Thursday, April 14, 2016

Bonhoeffer Remembered 71 Years After His Execution

© 2016 The Wired Word
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If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been born in another place and time, perhaps we might never have heard of him. But his books and the witness of his life and death continue to influence subsequent generations decades after his death in a Nazi extermination camp.
Born in Breslau, Germany, in 1906, the sixth of eight children in an upper-middle class family that attended church sporadically, Dietrich knew he wanted to become a minister by the age of 14. His neuropsychiatrist father was less than pleased. But Dietrich was undeterred.
Hitler's rise to power in his native country forced the young theologian to consider the radical implications of the gospel. Two days after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Bonhoeffer warned his fellow citizens in a radio broadcast not to idolize the führer (leader), lest they find out that he was actually a Verführer (mis-leader, or seducer).
Three months later, Bonhoeffer went on record against governmental scapegoating of Jews, stating that the church must not simply "bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but to jam a spoke into the wheel itself." When the government barred non-Aryans from serving in state churches, he declined a position in one of those parishes as a protest against such racist policies.
Bonhoeffer opposed Nazi pressure on churches to pledge allegiance to the nation first rather than to Christ. With like-minded pastors and theologians like Karl Barth and Martin Niemoller, he helped organize the Confessing Church in 1934, which released its Barmen Declaration affirming their loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord, before any and all other commitments.
Bonhoeffer worked for the resistance to thwart the Nazi agenda in any way possible. During this time, he wrote the book The Cost of Discipleship, challenging a lackadaisical approach to Christianity that presumed entitlement to the grace of God without any moral demands or accountability: "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. … Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
A committed pacifist, he left Germany in 1939 to avoid conscription in the German army. He had thought that by lecturing and networking in America, he might still make a contribution to the anti-Nazi effort.
But within a month of his arrival, he wrote theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. 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." He took the last scheduled ship back to his homeland as the threat of war loomed large on the horizon.
Eric Metaxas writes in his biography of Bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: "He had theologically redefined the Christian life as something active, not reactive. It had nothing to do with avoiding sin or with merely talking or teaching or believing theological notions or principles or rules or tenets. ... It was God's call to be fully human, to live as human beings obedient to the one who had made us, which was the fulfillment of our destiny. It was not a cramped, compromised, circumspect life, but a life lived in a kind of wild, joyful, full-throated freedom -- that was what it was to obey God."
As it became increasingly clear to Bonhoeffer that the brutality of the Third Reich would not be stopped by pacifist ideals, he concluded that other tactics might be unavoidable. Somehow he secured a post with the German secret service, became a double agent, helping Jews escape across the border, and eventually joined a plot to overthrow and assassinate Hitler.
Samuel Wells, in his commentary entitled "What Bonhoeffer Knew," wrote: "Bonhoeffer did not expect his life to be a tidy edifice of perfection. The great quandary of his life was whether he was right to join the plot to kill Hitler. It's a mistake ... to assume that faithful Christians always make the right decisions ... Returning to Germany put Bonhoeffer … in an impossible situation and exactly where God wanted him to be."
He was arrested in 1943 and imprisoned for two years. He declined a sympathetic guard's offer to help him escape out of concern that others, including family members, would be punished if he was successful. He spent much of his time in prison providing pastoral care to other prisoners and corresponding with friends and relatives on the outside.
On April 9, 1945, one month before Germany surrendered, he was stripped and hanged at Flossenburg death camp with six co-conspirators. He was 39.
More on this story can be found at these links:
The Big Questions
1. Bonhoeffer warned his people not to make the führer into an idol. Does your church display a national flag or perform rituals such as the Pledge of Allegiance at worship or in meetings? What do you think Bonhoeffer would say to that?
2. Bonhoeffer urged the church not simply to "bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but to jam a spoke into the wheel itself." Which type of action do you see most prevalent in the church today? In which type of action have you personally been engaged? Which action do you think takes more courage? Name ministries your church supports or sponsors that are directly involved in justice for the oppressed. Are these ministries popular? Do you or others speak out for or against these ministries? What is the rationale behind supporting or opposing such ministries?
3. Why is "cheap grace" so appealing? When have you realized that "cheap grace" is not the same as the "costly grace" of God in Christ? How did that realization change you?
4. In reflecting on Bonhoeffer's situation, Wells pondered: "I once faced an impossible choice and shared my quandary with a friend. He said, 'The point isn't the conclusion you come to: The point is, you're in there.' Bonhoeffer was in there, in that sense. Are we?" Is it enough just to be in there? What is the greatest quandary you have faced in life that challenged you to consider how to live out your faith? Did you resolve your quandary, and if so, how?
5. What does it mean to be "in an impossible situation and exactly where God wants you to be"? Why might God "want" us to be in "impossible" situations? For what purpose? What should you do when you are in a situation that seems impossible?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
2 Samuel 24:24-25
But the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the LORD answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. (For context, read 24:1-25.)
This record of David offering a sacrifice to God comes after he sinned in conducting a census of those able to serve in the military. The census took nine months and 20 days; 1,300,000 able-bodied soldiers were counted. We won't focus here on why the census was sinful (you can check out this website later if you are interested in that question. For this lesson, we want to focus on why David didn't want to offer a sacrifice that cost him nothing.
After David realized his sin, God gave him the chance to determine his own punishment. David chose a shorter punishment at the hands of God rather than men, since "God's mercy is great." The consequences of David's sins impacted others, including his infant son who died after his dalliance with Bathsheba, or in this case the 70,000 who died of the pestilence that followed his sin.
The Lord stayed his hand at the threshing floor of Aruanah, who offered David everything he might need for a sacrifice, at no charge. But David insisted on paying his way.
Questions: If David had accepted Aruanah's offer, what would that have communicated about how he understood what his sin cost? Why did David refuse to offer sacrifices that cost him nothing? How does Bonhoeffer's concept of "cheap grace" tie in here?
1 Chronicles 11:18-19
Then the Three broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and they brought it to David. But David would not drink of it; he poured it out to the LORD, and said, "My God forbid that I should do this. Can I drink the blood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it." Therefore he would not drink it ... (For context, read 11:15-19.)
King David was holed up in a cave, unable to go back home to Bethlehem because of the presence of the Philistine army there. When three of his mighty men heard him express his longing for water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, they risked their lives to satisfy his thirst.
Questions: Have you ever received a gift that was so precious that you didn't want to use it? What was the gift? How did you feel about it and the person who gave it to you?
What was the value of the water the mighty men brought to David? What was the price of the living water Jesus promises to give those who ask him for it (John 4:10, 13-14)?
What happens when we treat the Lord's Table as something cheap because it is offered free of charge? How is that different from viewing the Eucharist as something priceless, precisely because it cost God everything?
Have you ever refrained from partaking of the Lord's Table because you suddenly glimpsed the great price God paid to ransom you from sin and death?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (For context, read 6:12-20.)
1 Peter 1:18-19
You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. (For context, read 1:13-19.)
Paul stipulates in 1 Corinthians 6 that our bodies do not belong to us, but rather to God by virtue of the fact that he bought us at great cost to himself; for this reason, we are to glorify God not only with our thoughts or words, but in our actions, in the way we live. Peter spells out that God paid the King of kings' ransom to save us, with the precious blood of Christ.
Bonhoeffer wrote: "Above all, [grace] is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us."
Questions: If you had been kidnapped, and someone paid a monetary ransom to secure your release, how would you feel toward that person? What if someone sacrificed his life to win your freedom? What if you were a private in the army and the person who died for you was your commander-in-chief? What is your response to Jesus, knowing that the very God who created you gave his life to ransom you from sin and death and hell?
Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (For context, read 9:21-25.)
Jesus issues this challenge to his disciples after describing the suffering, rejection and death he would experience at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes.
Bonhoeffer stated: "The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death -- we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
Questions: What attachments of this world have you felt called to abandon in response to Jesus' call to take up your cross daily and follow him? How have you experienced the "dying of the old man" because of your encounter with Christ? In what sense do new Christians "give over their lives to death" when they respond to the call of Christ to follow him?
Galatians 2:19-20
… I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (For context, read 2:19-21.)
Bonhoeffer asserts: "Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner."
Questions: What has it cost you thus far to follow Jesus? How have you discovered grace as you follow him?
For Further Discussion
1. Is it possible to take the demands of the gospel too seriously? How might the idea of costly grace weigh down a believer? Are there some who need "free grace" more than others? What is the difference between "cheap grace" and "free grace"?
2. Bonhoeffer was a dedicated pacifist but recognized the impossibility of living a perfect life with no contradictions. In Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Salvor Hardin said: "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." What decision(s) have you made that feel counter to faith but honor Jesus? How did you arrive at your decision(s)?
3. The cross was an emblem of shame as well as horror. When have you needed to lose your dignity to serve friends, family and Jesus? When have you refused to lose your dignity in order to pick up your cross?
4. Comment on this excerpt of an Advent sermon Bonhoeffer preached in Barcelona in 1928: "It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God .... We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us …"
5. Choose one or more of the following quotes from Bonhoeffer's writings to discuss:
  • "One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons."
  • "Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes."
  • "Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now."
  • "Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."
  • "There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture."
  • "A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol."
  • "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."
Responding to the News
Reflect on the price Jesus paid for your salvation as you read the lyrics of the gospel song "Broken and Spilled Out" while listening to Steve Green sing it here. What is your response to Jesus' sacrifice for you?
Prayer
We stand in awe, Holy God, at the magnitude of your grace toward us! Though we are unworthy even to touch the hem of your garment or to gather the crumbs under your table, you accept us as your beloved children because your Son shed his own precious blood for our salvation. Help us never to treat that sacrifice lightly or flippantly, but to honor and treasure this sacred gift by taking up our cross and following Jesus to Calvary and beyond. Amen.


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