Bonhoeffer on the Bible

This is from a letter Bonhoeffer wrote to his brother-in-law. In the letter, the first paragraph actually comes at the end, but I am assuming you might not get that far! How are we to hear the voice of God through the Bible if we do not create the time and space (of quiet and reflection) to listen?

If it is I who determines where God is to be found, then I shall always find a god who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the cross of Christ and whoever would find him must go to the foot of the cross as the sermon on the mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it, but this is the message of the Bible, not only in the new but also in the old testament.

I believe that the bible alone is the answer to all our questions and that we need only ask repeatedly and a little humbly in order to receive an answer. One cannot simply read the Bible like other books, one must be prepared to inquire of it only thus will it reveal itself, only if we expect from it the ultimate answer shall we receive it, that is because in the bible, God speaks to us. One cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to inquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us.

Of course it is possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism etc. There is nothing to be said against that, only that it is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface. Just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them so that for days they go on lingering in our minds simply because they are the words of a person we love. Just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, pondering them in our heart, so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible as though in them this God were speaking to us, who loves us (and who does not will to leave us alone with our questions), only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible.