My senior DCE students and I are reading and discussing Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.  This is the 20th class that I have discussed this book with and each year I find it to be such a blessing of discovery.  Bonhoeffer starts off by writing, “In the following we shall consider a number of directions and precepts that the Scriptures provide us for our life together under the Word.”

The phrase, “under the Word,” really strikes me as I ponder and attempt to synthesize this past year of surgery, new adventures (CPE, Pivot Point) and the continual growth under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  When I read about life, “under the Word,” I hear from the catechism that we receive “in, with, and under” and I come to realize and ponder that life in Christian community is both incarnational and sacramental.  God is present in the Christ-filled folk around me and they bless me in the journey.  It is through those who live with me “under the Word” that I hear the assurance of forgiveness and the promise of a new day.

Spiritual formation is about learning to live under the Word.  Under the Word implies humility and submission as the Word guides and directs our life together.  Bonhoeffer reminds us that there is no community apart from Jesus Christ.  A community founded on any other mission is not truly a community and has only a human core.

To live under the Word is certainly confessional but, in the style of Jesus, it is welcoming, inclusive, healing, uplifting and restful.  Life under the Word also leads to confrontation, truth, suffering and even aloneness.  The world outside of Christian community wants nothing to do with Christian community.

This Bonhoeffer always challenges me.  I wish I could have known him and had coffee with him.

I heard a true story today of a person entering into The Third Age (over 50). This person lays flat all day and needs assistance to roll over, eat, toilet….actually needs assistance for everything. This person can only communicate with grunts and noises with an occassional expression of the eyes or a small movement of the hand. As I heard the story I also heard how someone who cared, came into this person’s life, offered conversation, offered recognition and then offered prayer. The person who laid there found ways to communicate deep appreciation.

We need to define lifespan; thus the “?” marks. If it is right up until the moment of death, which I believe it is, we need to rethink our approach and our understanding. When I think of the person who lies there or the person in the last moments of life on this earth, it makes me wonder about how we do faith nurture. How does one support and nurture the faith of the one who lays there? The Holy Spirit is present, and, yet, the person cannot respond. How do we help this individual in their faith journey? How do we help this person find comfort in the God who is present? How do we help this person pray and worship? When we talk faith formation across the lifespan, how do we apply that concept in this situation?

My fear is that maybe we don’t do any of these things because we think that this person is done with life….and, yet, the person is breathing and interacting with the environment, even if only with the eyes. I hope that someone in this person’s life reads the Scriptures with them and prays with them and talks with them and sings hymns with them. I hope we don’t give up. I hope and pray that we validate this person’s life and recognize the dignity of creation. I hope and pray that we celebrate the human connection and then allow the Holy Spirit to seal the spiritual connection.

It makes me wonder how congregations serve this person. Wouldn’t it be great if individuals helped out families and someone would read books………read Scripture……..read the newspaper……….pray…….laugh……watch TV….and help this person remain in the mainstream of life? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful ministry. Wouldn’t it be great if someone gave this person a hand massage or a foot massage in the style of Jesus?

What ministries do you see in operation for this person? How do we help recruit and equip people for ministry to this type of person? This person is still a part of the family of God……..I would love to hear how you see that being a lived reality.

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is becoming the life transforming experience that I had hoped it would become.  I had read, and been told, that CPE was about patient care and that it was about the interior journey.  It is everything that I hoped it would be and more.

Our group of five spends a great deal of time in study and reflection.  CPE is based upon an experiential learning model which builds reflection into the process.  The gift I have been given is to be with a group of people who are insightful and who are able to speak the truth in love.  I really appreciate the loving honesty as they have gently guided me in the interior realm.

My strong goal has been to deepen my listening skills in spiritual direction and to identify issues that would impact the care I might give to patients.  This CPE process is helping me see in a deeper way those things that keep me from listening as fully as I might and provides me with a safe place to try out new ways of listening and expressing.