Thursday, August 12, 2010

Dietrich's Death

FROM PRISON CELL TO KILLING GROUND

HE WENT PEACEFULLY

QUIETLY

AT EASE WITH HIMSELF

HIS GOD

AND HIS ACTIONS



HE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

NOT EVERY ACTION WAS NOBLE

BUT EVENTUALLY

HE DID WHAT HE FELT HE HAD TO DO

AND HE FELT CONTENT



HE WALKED NAKED

TO THE DERISION OF THE GUARDS

YOU SAVED JEWS

SAVE YOURSELF

HE MUTTERED NOT A WORD

LIKE A LAMB BEING LED TO SLAUGHTER

LIKE A TRAITOR TO THE GALLOWS

BUT HE HAD WRITTEN



The church must fight evil in three stages:

The first was to question state injustice and call the state to responsibility;

The second was to help the victims of injustice, whether they were church members or not.

Ultimately, however, the church might find itself called "not only to help the victims who have fallen under the wheel, but to fall into the spokes of the wheel itself" in order to halt the machinery of injustice



AND HE HAD ELECTED

TO BE A SPOKE

HIS MOTTO

FROM PROVERBS WAS



Open your mouth for the mute



HE REGRETTED THE SUBTERFUGE

REQUIRED FROM BEING A SPOKE

HE HAD WRITTEN





We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use





HE FELT CALM

AS HE WALKED

EMITTING PEACE





Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call



FOR GRACE DID NOT COME CHEAP



Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate





THE CHURCH HAD SOLD ITS BIRTHRIGHT

IT WANTED CHEAP GRACE



The church is the church only when it exists for others. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not by dominating but by helping and serving





AND IN HIS REFLECTIONS ON DEATH

HE WROTE



Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death



AND





This is the end, for me the beginning of life



HE WOULD SAY TO US



Keep well

Enjoy the beautiful country

Spread joy around you

And keep it to yourself as well



HE KEEP REPEATING

JOY

JOY

JOY

UNTIL THE ROPE TIGHTENED

AND HE WAS GONE





FRANK A VOLLMER





Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906-45

GERMAN MARTYR UNDER NAZISM



Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Christian religious leader and participant in the resistance movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian, took part in the plots being planned by members of the Abwehr (Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually hanged following the failure of the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt

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