Just when I thought nearly everything was written that could be written about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another trove of letters appeared. This batch is between Bonhoeffer and his fiancée, Maria von Wedmeyer, and for reasons known only to Maria's family, was held for release until recent years.
Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and promising theologian, was in prison for working with the Resistance and participating in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He was executed by the Nazis a few days before the end of the war. These new letters to Maria, Love Letters from Cell 92, are more personal. In late 1943, he wrote to Maria:
"By the time you receive this letter it will probably be Advent, a time especially dear to me. A prison cell like this, in which one watches and hopes and performs this or that ultimately insignificant task, and in which one is wholly dependent on the doors being opened from the outside, is far from an inappropriate metaphor for Advent."
On a day like today, just two weeks, if you can believe it, before Christmas, Bonhoeffer wrote: "Dearest Maria, let us celebrate Christmas. . . Don't entertain any awful imaginings of me in my cell, but remember that Christ, too, frequents prisons, and that he will not pass me by."
Bonhoeffer understood, better than most, the meaning of the Messianic vision articulated first by Isaiah and re-articulated by Jesus as he inaugurated his ministry. You can read about it here.
It promises to be a good week in worship with rich music in all services, an important word proclaimed about God's entry into the world, and many opportunities for service and growth.
See you Sunday,
