To Meet with Christ
It was during my studies when I had to write an essay about the theology of silence that I had one of those moments of clarity about my relationship with God. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained to his students in 1933 “Teaching about Christ begins in silence”. Bonhoeffer is saying that to gain knowledge of the mystery Christ, it is pointless to try and study God as we would an object. God is not at our disposal to examine, but chooses to be revealed to us. As we cannot examine the mystery of Jesus, our only way of seeking the knowledge of God through Jesus is to listen to his self-revelation. Jesus the man as a historical figure we are able study, but the divinity of Christ as a member of the Trinity must begin with faith and any understanding we have is only because it has been revealed to us. And how do we prepare to receive the Logos of the Word? According to Bonhoeffer it begins by being in a state of humble, receptive prayer or as Bonhoeffer says ‘silence’. To meet with Christ, in faith we enter silence, and prayerfully we wait upon Christ to reveal himself to us. Bonhoeffer was well aware of what Christians had claimed about Jesus throughout history, but he was mostly concerned with what the Word was to reveal to us, in the current time. Our place of silence is within today’s body of Christ, his Church. In this context we present ourselves ready to receive the revelation given by Christ himself today. It is to Christ, the focus of our faith and worship, we direct our silence. Therefore an important part of our services is to be silent, for example, before the service begins, after The Great thanksgiving and after The Communion, as we open ourselves for Christs revelation.
God Bless
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