Reviving a Radical Tradition

Last updated on: May 18, 2012 at 4:52 pm by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Reviving a Radical Tradition 2012-05-18T16:52:55-06:00 Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

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Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof

I love to tell the story about how, in the 1930’s, when Dietrich Bonhoeffer was resisting the Nazis in Germany and praying for a “new monasticism that has in common with the old a strict adherence to the Sermon on the Mount,” a little community of believers, calling themselves the “Bruderhof,” gathered around a simple mission: to live out Jesus’ instructions in the Sermon on the Mount. They were run out by the Nazis for being pacifists, then by the British for being German. They were dismissed at first for being idealists, then later for being traditionalists. But all along, they kept going with the Sermon on the Mount at the center of their life together.

For 80 years, the Bruderhof has lived honestly and openly, with both successes and failures, Bonhoeffer’s dictum:

“Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his word. He does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with it.”

Which is why, amidst the myriad announcements about summer festivals, gatherings, and events, I was tickled to get this message from friends at the Bruderhof:

Join us for a weekend of fellowship, work, and discussions on how the Sermon on the Mount can be made real. Bring your work gloves and Bibles – leave the lawn chairs and Yoga mats behind! The Sermon on the Mount Work Camp will take place on the weekend of August 3 –5 2012 at the Mount Community (formerly Mount St. Alphonsus) overlooking the Hudson River. During the course of the weekend, we will read and seek on Jesus’ radical teachings in Matthew 5-7.

Jesus requires more than just words from us. So, help us as we hammer, sweep, and scrub, converting this historic, former seminary into a community focused on love to God and service to others. Through inspired work, community, and lively interactions may the Sermon on the Mount revitalize and change all our lives!

It turns out that this summer work camp is being organized not by the community’s elders, but by its youth. They’re tired of just listening to stories about the old days. They want to read–and, even more, to live–the Sermon on the Mount for themselves. They’re reviving a radical tradition from within. And they’re inviting you to join them.

So, if your youth group is looking for a summer mission trip, if your family is thinking about a vacation with a little more meaning, if you want to meet some folks who’ve been doing Christian community for four and five generations, or if you just want to know what I think–I say go and see. Go and do. Go and practice living the Sermon on the Mount.

For more info, check out the website for Sermon on the Mount Work Camp 2012.

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