The Day Together

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. PSALM 5:3

After the chapter on community, Life Together turns to something far more ordinary: how Christians who live together should spend a day. Bonhoeffer was writing from the experience of Finkenwalde, where young pastors shared a house, but he meant his counsel for Christian households of every kind — families, communities, anyone who shares a roof and a faith. What is striking about the chapter is how plain it is. There are no techniques, no spiritual athletics. There is a morning, a table, a day of work and an evening. And in each of them, the Word of God.

The day begins with God

Bonhoeffer thought the first moments of the day belong to God. Before the newspaper, before the plans, before the first worry, the Christian household should gather to hear the Word and to pray. The morning is not a time to be filled with our own thoughts, but to be quiet before the one who gives the day. Early Christians, he noted, felt the resurrection morning in every sunrise. The darkness is past; the light has come; the day belongs to the risen Lord.

It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. LAMENTATIONS 3:22–23

That common morning worship, as he described it, had several parts: the Psalms, the reading of Scripture, a hymn, and prayer. Each deserves a word.

Psalms, Scripture and song

The Psalms, he said, should be at the heart of the church’s common prayer, prayed together day after day. We shall come back to his teaching on the Psalms in a later chapter; here it is enough to say that he thought the church should learn to pray by praying the prayers God has given it.

Then comes Scripture. Bonhoeffer urged that it be read at length and consecutively — whole chapters from the Old and New Testaments, taken in order, day after day, rather than a verse or two chosen for the occasion. His reason is worth pondering. The Bible is not a collection of helpful sayings but a single great story of what God has done, above all in Jesus Christ. When we read it through, we are drawn into that story. We learn that our own lives are not the centre, and that the history which really matters is God’s history with his people. We find ourselves, he said, in the Bible, rather than trying to find the Bible in ourselves.

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. LUKE 24:27

He admitted that long readings would be hard for many modern Christians, who had lost the habit of listening. But he thought the loss was a sign of poverty, not maturity. A household that does not know the Bible cannot live by it.

Then song. Bonhoeffer loved music, and he had strong views on singing. He wanted the household to sing together, and he particularly valued singing in unison: one melody, one voice, the words carried by the tune rather than the tune showing off the singers. He was suspicious of any singing that drew attention to itself. The church sings, he said, not to perform but to join the song of the whole people of God, in heaven and on earth.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. EPHESIANS 5:19

Praying for one another

After Scripture and song comes prayer, and here Bonhoeffer thought that someone in the household — often its head — should pray freely for the others, in his own words. This prayer should not be a sermon disguised as prayer, nor a display of piety. It should gather up the real needs, joys, sins and tasks of the household and bring them before God. Such praying is not easy. It requires knowing the others well, and it requires the one who prays to pray as one of them, not above them. But it binds a household together as few other things can.

The table

Then there is the table. Bonhoeffer gave a surprising amount of attention to meals. Jesus was known to his disciples in the breaking of bread; and every shared meal among Christians, he thought, carries something of that. We give thanks, because the food is a gift. We eat together, because God has made us a family. And we remember that there are others who are hungry, and that the bread we eat is not ours alone.

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. LUKE 24:30–31

A family that eats together, gives thanks together and shares its bread with the stranger is already living out something of the gospel. Many modern households have lost the common meal altogether. Bonhoeffer would have counted that a real loss.

Work

After the morning comes the day’s work, and Bonhoeffer insisted that this too belongs to God. Prayer and work are not rivals. The monk’s old rule — pray and work — expresses the rhythm of Christian life. Work takes us out of ourselves and into the world of things, tasks and people. It disciplines us. It humbles us. And offered to God, it becomes a kind of prayer.

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. COLOSSIANS 3:23

He also thought that the morning’s prayer gives the day’s work its freedom. The Christian who has begun the day in God’s presence need not work anxiously. The day is already in God’s hands.

The evening

Finally, evening. Bonhoeffer counselled that the household gather again at the end of the day for prayer — and especially for forgiveness. Before sleep, Christians should ask pardon of God and of one another for the wrongs of the day. No quarrel should be carried into the night. The evening is a small rehearsal for the last evening, when we shall commit ourselves into God’s hands for good.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. EPHESIANS 4:26

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety. PSALM 4:8

Not a rulebook

It would be easy to read this chapter as a rigid timetable, and Bonhoeffer did not intend it so. A family with small children cannot live like a seminary. The point is the principle: a Christian household should let the Word of God shape its day, together, from morning to night, in whatever form suits it.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Look honestly at how your day begins. What claims your first attention? Give the first ten minutes of tomorrow to Scripture and prayer before anything else.

2. If you share a home with other believers, agree on one simple form of common prayer — even five minutes — and keep it for a month.

3. Begin reading one book of the Bible straight through, a chapter a day, rather than choosing verses at random.

4. Eat at least one meal this week with others, deliberately, giving thanks — and invite someone who would otherwise eat alone.

5. Before you sleep tonight, ask forgiveness of anyone you have wronged today, and of God.

A PRAYER

Lord, You give me each new day, and I have often filled it before I have given it back to You.

Teach me to begin in Your presence, to hear Your Word before any other word, and to pray before I plan.

Bless the tables where Your people eat together, and let us know You in the breaking of bread.

Make my work an offering to You. And when evening comes, let me lay down every quarrel, receive Your forgiveness, and sleep in peace, because You alone make me dwell in safety. Amen.