Seventy years ago today, on
April 5, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and incarcerated at Tegel
Military Prison in Berlin. After years
of opposition to the Nazi regime, he was arrested in large part for his efforts
to protect Jews and “non-Aryan Christians.”
He was arrested, along with his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, on
charges of suspicion of treason and currency violations. They had not only helped Jewish families to
escape Germany; they provided them with money as well.
The story of Bonhoeffer’s
life has been popularized through many generations of students who have focused
almost solely on his faith-driven political activism. Despite the long-standing publication of
several serious theological commentaries by Bonhoeffer, it is only in the last
decade that the breadth of his faith and theological insights has been given
broader exposure. He was an
extraordinary human being; he was an extraordinary and courageous Christian. On April 3, 1945, Bonhoeffer was transferred
to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, and
on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer
along with several high-ranking German officials was hanged.
We have a record of many of
his thoughts from his prison experience collected in Letters and
Papers from Prison. It is
clear that he continually praised God, approached God with gratitude and sought
to find the response to the world appropriate to his faith. “What keeps gnawing
at me is the question, what is Christianity, or who is Christ actually for us
today?” As tempting as it has sometimes
been to takes the prison thoughts and try to build a vision of faith solely on
them, if we would understand Bonhoeffer’s faith – which defined his political
actions – then we must go more deeply into his earlier writings: The Cost of
Discipleship; Life Together;
Ethics; and Psalms: The
Prayer Book of the Bible. For Bonhoeffer, Christian faith could only be
lived out within community, and by its very nature a community is a political
force in the world.
I have always been attracted
to the socialist activism of so many Christian leaders. In looking more deeply into their lives, I
have almost always found their activism driven by a deep faith reflected in
personal spiritual practices and a great deal of prayer. Certainly this was the case in Bonhoeffer’s
life. Bonhoeffer used the Psalms as the
core of his own prayer life. I’m not
sure if we have given enough time to considering the Psalms in our rushing
modern lives. We want problems and
issues dealt with quickly, and stepping back and reflecting prayerfully in any
way is not something that we always leave time for.
We Presbyterians say that
Jesus is the only head of our church, and yet church Sessions and various task
forces often make serious decisions about church life without taking the time
to ask the “advice” of the head of our church.
The morning Psalm in today’s
daily lectionary readings is Psalm 136.
It begins like this:
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures for ever;
It’s a responsive prayer in
which everything ascribed to God is followed by “for his steadfast love endures
forever.” What a wonderful way to start
the day, remembering out loud the everlasting love of God that endures for our
sakes. Those were the words that kept
Bonhoeffer strong in the faith and strong in his person through suffering and
degradation that most of us have difficulty even imagining. It was that belief
in the ultimate supremacy of God’s love that drove him and sustained him. It can do as much for you and for me.
Let us pray: Lord God, source of enduring love, in you
alone do we have any strength. In you
alone we have security. In you alone we
have redemption. Through Christ you have
torn down the wall of sin and selfishness that we built penning ourselves off
from you. In Christ you call us back to you. Build your kingdom within our
hearts that we might show your kingdom to the entire world. Amen.
Pastor Jim
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