The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

The Things That Are Above

49 The Things That Are Above Berlin, Fourth sunday after trinity, June 19, 1932 z Bonhoeffer had preached the previous Sunday on these verses from the apostle Paul’s letter to Christians in Colossae (see page 41). But he had taken so much time that day in presenting his clear view of the contemporary world that he still had much more to say. So he asked his colleague Gerhard Jacobi, for whom he was substituting, to let him preach again on the same text. In this sermon, Bonhoeffer refers both to literature and to world events to illustrate the conflict that arises for Christians between seeking the “things that are above” and still remaining relevant in the world. His mention of Christians being persecuted and shot refers to news from Russia that had shocked church folk in Germany. He also points to a Russian film about an educational pioneer, Makarenko, and the social problems following the Russian Revolution, but does not fail to bring in Germany’s own social problems, which the Protestant churches regretted having neglected. “Stay true to the earth,” is a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. His word about faith as not the “opium” that allows us to 50 • tHe CoLLeCted serMons oF dietriCH BonHoeFFer remain content refers to “opium of the people,” a phrase made famous by Karl Marx, though Marx may not have said it first. Bonhoeffer’s hearers may not have read Nietzsche or Marx but would have known that they were nineteenth-century philosophers opposed to the church. In the opening paragraph, Bonhoeffer quotes a line from the poem “The Limits of Human Nature” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (translated by Vernon Watkins). Later he mentions the familiar German poets Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) and Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), whose works are still taught in German schools today. z Colossians 3:1–4: So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. z Dear congregation, it is as if our whole life were carried, raised up, and protected in these words. Say what you will against this “Seek the things that are above.” You may suspect that those who are constantly seeking things above may lose contact with the ground under their feet. “If he reaches up and raises his head to touch the stars, then his unsure feet will have no foothold, and he will be the plaything of clouds and wind.” No matter how the individual feels about it, human society suspects with good reason that people with their heads in the clouds like that might be useless extra mouths to feed, instead of using burning hearts and a strong arm to create order and progress here on earth; that they would dream of a better afterlife and would be unfit for the great revolutionary action that each generation must take, smashing old tablets and setting up new and better ones. Because of sentences like this, “Set your mind on things that are above and not on things that are on the earth,” Christians are being stood up against the wall and shot. Because of sentences like this, Christianity is accused of betraying the earth. “Stay true to the earth”; set your mind on tHe tHinGs tHAt Are ABoVe • 51 things that are on earth. For countless people that is a holy cause—and we understand their zeal. We understand the jealousy with which they want to bind the planning and work and efforts of human beings to this earth. For we are bound to this earth. It is the place where we stand and fall. An accounting is demanded for what happens on earth. And woe to us Christians if we should fail there; if at the end of all things, it should have to be said of unbelievers: Well done, good and trustworthy slave, you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master; because they were faithful in an earthly way in the earthly tasks that...