Ecumenical, Academic, and Pastoral Work: 1931-1932

Part 3: Sermons and Meditations

PART 3 Sermons and Meditations 401 377 3/1 Sermon on Psalm 63:3 [1.] NL, A 33,1 (a); handwritten draft; notation by Eberhard Bethge: “Thanksgiving, October 4, 1931? Evening Service.” Previously published in PAM 1:228–37. Cf. NL, A 33,1 (b); later typewritten transcription, with handwritten editorial changes by Eberhard Bethge; previously published in GS 4:17–25. [In the German Bible, this verse is Ps. 63:4.—MB] [2.] [The Hebrew word chesed, translated as Güte in the biblical text used by Bonhoeffer and as “steadfast love” in the NRSV, is often translated as “loving-kindness.” When Güte is translated in the form of Ps. 63:3, we have used the NRSV translation “steadfast love.” Elsewhere we have consistently rendered it as “loving-kindness.”—MB] [3.] Crossed out: “refusal to do what God wants.” [4.] “Of” replaces “of his.” [5.] “Only seems to be shining so gently, but on the inside is hard and flashes out fire” replaces “A word with the gleam of a pearl and the hardness and the fire of a diamond.” [6.] Crossed out: “a word full of strong emotion.” [7.] “Of the unemployed” replaces “of the masses.” [8.] Crossed out: “and lame.” [9.] Concerning references to hunger and unemployment in the large cities that recur frequently in the years 1931–32, see the editor’s afterword to the German edition, p. 477. 1. Sermon on Psalm 63:3, Berlin, Thanksgiving Sunday, October 4, 1931 (?)[1] Ps. 63:3[4]: Your steadfast love is better than life.[2] It is two and a half thousand years ago that, far from home, consumed by suffering in body and soul, surrounded by mocking doubters and enemies of his God, the pious old Jewish man thinks back over the strange paths on which God is taking him. It is not a comfortable, peaceful contemplation , but a struggle, a struggle of near desperation[3]—about life and its meaning, about God and his faithfulness. The pillars of[4] life have begun to crumble; the hand reaching out, believing it will find a firm handhold, grasps at empty nothingness. God, where are you? God, who are you? God, who am I? My life is falling to pieces, falling into a bottomless void. God, I am afraid. Where is your loving-kindness now? But you are my God, and your steadfast love is better than my life. This is one of those Bible passages that never lets go of anyone who has once understood it. A passage that only seems to be shining so gently, but on the inside is hard and flashes out fire,[5] a word of strong emotion, evoked when two worlds collide, the world of human beings and the world of God,[6] that is, a word from the world of the Bible and not from our world. Your steadfast love is better than life: That is the shout of joy of the suffering and abandoned, the weary and the heavy laden; the cry of longing of the sick and oppressed; the song of praise[7] of the unemployed[8] and the hungry in the cities of millions;[9] the prayer of thanks of the tax collectors and prostitutes, of the public and private sinners. But is it really? No, it Ecumenical, Academic, and Pastoral Work: 1931–1932 402 378 379 [10.] On the critical assessment of “religion” in the years 1931–32, see 2/9, pp. 307–9; 3/7, pp. 432–33; and 3/11, pp. 455–56. [11.] “When they are torn away” replaces “when they are lost.” [12.] “Disturbed his peace” replaces “destroyed his life.” is not, at least not in our world, in our time. But it is for the strange world of the Bible, which once again startles and annoys us with all its foreignness, to the extent that we still even listen to this biblical word and our sensitivity to the reality of the Bible has not become completely dulled. Or does this passage perhaps not seem so strange to us? Do we think, perhaps, that it is actually something we can take for granted and we could actually not learn much of anything new from it? That for a Christian these things have already become second nature? Well, then, let’s have a look at it to see what our psalmist is actually saying here and whether that is indeed something...