The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Author:Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dietrich bonhoeffer, sermons, translated from german, god, promised land, christ, gideon
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2012-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Turning Back

London, Repentance Day, November 19, 1933

Some European churches observe a Day of Repentance and Prayer in the autumn, near the end of the church year. The day was a national holiday in Germany in Bonhoeffer’s time (it isn’t any longer) and was of such importance that it was observed even by the German-speaking congregations in London Bonhoeffer was serving in 1933. He may have preached this sermon at a special evening service.

On the first page of his manuscript, Bonhoeffer noted the hymns to be sung during the service. The last one, “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying,” looks forward to Advent, the season of light. Light is a theme throughout this sermon, beginning with a proverb from the Grimms’ fairy tale “The Bright Sun Brings It to Light,” in which a crime is revealed many years after the death of the victim. Every secret will be revealed to God, Bonhoeffer says. But Jesus Christ is the light that uncovers what is hidden in our lives, and in him we have the promise of God’s grace. He echoes this understanding in a letter he wrote from prison on August 23, 1944, to his friend Eberhard Bethge: “My past life is brim-full of God’s goodness, and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified.”

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