Ashes on A Wednesday, Confessing what is Real
I did a little exercise on this Ash Wednesday that I thought I would share. I took Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s essay “Guilt, Justification, Renewal” from Ethics (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 6, part of the manuscripts he intended to use to refine and publish as a full book, Ethics, but which was left unfinished because of his execution by the Nazi Regime in April 1945) and wrote down only the first sentence from each paragraph of that large manuscript. Thus compiled, and realizing that each sentence is only the lead in lengthy sections (and if you want to dive deeper I invite you there), I used the aggregate for my confession, and a hearing of a word of forgiveness not of my own making or machinations, today. I invite you along.
Here we go.
“The issue is the process by which Christ takes form among us.”
“There is only one way to turn back, and that is acknowledgement of guilt toward Christ.”
“The place where this acknowledgement of guilt becomes real is the church.”
“The church is today the community of people who, grasped by the power of Christ’s grace, acknowledge, confess, and take upon themselves not only their personal sins, but also the Western world’s falling away from Jesus Christ as guilt toward Jesus Christ.”
“That there are people whose knowledge of this falling away from Jesus Christ is kept fresh – not only by finding it in others but also by confessing it in themselves – is a sign of the living presence of Christ.”
“With this confession the whole guilt of the world falls on the church, on Christians, and because there it is confessed and not denied, the possibility of forgiveness is opened.”
“First of all, the quite personal sin of each individual is acknowledged here as a source of poison for the community”
“The church confesses that is has not professed openly and clearly enough its message of the one God, revealed for all times in Jesus Christ and tolerating no other gods besides.”
“The church confesses that is has misused the name of Christ by being ashamed of it before the world and by not resisting strongly enough the misuse of that name for evil ends.”
“The church confesses it is guilty of the loss of holidays, for the barrenness of its public worship, for the contempt of Sunday rest.”
“The church confesses that it is guilty of the breakdown of parental authority.”
“The church confesses that it has witnessed the arbitrary use of brutal force, the suffering in body and soul of countless innocent people, that it has witnessed oppression, hatred, and murder without raising its voice for the victims and without finding ways of rushing to help them.”
“The church confesses that is has not found any guiding or helpful word to say in the midst of the dissolution of all order in the relationships of the sexes to each other.”
“The church confesses that is has looked on silently as the poor were exploited and robbed, while the strong were enriched and corrupted.”
“The church confesses its guilt toward the countless people whose lives have been destroyed by slander, denunciation and defamation.”
“The church confesses that is has coveted security, tranquility, peace, property and honor to which it has no claim, and therefore has not bridled human covetousness, but promoted it.”
“The church confesses itself guilty of violating all of the Ten Commandments.”
“Is this going too far?”
“In confessing its guilt the church does not release people from their personal confession of guilt, but calls everyone into a community of confession.”
“The church and the individual, convicted in their guilt, are justified by the one who takes on and forgives all human guilt, namely, Jesus Christ”
“The justification of the West, which has fallen away from Christ, lies only in God’s justification of the church, leading it into full confession of guilt and into the form of the cross.”
“Are expressions such as ‘justification and renewal of the West’ impermissible hyperbole, since obviously the whole West can never be justified and renewed by faith in Jesus Christ?”
“The nations bear the heritage of their guilt.”
“The ‘justification and renewal’ of the West can therefore only happen in the restoration of justice, order and peace in one way or another and then by the ‘forgiveness’ of past guilt.”
