Today 02022020

Today 02022020

Today would have been the 114 th birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was born FEBRUARY 4, 1906 to a wealthy family.

He studied in New York in 1930, where he met Frank Fisher, an African-American seminarian who introduced him to Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Bonhoeffer was inspired by African-American spirituals and the preaching of Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., who helped Bonhoeffer turn from what he called, "phraseology to reality." This had a transformative effect on the young man, motivating him to stand up against injustice.

Bonhoeffer helped found the Confessing Church in Germany, which refused to be intimidated by Hitler into silence. He stated:
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless if we do not speak out against wickedness.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer rebuked nominal Christians: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, of baptism without church discipline, of communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

Bonhoeffer stated in a 1932 sermon: "The blood of martyrs might once again be demanded, but this blood, if we really have the courage and loyalty to shed it, will not be innocent, shining like that of the first witnesses for the faith. On our blood lies heavy guilt, the guilt of the unprofitable servant."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned Germans not to slip into the cult of Führer (leader) worship, as he could turn out to be a Verführer (mis-leader, seducer).

We would do well to study the life of Bonhoeffer today, realizing that the time in which we live is as perilously fraught with deception as was his.

Of his return to Germany, Bonhoeffer wrote: "Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes."

Bonhoeffer challenged those who questioned his return to Germany: "To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ"

Bonhoeffer was finally arrested just as Germany was being liberated and he was executed on April 9, 1945 on the orders of Heinrich Himmler.

Former President Jimmy Carter wrote in his book Sources of Strength:

"Rev. Niebuhr urged Dietrich Bonhoeffer to remain in America for his own safety. Bonhoeffer refused. He felt he had to be among the other Christians persecuted in Germany. So he returned home, and ... in resistance to Hitler...preached publicly against Nazism, racism, and anti-Semitism … The same Holy Spirit ... that gave Bonhoeffer the strength to stand up against Nazi tyranny is available to us today."