In his book "The Cost of Discipleship," Dietrich Bonhoeffer devotes a section of the book to walking through the Sermon on the Mount. As you read each chapter, you realize the pattern of his writing – something he refers to as “single-minded obedience” and what follows: this is what Christ says; this is what we would like to think he meant; actually, he meant what he said; you’re right, that is impossible; this is why you need the grace of God, the complete work of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Over and over, with every passage of Christ’s sermon Bonhoeffer pushes aside the interpretive pseudo-theology or the self-experiential impositions, and he promotes the “single-minded obedience” of the scripture. He then acknowledges the exceptional difficulty of the face-value of Jesus’s words, so he then points away from self-reliance.

Though this isn’t a new concept, what was striking to me in this book was the simple cadence of the writing. The writing itself followed its own pattern. I think this rhythm of the book really indicates Bonhoeffer’s great understanding of human nature. We live our lives in phases: some phases by the week, some by the season, some by the decade, some simple, some very complex. We have phases of sin, phases of joy, phases of suffering and sorrow, and phases of hope. What Bonhoeffer understands is that in each phase, there is the reminder of a simple cadence which ultimately points to Christ’s work that gives us the strength of the Holy Spirit. As Thanksgiving passes, we are entering the annual phase of Advent. Pray that this season, this cadence, be one lived in light of Jesus and his work.