Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, what a guy. And what a peacemaker. There is little that he has written that doesn’t make me genuinely want to attest with a resounding “Amen!”. He doubted his faith and his calling, but eventually became a pastor in pre- WWII Nazi Germany. He was a resister, and met with other peaceful resisters in England and the US, trying to explore where his efforts could be best used. He decided to return to Germany to continue his work of peace. A pastor and organizer of a seminary, he continued to preach peace and work quietly in the resistance. At the age of 37, he was imprisoned by the Nazis, and after two years in captivity, he was hanged on April 9, 1945. Less than a month later, Germany surrendered.
There are many books written both about and by him. Knowing his times and fate, the books he wrote, and what he said is even more revealing: The Cost of Discipleship, and Letters from Prison. This morning, I’m again inspired by the life of this great, and frequently unknown man. Today, instead of my musings, I share his. Today, my challenge is to pluck from his wisdom something to hold on to, and see throughout the day. Today, I imagine how I might live like that. Again, I say Amen.
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.
The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfillment of promise is never theirs. They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting, seeking with patient uncertainties until the answers come. They lose the moment when the answers are revealed in dazzling clarity.
The awareness of a spiritual tradition that reaches through the centuries gives one a certain feeling of security in the face of all transitory difficulties.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
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.
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.
A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.
I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. 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. That, I think, is faith.
Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.
Amen.
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