What would you do – how would you live – if you weren’t afraid?
Maybe that’s not quite the right question. There are many reasons to be afraid. What would you do – how would you live – if fear didn’t bind you?
One of my favorite parts of my job is sitting down with folks who are new to St. Dunstan’s to hear their stories and start to get to know them. A few weeks ago I did that with Sarah and Ingrid. Ingrid told me about what an impression our crucifix made on her when they first came to worship here. It’s big! It makes an impression on a lot of people! Ingrid said she thought of it as a kind of visual aid, like a PowerPoint slide, that shows the power of not being afraid of what anyone can do to you. Not letting fear that the worst might happen make your choices for you.
And of course, she said, people need to come back and see that every week, because that’s a really hard way to think and live. You go out into the world and there are so many things that put you back into a small, self-focused, fearful mindset. You have to come back here often, to this gathering under the cross, to keep training in how to live a different way.
This past Wednesday, April 9, was the 80th anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich was born in 1906 to an educated, middle-class German family, one of the youngest of eight children. His family were Lutheran Christians, like many Germans. He had a strong faith as a child, and felt drawn to the study of theology, seeking deeper understanding of God and faith, from a young age. He started his theological studies at 18.
By that time, Adolf Hitler was already on the rise, feeding on the struggles and dissatisfactions of post-World War I Germany. Hitler attempted a coup in 1923; it failed, and Hitler was jailed. He wrote Mein Kampf during that imprisonment.
As the violent nationalist thinking of Hitler and his inner circle simmered beneath the surface of German public life, Dietrich studied, traveled, and matured. In 1930, he spent a year in New York City, studying at Union Theological Seminary. But the most important thing about that time was not his studies but his friendships. He became close friends with a young Black man, Frank Fisher. He went to church with Frank and experienced prophetic preaching and powerful music. He traveled the country with Frank, and saw overt racial discrimination firsthand. Another deep friendship with a student from France – an enemy nation in the recent war – shook loose Dietrich’s deep assumption that duty to God and duty to country would always run in the same direction. His time in America left Dietrich with two questions that he’d explore for the rest of his life: What is the church? And, how is the church called to love the other, those outside the church?
He returned home in 1931, to a country where Hitler’s promises of a Germany restored to strength and glory were gaining popular appeal. Hitler was appointed chancellor by the aging president in 1933. Soon afterwards, a mysterious fire at the German legislative building, the Reichstag, provided the justification for an edict taking away all civil liberties, including free speech, free assembly, and a free press. Hitler began calling himself Der Fuhrer – The Leader – and started talking about his plan to purge Jews and other minorities from German society. As part of his total takeover of German society, Hitler convinced German church leaders to see him as the head of the church, as well as head of state. Many churches gladly joined the movement, pledging faith in Hitler and God. But not all.
Bonhoeffer knew all this was wrong. He published a paper outlining three ways the church should respond in such circumstances. First, question the state and its methods: a true church must reject government encroachment on its beliefs.
Second, help the victims of state action. The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society. Third, strike back. Bonhoeffer wrote, “It is not enough just to bandage the victims [caught] under the wheel – but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.”
Other like-minded German Christians began to gather and connect. Eventually they called their movement the Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer gathered a group of students in a small German coastal town and began an informal rebel seminary. During that time, he wrote two important texts, “The Cost of Discipleship” and “Life together.”
Meanwhile, Hitler continued to consolidate power and crack down on dissent. By 1937, churches were forbidden to publicly pray for anyone resisting the Nazis, and nearly 800 Confessing Church leaders had been arrested – including Martin Niemöller, who wrote the famous lines, “First they came the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist…”
At the same time, Hitler’s intentions to invade and conquer much of Europe were becoming clear. Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938. Some of his generals and other leaders had concerns. They saw his cruelty and limitless ambition, and they feared for Germany, and the world. Gradually, some of those doubters began to coalesce into circles that conspired to hamper Hitler’s plans or even eliminate him. Through some family connections, Dietrich became connected with one of these groups; this one included several high-up members of the Abwehr, the German CIA.
The increased attacks on Germany’s Jews fueled Dietrich’s resistance. He wondered, if the church doesn’t exist to protect others, in a moment like this, is it really a church at all? But the risks for those who resisted the regime were increasing.
Early in 1939, a network of family, friends, and allies managed to get Bonhoeffer out of Germany, back to New York City – free, and safe. But he felt desperately alone there – and far from God. He felt a call back to Germany, convinced that he had to be part of Germany’s present if he wanted to be part of its future. He rushed home, on one of the last ships before the war began. He felt God’s presence once more, but still struggled to know the path ahead.
One question began to rise again and again in his soul: Would God forgive one who murdered a tyrant? What could it mean to put a spoke in the wheel of the Nazis’ oppressive violence? Soon after his return to Germany, he wrote, “If I saw a lunatic plowing his car into a crowd, I could not casually stand on the sidewalk and say, ‘I am a pastor. I’ll just wait to bury the dead afterwards.’”
Germany invaded Poland in the fall of 1939. Reports from the front lines of mass executions of civilians, including women, children, and elders, drove Hitler’s secret opponents to begin plotting to assassinate Hitler. Dietrich still felt conflicted about being part of the conspiracy – yet so much evil came from the words and actions of just one man! Bonhoeffer became almost a chaplain to the resistance, talking with others about what faithfulness could mean in those terrible times.
The first assassination attempt took place in March 1943; it failed. Another followed just two weeks later; it also failed. The conspirators were able to cover their tracks to some extent – but Germany was beginning to lose the war, and pressure on internal dissent grew ever stronger. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April of 1943. The charges against him were refusal to enlist in the Army; he was suspected of conspiracy against the regime, but the Nazis had no proof. Dietrich was in prison for two years. For much of that time, he was able to write and receive letters, and sometimes even visitors. The guards liked him, and he provided spiritual support for other prisoners too.
In July 1944, there was another – final – attempt to assassinate Hitler. This time the bomb went off – but Hitler survived. Afterwards, Nazis found records linking Bonhoeffer to the Abwehr conspirators. Dietrich was moved to the custody of the Gestapo. He knew his life was in imminent danger. John Hendrix writes, “Bonhoeffer had… called for a radical obedience [to God] that was not cheap but costly. Faith wasn’t just about creating a set of comforting thoughts about God; it was living out an ethic that called for sacrifice. You didn’t just pray for the tanks to stop rolling. You threw yourself in front of them.” Bonhoeffer himself wrote, “The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation is going to live.” And elsewhere: “If we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the moment of danger comes…. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior.”
By April of 1945 the Allies were marching across Germany. Hitler was terrified and furious. He ordered the execution of all conspirators still in custody. On April 8, Bonhoeffer and others were subject to a rapid “trial” and condemned to death. That night, Dietrich dreamed of wading into the ocean, down into the depths – then swimming upward, to where he could see the feet of someone standing on the surface of the water – someone who reached down and pulled him up into the light.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged on April 9th, 1945. His last words were, “This is the end – for me, the beginning – of life.”
“If we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the moment of danger comes….”
What would you do – how would you live – if you weren’t afraid?
Maybe that’s not quite the right question. There are many reasons to be afraid. What would you do – how would you live – if fear couldn’t bind you?