Category Archives: Lent

Lent Madness: Bonhoeffer’s in the Faithful Four!

Posted on April 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

Today in Lent Madness, the 20th-century martyr and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer goes against the 19th-century saint and queen Emma of Hawaii in the last match of the Faithful Four. Whoever wins this vote will face the Apostle to the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, in the final round on Wednesday for this year’s Golden Halo.

This is what I wrote for the Lent Madness website on behalf of Bonhoeffer for the semi-final round (and you can vote for him by clicking on the link at the end):

Easter Monday will mark the sixty-seventh anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Nazi Germany and of his last words: “This is the end – for me the beginning of life.” Those words, it seems to me, testify to the Easter faith that will be proclaimed this weekend throughout the world. In proximity to human suffering on a scale that is unimaginable to most of us, Bonhoeffer was able to declare that the ultimate word, a word of life, belongs to God.

The St. Stephen’s Martyrs – a group of men at my church – gather weekly for an hour or so of theology and a pint or so of beer. About a year ago we talked about the Holocaust. While having that discussion, there were related artifacts, Nazi and otherwise, in the middle of the table. It’s one thing to see those objects in old black and white news reels and quite another to see them in living color as we wrestled with suffering, revenge, justice, doubt, and – yes – faith, too. I can’t imagine how much harder it must have been for Bonhoeffer and others as they together wrestled not with relics but with realities. These were imperfect people, including Bonhoeffer, making imperfect decisions that they would have to live with for the rest of their lives.

Would we have returned home to Germany rather than stay in the United States? Would we have supported an underground seminary for the Confessing Church? Would we have chosen to jam the wheel of injustice by helping the conspiracy to assassinate the Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler?

Bonhoeffer made a decision, as a result of his faith in Christ, to stand with his own people and with the innocent in the midst of their experience of Good Friday. That, I think, was his most important and courageous decision.

Here’s a final endorsement from a higher authority in the Anglican Communion. Soon after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced that he would be resigning his position at the end of this year, he was interviewed about his various roles and secularism and faith by a parish priest in the Church of England. Archbishop Williams was asked, as the final question, with whom he would like to have dinner if he could sit down with anyone who has lived over the last hundred years. He answered,

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has cast his vote. Now it’s your turn.

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Posted in Anglican Communion, Easter, Ecclesiastical History, Lent

Lent Madness: Thomas Cranmer Goes Negative

Posted on March 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

As soon as I walked away from the Lent Madness campaign for Thomas Cranmer, architect of the English Reformation, to devote myself wholeheartedly to the cause of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor and martyr in Nazi Germany, the political action committees sprang into action with their negative ads.

On Friday, March 30, Thomas Cranmer will face Emma of Hawaii in the so-called “Elate Eight” round of Lent Madness. Be forewarned that the current round has a focus on saintly kitsch, so keep a sense of humor and remember that there have already been serious biographies and quotes from each saint in earlier rounds.

That’s the background for these “political” ads. However, I do have to admit that, regardless of my own personal feelings about the influence of political action committees, the third one is pretty good. It does make me think about the goodly heritage that some of us enjoy as Anglican/Episcopalian Christians.



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Posted in Ecclesiastical History, Lent

Lent Madness: Vote for Dietrich Bonhoeffer!

Posted on March 22, 2012 | 2 Comments

I’ve been traveling a bit, which resulted in a kind of Lenten fast of words here on Laughing Water. Another reason for that, of course, has been Lent Madness. As you may recall, I’m one of eight “celebrity bloggers” who have been asked to write about and, eventually, advocate for various saints.

Three of the four heroes of Christian faith that were assigned to me advanced from the initial 32-saint bracket to “The Saintly Sixteen.” Two of those three, Jerome and Thomas Cranmer, have already made it into “The Elate Eight.”

My hope is that, with your help, Dietrich Bonhoeffer will soon join them. You can read his biography from the first round here. The second round focuses on “Quirks and Quotes,” like the fact that his enthusiasm for bullfighting not only amused but also confused his theological students.

However, three quotes from Bonhoeffer that I highlighted for Lent Madness are what I really want to share with you today. Perhaps they will inspire you to vote for him there. But my greatest hope, of course, is that these words will encourage you in your own Lenten journey as you walk toward the cross of Christ.

Here’s a quote from a letter by Bonhoeffer in 1939 to Reinhold Niebuhr:

I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.

Here’s a quote from his book Life Together:

It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work.

Here’s a quote from his book The Cost of Discipleship:

When he was challenged by Jesus to accept a life of voluntary poverty, the rich young man knew he was faced with the simple alternative of obedience or disobedience. When Levi was called from the receipt of custom or Peter from his nets, there was no doubt that Jesus meant business. Both of them were to leave everything and follow. Again, when Peter was called to walk on the rolling sea, he had to get up and risk his life. Only one thing was required in each case — to rely on Christ’s word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world. The forces which tried to interpose themselves between the word of Jesus and the response of obedience were as formidable then as they are to-day. Reason and conscience, responsibility and piety all stood in the way, and even the law and “scriptural authority” itself were obstacles which pretended to defend them from going to the extremes of antinomianism and “enthusiasms.” But the call of Jesus made short work of all these barriers . . .

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Posted in Jesus, Lent, Scripture, Suffering

“Possibly Insane Thoughts on Ash Wednesday”

Posted on February 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, which tills the soil of our lives in the weeks preceding Easter Day. The Ash Wednesday evening service at St. Stephen’s Church is one of my favorites year after year. It’s always a powerfully emotional experience to face the reality of my own mortality and – as a member of the clergy – to place ashes on the foreheads of others, especially children.

So I was moved by an interesting reflection on our embodiment as human beings and the meaning of Ash Wednesday that appeared last year on the Mockingbird blog: “Possibly Insane Thoughts on Ash Wednesday (Written on the Occasion of a Sleepless Night).” Here are the first couple of paragraphs of that reflection:

For those of us who came of age in certain fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant churches, life was a strangely disembodied affair. It is true that various sins of the flesh were railed against, but it never was in name of a truer way of actually inhabiting the world, of living joyfully within it. Instead, our bodies and the physical spaces of our existence were essentially temporary confinements, nothing but occasions for temptation, impediments to the spiritual life. Our subjugation to matter would be remedied through rapture or cataclysm – eschatology took the shape not of patient hope for the redemption of creation, which even now we groan for, but release from the grip of physicality altogether. Worship, and the religious life more generally, went ahead in spite of our bodies, with the hope of eventually transcending them altogether.

My fascination and love for Ash Wednesday only can be understood in relation to such a past, for lurking within this day’s penitential posture is a celebration of our mortal existence. It is a liturgical episode that takes our physical existence seriously. It is, perhaps surprisingly, an extraordinarily hopeful day. The superficial gloom of ashes to ashes, dust to dust, points to the paradoxical, deep truth of the Christian faith: those who lose their life will gain it. It is a day to be released . . . to live in the world.

You can read the whole article here.

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Posted in Lent, St. Stephen's

Lent Madness: Living the “Celebrity” Lifestyle

Posted on February 14, 2012 | 2 Comments

Lent Madness 2012, a tournament of heavenly heavyweights, is just around the corner. This is an annual event that is both serious and silly, and I was invited to participate in last year’s fun as a “celebrity blogger” on behalf of C.S. Lewis.

Because C.S. Lewis won that contest, they simply had no choice but to invite me to return this year as the Reigning Advocate. “They” would be the Lent Madness Supreme Executive Committee, which has produced this informational video (and includes some commentary about yours truly at the 8 minute mark):

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Posted in Lent, Pop Culture

Holy halos, “Is Mr. or Mrs. Stephens available?”

Posted on January 25, 2012 | 2 Comments

Most readers of Laughing Water know that I’m an Episcopal priest and serve as the Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Edina, Minnesota. Most also know that I have a sense of humor. So I was greatly amused this afternoon when someone called the church, asking a staff member if “Mr. or Mrs. Stephens” was available. One person has suggested that an appropriate response might have been, “I’m sorry, the martyr is out.” However, I probably would have referred this lost soul to a newly unveiled website for Lent Madness 2012. That’s where folks like today’s slightly confused caller can learn about martyrs, saints, and heros of faith from our own time, too. It also includes a bit of humor.

Last year I was asked to contribute to Lent Madness as a celebrity blogger on behalf of C.S. Lewis, who ultimately won the “golden halo” in this tournament that I like to refer to as “The Saintly Smackdown.” I’m happy to report that I’ve been asked to return as one of eight celebrity bloggers for Lent Madness 2012.

This is going to be fun! I wonder if I’ll get to write about Mrs. Stephens . . .

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Posted in Lent, Pop Culture

“Celebrity Blogger” and Advocate for C.S. Lewis

Posted on April 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

Readers of Laughing Water will recall an enthusiastic post from last month about Lent Madness 2011, a kind of tournament with a 32-saint bracket. What you may not know, however, is that the organizer of “The Saintly Smackdown” invited four celebrity bloggers, which surprisingly included me, each to argue for one of four final candidates in this year’s quest for the Golden Halo. (I was tempted to describe it as the coveted Golden Halo, but that would obviously be sinful.)

The saints who remain on their marble pedestals are:  Perpetua, Clare, Thomas Becket, and C.S. Lewis. As with the previous rounds, people have an opportunity to read about them before voting for one. The polls will remain open until noon EDT/11:00 a.m. CDT tomorrow, which is Maundy Thursday, for both semi-final matchups: Lewis vs. Clare and Becket vs. Perpetua. The championship between the two saints that persevere will begin immediately thereafter.

I was asked to be an advocate for C.S. Lewis and, since this is also meant to include some humor, offer a bit of trash talk about the others. So here goes.

Three reasons to vote for C.S. Lewis (1898-1963):

  • Lewis engaged others in the marketplace of ideas, like Paul in conversation with philosophers in the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17). Lewis was well-educated at Oxford University, where he also taught, and came to Christian faith as an adult. He knew, therefore, how to address various audiences from those hostile to Christianity to those struggling to follow Jesus. Our churches could really use a 21st-century version of Lewis to do the same today.
  • Lewis nurtured the imagination of children and famously corresponded with his young fans, taking seriously the invitation to allow the little ones to come to Jesus for a blessing (Matthew 19). The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy novels by Lewis that contain Christian themes, has become a classic of children’s literature. In a time when overly aggressive parenting is robbing kids of their childhood, we need the example of Lewis to stop the madness.
  • Lewis married Joy Gresham late in life and raised her two sons after her death. The cancer that took her life caused Lewis to wrestle with the problem of suffering and tested his faith. So he knew the harsh realities of walking through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). This chapter of the Oxford don’s life was depicted in the 1993 film Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins. Those who saw it and refuse to admit that they left the theater crying like a baby aren’t being honest with themselves.

As for the other so-called saintly contenders, consider the following:

  • Clare and her followers slept on piles of twigs. That’s right, twigs. Gathering twigs over and over again obviously led to our current problems with deforestation and the despoiling of the environment. For the love of God’s creation, don’t vote for her!
  • Becket demanded the use of separate ecclesiastical courts for clergy trials, which is not unlike the indefensible policies of too many bishops-in-the-news recently. And the excommunication scene in the 1964 film Becket is only cool in a creepy Darth Vader kind of way.
  • Perpetua was arrested, placed in a dungeon, and had a vision about a golden ladder guarded by a dragon. I think this gives us a clue as to the true reason she got into trouble with the law. Can anyone say, “Puff, the Magic Dragon?” Just say, “No!”

You can read about Lewis and Clare and also vote for Lewis here!

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Posted in Lent, Pop Culture