PODCAST
Everyone, Really?
February 24th, 2015
Romans 1:1-17
In his book Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis Tim Townsend tells the true story of Henry Gerecke, an evangelical Lutheran chaplain given the assignment of ministering to Nazi leaders during the trials for their horrendous war crimes.* Gerecke could have refused the assignment, he had already seen too much of the cruelty and devastation of war. From military hospitals to the Dachau concentration camp he had witnessed first-hand evidence of the Nazi’s atrocities.
Gerecke asked himself, “How can a pastor, a Missouri farm boy, make any impression on these disciples of Adolf Hitler? How can I approach them? How can I summon the true Christian spirit that this mission demands of a chaplain?” He said he prayed “harder than I ever had in my life,” so that he could “somehow learn to hate the sin but love the sinner.”
In the end eight out of the 21 prisoners professed faith in Christ. The gospel we proclaim is still “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
*(William Morrow, New York: 2014)
Author: Duane C. Brush
