The Ministry of Meekness
Read: Romans 12:14-18
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
The German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a personal hero of mine. He followed Jesus courageously until his death in a Nazi concentration camp. While running an underground seminary and discipling students in small groups on a remote farm, Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together, a small book in which he reflects on Christian community. A section in the book called “The Ministry of Meekness” is closely tied to our passage, especially Paul’s call to “not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
Bonhoeffer shows us what really matters in the church:
Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of fellowship. Not self-justification, which means the use of domination and force, but justification by grace, and therefore service, should govern the Christian community. Once a man has experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire only to serve. The proud throne of the judge no longer lures him; he wants to be down below with the lowly and the needy, because that is where God found him.
There is an intrinsic connection between belief in the gospel, humility, and service towards others. Bonhoeffer is convinced that the latter depends on the former:
He who would learn to serve must first learn to think little of himself…Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the end of its tether when Jesus forgave him…Because the Christian can no longer fancy that he is wise he will also have no high opinion of his own schemes and plans. He will know that it is good for his own will to be broken in the encounter with his neighbor. He will be ready to consider his neighbor’s will more important and urgent than his own.
If we want to serve the church, we will do so by our humility. If we want to be humble, we will do so by knowing our own sinfulness. Listen once more to Bonhoeffer:
To forego self-conceit and to associate with the lowly means, in all soberness and without mincing the matter, to consider oneself the greatest of sinners… There can be no genuine acknowledgment of sin that does not lead to this extremity. If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. My sin is of necessity the worst, the most grievous, the most reprehensible. Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever. Therefore my sin is the worst. He who would serve his brother in the fellowship must sink all the way down to these depths of humility. How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?
In all their directness, may these words be a source of encouragement: encouragement in Jesus’s mercy, humility, and love for us, and encouragement to follow our Master by dedicating ourselves to “The Ministry of Meekness” as we serve His church this Sunday.
