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One of the heroes coming out of World War II that the church celebrates is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He is a hero for us. Yet for all the praise we lay on him now, long after his death, Bonhoeffer did not have such an experience during his life.
In fact, Bonhoeffer dealt with a lot of suffering in his ministry. He was looked down on because he tried to reach out to and protect the marginalized, including the Black Church in America and the Jewish Population in his native country of Germany. He was even looked on with suspicion during his studies in the U.S. because he dared to believe the Faith he professed as a Christian, even as an academic. Bonhoeffer’s convictions led him to try to help his Jewish neighbors and stand up against the Nazi Regime. He was placed in a prison camp as a result. Even as the war was coming to an end and all these camps were getting ready to be liberated, Bonhoeffer didn’t get to see that freedom. He was put to death just before Allied Forces were coming in, simply out of spite.
Believing didn’t make things easier for Bonhoeffer. If anything, believing made things harder. But Bonhoeffer knew this was the case. After all, one of his chief works is titled The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer knew what it meant to be a follower of Christ and he went after our Lord anyways.
Bonhoeffer knew that believing in Christ Jesus didn’t lead to an easy path for the same reasons we do. Our lessons today make it clear that following Jesus is not easy, as does most of Scripture. There are enemies all around, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel. Jesus Himself didn’t have an easy time of it. He suffered, was abused, was tortured and killed, as 1 Peter reminds us of this morning. We may not have an easy time of it, but Jesus didn’t either.
And yet in spite of all these hardships, we have hope. Though we endure the worst of evils, even the Valley of the Shadow of Death, we have nothing to fear, as our Psalm reminds us. We have nothing to fear because God is with us all along the way. After all, God knows what it is to suffer. God willingly suffered for us, though He did not have to.
Though we are in the midst of those who hate us and trouble us, God is there and is placing a feast before us, as our Psalm also reminds us. No matter what we are facing or going through, God will be there to guide us through the dark times and to lead us to better ones ahead, ones were we can dwell with God forever. Though we have gone astray, as 1 Peter and the Gospel remind us, God is there to bring us back again.
Doing the right thing is never easy, so serving God is definitely not easy. Though we do everything that God asks of us, we may be condemned or even killed, as is what happened to Bonhoeffer and Jesus before him. Though we may yell the Truth of the Gospel from the rooftops, there is no guarantee that anyone will hear, or if they do that they will understand. Though we do what is right, there is no guarantee that we will be praised for it, and often it is a guarantee that we will be condemned, though we do not deserve it.
Yet through all the dark times, we know that God is bringing us to the light. We know that at the other end of the underserved suffering we receive from the world that God has prepared the way to life, and new life abundantly as Jesus reminds us. In the end, all the suffering will be worth it for the peace we will receive and for knowing that anyone who dared to listen on the way will receive those same joys too.
The work of God can be hard, but it is worth it. It is also what we are all called to do. When we hear in Acts that the early Christians, those who first heard the Good News on the Day of Pentecost, shared all things in common, we focus too heavily on their possessions. Those first Christians would have shared the task, the great work of God, too. We are called to do likewise. We are called to share in the work of God and proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ to all we meet. In doing that, we can help lessen the burden and be that shimmer of hope for one another that we can make it through the Valley of the Shadow of Death past the Gate of Christ Jesus to dwell in God’s House forever.