April 9: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pastor and Theologian, 1945

The Collect of the Day

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Embolden our lives, O Lord, and inspire our faiths, that we, following the example of your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer, might embrace your call with undivided hearts; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Embolden our lives, O Lord, and inspire our faiths, that we, following the example of thy servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer, might embrace thy call with undivided hearts; through Jesus Christ our Savior, with liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Judges 7:1–8a
Psalm 119:89–96
Matthew 13:47–52

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on February 4th, 1906. He studied theology at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen, and his doctoral thesis was published in 1930 as Communio Sanctorum. Still canonically too young to be ordained at the age of 24, he undertook postdoctoral study and teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

From the first days of the Nazi accession to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer was involved in protests against the regime. From 1933 to 1935 he was the pastor of two small congregations in London, but nonetheless was a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. In 1935, Bonhoeffer was appointed to organize and head a new seminary for the Confessing Church at Finkenwald. He described the community in his classic work Life Together. He later wrote The Cost of Discipleship, which quickly became a modern classic.

Bonhoeffer was acutely aware of the difficulties of life in community, and the easy disillusionment that could come when the experience did not live up to the imagined idea. Yet he also wrote eloquently of the gift and privilege of Christian community. “It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all of his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work…So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.”

Bonhoeffer became increasingly involved in the political struggleafter 1939, when he was introduced to a group seeking Hitler’s overthrow. Bonhoeffer considered refuge in the United States, but he returned to Germany where he was able to continue his resistance. Bonhoeffer was arrested April 5th, 1943, and imprisoned in Berlin. After an attempt on Hitler’s life failed on July 20th, 1944, documents were discovered linking Bonhoeffer to the conspiracy. He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, then to Schoenberg Prison. On Sunday, April 8th, 1945, just as he concluded a service in a school building in Schoenberg, two men came in with the chilling summons, “Prisoner Bonhoeffer…come with us.” He said to another prisoner, “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.” Bonhoeffer was hanged the next day, April 9th, at Flossenburg Prison.

There is in Bonhoeffer’s life a remarkable unity of faith, prayer, writing, and action. The pacifist theologian came to accept the guilt of plotting the death of Hitler, because he was convinced that not to do so would be a greater evil. Discipleship was to be had only at great cost.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

⁸⁹O Lord, your word is everlasting; *it stands firm in the heavens.

⁹⁰Your faithfulness remains from one generation to another; *you established the earth, and it abides.

⁹¹By your decree these continue to this day, *for all things are your servants.

⁹²If my delight had not been in your law, *I should have perished in my affliction.

⁹³I will never forget your commandments, *because by them you give me life.

⁹⁴I am yours; oh, that you would save me! *for I study your commandments.

⁹⁵Though the wicked lie in wait for me to destroy me, *I will apply my mind to your decrees.

⁹⁶I see that all things come to an end, *but your commandment has no bounds.

Gospel

¹Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them, below the hill of Moreh, in the valley. ²The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ ³Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.’” Thus Gideon sifted them out; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained. ⁴Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The troops are still too many; take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and when I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” ⁵So he brought the troops down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side.” ⁶The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. ⁷Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.” ⁸So he took the jars of the troops from their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.