murdered martyr girl?

At the end of October, I gave a sermon entitled "Hope with Feet." (found at www.leamon.org/kj) In it, I spoke about Tom Fox, an anti-war activist with the Christian Peace Makers, who was murdered earlier this year in Iraq. The statement of conviction that he and some members of his group wrote before going over to Iraq made quite an impression on me. http://www.cpt.org/iraq/response/ iraq_team_statement_of_conviction.htm





In the sermon, I also spoke of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, one of my heroes from my Liberation Theology class as an undergrad. He, too, was murdered in the people's quest for peace and justice.

I worried that using these slain heroes as examples of inspiration and hope might not work for others as it had for me. But response to the sermon was positive.

The other day I was at my office holiday party. We have a tradition of "Secret Snowflake" (a failed attempt to make it not just about Christmas). One's secret snowflake leaves anonymous presents for a week, culminating in a party where one has to guess in front of everyone who is the secret gift giver (I am always wrong). Once guessed and revealed, one opens the "biggest, best" gift. Again, in front of everyone. This is the time to practice fake face just in case you get a present that may be beautiful in the eye of the giver, but not so much for the beholder.

So I'm up in front of everyone, opening a gift from a person in my organization whom I like, but barely know and with whom I rarely work. I tear off the wrapping paper to find a lovely hard cover book -- daily inspirtational writings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I was ecstatic! I had just watched a great documentary (http://www.bonhoeffer.com/thefilm.htm) about this man who came to Union Seminary to expand his theology and was rocked by the Christianity he found in Harlem; this man who was comfortable in New York but opted to return to Germany because he saw the rise of facism and knew he had to stand against it; this man who took part in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and who was executed for it Another dead martyr!

My co-worker knew I have been "dabbling" in writing sermons but has never read one. He didn't know I even knew who this guy was (or that I could pronounce his name correctly, since I speak fluent German). He had no idea that Bonhoeffer was one of the heroes of the German family with whom I lived as a high school exchange student in 1984/5 -- the first Christians I met who were not hypocrites in my eyes and truly tried to live their lives according to Jesus' teachings. My co-worker had no idea that apparently, I have a thing for martyred heroes, maybe even martyred Christian heroes if you look at this list. I didn't realize it either...