 |
Pastor's Page |
JOHN ROTHFUSZ, PASTOR - Phone 779-901-0803; email:
Dear Friends in Christ,
A few years ago I heard a presenter talk to a pastors’ group about Deitrich Bonhoeffer. He was a German Lutheran pastor who had an enormous influence on the church. He challenged Christians to think hard about what it meant to be faithful.
Bonhoeffer was a prodigy, going through college and getting his PhD by age 21. But he came of age in the 1930s as Germany was in great turmoil, as Hitler and the Nazi party were rising to power. The Lutheran Church in Germany was under great pressure to stand unified with the nation, and to support the rising Nazi government. It seemed like the patriotic thing to do, to help the nation become strong and great again after their humiliation in the aftermath of World War I. And so the churches joined the “Deutsche Christen,” the “German Christians,” which aligned the churches with Nazi ideals. There are many pictures of this era of Nazi swastikas adorning the altars of churches, showing the way that those churches subordinated themselves to the government and the popular will. Most of the church was willing to overlook the racist, fearmongering rhetoric of Hitler because of the good things that he was doing in the 1930’s. We now look on this as a shameful time for the church.
However, Bonhoeffer was part of a group that refused to accept the Deutsche Christen. They formed the Confessing Church, because they were not willing to be a part of the D.C. They set up their own seminaries, to train pastors without subordinating them to the Nazi government. Those seminaries were soon declared illegal, and shut down, but Bonhoeffer set up another illegal seminary in Finkenwald, led it, and funded it from his own family money.
Eventually, Bonhoeffer was arrested for acts of resistance, including helping some Jews escape. He was jailed for some time at Tegel prison, and eventually evidence linked him to a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was taken to Buchenwald, and then executed at Flossenburg. The Lutheran Church looks at Bonhoeffer as one of our own martyrs and saints, as one who was willing to resist evil and give his life for what he believed.
Bonhoeffer’s writings challenge the church to follow Jesus. This is not a simple or easy thing. His book, Discipleship is the challenging call to the costly but joyful way of following Jesus in the world today. A disciple walks behind Jesus on the way to the cross, sharing in his suffering.
His challenge is that the church and Christians must be faithful to Jesus, whatever that costs us. We must be obedient to the Lord, shaping our lives to follow where he leads, and bearing the burdens of faith. Discipleship may not make us popular, but it is the necessary path for anyone who wants to follow Jesus. Our Lord saves us by his costly grace, paid for by his death on the cross for you and me. We as sinners are justified freely by Jesus’ grace, and called to live lives that are new and different because we are freed and forgiven. The cost of Jesus’ grace calls us to be obedient to Christ, using our whole lives to love God and serve our neighbor.
Bonhoeffer speaks to the time before and during WWII, but his words speak powerfully to our world today as well. The church must not ever again submit itself to the popular will of the people or to the government. We must stand apart as a voice speaking for Jesus, and challenging whoever may be in power. We must be people who listen to our Lord and love our neighbor, whoever they may be. And we must be people who speak up against injustice and abuse of power toward any of those whom God loves.
Most of us like to forget the Deutsche Christen, and the time when most of the Lutheran Church in Germany gave in to the Nazi government. We don’t like to think of that happening among us. Bonhoeffer gives a ringing call to faithfulness to Jesus alone, and a willingness to challenge any leader or movement that would call us away from our Lord’s road of costly discipleship.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor John
