Counting the Costs

 We’ve been a bit ‘off subject’ lately, so today I’ll return to the ‘Known heroes of the faith’ via Canon J. John.   

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a name you may or may not have heard in your life, but if you’re like me, you’ve just cringed back in your ignorance, silently thinking ‘Let’s see; was he a good guy or a bad guy?”

So here’s what I’m reading about him. He was born to an aristocratic German family living in Poland in 1906.  Obviously gifted, he chose to study Theology and had his PhD by age 21.  He then began to contribute to what were many international links including Germany and then the USA.  

Returning to Germany in 1931 he was horrified by the rise of the Nazis and because of either his bravery or his naivety, wasn’t afraid to speak out against Hitler.  His was not a popular point of view because many German Christians, encouraged by Hitler’s manipulative use of Christian language, saw Hitler as the nation’s savior. 

The lines became increasingly clearer, and soon Bonhoeffer was a part of the resistance against Nazism.  He spoke against the persecution of the Jews, and when Hitler demanded that the church swear loyalty to only him, Bonhoeffer left the country.  

Sometime later, he returned to Germany and was denounced as a pacifist and enemy of the state.  In 1937 he wrote one of his famous books, “The Cost of Discipleship,” in which he created the term “cheap grace”.  This, he explained, is “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, etc.  Looking at that list, I’m a little troubled to see similarities to what many of us face today.  

Gradually Bonhoeffer realized that with war looming, he could very understandably be executed, so when an opportunity came to teach in the USA, he left in June of 1939.  However, he soon realized (and here’s where the “hero” part comes in) that he needed to be with his own countrymen in such a time. As soon as he arrived in America, he boarded the next ship for Germany. 

Not surprisingly, he no sooner arrived than he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald Concentration camp.  The accounts we have of his time there include descriptions of a man of peace, full of grace and kindness and totally occupied in pastoring and counseling those about him.  

In the spring of 1945, Bonhoeffer's name was linked with an old plot against Hitler and as a result, his execution was ordered.  He was hanged on the 9th of April, 1945, just two weeks before the camp was liberated.  His last recorded words were, “This is the end. but for me the beginning of… life".  

He was just 39 yrs old.  

His faith was displayed in his doing. If he had stayed in the academic circles that defined him, he would have gone unnoticed and been safe.  

But he was daring.  Again, he could have stayed in the USA and been safe, but he knew he needed to be with his people.

And lastly, he was defying. He had to courage to speak out against a corrupt government and a church that was too weak to stand up to it.  

As he wrote in “The Cost of Discipleship”, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him to come and die.” In these 11 words, Bonhoeffer manages to encapsulate the New Testament’s teaching on what it means to follow Christ.

High above Westminster Abbey’s west door there are statues of ten modern martyrs.  And there amongst them, stands the figure of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He deserves that place.

And now you know his name. Can you wonder with me if you would live this way if called upon to do so?

All the best till next week, 

Marsha