Deitrich Bonhoeffer

09Apr

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:9-11


Dietrich Bonhoeffer

February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945


Today we remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the protestant theologian, church leader and resistance member was a political prisoner in Nazi Germany, who was executed at the age of 39 in the concentration camp of Flossenburg. He was killed for his role in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian who passionately advocated discipleship and the role of Christianity in the secular world. 


In 1995, six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the 50th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death, Klaus Engelhardt, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), described how Bonhoeffer refused to be placed on the prayer list of his church after his imprisonment in 1943. He said this was because Bonhoeffer believed that his words and deeds were politically motivated and were not done in the service of his church. When Engelhardt spoke 30 years ago, he asserted that the church today should think again about how it supports those who exercise their resistance to injustice through political means. "Is our Protestant church not in the position and not prepared to support or pray for those who take the path of political resistance to inhumanity or the perversion of law and order?" he asked. "They are among those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and whom Jesus praises in the beatitudes." 


In these times when the political climate seems daily to move the ground beneath my feet, I am trying to plant my feet on the solid rock of my faith and to grow in my understanding of my Christian responsibilities in the advocacy of those who are suffering and in need.


Musical Reflection - Siegfried Fietz sings 'By Gentle Powers'


God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives.We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created. We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf. Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will. Amen.

New TestamentJusticeLent

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