Bonhoeffer’s Ghost
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ghost pursued him through time.
“Why”, asked the Ghost, “did one drawn to the Sermon on the Mount and to nonviolence, retaliate?”
We guess the answer:
The very enormity of Hitler’s evil. Even pacifists said, “We must fight!” Bonhoeffer offers an explanation, but Bonhoeffer knows the Ghost has more to say. Bonhoeffer himself knows more. Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity builds on the Sermon on the Mount. So too, Bonhoeffer’s world come of age. And his famous notion of cheap grace most certainly attaches a cost to discipleship. But for doing what? There’s the rub.
Painfully, Bonhoeffer knows there is a lasting contradiction between his actions then and what he might have done if he had had the time.
So he is not surprised to hear the Ghost explain, “Evil for evil merely breeds more evil. Jesus knows a better way; he is more canny. Negotiation is his style and parable his sword. He shakes the very props of Empire with a word. Why did he die? It was to show the power and shape of Abba’s love. To vindicate and demonstrate the truth of Abba’s Way..”
The Ghost continues. “Dietrich, it is not too late. Inspire those who come after to speak what you would have spoken. Instead of creeds, obedience. Instead of a set of beliefs, a way of life. Instead of ‘church’, a practiced faith. Instead of assent to war and its ways, a removal of the sword from Caesar and the final coming of age which is Abba’s Way.
“This way confronts but does not kill. This way puts on no airs and claims no truths. It simply acts and values Abba-like. That’s all.
“You knew it then: The old way will not work. Do not allow your legacy to venerate you for the wrong thing.”
Bonhoeffer, like Hamlet, talks back. He quotes the poet in Isaiah 6: “I am a man of unclean lips. Living in a world of unclean lips.”
The Ghost replies, “You are indeed. But Abba sets you free. Then, Dietrich, if they kill, it will be for the right reason. Make straight the way of Abba, Dietrich. Make it straight.”
Then on the parapet, the ghostly figure disappears. And now we hear a rising angels’ song.
Abba whose home in heaven is
Hallowed and holy is your name
Let your realm come your will be done
Till earth and heaven are the same
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Give us this day our daily bread
Forgive the wrongs that we have done
As we forgive those who do wrong
Lead us not into temptation
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Deliver us from evil lord
And guide us safely to your shore
Yours is the power to heal and mend
Yours is the glory ever more
