http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945): pastor, theologian, martyr
Dietrich
was born to a prominent family in Breslau, Germany (now in Poland). His family was not very religious and attending
church was rather rare for them. They
moved to Berlin
in 1912, and Bonhoeffer surprised his family by announcing that he would be
going into the ministry. His brother
derided his decision, asking why he would waste his life in such a feeble
institution as the church. Bonhoeffer
replied that, "If what you say is true, I shall reform it!"
He began
his studies at Tübingen University, went to Rome,
and then went to Berlin
University, a centre of
liberal theology. He was exposed though
to the writings of Karl Barth, whose writings were opposed to liberal
theology. Bonhoeffer saw Liberal
Theology as minimisng scripture, and blaming it for the lack of relevance by
the church. He graduated sume cum laude
in 1927, at the age of 21.
Too young
to be ordained, he served as a curate in Spain
for a year at a German Speaking Lutheran church, and returned to Berlin a year later to
begin his thesis. He went to the US in 1930 for post graduate work at Union
Theological Seminary in New York. He studied under Rheinhold Niebuhr, and
taught Sunday School at the Abyssinian
Baptist Church
in Haarlem. He heard about the Gospel of Social Justice,
and became sensitive to the needs of the oppressed, but also to the churches
incapability to change segregation and oppression.
Returning
to Germany, he became a
lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Berlin,
and was active in European Ecumenism. His faith had gone from the intellectual
to trying to live as the Gospels proclaimed.
He was ordained in the Old Prussian United
Church, in Berlin in 1931.
In 1933 the
NAZIs took over, and within two days Bonhoeffer was condemning the idolatry of
der Fuehrer, live on radio. He was one
of the first if not the first to criticize the NAZI government on the
persecution of the Jews. He said the
“church should not only bandage those under the wheels, but jam a spoke in the
wheel itself.”
Rigged
church elections saw a take over of NAZI Christians over the German
Landeskirche, which Bonhoeffer resisted, by forming the Pfarrenmotbund, a
predecessor to the confessing churches.
While not large the confessing church was a constant source of Christian
resistance to the NAZI government.
Saddened by the complacency of the German church, Bonhoeffer went to London, where he pastured German churches in London, but also sought
help from the Ecumenical movement for the confessing church.
In 1935 he
returned to Germany
to head Finkenwalde, an underground seminary to train pastors for the
confessing church. His license to teach
at the University
of Berlin was revoked for
among other things, being a pacifist.
The seminary was shut down by the GESTAPO in 1940. Bonhoeffer left for the USA in part to keep from being
conscripted as he could not swear obedience to Hitler. He staid briefly as he felt guilty for those
he left behind, feeling that he must suffer with his people in order to be able
to rebuild Germany
with them.
In 1941 he
joined the Abwehr, and was able to use his position to help Jews escape Germany, and
was a courier for the German resistance.
He was at the very least aware of some or all of the plots against
Hitler. He felt guilty for this, but
also felt it was necessary to stop a truly evil man.
He was
arrested in 1943 because of rivalry between the SS and the Abwehr, and it was
only in 1944 that the NAZIs became aware of Bonhoeffer’s complicity in the
plots to kill Hitler. After the
discovery and reading of Admiral Canaris’s diaries, Hitler, enraged demanded
the deaths of the conspirators.
Bonhoeffer was hung with Canaris on 9 April 1945, two weeks before the
allied liberation of the camp where he was being held. Bonhoeffer’s
last words were, "This is the end -- but for me, the beginning --
of life."
Bonhoeffer’s
life is not his only legacy. He wrote a
great many books, chief among which would be The Cost of Discipleship. In
general he is Cristo-centric, but committed to social justice issues. Bonhoeffer recognises God as a suffering God,
who is still found in this world through the incarnation. Personal and common piety are important, but
so is the imitation of Christ, and that the church must suffer.
Bonhoeffers’s
life and teachings influenced many such as Martin Luther King, His life is a challenge to all of us. What should we do in the face of true evil? Will we stand up to it? Will we fight it? Or will we just stand there with our hands in
our pockets and pray with out taking action.
This is the question that members of the church must always ask. The Deutsche Landeskirche quickly fell into
idolatry of the leader and said nothing
as close to 6 million died. In our
nation, over 50 million have paid for their lives in abortions. Will we do something about it? Likewise in Mexico, are we willing to do
something about it?
Collect:
Heavenly Father, you gave Dietrich the strength and courage
to stand against evil. Let your church
and its members always be ready to stand against evil, sin and death. This we ask in the name of Yeshuah, who died
that we might have salvation. Amen.
