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The Pinecone
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May 2015
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f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n
Chaplain’s COrner
James EmeryWhite has a challenging
description of one of the most dedicated
and inspiring men of the World War II
era, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
“Bonhoeffer, (who was born at the
beginning of the 20th Century -1906-
and only lived to be 39), was a German
pastor who lived under the dark shadow
of the swastika in Nazi Germany.
Speaking out against Hitler’s atrocities
from the beginning, Bonhoeffer was
arrested for his role in the resistance
movement and was executed on April
9, 1945, by special order of Heinrich
Himmler…six years prior to his
imprisonment he wrote ‘When Christ
calls a man, He bids him come and die.’
From the beginning of the Nazi
ascension to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer
launched himself into the fray of protest,
particularly against the insidious rise
of anti-Semitism…For Bonhoeffer
the resistance was not political but
spiritual. It was a matter of discipleship.
His allegiance was to ‘a Lord who
outweighed the Fuhrer,’ knowing that
only such a lordship and such a radical
discipleship could trump the claims and
manipulation of the German state.
Writing to a fellow theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr about those who encouraged
him to leave Germany, Bonhoeffer
was adamant: ‘I will have no right to
participate in the reconstruction of
Christian life in Germany after the War
if I do not share the trials of this time
with my people.’
Living By Dying
May 14th
Reverend
Ashley Ray
Ridgeway Baptist Church
May 21st
Reverend
Larry McKenzie
Highland Church of Christ
May 28th
Reverend
Mike Morris
St. Paul United Methodist
May Vesper Services
•
6:30pm
•
Performing Arts Center
May 7th
Reverend
Jeff Findlay
First Evangelical Church
His last weeks were spent in
various Gestapo prisons…ending
in Flossenburg. One of his fellow
prisoners, and English officer, wrote
that Bonhoeffer ‘was one of the very
few persons I have ever met for whom
God was real and always near…
On Sunday, April 8, 1945, Pastor
Bonhoeffer conducted a little service of
worship and spoke to us in a way that
went to the heart of all of us. He found
just the right words to express the spirit
of our imprisonment, the thoughts and
the resolutions it had brought us. He had
hardly ended his last prayer when the
door opened and two civilians entered.
They said, ‘Pastor Bonhoeffer, come
with us.’ That had one meaning for all
prisoners—the gallows. We said good-
by to him. He took me aside: ‘This is
the end, but for me it is the beginning
of life.’ The next day he was hanged in
Flossenburg.”
-
Serious Times,
James Emery White, pp. 51-52
One month later, on May 8, 1945,
Germany made its unconditional
surrender and the War was over. It was
so close. Without Himmler’s special
order Bonhoeffer might have survived,
but he was convinced of the truth of
“Living By Dying.”
Similar things are happening now in
many places. Paul’s nearly 2000 year
old statement is descriptive of so many
men, women and children scattered
worldwide, “For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
How great is the need for new
Bonhoeffers. Are we willing to stand
against rampant evil spreading often
unchecked all around us? Are we
prepared to participate in the spiritual
battle raging? Are we committed to
die if necessary for justice, morality
and the things that rightly should last?
Will anyone ever write about us and our
choices? Will our lives leave much of
an impact?
Now is the time. This is the moment.
The decision must be made.
Till next time,
Don Johnson, Kirby Pines Chaplain
D i e t r i c h Bon hoe f f e r