Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Heroes of the Faith: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

DB was born in 1906 to German parents in Breslau. He lived a remarkable life at a very accelerated pace. He became a pastor and theologian by the age of 24 and as a great realist quickly understood the dangers his homeland faced. He courageously spoke out against National Socialism as a brutal attempt to create an empire without God and to found it on the strength of man alone.

As a pastor of two German churches in England he felt it his duty to return to Germany and support the Christians there. In a Memoir by G. Leibholz, Bonhoeffer is quoted as saying, "I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share in the trials of this time with my people...Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make this choice in security."

Shortly after making these comments he returned to Germany and joined the underground resistance teaching theology and encouraging the downtrodden.  He was arrested on April 5th, 1943 and soon won the friendship of many guards at the prison. They helped smuggle many of his writings to people on the outside. His book "Letters and Papers from Prison" is regarded a Christian classic.

One of the last messages ever received from him before his death was written at the Gestapo prison in Berlin during very heavy air raids. It was entitled "New Year 1945," and was composed of seven verses. Here is verse five:

   To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting;
   lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
   leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
   Thou canst illuminate e'en our darkest night.

Words like this are powerful reminders that doing the right thing can come with a seemingly heavy price tag. But there are some like Deitrich Bonhoeffer who understood that dying is the only way to life. He said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." For most of us here in the freedom of the USA this means something different than it did in 1945. Peter explained it as "dying to self" and it is the true cost of discipleship.

  "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when suffered he made no threats.
  Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the 
  tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." 
  (1 Peter 2:23-24)

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