Remember, remember, the 9th of April.

Dietriech Bonhoeffer,

Pastor, theologian, nazi resister, and martyr for the cross.

Hanged on a cold night in the woods near Flossenberg Concentration Camp.

Remember him, who in a time of peril, stood up and shone as a light in the Nazi darkness.

His life simply challenges me, it reminds me that this Gospel we preach and hear every sat and sunday is not a cheap one; it had been bought by the blood of the Lamb, and countless martyrs paid the ultimate price for this Gospel.

Someone once said that the blood of the saints is the foundation of the Church.

Why would someone like Bonhoeffer die for his faith? He understood that life on earth was temporal, and that the whole duty of man was to fear God and do what was right, if it meant civil disobedience, even outright insurrection. His example challenges us to rethink our commitment to the cause of the Cross.

Will we, in this hour of need, shrink back from fear?

Or will we speak out?

In the words of Martin Niemoller's last sermon before he was arrested by the Gestapo...

"We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man."

...we must obey God rather than man.