You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln
Meditation: Just as democracy in German more than eighty years ago, the democratic system in the US today experiences the perversion of basic ethical values as for example “decency”, “order” or “assumed values of right and wrong”. As we are watching the manipulation of facts and the perversion of ethical values we ask ourselves: What is my responsibility as a Christian at this time in history? What ethical values are immune from perversion? Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about responsibility in his book “Ethics”. At a time where most assumed values were perverted by Hitler’s authoritarian nationalist regime, he writes: “Reason,” “fanaticism,” “conscience,” “duty,” “freedom,” and “private virtuousness” all fail as tools for locating a true ethic…Christian ethics are not formed by a set of abstract principles but by the concrete test of each situation—“Are my actions helping others to be truly human before God?” “Is Christ being formed in them in the world?” How can Bonhoeffer’s words lead us to a deeper and new ethic and a deeper sense of responsibility and into action as Christians?
Prayer: God of history, as we experience the systematic perversion of basic ethical values we feel lost and threatened. Basic human values and basic facts are being changed, manipulated and abused. Many public values that were true a few months ago, no longer seem to hold. We want and need to ground ourselves deeper than ever before. Fill us individually and as Your church worldwide with your Spirit. Help us learn from history. Help us Christians to be the prophetic voices that shout in the wilderness! Come Spirit of truth! Amen
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. John 16:13
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