I’m writing a course. I’ve told you that before. It’s a course in pastoral care. We’re going to be talking about being helpful in all kinds of situations. But we’re starting with theology.

Not in a stuffy academic sense. But in the sense of how our understanding of God and us and each other and the world shapes our sense of what to do and what to say in offering support. Every day, I hear people making statements about who God is and what God ought to do in this situation or that.

As Tish Harrison Warren writes in Prayer in the Night, one of our texts:

“As a pastor, I’ve come to see that in the most vulnerable and human moments of our lives, doctrine is unavoidable. When all else gives way, all of us, from atheists to monks, fall back on what we believe about the world, about ourselves, and about God.” 27

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and teacher before and during WW2. In Life Together, he writes simply and briefly about being Christians living life together. (This is another of our texts.)

Early in the book, he says:

“The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. They receive each other’s benedictions as the benediction of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (New York: Harper and Row, 1954, p 20)

For Bonhoeffer, visiting those in need isn’t a nice thing, it is the presence of God. It is knowing that wherever two or more are gathered, Christ is there between them and in them.

And if this is what you believe, it changes how you interact.