I have a problem. But first, let me say happy birthday.
Today marks the 114th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birth. Bonhoeffer, as many of you know, was a German Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis in 1945. Along with Maximillian Kolbe and Oscar Romero, he stands in the pantheon of 20th Century martyrs.
Bonhoeffer is perhaps best known for the quote “when God calls a man he bids him come and die.” He and the other martyrs of the faith knowingly, willingly, answered that call. I admire them because they walked the talk.
And this is where my problem begins. It’s hard for me not to compare my faith to theirs and when I do I come up short. I honestly don’t know if I could walk the path they did.
It’s true that we are not all called to physical martyrdom, but we are called in baptism to give up our lives. Baptism is a call to death…and life. We die to what we formerly were and then we are raised to a new life, a life that is not our own.
But what exactly does that new life look like?
It’s not a new question. 2,700 years ago the prophet Isaiah was asking a similar question: what does an authentic life of faith look like?
He was addressing people who thought they had the answer. They were wrong. God looked at the people’s faith practices and found them to be hypocritical.
Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them?
This is what an authentic life of faith looks like, to live for the other. This is what it means to pick up your cross and follow Christ. This is what scripture commands of us over and over again. But, this is a problem for many churches. It’s a problem because addressing social concerns and advocating for social justice smacks of politics and they want a clear distinction between politics and the gospel.
That’s not possible. Unfortunately the two are bound together. Working to feed the hungry and help the poor are fine on an individual basis, many say, but to advocate as a church to bring down the systems that cause many of these social ills is going too far.
Let’s return to Bonhoeffer. In 1933 his was the first church voice raised publicly against the persecution of the Jews. His was a lonely voice. But he said something worth remembering. He said the church must not be content to
“bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.”
The beginning of Lent is a mere three weeks away. Many of us will be giving something up or fasting. Maybe it would be good if we took God seriously, if we made our fast a fast for justice and looked at the demonic systems that are crushing many of our brothers and sisters. What would happen if we together jammed a spoke in the wheel?
Divine Overtones 