Leading into today' piece from "Who Will Be Saved" was this sentence from yesterday's devotion.
"Heaven is the delightful, disarming place and time where God gets what God wants."
As he was led away to be hanged by the Nazis, Alfred Depp - friend of Bonhoeffer and powerful preacher - said to the soldier who took him to the gallows, "In a few minutes, I'll know more than you do."
We do horrible things to one another in the name of what we now know. We do them in the name of so many good things and all that we think will make the world and our lives better. Alas, the Reign of God is already given and the peace of God prevails even when death appears to be the victorious power of the day. The soldier knew the orders and what would keep things just as they are - a world of the good and the bad...a world where we try to destroy everything that is bad (or not like me). But...whenever we attempt to control our world, we make a real hell of it. In Depp's death, he reminds us of that for when we claim to know more than the other, it is often used in such a way that we make life a hell for us all. That soldier may have thought he was being a part of all that was supposed to be good.
Connection: I'm not sure. Already we must be open to that which will surprise us so that we do not claim to own the hour or the day or the lives of others.
Within you Reign, O God, you continue to open up doors for us so that we can catch a glimpse of the shalom of your coming among us. We humbly thank you. Amen.
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