Bonhoeffer

We were at "home" this last week (and this week too).  I'm blessed to be able to call many places home.  Wartburg Seminary invites the graduates back after 3 years in ministry for a time of renewal, learning, and fellowship.  It was an amazing time to gather with friends.  Yes, the damp smell of the castle wasn't bad either!  That made me feel right at home.  The smell, along with daily worship, which I can't describe to you in words will carry me through for a long time.

I wish I had some romantic wonderful words to be able to tell you what it was like to be back with our friends in that place.  I just can't.  Unless you experience it, you might have a hard time grasping it.  It is not like college and it is not like grad school (although it is a grad school).  It is a community that is founded to form valued leaders in our church and our world.  And while classes including Greek, Hebrew, preaching, and systematic theology are important, we know that worship as a community grounds our faith, our ministry, and our calls.

One of the first books students read when they arrive on campus is a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian during WWII.  We might not know or read as much of Bonhoeffer if he wouldn't have been martyred in a concentration camp for his role in a failed assassination attempt to kill Hitler.  The book that is central to our life as a community at Wartburg is Life Together.  The book comes from his experience living as a community in an underground seminary during Hitler's reign of power.  I was able to audit the class on of our professors taught on Bonhoeffer and learned a lot.

I'm working to carry, not my love of the place and the things that were uniquely Wartburg, but what I learned about who I am and who I am called to be as a child of God.  I'm trying to carry not just the Wartburg community, but my love for community that I gained there into my life now.  Wartburg has left it's mark on my heart, but we were there to prepare ourselves for ministry.  And ministry can not be contained in that one place forever.

In recent days, I have continued to think about the life of Bonhoeffer.  During Hitler's reign he questioned how he was to be "a spoke in the wheel" of Hitler's power to end the horrible things that were happening.  In the end, he felt God was calling him to work and assassinate Hitler.  The plot failed and he lived the remainder of his days in a concentration camp.  The internal struggle for Bonhoeffer can not be forgotten.  While some can rejoice that justice was done this week, we must remember we all sin.  We also must remember that those who pray and listen to the voice of God, may still not hear the same voice or the same words.  We must pray for peace in this world above all else.