Heritage of the Saints: Bonhoeffer Introduction

For a couple decades, the words of God in Isaiah 54:17 have had my attention and meditation. This scripture even formed the focal point of my doctoral dissertation.

“This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,”

Isaiah 54:17

When you consider, the chapter and verse structure of scripture was added long after the original writer wrote it down, and it was originally a long scroll, you ask, “how much of the text before constitutes “the heritage of the servants of the Lord.”  Consider the text just 14 verses earlier.

“For you will spread out to the right and to the left.
And your descendants will possess nations
And will resettle the desolate cities.

And your descendants will possess nations

And will resettle the desolate cities.”

Isaiah 54:3

As our cities become desolate, our natural (human) tendency is to move on and abandon the places we’re called to settle. The desolation can be a lack of employment opportunities, issues with the public school system, local dominant politics, or local dominant religion. Where we may see desolation, others may see opportunity. All can be a matter of perspective.

As we consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a servant of the Lord and a participant in the heritage mentioned in Isaiah 54:17, his perspective at a time when Germany was driven by a significant political shift can be enlightening to us today.

Dietrich’s fiancee, Maria von Wedemeyer, and oldest sister, Ruth-Alice von Bismark, shared a story that can be helpful:

“…Ruth-Alice recalled…as a teenager in the mid-1930’s - she was taken every Sunday with her brothers and sisters by their heroic mother Ruth von Kleizt to hear Dietrich preach…She vividly recalled how most other young people at the time had gulped down the Nazi propaganda and craned to hear the cackling of its demented standard-bearer, giddily declaring, “This is the future! This is the future!”

…they knew this burgeoning movement was the enemy of everything their beloved parents had taught them about God and about God’s idea of Germany.

…when they heard Bonhoeffer preach those Sundays, they had their answer, “Here!” she said…”Here was our future!”  This golden man and what he said in that chapel was proof God had not forgotten them.”

Page xviii, Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas

If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had not chosen to stay in a city that was headed for a form of desolation, no one would have heard an alternate future compared to the Nazi propaganda. 

Are there alternate futures prepared by God that you are called to speak to in your city? Are there places where you must “die to self” and speak the truth?

Bonhoeffer had a vision of what “dying to self” and living for others and for God looked like and lived it.

“In a tired and decadent world where such beliefs had become fatally attenuated, or where they had devolved to pro forma exercises in religious tradition, Bonhoeffer believed them utterly.  And he saw that the failure on the part of the German church to believe these things made the way for the river of blood that was National Socialism.”

Page xxiii, Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas

With Bonhoeffer as an example of “the heritage of the saints,” we see that our heritage is to speak truth, particularly during impending desolation. We see  Dietrich perhaps condemning those who would make accusations and speak forth Nazi propaganda.

“And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.”

Isaiah 54:17

Our heritage as saints is to speak against those things that would be accusative, even when those things come from “pro forma exercises in religious tradition.”  We are not called to be passive in the face of impending desolation but proactive. When events occur to desolate our families, spouses, children, homes, cities, states, country, or church, we are to be proactive and condemn the source. We condemn the source even if it is the government, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke the truth.

“Bonhoeffer’s “radical” theology…which was simply traditional orthodox Christianity rediscovered…did not sit well with those Germans who shrank from bravely standing against the Nazis and hid behind the fig leaves of a deliberately circumscribed misreading of Romans 13.”

Page xxv, Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas

As we embrace the “heritage of the saints” we have been grafted into, we must ensure we do not let our voice be silenced  In the face of propaganda or religious tradition, we must bravely stand against those things that attempt to desolate our cities  We must resettle or restore those places and institutions where desolation has already occurred.