DIETRICH BONHOEFFER DYING TO LIVE. Evil is not a word we use often when referring to others. And we should be slow to employ such condemning language.

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1 1 DIETRICH BONHOEFFER DYING TO LIVE Evil is not a word we use often when referring to others. And we should be slow to employ such condemning language. Some would tell us it s always a mistake to use the term. They say evil is too simplistic a word to describe a person or an idea or a movement. Others would tell us that once you resort to that kind of vocabulary you have lost the ability to understand those you are describing and you have forfeited any hopes of future good-faith dialogue. Still others would ask, Who are you to judge? In the midst of a 21 st century, post-modern, progressive culture naming evil for what it is, and describing persons with that nomenclature, is considered misguided, intolerant, self-righteous and politically incorrect. But if you cannot use the word, the result is you will not see the reality. You will describe evil in a way that makes it less than it is. And you will believe you can understand it, reason with it, appease it, or win it over. And you will end up being a Neville Chamberlain when the world needs a Winston Churchill. Beheading an American reporter whose sole crime is describing the war in Syria and its impact upon the poor and the powerless is evil.

2 2 Caging a Lebanese pilot and lighting him on fire is evil. Burying women and children alive is evil. Murdering three thousand innocent persons in the name of religion is evil. Human trafficking is evil. Violence against others because of their religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation is evil. The sooner you see it for what it is and name it for what it is, the sooner you will realize that there s only one right approach to evil. You must oppose it. There may be many ways to oppose it, but recognize evil for what it is, and you will realize that there is only one moral response. And that is to try to stop it. This morning our story is about a man who lived under what is often thought of as history s most evil regime. He was one of the first to see it for what it was and to oppose it, stating 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. The wheel he was describing in that quote was Nazism. He made that statement in April, Twelve years later he would be executed for his work with the German resistance and his participation in a plot to kill Hitler.

3 3 Behind his efforts to put an end to the evil of the Third Reich and his willingness to risk his life doing so was his commitment to Jesus Christ. Biographical Notes Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born into an extraordinary family in His father was one of Germany s best known psychiatrists. His mother was brilliant. One brother became a world renown chemist. Another became the head of the legal department at Lufthansa. Among the many lessons the children learned from their parents, one was to think through their position before stating it. Another was that thinking rightly was not enough. One must be prepared to act on what he believed or perhaps he didn t actually believe what he was espousing. Dietrich was raised in the Lutheran Church though his family did not attend weekly. Still, at the age of thirteen, he decided that when he grew up he would be a theologian. He attended Berlin University, the most prestigious institution in the world for theological studies in the 1920 s. And at the remarkable age of 21 he received his PhD. Not able to be ordained before the age of 25, Bonhoeffer traveled to the United States to do further work at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Though he was there for only nine months what he experienced would change his life forever. Clip: Bonhoeffer, Experience at Abyssinian

4 4 (His friendship with an African American student led him to attend worship services at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.) For the first time in his life he saw people who worshipped God with joy and emotion. He observed people, many of whom were poor and struggling, interact with God as if he was more than an idea as if he was real and alive, as if it was possible to have a personal relationship with him. It was there that he also learned the lesson that God s people must care for the poor and the oppressed. It was a lesson he would remember years later as he witnessed Jews and other minorities being persecuted in Germany. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany, he arrived a changed man. His thinking had always been right concerning the doctrines of the faith but now his heart was fully engaged in knowing God and following Jesus. Germany was also changing. Feeding the idea that Germany had lost the Great War because of internal betrayal by the Communists and the Jews, and promising that he could restore order and prosperity, Adolf Hitler was rising to power. Bonhoeffer immediately recognized the evil within Hitler and his ideology and began to speak against him. 27 years old in 1933, just two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer delivered a blistering radio address attacking Hitler and was cut off the air. He understood from the beginning what others did not: Nazi ideology could not coexist with true Christianity.

5 5 Clip: Bonhoeffer, realized early As Hitler consolidated power throughout the institutions of Germany, he also turned his eyes to the German Church. He determined to gather all the churches into a national church that would report to him and adopt his racial views regarding the Jews. Through rigged elections and because pastors did not want to be seen opposing the Fuhrer who was promising a better future for their people, pro-nazi church officials were put in place to oversee most of the church bodies within Germany. In response Bonhoeffer and his colleague Martin Niemoller founded what would become known as The Confessing Church which rejected Hitler and opposed the churches he had co-opted. Bonhoeffer also founded an underground, independent seminary to train future pastors. And he continued to speak out against Hitler. 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 resistance movement, including some members of a German military intelligence organization and he joined their efforts. Learning from them that war was imminent, Bonhoeffer faced a dilemma. He knew he could not swear allegiance to Hitler and fight as a soldier, but refusing to do so was a capital offense. He was given an invitation to teach in America and he left for the U.S. in 1939.

6 6 But even while on his way to the States, he concluded he could not stay. He wrote 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 last scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic. Upon his return, he renewed his work with the German resistance movement and joined their plot to assassinate the Furher. This was not an easy decision for Bonhoeffer. He wrestled with the question: Could a Christian ever kill another human being and being doing God s will? Eventually, he decided that he must act and trust God and his grace. In 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo, just a few months after he was engaged to be married not for the plot to kill Hitler, that had not yet been discovered but for a plan to help fourteen Jews escape to Switzerland. Fifteen months after his arrest, the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler failed. Clip: Bonhoeffer, Valkyrie plot Thousands were arrested and tortured, and names were revealed, including Bonhoeffer s.

7 7 Certain now that he would be put to death, Bonhoeffer wrote: 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. Bonhoeffer was transferred to other prisons, ending up at Flossenburg concentration camp. Two weeks before the camp 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. After the conclusion of the war, men who had served in prison with Bonhoeffer reported that he had stood in their midst like a giant among men. Calm and self-controlled in the worst of circumstances. During the bombing of Berlin, prisoners hearing the shells explode nearby, howled and beat their fists against their cell doors, begging to be transferred to safe bunkers. But Bonhoeffer, kept his composure, comforting and encouraging the other prisoners. What LESSONS can WE LEARN FROM DIETRICH BONHOEFFER S STORY OF A LIFETIME 1. WE MUST DIE TO OURSELVES. Bonhoeffer authored many books, at least one of which he wrote in prison. In 1937 his most famous work was published.

8 8 It is titled The Cost of Discipleship. This is my copy which I first read forty years ago. In it is what is probably the best known line he ever penned. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. He writes that line as he is commenting on 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 was a prisoner who had been condemned to death. After being sentenced, the condemned man would take up the crossbar he was to be crucified upon and carry it to the place of his execution. When a man took up his cross, his life in this world was over. And Jesus says whoever would follow after him, must take up his cross. Hence, Bonhoeffer writes, When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. What does it mean that we must die? It means that we must die to our being in charge of our lives. It means we must die to self-will and self-rule. It means we must die 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 deny yourself. 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.

9 9 He must die to the plans he had made for himself, the comforts he had expected to enjoy, the rights he had claimed as his own, the life he had expected to live. He must deny the passions that would distract him, the fear that would paralyze him, and the self-image that tells him he s not capable of making a difference. It s not easy to live for a great purpose. It s no small thing to tell a great story with your life. It will require what we find most difficult denying ourselves and nailing to the cross all that would cause us to live a life with self at the center, calling the shots. But think of the lives we have looked at already. Paul, Wilberforce, St. Patrick. And now Bonhoeffer. Self-denial is at the heart of their stories. The pleasures, the ease and the comforts other men live for they walked away from so their lives could tell a greater story. Many of you have been to Honduras. You ll know what I mean when I say that it is a privilege to be there. It is a privilege to serve in the name of Jesus. It is a privilege to serve the poor. And it is a privilege to work alongside those who are making great sacrifices to be faithful to Christ and do his work. On one of our trips we worked with Pastor Stephen. He was told by one of the gangs there that if he continued to preach, they would kill him and his family.

10 10 He s still there. It is a privilege to serve a man like that. Another pastor, a woman, Suyapa, her husband was killed by a gang. She took over his work, and serves people who have nothing but Christ and the hope they find in him. It s a privilege to serve a woman like that. The pastor we know best is Melvin. We are now working on his church purposefully set on property between two rival gangs. They keep an eye on us every time we re there. (Picture?) As a child Melvin was neglected. He father abandoned the family. His mother was an alcoholic. He lived in poverty often going hungry. No one noticed or cared At the age of 12 he found a place to belong. It was in a gang. They accepted him. And when they put a gun in his hand and he used it to rob and kill, they respected him. By the age of 15, he had murdered many people, and he was the head of the gang, not because he was the oldest, but because he was the most vicious.

11 11 Years passed and a chance meeting with a friend he had known years before, resulted in his being invited to church. For some reason he went, wearing his gang clothes and insignia. After the sermon, the preacher began the invitation to accept Christ. Melvin got up to leave but when he got to the end of the row, his mind went blank, and instead of turning left to leave, he found himself turning right towards the altar, where he fell on his knees and gave his life to Jesus. There are two ways out of a gang in Honduras. 1. You are killed. Or 2. You become a Christian. But you d better mean it. If the gang sees you drinking or living an immoral life, they will believe that you lied to them and put you to death. Melvin, told his gang he was leaving. He put down his guns, and he walked away from the battles that had given him everything he had money, women, a name, safety, a sense of belonging and respect. Years have gone by, and he s building a church on a battleground where in the past young boys in rival gangs have killed each other. He is literally standing in the gap, claiming that piece of land for Christ and his Kingdom.

12 12 It s not an easy life. He s a pastor. He s had another full-time job. He lived in a house that we saw and worried about a year ago because it was leaning so badly. He doesn t live in that house anymore because it collapsed. Everything has changed for him. But he s still fighting a battle. Not for self or respect or money. He s fighting for the poor in his community, some whom we met who don t eat every day. He s fighting to bring them the hope that comes from knowing that God cares for them and is committed to them. He s fighting to bring people who have been neglected and forgotten as he was out of the kingdom of darkness into the a relationship with God. He s out some nights, after working all day, out some nights till midnight or later, stepping onto street corners, telling 15 year olds with guns in their pockets, that there s a better way, that God loves them, and he can do for them what he did for him. He s fighting a battle to deliver those who have been oppressed by poverty and neglect and violence. It will never make him famous or rich. It certainly will not make his life easy. But he can do it because he has forgotten himself, denied himself, died to himself. And he is telling a story with his life, ask any man who has been there, Melvin is telling a story with his life that is glorious.

13 13 It s message is: You can have the whole world, I ll take Jesus. And you ll never have enough, but I ll have more than I need. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. But what we find is that only those who die to themselves experience what it truly means to be alive. 2. WE MUST BE COURAGEOUS. Here s a picture of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (Picture) He doesn t have the look of a prototypical hero. He s not a John Wayne, a Clint Eastwood, or a Maximus Decimus Meridius. He was a pudgy, bespectacled academic. But he 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. Working to help Jews to escape and becoming part of a plot to kill the Fuhrer. Bonhoeffer learned early in life from his father, you don t really believe something if you re not willing to act on it. So when the moment came, he had to ask himself did he believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

14 14 Did he believe that the mistreated should be protected? Did he believe that a man of God should name evil for what it is and not just bandage the victims underneath its wheels, but stick a spoke into the wheel and try to stop it? Did he believe that the man who loses his life in this world for the sake of Jesus Christ and the gospel will save his life for the world to come? If so, he had to act in faith and with courage. But he had to act. Some of you may know Gail Williams in our church. He is a retired United Methodist pastor, soon to be 89 years old. I heard Gail preach when I was a student at Rice when a friend who lived in Houston invited me to go to church with him. He preached a magnificent sermon on God s grace and salvation by faith in Christ alone. (picture) Gail was a pastor in a small east Texas town during the civil rights era, when there were marches and riots. A march had been planned for his town civil rights workers and African Americans and unfortunately it brought out the worst in some of those living in that community. The sheriff came to him and told him, The mayor has ordered me, if they march into town, I m to shoot the first one in line. If I don t I ll lose my job. Why was he telling Gail? Because he was a member of Gail s church. And so was the mayor.

15 15 Gail left the church and went to the mayor s office. He asked the mayor if what the sheriff had told him was true. The mayor said it was. Then Gail looked him straight in the eye and said, Then you better tell him to shoot me, too, because I ll be right there at the head of the line. And he was. 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 stand up and do something when there is trouble. Our culture tells us we can keep our faith; but we should just keep it to ourselves. We re told it s judgmental and arrogant to tell others that they need Jesus. It tells us that we should go along to get along. For as long as there has been a United States, we Christians have had home-field advantage. Not everyone believed what we believed, but people were respectful of our beliefs and didn t push too hard against a Christian understanding of morality. In case you haven t noticed that has changed. We can t live like our culture any more. We have to be intentional about following Jesus and living differently. 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.

16 16 To live with a different purpose, with different values, and to be open about why you live that way that will mark you and it may very well require real, moral courage. We can keep our heads down. Or we can stand up for Christ with love and grace, but also with courage and strength. The story you tell will depend on which you choose. 3. WE MUST BELONG TO JESUS. To live a great story, we must belong to Christ. Before going to America, Bonhoeffer was a good man. No doubt he believed in the Christian faith and found it intellectually satisfying. But at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, he saw something more, something deeper. He saw people who knew Jesus and walked with Jesus and depended on Jesus and looked for life in Jesus. And when he came back to Germany, he was one of them. He was a man who belonged to Christ. It s not enough to deny ourselves. We must decide who or what we will give ourselves to. You can give your life to a cause, a church, a religion, another person or a way of changing the world.

17 17 You can belong to any of those. Or you can belong to Jesus. That s what many people in our churches never understand. Christianity isn t a religion or a way of becoming a better man. It s a relationship. It s a relationship in which Jesus Christ says to us, I am yours, and we say to him, I belong to you. You are my love and my life, my first and my last, my all in all. I want to close with Bonhoeffer s most famous poem. It was written when he was in prison, awaiting his execution. 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,

18 18 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! This is an invitation to live a life that is beautiful and glorious. It is invitation to men like us who know our weaknesses and our struggles and our failures. It s an invitation to be honest and real because in Christ we know forgiveness and grace. It s an invitation to stand against the evil of the world and to stand up for those who are needy and mistreated because we live not for the audience of the world, but for an audience of one. And his name is Jesus. Clip: Bonhoeffer, Agent of Grace execution 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.