In any case, for any men who are interested, we will be meeting this coming Saturday, September 14th, at 8 a.m. at Main Street Bagels (note that this is a new location). Our normal practice is to meet the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month, for those of you who are unaware.

We’ve been working through Bonhoeffer’s classic “The Cost of Discipleship,” and it’s a testimony to the meatiness of the material that we’ve been doing this for about 8 months and we’re halfway through chapter 2. Well, OK, it’s also a tribute to how we haven’t considered it at every meeting. In any case, Bonhoeffer continues to throw down the glove and challenge each of us with a very demanding, although brilliantly glorious and hopeful, perspective on our calling as Christians. For those who gravitate towards preachers that “suit their passions” (2 Tim 4:3) it would be better to sleep in — you won’t care for a splash of cold Bonhoeffer on your face so early in the a.m.

Otherwise, for those of you who enjoy a brisk morning walk, intellectually speaking (although you can also literally walk to Main Street Bagels, if you like), you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. We’ll be picking up our discussion on page 74. So, in case you haven’t received it by email, here’s a link to the chapter with page numbers: Bonhoeffer, Cost of Disclipleship, Chapter 2

For anyone who is not familiar with the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he is renowned as one of the (very) few religious leaders in Germany who actually opposed the Hitler Regime. He paid for it ultimately with his life, as he was executed by the Gestapo on April 9th, 1945 at the special order of SS comander Himmler, just a few weeks before the death of Adoph Hitler, and only a few days before the Flossenburg camp where he was held was liberated by the allies.

The Cost of Discipleship (or Nachfolge in German) was written in 1937, while the Nazis were approaching the zenith of their power in Europe. It is a scathing criticism of what Bonhoeffer refers to as “Cheap Grace,” which he feels is at the heart of the failure of the German Lutheran church, and indeed of Christianity generally, during those trying prewar years.

The irony is that, reading his work, it might have easily been penned last year as 70 years ago. Sadly, many of the same failings are with the church to this day. However being reminded of the “cost” of following Jesus Christ is timeless, as until the final trumpet the world will continue to oppose Christ’s followers, and whenever opposition fails, it will seduce — a far more effective strategy.

This Saturday we will review the introduction to The Cost of Discipleship. If you would like to read it ahead of time (which makes for a much more fulfilling group study), you can either purchase your own copy, or read the entire work for free on line. Here’s a link to an online copy: Click here to read The Cost of Discipleship on line for free  (Actually I just found out that this is NOT free after all.  I’m trying to find a free online copy somewhere, and will post here if and when I succeed.)

If you would like to read more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, here are a few links:

http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~diebon06/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

http://www.iep.utm.edu/b/bonhoeff.htm

Jamie Boda dove into this tangled paradox yesterday at the men’s group using a recent World Magazine editorial as his diving board. The article, by World Editor-in-Chief Marvin Olasky, pondered the notion that Christmas is as much a time for melancholy as merry-making. Or at least for reflection. After all, had we not needed Christ as our Savior, there would have been no incarnation, no babe in the manger, no Mary and Joseph seeking shelter for the night in a Bethlehem stall. In short, the corruption and loss of humanity was the primary driver for Christmas.

This doesn’t mean that Christmas is not, or should not be, a time of Joy. As the opening of the article echoes from Isaiah: “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O captive Israel.” However the reason for Christmas being a time of unsurpassed joy for Christians is bound up in that phrase “captive Israel.” The captivity makes release so much more euphoric.

Jamie brought this back into his own experiences and those of the men who were present Saturday morning before Christmas, 2007. If you’d like to read the article that Jamie was using as his discussion topic, you can find it here: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13610 (however if you’re not a World subscriber it will cost you a five-spot). Or you can give Jamie a call and request a hard copy. It’s well worth a read.