Christian faith and love for Jesus was (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). The needs in Jerusalem simply indicated where they could exercise their Christian love.

Today, the needs of the church and people throughout the world are overwhelmingly immense … A frequent mistake among churches is to use needs to get members to give when Christian love should be the sole motivator. Needs are simply indicators of where to exert Christian generosity. Using needs as a motivating factor can actually end up counterproductive. Some may minimize their perception of what is needed and end up giving less than they should and could.

Again, those motivated by the church budget, may donate only “their fair share” by making comparisons with the contributions of others. Church budgets as motivators can actually limit giving because they often reflect minimum needs of the church and therefore pull down the level of potential giving. Love motivated giving, on the other hand, focuses on the need of the giver to give (out of love to Christ) rather than on the need of the church to receive (to meet the budget).”

Rev. Thomas Soltis of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in “Haphazard vs. Biblical Giving – Love vs. Need Motivation”.

As we think about giving this Lenten season and beyond, Soltis offers sound advice. We must not measure our giving based on needs. “Needs are simply indicators of where to exert Christian generosity.” We must give out of love and gratitude for all God has given us.

And when it comes to conversations about church or institutional budgets, if you are the one communicating to the congregation or constituents, lift their gaze toward God and encourage them to give out of love. This regular practice will help you grow “cheerful givers” whom God loves!

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23

“Jesus comes to us in the poor. What finally counts is not whether we know Jesus and His words, but whether we live our lives in the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus is the spirit of love. Jesus Himself makes this clear when He speaks about the last judgment.

These people will ask, “Lord when did we see You hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?” and Jesus will answer, “In so far as you did this to one of the least…of mine, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:37, 40).

This is our great challenge and consolation. Jesus comes to us in the poor, the sick, the dying, the prisoners, the lonely, the disabled, the rejected. There we meet him, and there the door to God’s house is opened for us.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 1997) daily reading for 4 August.

Both today’s biblical text and reading may shock some folks who think going to heaven is just about knowing Jesus. He Himself said that those who know and love Him will also obey Him and do what He says.

In the last parable in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus Himself said what separates us as sheep from the goats is what we do with the the poor. This is “our great challenge and consolation” as Nouwen put it.

What about you? The closer Jenni and I get to Jesus, the closer we find ourselves to the poor, the broken, and the hurting. We are realizing we can’t help everyone but we can serve those around us.

As we approach Lent, take a few minutes and think about the poor around you. Pray about how you might show them the Spirit of Jesus through some specific activity, as an act of love. Follow God’s leading in serving the poor.