How does Bonhoeffer's Discipleship speak about the love the Christian community owes our immigrant neighbors? Bonhoeffer explores what he calls an "extraordinary love"—the love Christians must show, not only to our enemies, but to those who are different from us. Love for those who are like us—our families, our community, our nation—this is natural love. The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ is a cruciform love—it loves those who are different, those who hate us, those who are our natural enemies. In a time when empathy and compassion are seen as weak, it is important to be reminded by people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer about the true nature of love that reconciles us to our enemies, overcomes our differences, and calls to to a new way of life.

What does it mean to follow Jesus in this strange cultural moment in the U.S.? Should the Christian community use political power to support their way of life? Bonhoeffer interprets the sermon on the mount as the heart of Christian discipleship. The call to be merciful is a call to let go of honor, to let go of power, and to go to the margins with the poor and suffering. This episode explores what this means at a time when Christians seem to be struggling for political power as a way to secure honor and status.

The sermon on the mount is the heart of what it means to be a Christian disciple. For Bonhoeffer, this includes hungering and thirsting for God's justice. There are some who think Christians should not be concerned with justice, that somehow this is part of some woke liberal agenda. Yet, at the heart of the gospel is God's desire for justice--God's righteousness. To be a Christian means we must be concerned with justice because God is concerned with justice.

In chapter two of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer talks about the first steps of faith. Discipleship is about action, about leaving our nets or getting up from the table, and following Jesus. This is not a program or an idea, but an action. It’s recognizing the concrete reality of my neighbor and the call God makes upon my life. This episode explores Bonhoeffer’s understanding of discipleship not as religious or doctrinal principle, but decisive action in response to God’s call.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his grandmother in which he says, "The issue is really Germanism or Christianity". Today, it seems, the question for the church is: Americanism or Christianity? Beneath this conversation is the issue of cheap grace that baptizes our culture and way of life. It is a grace that allows religion and doctrinal belief to be used as a weapon against anyone who doesn't fit the cultural norm. The gospel calls us to costly grace, to a new way of life grounded in Jesus Christ. This episode continues our exploration of Discipleship by exploring the difference between cheap grace and costly grace.

Reading through Metaxas' Religionless Christianity: God's Answer to Evil, there are some things that Metaxas gets right. However, he misses something that central to Bonhoeffer's theology. This episode explores what Metaxas doesn't understand about Bonhoeffer's theology.

When you compare the book Religionless Christianity: God's Answer to Evil with Bonhoeffer's own writings, it raises questions about whether Metaxas and Bonhoeffer mean the same thing when they talk about the Kingdom of God. This episode compares Bonhoeffer's lecture Thy Kingdom Come! The Prayer of the Church-Community for God’s Kingdom on Earth with selections from Religionless Christianity: God's Answer to Evil.

In the first chapter of his book Religionless Christianity: God’s Answer to Evil, Eric Metaxas uses Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity to criticize the secularization of the Christian faith. “To what secular pressures and narratives have Christian leaders acceded, thinking it will help them reach the unchurched?” The problem? He seems to misunderstand what Bonhoeffer meant. For Bonhoeffer, religionless Christianity is focused on this world, not the next; it is about embracing a world come of age, not standing in opposition to it. This episode explores this and more.

In his lecture Thy Kingdom Come! The Prayer of the Church-Community for God’s Kingdom on Earth, Bonhoeffer challenges the “other worldly” tendencies of Christianity. He calls for the Christian community to recognize that in Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is coming into this world, not taking us out of it. What does this mean for the Christian community? That’s the focus of this podcast.

In II Chronicles 20, the kingdom of Judah is attacked by a great multitude from the nations around them. Verse 3 says that “Jehoshaphat was afraid; he set himself to seek the Lord…” In the prayer that follows, he reminds the Lord of the promise made to Abraham. Then, in verse 12, we read: “For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” “We do not know what to do…” What happens when everything you work and hope for comes crashing down? What happens when the path becomes blocked? Bonhoeffer explores these questions in a sermon on this text. This episode explores what his words have to say to us today.