Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
"Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me."
Dr. Niemoller's trial began on February 7, 1938. That morning, a green- uniformed guard
escorted this courageous pastor from his prison cell and through a series of underground passages
toward the courtroom. Niemoller was overcome with terror and loneliness. What would become
of him? Of his family? His church? What tortures awaited them all? The guard's face was
impassive, and he was silent as stone. But as they exited a tunnel to ascend a final flight of stairs,
Niemoller heard a whisper. At first he didn't know where it came from, for the voice was soft as a
sigh. Then he realized that the officer was breathing into his ear the words of Proverbs 18.10:
"The Lord is a mighty tower where his people can run for safety." Niemoller's fear fell away, and
the power of that verse sustained him through his trial and his years in Nazi concentration camps.
"The Lord is a mighty tower . . . " You and I need to hear that soft whisper in our heart. "The
Lord is a mighty tower . . . " We are not alone.
(John 16:32
NRSV)
In 1934 Adolf Hitler summoned many of the leaders of the German church to his Berlin office to
berate them for insufficiently supporting his programs. Pastor Martin Niemoller explained that he
was concerned only for the welfare of the church and of the German people. Hitler snapped,
"You confine yourself to the church. I'll take care of the German people." Niemoller replied,
"You said, 'I will take care of the German people.' But we too, as Christians and churchmen,
have a responsibility toward the German people. That responsibility was entrusted to us by God,
and neither you nor anyone in this world has the power to take it from us." Hitler listened in
silence, but that evening his Gestapo raided Niemoller's rectory, and a few days later a bomb
exploded in his church. During the months and years following, Niemoller was closely watched
by the secret police, and in June 1937, he preached these words to his church: "We have no more
thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the apostles of old.
We must obey God rather than man." He was soon arrested and placed in solitary confinement.
God of presence, walk closely with me. Amen.
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