Bonhoeffer was born in 1906. By the age of 24 he had published his doctoral thesis. At age 27 he had two Confessing Church congregations living abroad in London. During this time he began to speak out and protest the Nazi party, which was just coming to power. Two years later he was called back to his homeland of Germany to establish and run a Confessing Church seminary in Finkenwald. It was here that he wrote two works Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship focused on living boldly as a Christian Community.
Soon though as things in Germany escalated politically, Bonhoeffer spoke out increasingly against the Nazis. At age 33 he began working with groups that were focused on overthrowing Hitler. When violence and persecution escalated further he contemplated escaping to the United States, yet Bonhoeffer resolved that he would stay in Germany and fight against the oppressive government.
In 1943 he was arrested and imprisoned in Berlin. Seventy years ago today, April 9, 1944, Bonhoeffer attempted to take Hitler’s life. As the plot was discovered and the conspiracy linked with him, Dietrich was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. After a Sunday service on April 8, 1945, two men summoned, “Prisoner Bonhoeffer… come with us.” His last words recorded by a friend saw both the truth of the pain of this age and the hope yet to come, “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.” He was hanged April 9, 1945.
To read a summary of Bonhoeffer’s life is to see courage personified; prayer, faith, writing, and action unified into one stream of complete trust in God and pursuit of deeper relationship with God. Yet, Bonhoeffer’s life was not without regret. A pacifist theologian, Dietrich repented of the violent act that he attempted to commit against Hitler. He accepted the guilt he felt, knowing that if he had not acted in this way though, he would have felt it more harmful, as he had sought to end greater evil in this world.
Bonhoeffer clearly was a good fish scooped up by Jesus and put in the bucket. Yet, whenever we talk about evil collectively we point to figures like Hitler. He was surely a bad fish. Jesus would have thrown him out. What makes a fish bad though? It’s abused as an egg? It grows up where there was an oil spill? It was picked on by other fish?
We can so clearly point to Bonhoeffer as a modern saint who was willing to die standing against an evil regime of his day. We can so easily look at Hitler as the paragon of evil personified. Yet, will we find ourselves in the furnace of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth will we find or will we be scooped up by the angels?
So much energy can be spent worrying about where we will find ourselves when we die. Billboards, church signs, televangelists all proclaim this question, do you prefer smoking or non for the afterlife, heaven or hell? Yet Bonhoeffer’s life and today’s gospel point not to spending time worrying about where I will spend eternity, but rather that I bring out my treasures both old and new now.
We cannot add a single day to our life by worrying. God who knows us infinitely more closely than we know ourselves sees our heart and knows our experiences. God who loves us infinitely more than we can ever know or imagine sees us not through our faults and failings, but through the love of Jesus Christ. God frees us from the worry of what will happen in the next life through the love of God’s only Son. Yet, this is not something that should be regarded as a cheap gift that one receives and simply forgets about its value, rather this is the most costly gift you or I will ever receive.
God’s grace is given to us, but it comes with a cost. Once we receive it we are called to respond by giving our most costly treasures in serving God and one another. We are not fish, good or bad, we are children of God who receive the gift of grace through Jesus. Bonhoeffer gave his greatest treasures in response. How will you respond?
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