The Problem of Sin

Saturday was our trip to Munich and Dachau. We spent 4 hours at Dachau, which was the first of Hitler's work camps and became the model for all others. Even experiments and camp organization were first tested at Dachau before becoming the rule at the other camps. It was sobering and disturbing. It was set up in 1933 on the site of a former munitions factory.

As you wander the grounds, you keep asking yourself questions like, "How could this happen?" and "Was anything being done to stop this by those who lived nearby?" and "Why were the Allies so slow in seeking to stop Hitler?" and "Isn't it a bit scary that many of the conditions that were true of Germany in the early 30's are now true of America in terms of economy and the prevailing view of the value of human life?"

The image I always had of the furnaces was that they were at the camps for purpose of extermination. Eventually that was true at some of the camps. Originally, though, they were there as a way of dealing with the many bodies of those who died of disease, overwork, malnourishment, and fatal lead poisoning (bullets from the guards). Extermination camps were built for the purpose of extermination alone. Work camps were built to extract work from the undesirables, the less-than-human population (which turned out to be most people who were not German or were German but were not Nazi. Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles and those whose political views were different than the Nazis were all treated with contempt and found their way into work camps or extermination camps by the millions.)

After 4 hours of Dachau where people endured unimaginable cruelty and degradation, we went into Munich on the S Bahn to have dinner. We did sightseeing first (and bought a Munich Starbucks mug. But I didn't have a Zurich mug.), then we began looking for a restaurant. Between the crowds who were in town for the Munich soccer team's home game, thus filling the restaurants, and the dietary restrictions of one of our travel companions, we spent at least an hour walking the streets of Munich searching for dinner. We finally got back on the train to our pensione, stopping by the restaurant that had first been recommended to us by our innkeeper. We dined on fabulous food.

Now for the embarrassing, self-revelation part of the blog. During our walking tour of downtown Munich in search of food, I was quiet most of the time. I was tired and I was hungry and, I discovered, I was irritated. Irritated that I wasn't able to eat when I wanted or what I wanted. How ungrateful and self-focused is that? But it's true. After 4 hours of seeing graphic evidence of man's fallen nature and rebellion against God, I was faced with my own, more subtle, sin nature. My traveling companions will tell you I held it in pretty well, but it began to leak out as I became more tired and more hungry. Did I commit an unpardonable sin? Was my sin as heinous as those committed by the Third Reich? No. But the root of it is the same. Self-centered rather than God-centered. Our home group will begin a study in Paul's letter to the Christians at Rome when we get back from this vacation. I've been reading chapter 1 through the middle of 3. Not a pretty picture of mankind. Yet an accurate one. The gospel is good news because without it we would be trapped in our bad news. Left to ourselves, we will express our self-centeredness in greater or lesser ways. Christ, alone, can redeem a self-focused, God-ignoring mankind. And he did! That, indeed, is good news.