Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Dietrich's Death


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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