"For me the beginning of life"

Yes, I mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the sermon Sunday, saying I’d later refer to him.  No, time got away and I didn’t mention him later.

Here is what I was going to share.    

It is a portion of a sermon preached by Bonhoeffer while he was a Pastor in London .  The reference comes from Eric Metaxas biography entitled Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; A Righteous Gentile VS. The Third Reich  (P 531)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said:

No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference; what are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up - that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? ... Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

How do we know that dying is so dreadful? Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith.

But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

Bonhoeffer was executed on April 8, 1945 at Flossenburg prison.

He died a noble death, believing “it the plain duty of the Christian – and the privilege and honor – to suffer with those who suffer.”  He told a friend when he knew he was going to be executed, "This is the end...for me the beginning of life!"

The camp doctor at  Flossenburg Concentration Camp, Dr. H. Fischer-Hullstrung, attended Bonhoeffer’s execution, and is quoted as saying of Bonhoeffer, "At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

Matthew Henry wrote:  “Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout our whole lives, yet it is especially so when we come to die. Faith has its greatest work to do at last, to help believers to finish well, to die to the Lord, so as to honor him, by patience, hope, and joy—so as to leave a witness behind them of the truth of God’s word and the excellency of His ways”

This was true for Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  May it be said of us as well.