The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

A Church That Believes, Hopes, and Loves

161 A Church That Believes, Hopes, and Loves London, reformation sunday, november 4, 1934 z Since the Reformation of Luther began in Germany, the observance of Reformation Sunday was and continues to be very important for the German church. German Protestants living in London who grew up in Germany might remember nostalgically the splendid worship services on dark November Reformation Sundays, with the music of brass choirs. For Bonhoeffer, the final verse from 1 Corinthians 13 provided the occasion, at this dark time in the history of the German Protestant church, for him to lift up his vision of what the churches that were heirs of the Reformation might become. In his sermon, Bonhoeffer calls on Scripture, including Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which for him was essential for the Christian life, and on Luther to show that the church must do more than believe. It must be the church of faith, hope, and above all, love. The quote from Luther has not been verified. In Germany, many favorite Luther “sayings” have long since 162 • tHe CoLLeCted serMons oF dietriCH BonHoeFFer lost any reference to their sources in his writings. The quote from Goethe’s poem “Symbolum,” “We bid you be of hope!” is given here in the English of Thomas Carlyle. z 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. z This series of sermons was very intentionally planned so that this text would fall on Reformation Sunday. With this we wish to say that the church that has spoken, as probably no other has done, about the power and the salvation and the victory of faith in Jesus Christ alone, the church that is so great in its faith, must be even greater in its love. On the one hand, then, we want to look back to the original Reformation; on the other, we want to respond actively to a danger and degeneration that has threatened Protestantism since its beginnings. For the message of the faith that alone saves and redeems has become hardened, a dead letter, because it has not been kept alive by love. A church may have great faith—the most orthodox beliefs, the firmest loyalty to its confession—but if it is not even more a church of pure and all-embracing love, it is good for nothing. What does it mean to believe in Christ, who was himself love, if I still hate? What does it mean to confess Christ as my Lord in faith if I do not do his will? Such a faith is not faith but hypocrisy. It does nobody any good to protest that he or she is a believer in Christ without first going and being reconciled with his or her brother or sister—even if this means someone who is a nonbeliever, of another race, marginalized, or outcast. And the church that calls a people to belief in Christ must itself be, in the midst of that people, the burning fire of love, the nucleus of reconciliation, the source of the fire in which all hate is smothered and proud, hateful people are transformed into loving people. Our churches of the Reformation have done many mighty deeds, but it seems to me that they have not yet succeeded in this greatest deed, and it is more necessary today than ever. “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three . . .” “Faith”—that certainly means that no person and no church can live by the greatness of A CHurCH tHAt BeLieVes, HoPes, And LoVes • 163 their own deeds, but rather they live by the mighty deeds of God alone, past and present, and (this is the decisive thing) that God’s great works remain hidden, unseen in the world. It is just not the same for the church as it is in the world and the history of the peoples. In the world it is important to be able to point to the great things one has done, but the church that did that would be showing that it has become enslaved to the laws and the powers of this world. The church of success is truly far from being the church of faith. The deed that God has done in this world, the source of life for all the world ever since, is the cross of Golgotha. This is what God’s “success” looks...