Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany (now Poland) on the 4th day of February 1906. At age 21, in December 1927, Bonhoeffer completed his Doctor of Theology degree from Humboldt University of Berlin. He crossed the Atlantic in 1930 to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His experience at the Seminary was less than he had hoped, but his year in the United States and his reading of “All Quiet on the Western Front” changed his life.
When he returned to Germany, he was a vocal opponent of Christian Nationalism and the Nazi regime. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained as a Lutheran pastor on November 15, 1931, at the age of 25 at Old-Prussian United St. Matthew in Berlin-Tiergarten. He declined a call to a Lutheran Church in Berlin to protest the church’s alignment with government and took a teaching position in London, a move that was criticized by many in the Lutheran Church of Germany. He came home to Germany in 1935 and was soon denounced as a “pacifist and enemy of the state.” It was a dangerous time to be a critic of the Nazi regime. Bonhoeffer once again came to the United States with other members of the resistance movement.
In June 1939, Bonhoeffer wrote to renowned American Reformed theologian and Professor at Union Theological Seminary Reinhold Niebuhr:
“I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America this time. I must live through this difficult period in our national history along with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people … Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that a future Christian civilization may survive, or else willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization and any true Christianity. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from a place of security.“
And so, Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to his homeland and the German people, turning his back on the security and comfort of life in the United States. Back in Germany, Bonhoeffer joined the resistance movement and was harassed by the Nazi authorities. He was forbidden by decree to speak in public and was required to regularly report his activities to the police. The Nazi government sought to silence his voice entirely in 1941, when he was forbidden to print or to publish his writings. After taking part in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler, Bonhoeffer was arrested on April 5, 1943. Two years later as the Allies closed in on Berlin, Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at dawn on the 9th day of April 1945 at Flossenbürg concentration camp.
On the 80th anniversary of his death, I thought it appropriate to consider the words Bonhoeffer preached in a sermon in 1934.
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.”
2000 years ago, the power of Empire led to the arrest of a man of peace. Jesus was arrested and executed for upsetting the order, for threatening those in power. Tomorrow on Palm Sunday we will hear the story of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his betrayal and arrest. I hope that you will join us online or in person.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
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