Ok, most of you who read this know about Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was the German pastor who radically opposed Hitler and compliant churches in WW2, right? Someone wrote a nice big biography about his life that will blow your socks off. Now, get this, I picked up the Shane Claiborne book The Irresistible Revolution, in which he quotes a Danish pastor who was preaching up a storm as the Nazi storm took over and he was killed by them in 1944. Here is a gripping clip of one of Kaj Monk's sermons that is as relevant today as ever was in the maelstrom of the 40's. Hold on to your seats, and take this ride to the streets:
"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer; 'Faith, hope, and love'? That sounds beautiful. But I would say-courage! No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature...we lack a holy rage-the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity.
The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the earth...a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth, and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction of peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God.
And remember the signs of the Christian church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish.....but never the Chameleon."
Never the Chameleon. Word, bro.
