Lenten sermon on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christians and Pagans

Lenten Morning Prayer Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 25 February 2008

Reflection on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Christians and Pagans”[1]

Epistle Reading: Romans 5:1-11; Gospel Reading: John 4:5-15

The following reflection was prepared and given by two young women pastors, Simone Sinn and Rolita Machila, both currently work in the Lutheran World Federation in the Department for Theology and Studies.

Lent – a time to concentrate on what is essential in our faith and for our lives

Lent is a time when we try to refocus our attention on what is important in life and try to concentrate on what really matters. The gospel story for this week is a prime example of concentrating on what is essential: The central element is water. The meeting point is a well in a desert place. The scene concentrates on two people, Jesus and the Samaritan woman. They interaction is focuses on the issue of water, real water and water as symbol for what essentially sustains life.

For many Christians, Lent is related to the practice of fasting, traditionally understood as abstaining from food, or from certain types of food. There are also creative other forms of fasting. The principle behind this Lenten practice is to do something externally that helps concentrate body and mind on what is essential.

Sometimes we loose sight of what is important, because our lives are filled up with so many things: various job-related, family-related and community-related activities, material goods of different kinds, responsibilities, worries, needs, questions and concerns.

Lent is a time to concentrate on what is important in our lives and in our faith.

Reading of a poem, written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in July 1944:
People turn to God when they're in need,
plead for help, contentment, and for bread,
for rescue from their sickness, guilt, and death.
They all do so, both Christian and pagan.

People turn to God in God's own need,
and find God poor, degraded, without roof or bread,
see God devoured by sin, weakness, and death.
Christians stand with God to share God's pain.

God turns to all people in their need,
nourishes body and soul with God's own bread,
takes up the cross for Christians and pagans, both,
and in forgiving both, is slain.

Three fundamental questions in “Christians and Pagans”
In a succinct way, this poem sheds light on three fundamental questions: In the first part: What does it mean to be human? In the second: What does it mean to be Christian? And finally: Who is God? Three different encounters between people and God, interrelated and yet distinct.
The poem is entitled “Christians and Pagans”. One translator, however, rightly remarked that the poem should in fact be called “Christians and Others”, as the contrast for Bonhoeffer is really between the true Christian disciple and those others of "normal" religiosity, who still maintained their traditional expectations of how God should act to assuage their pains and griefs.
People in need
The first encounter with God is provoked by human need: „People turn to God when they're in need“. We know this situation well when we, individually or as a community turn to God, ask for help and plead for change. In just a few words, Bonhoeffer describes the human condition, the urgent need of people to turn to someone who can change their desperate situation. These moments of prayer, these situations of addressing one’s cry to God are very existential moments. We want God to react and intervene.

People, both Christians and others, go to God when they are in need. They expect a lot from God, but they also hold on to doubt.

There is a delightful story that I like. A solitary traveller fell over a cliff in the night. Luckily he managed to grab hold a bush near the top, and hung there for dear life in darkness shouting: “Is anybody down there?” After a while, a voice said: “Yes, I am down here. Let yourself go. Trust me. I will catch you. I am God.”

There was a long pause as the traveller thought, then he shouted: “Is anybody else down there?” God asked: “Where is your faith, why do you doubt?”

God in need
There are situations in life where it is difficult to trust in God. We want to see God in power and might, but, as says the second part of the poem, we find God poor, degraded, without roof or bread, see God devoured by sin, weakness, and death. The story goes as follows: There was a young man who quit his job, left home, and opted for not having a well-ordered life any more. He wanders around and is constantly on the move, surrounded by strange friends and dubious people. He has no money. He spends his days with talking, discussing, eating and drinking. This man does not become very old. He provokes enmity, endures hardship and ends at the cross.

God is not a hero. God is in need. The idea of the almighty God is dismantled. We are forced to rethink how we talk about God’s power and might.

This section concludes with “Christians stand with God to share God's pain”. This is a rather unusual definition of what it means to be Christian. As a Lutheran I have often heard the sentence “Here I stand, I can do no other”. This attitude of standing against, being a true protestant is familiar to me. – But now, Bonhoeffer talks about “standing with”, of being in solidarity. It is very clear that this is not just a social attitude, a certain political stance, or a sudden feeling of pity with someone, but it is a deeply spiritual attitude. “Christians stand with God to share God's pain”.

Where does this happen? How do we experience that? We might be drawn into God’s story by listening to the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, passion and death during the time of Lent, by breaking the bread at the Lord’s table on Sundays, by standing with the least who are hungry, thirsty, who are foreign or naked on all days of our lives. “Christians stand with God to share God's pain.” – A big sentence that still needs further meditation and spiritual exploration, but sometimes also the simple self-critical question: Do we Christians actually do that? Where is our attention actually geared towards?

The poem does not get stuck in the question of Christian identity but draws our attention to who God is and how God acts. In the movement of this poem it becomes evident that God is not just the antidote to our sinfulness and suffering, but God involves Godself in our suffering. In protestant theology we often find this polarized image of the sinful human being on the one side and the merciful and gracious God on the other. This poem shows that there is a much more intimate dynamic: God existentially shares our existence, God’s incarnation involves Godself in our suffering and in return also calls us to participate in God’s suffering. The bible and the cross are in the midst of the community.

God turns to all people in their need

The theocentric focus of the third part widens the horizon and sheds a new light on the relationship between Christians, pagans and God. “God turns to all people in their need”. As Paul says in his theological argumentation in Romans 5: God takes the initiative and responds to the human need in a way that reconciles all human beings with God and one another.

“God turns to all people in their need.” Jesus went up to the Samaritan woman and draws her in a conversation about her life. The woman actively engages in that reflection about what really matters in life. She gives her heart to Jesus and recognizes who Jesus is. In him, she realizes that God nourishes body and soul. God’s own bread is the source of life. This experience creates a sparkling faith in the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Amen.


[1] As translated in "A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer," ed. Geffrey B. Kelly & F. Burton Nelson (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990), p. 549.