Isaiah 49:1-3; Isaiah 42:5-7; January 11, 2026
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“I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth also stand with only one leg in heaven (12 August 1943).” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
Bonhoeffer wrote that provocative saying in 1943, in Nazi Germany, while in prison.
From the prison he wrote to his audience, and to us, that no matter how much we all want to get to Heaven, to be in Heaven, to see Heaven on Earth, a better, peaceable Kingdom all around us, we must and are forced to stand upon this Earth. With two legs. With two eyes wide open, even when we’d rather keep them shut.
What’s that lyric from John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever? “Life is easier with eyes shut.”
Yeah, probably. Maybe.
But John meant that ironically, and Dietrich thought it was bad theology.
For theology in principal and action must be grounded, and applicable to this world. And it must make an effect on this world. For while life might be easier with our head in the sand, or way up in the clouds, that’s not how any of us have been called by God to live.
I just confessed this to Mary Rodgers the other day, or perhaps it was Wendy Browder. I don’t really remember, maybe it was just any one of you who would that listen… and it’s not a new confession, but a reoccurring one… that sometimes it’s not easy to be a pastor. Especially not in this world, with eyes wide open. I mean, do you think Cassie, Joel, or I enjoy preaching on stuff like this? I know this isn’t the world I envisioned when I entered Seminary and was hoping to preach continuously on hope and the progressive march of good news.
Somedays, man… I just want close my eyes, shut them real tight, listen to Radiohead, and call it a day. You know what I mean?
But I can’t. And neither can you.
Otherwise, we risk standing with only leg in Heaven.
Whether we like it or not, we are presently imprisoned in this world, this seemingly forsaken world full of shootings (R.I.P. Renee) and kidnappings, ice caps melting, and wars, rumors of wars, and all sorts of unimaginable horrors. No matter where we turn, if our eyes are open, we all see it.
And not just the political, existential, crazy stuff either, but we feel it in the prisons of our everyday schedules, our busyness, our economics, and the cost of everything. It can feel like we’re not just rats in a maze, but that there’s also no way out either. No reward if we navigate the twists and turns just right.
And while we maybe just want to escape, and would be justified for it, we yet have work to do down here, pastor and congregant, human to human, answering the call on our lives to be God’s servant, to be Jesus’ mouthpiece, with two legs working the ground, and our mouth wide open, speaking out.
Interestingly, it seems that Bonhoeffer was imprisoned not for his involvement in the infamous assassination attempts on Hitler, which have become popular-cultured of late, but rather, he was jailed for helping Jews escape Germany underground, as well as trying to free other Germans from being called into military action for a nation that was Christo-fascist and the opposite of anything resembling Jesus’ gospel.
This was Bonhoeffer’s cost of discipleship. Working the ground for the gospel even to his own peril. Likewise, we have been charged to make difficult choices in how we live for the gospel. To live boldly and daringly, believing that God’s grace will be with us every step of the way, even if behind bars.
Before Bonhoeffer wrote that provocative quote that we started with, he wrote this: “When Jeremiah said in his people’s hour of direst need that houses and fields shall again be bought in this land, it was a token of confidence in the future. Faith doesn’t flee the world, but endures in the world, and remains true to that world in spite of all the hardship it brings us… so, we must strengthen our resolve to do and accomplish something on earth… for I fear that Christians who stand with only leg upon earth also stand with one leg in heaven.”
Martin Luther King Jr., who we will honor and remember next week, wrote from his own prison in Alabama that: “The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the archsupporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.”
But this can’t be. This can’t be, my friends… sure, life is easier with eyes shut, and our mouths closed, but this just cannot be.
For, as the prophet Isaiah has spoken, and as we heard read in presence before: our mouths are to be like a sharp sword and our resolve like a polished arrow.
So, let us answer God’s calling today, saying, “yes we are Your servant, O God: a light to the nations, opening the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison of darkness.”
Amen.
