Bonhoeffer: Life Together

Structure of the Sermon

Introduction to Sermon Series

Today, I get to do something I have never done. Yes, I will be explaining a text and applying it to our lives as I always attempt to do when I preach. However, this time, I will try to expose you to a great man of God who has lived faithfully to death. He had much to say concerning Christian Fellowship which is the main point of our text: Psalm 133.

This sermon is the first sermon in a series of sermons we imagine will span over the next 2-3 years. Each sermon will be an “episode” if you will in the sermon series we have titled “Genealogy.” In each “episode” or sermon we will consider what a man or woman said about an important issue in the church.

Introduction to Bonhoeffer / Division / Discord

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906 into a family of relatively great wealth and stature within Germany. When he was just over 8 years old, the first shots of World War I were fired. Throughout the war, the Bonhoeffer family experienced with the rest of Germany the painful effects. Many they knew were maimed or killed. In 1917, the third year of the war, a messenger delivered a telegram to the Bonhoeffer home indicating that Dietrich’s older brother had died from injuries suffered in battle.

In this moment of great pain and loss for the Bonhoeffer family, we get a glimpse into the kind of home Dietrich grew up in. For the funeral of her son lost to the atrocities of war, Dietrich’s mother, Paula, chose this hymn to be sung (Metaxes, p. 27):

What God has done, it is well done.

His will is always just.

Whatever He will do to me,

In Him I’ll ever place my trust.

In the great pain of losing a son, Bonhoeffer found his mother praising and trusting God. The confidence his mother placed in God would become his own confidence. He too would face some very hard days ahead. He would see his wealth and stature evaporate. Even his life would be taken from him by the command of Hitler, yet through it all Bonhoeffer would be found praising and trusting God.

As I said, Bonhoeffer’s death came at the hands of the Nazis. It occured in April of 1945, after a summary court martial convicted Bonhoeffer and others of the well known conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. Some of the efforts in which Bonhoeffer assisted are told in the recent movie Valkyrie.

Bonhoeffer’s amazing belief in the God of the Bible gave him a unique view of death. He claimed that his belief in God and the kingdom of God left him

“homesick, waiting and looking forward joyfully to be released from bodily existence.”

It was not a hatred of this world that had Bonhoeffer looking forward to death, but a confidence that glory awaited him! In one of his sermons he wrote:

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

Early in the same sermon he declared:

Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it . Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

This way of speaking about death was not mere words or religious speak of Bonhoeffer. Those who witnessed his execution testify to the confidence he had in God even in the shadow of death.

One of the prisoners near Bonhoeffer the day he he died, tells us,

“[Bonhoeffer had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said:

“Prisoner Bonhoeffer: Get ready to come with us.” Those words “Come with us” - for all prisoners they had come to mean one thing only - the scaffold.

We bade him good-bye - he drew me aside - “This is the end,” he said, “For me the beginning of life.”

Not only did the fellow prisoners recall his unusual joyful view of death, but even the German doctor at the camp took note of Bonhoeffer’s demeanor. He recalled:

“On the morning of that day between five and six 0’clock the prisoners… were taken from their cells, and the verdicts of the court martial read out to them. Through the half-open door in one room of the huts I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his GOd. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution he again said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. his death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” (Metaxes, p. 532)

As confidence in God does in all who possess it, it not only transformed the way Bonhoeffer died, but it transformed the way he lived. He lived without fear. He lived without thought of his life. When death becomes a gateway into all that is good, pleasant and glorious, then doing hard things - things that subject one’s life - are no longer risky endeavors. When fear of death is removed, obedience is not only possible it is prioritized. Bonhoeffer observed,

“Only the believer is obedient, and only he who obeys believes.”

The Sermon on the Mount and Community

For Bonhoeffer, obedience meant living out the Sermon on the mount in the context of Christian fellowship. So strong was this conviction that in 1935, Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany from a Pastorate in London England to lead a seminary, an illegal seminary. A seminary that would be opposed by the mainstream church and the Nazi regime. This seminary was more than theological training. This was meant to be an experiment. An experiment of Christians dwelling together in unity.

In a letter to his brother, Dietrich announced his intention:

“I think I am right in saying that I would only achieve true inner clarity and honesty by really starting to take the Sermon on the Mount seriously… The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising discipleship, following Christ according to the Sermon on the Mount. I believe the time has come to gather people together and do this.” (Metaxes, p. 259).

Zingst and Finkenwalde

The experiment began with 24 men, Bonhoeffer and 23 students. Being an illegal experiment, they found no property other than a temporary place on the island Zingst. Zingst was in the Baltic Sea and was subject to bitterly cold winters. They remained there for just shy of 2 months; then came a move to the permanent location of Finkenwalde. At Finkenwalde, Bonhoeffer’s experiment developed over two years. For two years he meticulously attempted to lead the community of men to live together under the instruction of the Sermon on the Mount.

The experiment brought great joys and great bouts of depression. By the end of it, Bonhoeffer had learned much about discipleship and christian fellowship. Thankfully, he put those lessons into words - two rich works Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship.

Bonhoeffer had a heightened appreciation of Christian community / unity / fellowship because he lived in an extremely divided age in the life of the church. (Example of division included the issue of should there be one united church in Germany? When the persecution against Jews became apparent the church wrestled with how to respond. Should the church fight? Be a part of a conspiracy to remove Hitler? Should men like Bonhoeffer stay within the church even though they strongly opposed some of its actions or should they break fellowship and start something new?

Bonhoeffer not only had reason to treasure unity but he also lived a life in pursuit of it. It is in the context of a community he started that he wrote Life Together in which he shares his thoughts about this blessed community called the church. And it is from this work of his that we will draw great insight into the brotherly fellowship spoken of in Psalm 133.

Observations Concerning this Brotherly Unity

Every once in awhile I’ll be in the living room watching tv or playing with the girls while Jess is baking or cooking something delicious in the kitchen. I love when my show or game with the girls is interrupted with Jess exclaiming, “Babe, coming in here you have got to taste this! This is so good!”

Unlike some of her other requests, she only has to call me one time to try something good! When I arrive in the kitchen and taste the goodness, I join in! I voice my agreement, “Wow! that is good!” For the next couple of minutes well talk about the dessert whatever it is. One of us might comment on the not too hard but not too gewy quality of the cookie, the other might. Or we might discuss the perfect level of moistness in the cake.

Though the item being enjoyed might change, the process seems to go about the same. Jess makes something good. She calls me to enjoy it. We enjoy it together. As we enjoy it, we discuss its goodness!

To fully understand the main point of Psalm 133, we must realize that as we come to the psalm we enter into a similar situation that Jess and I experience from time to time. In Psalm 133, we find the psalmist enjoy something. This is not his recalling something good, or thinking about the potential of something good coming in the future. No, we find the psalmist with a mouthful of something tasty and he wants us to join in. He wants us to participate. Like Jess calling me to share a tasty dessert, the psalmist is saying, “Behold! Come look! Come partake of this thing that is delightful!

The thing the psalmist desires us to behold is “brothers dwelling in unity.”

I like New Living Translation a little bit better; “when brothers live together in harmony. Sometimes, at least for me, I see the word unity and I limit my understanding to the opposite of division. Or the absence of hostility. But harmony is so much more than not being at each other. Harmony is much more than not being at war or being divided over an issue. Harmony is being one in mind and heart.

I cannot think of a better picture to harmony than an orchestra. There are dozens of musicians. They are all play different instruments and different notes at different times. Yet, together they produce something glorious, something pleasant to the ear. Something they cannot produce on their own. Something they cannot produce when not play in step with each other. That is harmony.

The psalmist then is saying, “Listen to the music! Do you hear the beautiful sound being made by the brothers - the people of God - dwelling in harmony.

As the psalmist calls our attention to the beautiful produce of harmony in the fellowship, he uses pictures to speak of its goodness. Part of his delighting in the thing he sees, is his talking about it! He describes it! Here is what he finds...

It is good and pleasant (Psalm 133:1)

Psalm 133:1 ESV

1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

The psalmist sees God’s people dwelling in harmony and his heart cries out, “That is good! That is delightful!” He finds in the fellowship of God’s people something wonderful and satisfying!

It is from God (Psalm 133:2)

Psalm 133:2 ESV

2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

It is Identifying

It is for all

It is fruitful