Mid-way through Drew Hart's new book, The Trouble I've Seen, I ran across yet another reference to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He connects Bonhoeffer's time in New York and observing African American struggles with Hitler's racist ideology toward the Jews in Germany. What he learned in Harlem brought clarity to what was happening in his own country.

Bonhoeffer.

This week I arrived at a ministers conference and the presenter, Rev Dr. John Thomas, cited Bonhoeffer, quoted from his books.

Bonhoeffer.

I hear that one of the offerings of OSHER this fall taught by Rev. Dr. Larry Brown is a class on, you guessed it, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer.

I can tell you that none of these people coordinated this Bonhoeffer deluge before it happened. They all rose independently. But they did rise at virtually the same time and one has to ask why.

What I think is that certain moments in history call forth voices that need to be heard. People like Bonhoeffer get recycled in certain times of urgency. Bonhoeffer just rises up to help us, to travel with us and us with him.

Certainly, the biography of his life and writings are guiding us. They ask us to take a close look at ourselves in relation to the society around us and ask who we are. He challenges us to define who we are as church based on the way of Jesus and not the passing vagaries of the moment. If we will look and listen carefully we will find a new clarity, one born of courage.

Bonhoeffer will most likely not occupy the same degree of attention several years from now. But he has come a calling this year, knocking on many doors. He is an amiable guest, to be sure. But he is also the provocative voice of crystal clear truth sounding off the canyon walls. In these muddy, ambiguous times nothing less will do.

Welcome, Dietrich, pull up a chair.