Not unrelated to Malawi, recently I have been captured by a quote from Dietrich Bonheoffer. In December 1939, Bonhoeffer wrote a letter addressed to his former students, who had attended the clandestine, Confessing Church seminary in Finkenwalde. These students were now pastors, some of them serving within the ranks of Hitler’s Third Reich – and not only their world but the entire world was soon to be rent asunder. (Recall: on September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland; and two days later Britain and France declared war, whereby the Great War became World War II.)
Within this larger context, Bonhoeffer wrote:
“No priest, no theologian stood at the cradle in Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders, that God became [human] . . . Theologia sacra arises from those on bended knees who do homage to the mystery of the divine child in the stall … Without the holy night there is no theology.”[1]
I find these sentences remarkable, not only because of their historic context – a world at war and Bonhoeffer centers his and his readers’ thoughts upon a “divine child in the stall” – but because they reveal the characteristically forthright nature of a truly fine, highly educated and informed mind. This mind, Bonhoeffer, affirmed Christian theology in its most fundamental expressions: the Incarnation, Advent, and Christmas as central to the Gospel and its proclamation. Moreover, he did not shy away from the Christian faith as “mysterious,” its entrée found “on bended knees,” very like the Magi, who sought to unravel mysterious signs; very like millions, before and since, who have expressed their deepest longings “on bended knees.”
Wonder of wonders, the God of Creation became human, born of a Jewish woman – within a barn. This wonder, however, as Bonhoeffer knew so well, was/is fully consistent with – in fact, predicated upon the wonder of the Son of God crucified upon a Roman cross and risen from a Jewish tomb. According to Bonhoeffer, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection of Christ Jesus are mysterious wonders, neither to be resolved nor to be defined, but to be held with reverent awe.
Certainly not of the same depth and far-reaching consequences, but at moments I wonder: How is it that a sixty-eight-year-old, American pastor seeks to encourage pastors in Malawi and elsewhere in the world?
I wonder.
Stan
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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom, eds. Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson, (New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1995), p. 448.