Tag Archives: death

A call to die…

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bonhoefferOn April 9, 1945, sixty-four years ago today, a German Christian, pastor and author named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging by the Nazis. He took a stand against the evil in his land in those days, and it cost him his life.

Bonhoffer is perhaps best known for his book THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP (which is still widely read today). There he teaches us about the dangers of “cheap grace” and the true cost of being a follower of Jesus. Here is an excerpt…

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death — we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time — death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.
(The Cost of Discipleship, p. 99)

May we, too, count the cost, and follow Christ.
pdb

Dust to Dust to Glory

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Do you remember the Sago, West Virginia Mining disaster in January, that cost 12 men their lives? It was an especially awful event because of the false report of survivors, followed some hours later by the harsh reality of all but one lost.

It is now being reported that one of the miners who perished, Jackie Weaver, had an interesting practice each day he entered the mine — including that day he did not walk out. Mr Weaver would write a simple two word sentence in the coal dust each and every day….

Why in the coal dust? Well, it certainly was the commodity at hand at a coal mine. But perhaps the fact that dust is so fleeting and temporal, was part of his message — a message to himself and to others. Perhaps it was a message to put this very hard work into perspective, or perhaps it was a reminder of the temporal nature of human life.

He would do it every day we’re told. Repetition for emphasis? Repetition as a personal re-affirmation of his own beliefs? Repetition because others had yet to get his message? Probably all these reasons I suspect.

When I first read about Mr Weaver’s two word daily scribbling in the dust, my eyes welled up with emotion. As a pastor/theologian I saw the connection to one of the great and indisputable truths of the Bible: ashes to ashes, dust to dust — human beings’ bodies do not last forever, but die and decay.

Mr Weaver died that early January day after he wrote these two words one last time: Jesus saves.

If today was your final day (it could be, you know), what are you believing?

That event took 12 men back “to dust” — and at least one, I believe, to glory.

Pastor David