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Gross-Schlönwitz, Third Sunday after Epiphany, January 23, 1938.
The northern edge of East Pomerania, formerly part of Germany but now in Poland, is a windswept plain along the Baltic coast where trees and wooden houses are bent by the wind and where winters are icy cold. In 1937, Bonhoeffer brought part of his pastoral training group to live in the parsonage in the little village of Gross-Schlönwitz. Here he hoped to provide them with a safe and quiet place for study and to teach them to help in ministry in the small parish. He preached this sermon on the third Sunday after Epiphany in the village church of Gross-Schlönwitz. Notes found on the last page of the manuscript indicate that he probably used the sermon as an example for discussion in a homiletics (preaching) class. The first line of the text for the sermon, "do not claim to be wise," is taken from the Luther Bible, which is the version that Bonhoeffer used.