The collected sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

210 Pages·2012·1.33 MB·English

by  Douglas W.

The Collected Sermons
of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Memorial Church in London was built on the site of Sydenham Church, where
Bonhoeffer was pastor from 1933 to 1935. Sydenham Church was destroyed by bombs during World War
II.
The Collected Sermons of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY
Douglas W. Stott
Anne Schmidt-Lange Isabel Best
Scott A. Moore
Claudia D. Bergmann Edited by Isabel Best Fortress Press Minneapolis
For Sarah and John and their generation in Christian ministry —and for those to
come
THE COLLECTED SERMONS OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
9781451424362
Copyright © Fortress Press 2012. All rights reserved. Except for brief quota-
tions in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in
any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Visit
www.augsburgfortress.org/copyrights/contact.asp or write to Permissions,
Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation, copyright © 1989 by the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This book is also available in print at www.fortresspress.com
9780800699048
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
God Is with Us
Matthew 28:20
Waiting at the Door
Revelation 3:20
National Memorial Day
Matthew 24:6–14
The Promised Land
Genesis 32:24–31; 33:10
God Is Love
1 John 4:16
Lazarus and the Rich Man
Luke 16:19–31
Risen with Christ
Colossians 3:1–4
The Things That Are Above
Colossians 3:1–4
Overcoming Fear
Matthew 8:23–27
Gideon: God Is My Lord
Judges 6:15–16; 7:2; 8:23
The Joy of Ascension
1 Peter 1:7b–9
Who Do You Say That I Am?
Matthew 16:13–18
Ambassadors for Christ
2 Corinthians 5:20
Turning Back
2 Corinthians 5:10
As a Mother Comforts Her Child
Wisdom 3:3
Come, O Rescuer
Luke 21:28
My Spirit Rejoices
Luke 1:46–55
Beginning with Christ
Luke 9:57–62
Repent and Do Not Judge
Luke 13:1–5
Come unto Me
Matthew 11:28–30
. . . and Have Not Love
1 Corinthians 13:1–3
What Love Wants
1 Corinthians 13:4–7
Must I Be Perfect?
1 Corinthians 13:8–12
A Church That Believes, Hopes, and Loves
1 Corinthians 13:13
My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness
2 Corinthians 12:9
Lord, Help My Unbelief
Mark 9:23–24
Forgiveness
Matthew 18:21–35
The Betrayer
Matthew 26:45b–50
Loving Our Enemies
Romans 12:16c–21
The Gift of Faith
Mark 9:24
Death Is Swallowed Up in Victory
1 Corinthians 15:55
FOR FURTHER READING
SOURCES
FOREWORD
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is usually not remembered as a preacher. Although he
preached throughout his adult life, there were only two relatively brief
periods in which he actually preached every Sunday to a congregation. Both
periods were in parishes outside Germany. In 1928, he served as pastoral
assistant vicar to the overseas German-speaking congregation in Barcelona,
Spain, and then from October 1933 to the spring of 1935 he was the pastor to
two German-speaking congregations in London. In addition, he served briefly as
a student chaplain in Berlin, and over the years he preached to students,
confirmation classes, Sunday schools, and as the occasional guest preacher in
churches, and of course he lectured extensively on preaching to his seminarians
at the illegal Confessing Church seminary in Finkenwalde from 1935 to 1937.
There are seventy-one complete sermons or homilies in the collected works—
more, however, if we include the Bible studies and the circular letters he wrote
to his students (many of which are indeed sermon-like; they are certainly
reflections on Scripture and how he thought it was speaking to the concerns of
his students and the issues of the times).
Bonhoeffer believed that preaching—the proclamation of the word of God as
revealed in Scripture—was the very heart of Christian life and worship. But it
became something more than that after January 30, 1933. During the Nazi years,
Bonhoeffer understood his sermons both as a way of confessing his faith and as
a prophetic means to call his church and his students to withstand the ideological
spirit of the times. In addition, the act of writing and preaching a sermon became
for him a source of spiritual discipline and strength—in fact, I do not think that
we can understand Bonhoeffer the resistance figure or Bonhoeffer the theologian
without understanding Bonhoeffer the preacher.
Simply in terms of their language and theology, many of Bonhoeffer’s
sermons have a beauty and power of their own. Yet when read in the immediate
historical context of when they were preached—whether in Barcelona in 1928 or
Berlin in 1933 or London in early 1935 or in Finkenwalde in 1938—they gain an
added power and depth, for only then can we begin to understand how Dietrich
Bonhoeffer was actively engaging the issues of his times and his church through
his preaching.
This volume of sermons selected from the new English translations of the
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works is a significant and long-overdue addition to the
literature on Bonhoeffer. Here for the first time is a carefully chosen collection
of his sermons, taken from throughout his preaching life, that gives us a full
portrait of Bonhoeffer the preacher. Translator Isabel Best, who translated
volumes 12 (Berlin: 1933) and 13 (London: 1933–1935) of the Bonhoeffer
Works and contributed to several other volumes, may be considered an expert on
the sermons, their nuances and their power. In addition to selecting these
sermons, she has provided a helpful introduction to the collection as well as an
introduction to each sermon that gives us not only the crucial historical
background for each one but also conveys how Bonhoeffer’s audiences—
whether they were diplomats in Barcelona or young seminarians in Finkenwalde
—would have heard and understood his words.
Most importantly, she understands how we—today—might hear these words.
This anthology is a powerful illustration of the extent to which these sermons,
preached so long ago and in a very different world, nonetheless speak to
Christians today. Bonhoeffer’s writings are remarkable not only because of his
poignant life and powerful message under National Socialism but also because
he wrote and spoke in a language that has stood the test of time. He had a gift for
expressing the very essence of the Christian message and what it means to live
the Christian life of faith in this world, and as a result his writings are still read
and pondered by Christians around the world and at all points of the theological
spectrum.
Nowhere is that clearer than in his sermons. In October 1933, in his very first
sermon in London, Bonhoeffer preached on the relationship between pastor and
congregation, and he spoke at length about what it meant to preach:
This is what makes a sermon something unique in all the world, so
completely different from any other kind of speech. When a preacher opens
the Bible and interprets the word of God, a mystery takes place, a miracle:
the grace of God, who comes down from heaven into our midst and speaks
to us, knocks on our door, asks questions, warns us, puts pressure on us,
alarms us, threatens us and makes us joyful again, and free, and certain.
When the Holy Scriptures are brought to life in a church, the Holy Spirit
comes down from the eternal throne into our hearts, and the busy world
outside sees nothing and does not realize at all that God could actually be
found here.
God is with us. In the midst of our own busy and very troubled world, this
book of the sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer will be welcomed by those who