Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Something a little different today.  I've not been feeling good this week, and admit that I found today's Jeremiah text to be a bigger load to bear than I was up for.  When you aren't feeling well, Jeremiah, who was called "the weeping prophet" can sometimes be a lot to take in!

So, instead today I want to lift up today's commemoration in the Lutheran Church.  Today is anniversary of the martyrdom in 1945 of Dietrich Bonheoffer and on the church calendar, it is today that we remember him.

Some quotes then from Bonhoeffer to ponder and pray on.  Bonhoeffer more than many theologians, showed us the true power of the theology of the cross;  the cost of discipleship; the taking of our faith seriously; the importance of loving our neighbor with everything we have.  

So in memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world." - from Meditations on the Cross

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol”

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

“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.”
from The Cost of Discipleship

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”  from  Letters and Papers in Prison

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of 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.” 

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  from The Cost of Discipleship


What is it today that you are called to die to?  What needs to die in your life so that new life - a richer, more abundant life in Christ - can spring forth?

Gracious God, thank you for your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer who showed us the path of discipleship, who showed us the unfathomable power of the cross and who taught us to follow you with our whole selves so that we can live into the life you have given us with purpose, meaning and fullness.  Amen.