Commemoration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reading: Psalm 130
"My
soul waits for the Lord more than
those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning." Ps. 130:6
On this day in 1945, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer
was executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin - just two months short
of D-Day - for being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. An
ardent pacifist, Bonhoeffer struggled greatly with the quandary of how to
continue in non-violence against such an oppressive and violent evil as the
Nazi machine. (Who knows? Perhaps the Sicarii faced the same quandary in the
face of the Roman war machine…) At the previous Christmas, Dietrich had sent
his mother a poem from prison - a poem of trust in God for each day, each year.
In translation by the great British hymnist F. Pratt Green, the first stanza
reads:
By gracious
pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,
And
confidently waiting come what may,
We know
that God is with us night and morning,
And never
fails to greet us each new day. (ELW
#626)
Loving
God, may we always place our hope in you. Amen
- Speak to someone at church
you’ve never spoken to before.
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