Patrick Comerford
We are now in the last two weeks of Lent, and this week began with the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), sometimes still known as Passion Sunday. The Church Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers the life and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Lutheran Pastor and Martyr, who was executed by the Nazi police in Flossenburg concentration camp 80 years ago on 9 April 1945.
Later today, I hope to join some of my clergy colleagues in the Milton Keynes area at the Cricket Pavilion for a walk around Campbell Park or down to the coffee shop at Willen Lake. In the evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 8: 31-42 (NRSVA):
31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ 33 They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’
34 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. 38 I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.’
39 They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, 40 but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.’ 42 Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.
Today’s Reflection:
The conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem continues in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist (John 8: 31-42) today. In today’s reading, Jesus talks about discipleship and truth and tells those who believe in him: ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (verses 31-32).
The Cost of Discipleship (1937) is probably the best-known work by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is remembered in the Church Calendar today (9 April) on the 80th anniversary of his murder in 1945, only weeks before the end of World War II. His writings have had a strong influence on my thinking and on my theology.
Two year earlier, the German pastor, theologian and martyr was asked in 1943, how it was possible for the Church to sit back and let Hitler seize absolute power. He answered, ‘It was the teaching of cheap grace.’ The same question may be asked today as we watch an authoritarian regime drive and a coach and four through institutions of democracy, justice, law, liberty and human rights in the United States.
This takeover has been facilitated and supported by a variety of vocal religious groups in the US, including Christian Nationalists, many so-called ‘conservative evangelicals’ (I would question whether they are either ‘conservative’ or evangelical’) and fringe, sacked bishop such as Joseph Strickland, who promoted a $1,500-a-head cocktail evening at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach last month.
We live in a time and culture that not only teaches cheap grace, but praises it and in which sectors of the Church dispense it. ‘Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession,’ Bonhoeffer wrote. ‘Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.’
Like many others, I will not be watching the new film Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin, which was released in the UK on 13 December 2024. It is based on the book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (2011), by the right-wing radio talk show host and Trump supporter Eric Metaxas.
His political biases are evident in the titles of two of his books supposedly written for children, Donald Builds the Wall and Donald Drains the Swamp in a series called ‘Donald the Caveman’.
The film, released by the Utah-based Angel Studios, argues against protection of refuges and care of the environment, for example. The Christian Century, in its condemnation of the film, said: ‘The New Bonhoeffer Movie isn’t just bad. It’s dangerous’ (21 November 2024).
The Bonhoeffer family and leading Bonhoeffer scholars have spoken out critically about the film.
Many Bonhoeffer scholars have signed a petition headed ‘Stop Misusing Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Support Political Violence and Christian Nationalism.’ They say the film ‘is a dangerous and grievous misuse of his theology and life’. They say ‘this dangerous rhetoric and the weaponisation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are most prevalent’ in the US ‘among those who also espouse Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism uses the symbols and language of Christian faith to gain power and control over others.’
They condemn American Christian Nationalists’ disdain and their use of ‘hyperbolic rhetoric’, and point out that Bonhoeffer promoted justice and care for the neighbour, especially those who are suffering, recognised the dangers of Christian Nationalism and spoke against it as early as 1930.
In the latest edition of the Church Times (4 April 2025), Andrew Lockley, whose grandmother was a first cousin of Bonhoeffer, points out that in a sermon in New York, Bonhoeffer warned that Christians should never forget that they have brothers and sisters not only in their own people, but in every people. If the people of God were united, he proclaimed, ‘no nationalism, no hate of races or classes could execute its designs, and then the world would have peace forever and ever.’
The Bonhoeffer scholars accuse Metaxas of manipulating the Bonhoeffer story to support Christian Nationalism, of developing and inserting his distorted use of Bonhoeffer into public discourse portrayal, and of glorifying violence. They speak of a ‘perfidious appropriation of Bonhoeffer’ and a ‘dangerous and patently false poster images of Bonhoeffer carrying a gun’.
They point out that Bonhoeffer’s life was defined by the question, ‘Who is Christ for us today?’ They explain, ‘With this question, Bonhoeffer teaches us that Christ is to be found in the presence and suffering of the neighbour, whether across the street or across the border. With this question, he has inspired Christians and non-Christians around the world to work for a society based on solidarity and humanity.’
They say we are called ‘to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.’
A recent letter, signed by almost 100 descendants of Bonhoeffer’s siblings, asserts: ‘We are horrified to see how the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is increasingly being distorted and misused by right-wing extremists, xenophobes and religious agitators.’
In considering the Cost of Discipleship and the distortion of truth in the interests of political extremism and authoritarianism, it is worth, once again, recalling Christ’s words in this morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist: ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (John 8: 31-32).
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 9 April 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Healthcare in Bangladesh.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Suvojit Mondal, Programme Director for the Church of Bangladesh Community Healthcare Programme in Dhaka.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 9 April 2025) invites us to pray:
Pray for the healing and holistic wellbeing of those receiving medical care, that they may experience both physical recovery and spiritual renewal, growing in faith and trust in God.
The Collect:
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us
that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also for you:
give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were the servant of all,
and gave up your life and died for us,
but are alive and reign, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Gracious Father,
you gave up your Son
out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace
through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Dietrich Bonhoeffer questioned the proper role of a Christian in the midst of political turmoil … he is remembered in the Church Calendar on 9 AprilScripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Patrick Comerford’s sermon in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on 5 February 2006, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was published in ‘A Year of Sermons at Saint Patrick’s, Dublin’ (2008, pp 19-22)