Sermon Audio 4/6/2016, Commemoration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (transferred)

St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Kalamazoo MI

Commemoration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (April 9, transferred)

Romans 6:3-11

Bonus sermon: Today I was blessed with the opportunity to preach and preside at midweek Eucharist at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Always a wonderful worship experience, whether I am leading or sitting in the back row. 

Not a lot of original thought from me in this sermon, instead favoring heavy quotations from the apostle Paul, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rev. Dr. Robert Saler, all of whom know better than me how to talk about following Jesus in this world. 

Bonhoeffer was central to my own formation as a follower of Jesus. The quote I use from Bonhoeffer in this sermon is still central to my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in the world, shaping my professional and personal life more than I expected, after I hadn't looked at this text in maybe a decade. 

Excerpt below from sermon script; text from Letters and Papers from Prison (1971 / 1997, ed. Eberhard Bethge, p. 369-370: 

In July of 1944 he writes,

a. "During the last year or so I've come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity.... I don't mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the busy, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this-worldliness, characterized by discipline and the constant knowledge of death and resurrection."

b. "I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith."

c. "By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world - watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is metanoia; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian."

As always, listen here, use this link, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by searching "Tengwall."

Edited 4/7/2016 to add:

After multiple requests to post the manuscript of this sermon, I'm including it below. This script is relatively close to what I actually said, and if nothing else, contains the quotations.

1.              I graduated from a Lutheran liberal arts college (Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota), and I majored in religion there. Now, normally, “who cares,” but today we commemorate Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was by far the most important theologian in my undergraduate education. Last night I talked with my old friend and classmate about which professor taught us the most Bonhoeffer. Was it the one who made me read Bonhoeffer three times? Was it the one who wrote a play about Bonhoeffer?

2.              It was all of them. Every religion and philosophy professor made us read Bonhoeffer, more or less. If Lutherans had saints, he would be the first one. Before Martin Luther, I’m pretty sure. Do you know his deal? Genius theologian, went back to Germany to resist the rise of the Nazi regime, joined a plot to kill Hitler – it failed – was arrested and eventually executed.

3.              Anyway, I dug out my first copy of Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison, and looked at my old notes. The first two pages of the book are so good I seriously considered just reading them to you, the whole two pages. I highlighted more than I didn’t. Then, a few pages later, three of my comments in a row are simply, “What?,” a pattern that continues through much of the book. I read this as a sophomore in college, and I was just not ready for this.

4.              Here’s the thing about Bonhoeffer. As our handout says it, “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.” He was sure that his actions were unforgivable. To take a human life would doom him to hell. Literally, that’s what he thought. He thought he was sacrificing his own eternal soul for the people of his nation, and every nation. Better to sacrifice himself directly than stand by and watch the unspeakable evil that was being done in his name as a German Christian. He was literally damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t.

5.              Which brings us to my all-time favorite Bonhoeffer quotation. In July of 1944 he writes,

a.   "During the last year or so I've come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity.... I don't mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the busy, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this-worldliness, characterized by discipline and the constant knowledge of death and resurrection."

b.    "I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith."

c.     "By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world - watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is metanoia; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian."

6.              Finally, we come to our reading from Romans today: “³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” Death is the most this-worldly of all human experiences. This lesson from Romans is the New Testament lesson read at the Vigil of Easter in the Lutheran and Episcopal churches. We read this at the Vigil not for its theological profundity, but because this lesson grabs hold of the mystery of our faith with both hands and doesn’t let go. In baptism we receive new life, abundant, thriving, flourishing, forgiven, divinely-ordained LIFE. And that unbelievable gift of life only comes through death – painful, smelly, slow, terrifying, perfectly human death.

7.              “⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Even in the worst circumstances, even in the face of the greatest evil the world can produce, even in death itself, the love of God in Jesus Christ for us can make us whole. “⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we can be sure that nothing except God’s love has power over us.

8.              I asked my friend Rob Saler (Lutheran pastor, theologian, and seminary professor who teaches on Bonhoeffer), "What is the one thing I should tell these lovely Episcopalians about Bonhoeffer, or perhaps more precisely about what Bonhoeffer teaches us about Jesus?" Here is what he said, “What I find most intriguing about Bonhoeffer is that, while he was certainly smart enough to have justified his participation in the plot to kill Hitler on the basis of, say, just war theory, he made the far more interesting theological choice: to deny that his action was anything but sinful, but then to make the point that "everyone who acts responsibly becomes guilty." [Facebook wall correspondence]

9.              Time-out: remember when I told you about the first page of this book, and how I wanted to read it to you? It’s about what kind of person can stand up against the all-consuming evil of the Third Reich. Bonhoeffer rules out 1) reasonable people, 2) morally fanatical principled people, people who rely on their own 3) conscience, or 4) a sense of duty, or their own 4) freedom, or their own 5) private virtuousness. All of them are useless. The responsible person, Bonhoeffer says, who is ready to sacrifice everything, “who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God,” is the only person who can stand against true evil. And the responsible person is necessarily guilty, by definition, because they take responsibility for their actions!

10.           Back to Saler’s quote: “Thus, we are fully reliant on God's mercy precisely because earthly responsibility involves our going as deeply into the world and its ambiguities as did God in Christ.”

11.           He continues, “So, short answer: Bonhoeffer thought that Jesus' incarnation means that God is deeper into the world and its ambiguities than the church tends to be, and that the church is called to go as deep into the world as Jesus did.”

12.           “The church is called to go as deep into the world as Jesus did”

13.           Even to death. Bonhoeffer lived at the heart of the deadliest war our world has ever known. As Bonhoeffer said, “we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God.” Only the completely undeserved grace of God can save us from ourselves. And baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can be confident that this grace – this almighty love – is for us.

14.           So we can take the risk. We can dare to go as deeply into this world as Jesus did. Dare to encounter the messy, smelly, complicated, violent, scary reality that is human existence, and take responsibility for making the world a better place in the name of Jesus. You will be terrified. You will fail to save the world. You are not Jesus. And yet, God loves you and forgives you as if you were. So get into the world. Amen.