More Bonhoeffer

I continue to have a fascination with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It was rekindled again this spring when I attended the Wheaton Theology Conference which focused on Bonhoeffer.

This summer, as last, I’m reading both his works and a biography. I’ve read both Metaxas and Schingensiepen biographies and this summer I’m wading through the classic biography by Bonhoeffer’s best friend Eberhard Bethge. However I’m more narrow in my study by specifying the three-year period of Bonhoeffer’s life in Zingst and Finkenwalde. Alongside reading Bethge, I’m reading Bonhoeffer’s Life Together (Gemeinsames Leben).

Bethge describes Bonhoeffer’s teaching on Homiletics which provides some relevant instruction for all would-be preachers:

Nothing, insisted Bonhoeffer, is more concrete than the real voice of Christ speaking in the sermon. He adhered strictly to his principle with regard to any sermon preached in the worship service. It was to be listened to in all humility, not analyzed. The only sermons he allowed to be discussed were those that were read aloud, never those that had been delivered before a congregation (442).

For those of us prone to be critical of sermons, this is a strong admonition.

Also, on that same page Bethge quotes Bonhoeffer:

“Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic . . . Do not defend God’s Word, but testify to it . . . Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity!”

Profound words!