DIETRICH BONHOEFFER DYING TO LIVE

Transcription

1 SERIES: THE STORY OF A LIFETIME SESSION FIVE, WINTER 2015 DIETRICH BONHOEFFER DYING TO LIVE Dietrich Bonhoeffer: We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Bonhoeffer was born in The Bonhoeffer children learned from their parents (1) they should think through their position before stating it and (2) one must be prepared to on what he believed. At the age of thirteen, he decided that he would be a. Bonhoeffer attended Berlin University and received his PhD at the age of. While doing further academic work at Union Theological Seminary in New York, his life and his faith were changed by attending the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem his faith became personal and he learned that the Gospel should cause us to care for the poor and the oppressed. When Bonhoeffer returned to a Germany that was changing: Hitler was rising to power. Bonhoeffer immediately recognized the within Hitler and his ideology and began to speak against him. He was 27 years old when Hitler became Chancellor and he delivered a blistering radio address against him. As Hitler consolidated power throughout the institutions of Germany, he determined to gather all the churches into a church that would report to him and adopt his racial views regarding the Jews. Bonhoeffer and his colleague Martin Niemoller founded what would become known as The Confessing Church. He was arrested, and after his release, was banned from Berlin, and eventually not allowed to publish his writings. In 1938 he met members of the German movement and joined their efforts. As war became imminent, Bonhoeffer accepted an invitation to teach in. But even while on his way to the States, he concluded he must return to Germany.

2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer: I made a mistake in coming to America. 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 Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security. He returned to Germany on the scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic. He renewed his work with the German resistance movement and joined their plot to assassinate Hitler. In 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo because of his involvement to help escape to Switzerland. Fifteen months later the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler failed. Thousands were arrested and tortured, and names were revealed, including Bonhoeffer s. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: You must never doubt that I am thankful and glad to go the way I am being led. My past life is abundantly full of God s mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified. Two weeks before the prison camp where he was kept was liberated and one month before the Nazis capitulated, Himmler ordered that Bonhoeffer be executed. On April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung to death. LESSONS WE LEARN FROM DIETRICH BONHOEFFER S STORY OF A LIFETIME 1. WE MUST TO OURSELVES. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. Mark : He called the multitude and said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel s will save it. In Jesus day the man who carried a cross had been to death. When a man took up his cross, his life in this world was over. To follow Jesus we must die to our being in of our lives; to self-will and self-rule; to an old way of life so we can be resurrected to a new way of life. The story you are meant to live will require that you yourself.

3 In great stories, where we admire the hero and wish to be like him, the hero must always die to something he has held onto. He must die to the plans he had made for himself, the he had expected to enjoy, the rights he had claimed as his own, and/or the life he had expected to live. He must deny the passions that would distract him, the that would paralyze him, and the self-image that tells him he s not capable of making a difference. To tell a great story with our lives will require what we find most difficult denying ourselves and nailing to the all that would cause us to live a life with self at the center. Only those who die to themselves experience what it truly means to. 2. WE MUST BE. Bonhoeffer was a man of courage: speaking out against Hitler before anyone else did; joining the underground; coming back to Germany on the last steamer to cross the Atlantic, knowing that it might cost him his life; and working to help Jews to escape, and becoming part of a plot to kill the Fuhrer. Did he believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ enough to act on it? Following Jesus is not meant to turn us into nice little boys who don t make trouble. It s meant to make us men of courage who and do something when there is trouble. For as long as there has been a United States, we Christians have had advantage. But our culture is changing. We have to understand that Christians are meant to be a counterculture. Counterculture: a subculture whose values and norms of behavior deviate from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural ways of thinking and behaving. To live with a different purpose, with different values, and to be open about why you live that way will mark you and it may very well require real, courage. 3. WE MUST TO JESUS. It s not enough to deny ourselves. We must decide who or what we will ourselves to.

4 Many people in our churches never understand that Christianity isn t a religion or a way of becoming a better man. It s a in which Jesus Christ says to us, I am yours, and we say to him, I belong to you. Who Am I? Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell s confinement Calmly, cheerfully, firmly, Like a squire from his country-house Who am I? They often tell me I used to speak to my warders Freely and friendly and clearly, As though it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune Equably, smilingly, proudly, Like one accustomed to win. Am I then really all that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, Tossing in expectation of great events, Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all? Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine, Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!

5 Prayer: Lord God, you are my creator and you know me better than I know myself. Reveal to me who I am to be, what I am to do, what message I am to give, what gift I am to bring into the world. Big or small, public or private reveal it to me, and even before I know what it is, my promise to you is: I will do your will. Serve Angel Reach Guys Night Out Angel Reach is looking for volunteers for Guys Night Out (GNO). Several of our guys are already involved. You commit to one night per month, either the first Tuesday or third Tuesday, from 7:00 to 10:00 PM. A normal GNO consists of either taking the guys bowling at Bowlero or to play pool at Main Event. The guys in Angel Reach have never had a good male role model in their lives. We are trying to provide consistent Christian male role models who can expose them to a new vision of what being a man is about. If you are interested, please contact Chris Karl at or him at ckarl@cvcgha.com. TWUMC Living Water Trip to Guatemala May 10-16, staying in Antigua, Guatemala and travelling daily to a drill site in a community that needs clean water. Maximum team size is 12. Up to 8 drillers and 4 on hygiene team. Men and women are welcome. Cost is $1929. There are a limited number of scholarships, particularly for first-time participants. For more information you may contact Jim Seamans JSeamans@porocel.com. A Profile of Champions Golf Breakfast Sponsored by Search Ministries, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, 7:00-8:30 a.m. This event will feature 3 Touring Pros playing in the Insperity Invitational of the Champions Tour. During the breakfast they will be interviewed as they share first some inside the ropes stories followed by inside the heart stories about their faith in Christ. It is a discreet, low key, very well done presentation of the Christian faith in the lives of well-known and highly respected golfers. This is an excellent opportunity to invite your friends who are enthusiastic about golf but little interested in God or church. The guest golfers will be announced about 3 weeks before the event. Individual tickets: $40; Table (8): $320. Info/Purchase: searchhouprofileofchampions@gmail.com Or: Richard.Houston@Searchministries.org / (281) The Woodlands United Methodist Church