Dietrich Bonhoeffer 		April 9
Pastor, Theologian, Germany
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 in Breslau, Germany. He was brought up in a tradition of Christian humanitarianism and liberalism, and quickly developed a great love for life. He studied theology at Tübingen and then Berlin. In 1928 he went as a curate to Barcelona for a year, and then in 1930 became a lecturer in systematic theology in the University of Berlin. A brilliant career as an academic theologian lay ahead of him.
All of this changed when Hitler came to power in 1933. Bonhoeffer regarded National Socialism as an attempt to make history without God. He publicly denounced the political system which seemed to him to make Hitler its idol and god, and resigned his post at the university. He became part of the Confessing Church, those within the German churches who set the sovereignty of Christ above all other loyalties, in particular any loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
He left Germany for London, where he served as a chaplain to the Lutheran congregation and became deeply involved in the ecumenical movement. When he returned to Germany in 1935 he was forbidden to preach, teach or even enter Berlin. So he went to the Confessing Church’s training college on the Baltic coast and directed this until it was closed by the government.
He wrote a number of important works in which he discussed the form of Christianity in an increasingly secular world. Although sometimes described as an advocate of “religionless Christianity”, Bonhoeffer’s real concerns were with the sense of the ultimate in the midst of life and with speaking in a secular way about God. He sought a Christianity freed from the strictures of traditional religion. 
When war came in 1939 Bonhoeffer was in America, but it soon became clear to him that he must return to his own country to be with his oppressed and persecuted fellow Christians: “I shall 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.”
Bonhoeffer inevitably became involved with the political underground movement, and in April 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo. At first he was held in prison in Berlin, but at the beginning of 1945 he was transferred to Buchenwald. In prison at Buchenwald he devoted his life to ministering to his fellow prisoners. He inspired many, including some of his guards, by his courage and unselfishness. It has been said that in those terrible and frightening conditions he stood like a giant before men. Behind all this lay his faith in and love of God, to which his poems and writings smuggled out of prison bear eloquent testimony:
Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact it is a joy and a privilege, and a token of his grace.
On 9 April 1945, by order of Himmler, Bonhoeffer was executed at the concentration camp at Flossenbürg, a few days before it was liberated by the Allies.
For Liturgical Use
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, born in 1906, is remembered for his determined opposition to National Socialism and for his courageous suffering and death at the hands of the Gestapo on 9 April 1945. He was convinced that religion must be central to life and explored ways of talking about God in secular language as “the beyond in the midst”, even when this meant freeing Christianity from the strictures of traditional religion. His own life in captivity bore eloquent testimony to his belief that “it is the fellowship of the cross to experience the burden of the other.”
Sentence
Thus says the high and lofty one whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit. 	Isaiah 57:15
Collects
Living God,
the source and ground of all life,
through your Son you call us
to enjoyment of your world;
strengthen us, as you strengthened Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
to live by a realistic faith,
and if you require it to suffer for the truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus,
we thank you for your humble servant Dietrich,
his patient questioning,
his religionless Christianity,
and most of all, 
for his witness as a martyr.
Psalms	31:10-27	70
Readings
Jeremiah 1:14-19		Strength to resist evil
Philippians 1:12-20		Witness in life or death
Matthew 16:21-28		The cost of discipleship
Post Communion Sentence
It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.	Galatians 2:20