03/26/2026
Two weeks ago I recorded this reflection for class on Bonhoeffer not knowing how much I would need to have these words rumbling around in me. It has been a comfort and a challenge so I wanted to offer the same to you:
Here is a portion of the text I'm reflecting on. It comes from a sermon script of Bonhoeffer's on Psalm 62 that he prepared for a group of seminarians living in intentional community (who often grumbled about the disciplines Bonhoeffer invited them to engage in) as the rhetoric of N**i Germany was building but before war broke out.
"Being silent means being unable to say anything more; it means that a strange but dear hand has placed itself upon our lips to make us still; it means giving ourselves totally, capitulating to the overwhelming power of the Other, the totally Other; it means for a moment no longer seeing oneself at all, but only the Other.
But it also means waiting for the Other to say something to us. Being silent before God means making room for God so that He may speak the first and last word about us, and then receiving that word, whatever it may be, for all eternity. It means not wanting to justify ourselves, but wanting to hear whether God wishes to say something about our justification.
To be silent does not mean to be inactive, rather it means to breathe in the will of God, to listen attentively and be ready to obey. The time of silence is a time of responsibility, a time when we must answer to God and ourselves; but it is also a time of blessedness, because it is a time when we live in the peace of God"
Peace (and silence)
Pastor Rebecca
