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„41Those who accepted his message were baptised, and … 42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their posses-sions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favour of all the peo-ple. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. “
On the first time, I was hearing this description of the first Christian Congregation I was filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand I felt marvelling admiration; on the other hand it left me frustrated. For ever since I have participated actively in the life of the church, I have dreamed of such an ideal church; and I am defi-nitely not the only one who feels like this. Seeing this ideal of the church in the first congregation in Jerusalem however also confronted me with the reality of the church that I am part of; which is a church that seems to be so far from this ideal. It is a disenchanting effect that Ideals often have; eventually they leave one frustrated rather than with happy admiration. However as I looked a bit closer at this bible word I realised that I would misunderstand this text, if I were to leave it like that; I mean just with this mixed feeling of admiration and frustration. I wouldn‘t take Luke serious in what he tried to tell us when he wrote down this account of the first Christian congregation. Because: Even if Luke wanted to emphasise the distinguishing mark of the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem; and even if he describes the abundant blessing that was upon the first congregation of believers, he actually points out something totally different and more fundamental than that; namely what constituted church right from the very beginning.
Doing this Luke emphasises four details of the Jerusalem congregation: Firstly the teaching of the Apostles, which is nothing else but the Gospel of Jesus Christ; secondly Luke talks about fellowship. Thirdly he mentions the breaking of bread, which is the New Testament term for Holy Communion. And last, but not least, Luke points out to prayer. These are the things to which the members of the first Christian congregation already devoted themselves to. Miracles happened in addition to these things. Joint property, or the so called Christian Communism as well as communes were fruits of these fundamental things rather than anything else. They were ‘bonus’ gifts of the Holy Spirit, who enabled the Christians in Jerusalem to share all their belongings, and thus to live literally as brothers and sisters. One can find such spiritual effects and ‘bonus’ gifts until to-day; maybe not always quite so evident, but more rudimental. But one can find them, even in our congregation: beneficent donations for needy people outside our congregation; maybe unnoticed prayers of congregants for the protection and healing of others, which are miraculously heard; brothers and sisters who talk about their faith and thus get strengthened in their faith and the knowledge of the truth. All this, one can defi-nitely find in our congregation. But all this is a bonus gift of the Holy Spirit. One cannot determine if an assembly of people are a church or congregation by means of these things. They aren‘t attributes of the church. Because the only true attributes of Christ‘s church are those four things: the preached Gospel of Jesus Christ; the fellowship of believers; the Lord‘s Supper and prayer. Only through these four things church can be what she truly is: the fellowship of baptised believers, the communion of saints with God. And why is this so? Firstly, because we can only be sure that God is really talking to us, if we listen to His word, especially the message of His Son Jesus Christ. Dreams or visions or other spiritual revelations are so uncertain that one can‘t rely on them 100%. Secondly, because only in an evangelical life we experience what it means when God‘s word and God‘s love are put into practice in a mutual understanding and acceptance, a mutual forgiving and helping in Jesus’ name. Most evident it happens however in the participation in the Lord‘s given body and blood, for whenever we come to His table, He unites as those who eat and drink. Last but not least is prayer the most consequential response to such a living relationship with our Lord and one another. Christ‘s church has much freedom and scope of development; also our congregation. But no matter how the church exploits this freedom, it must remain faithful to these attributes, if she wants to call herself church of Christ rightfully. We as a Lutheran congregation do this by making these four attributes a fundamental a part of our confession. The Augs-burg Confession for instance, which is an explanation of our faith and part of the Book of Concord; it says about the church that it is „the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.”
If we understand Luke‘s account this way, it won‘t result in dreams of a better church or in frustration, but will rather do us good. Because: Then Luke encourages us with his account to look at our congregation over and again on the basis of these four attributes. And thus it will firstly be a warning for us. For if we don’t listen to God’s word anymore – be it as a church or as single Christian –, and if we do not try to deal with each other in His love anymore, or avoid His Holy Communion and prayer, something is severely wrong with our faith. At the same time Luke’s account encourages us to use all the ‘bonus’ gifts of his Spirit, in order to support His Church. How do we want the church to look like? How can it look like? There is no actual ideal of church, but based on the foundation of these four attributes, described by Luke, many different ideals are possible. May we therefore use, what God has given unto us on the foundation of His word, his fellowship, His sac-raments and prayer, through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
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Picture a hyena! Do you like hyenas? Do you think they are beautiful animals? My wife does! I, on the other hand, think they are quite ugly, and seeing these funny and filthy looking animals leaves me with the same uncomfortable feeling when hearing their mad laughter. Although I know that hyenas have a lot of good qualities: They are for instance very effective in hunting. They are very social. They have incredible powerful jaws, even more powerful than those of lions. And they play an important role in the ecosystem as they feed on all debris carcasses. They are the so called garbage cleaners of nature. Still I can’t understand how someone can like these animals. But, as the saying goes, ‘Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’. And it is something very similar that Paul points out in today’s word for the sermon, when he writes in his 1st letter to the Corinthian congregation:
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the dis-cernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.”
What Paul emphasises with these lines is the following: God’s wisdom and the way, which HE has chosen in His wisdom, to save humans from eternal death and damnation, is the humiliat-ing death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. In last week’s sermon I said: “We are not in the position to say: this person will go to heaven, and that one to hell; not even about non Christians. We simply can’t tell, because we do not know, and we do not decide either.” After the service, someone approached me asking if the Bible, if Jesus isn’t clearer about what will happen to people who do not believe. That’s right, for He says: ‘Whoever does not believe will be condemned’ and ‘No one comes to the father except through me’. So I could have been more clearly as to what we can say as Christians, for we can say: ‘Whoever does not believe in Jesus, can be certain of damnation.’ Yet we still cannot make the final decision on behalf of God, and thus we cannot tell someone, or say about him or her that this person goes to heaven or to hell. But we can point out what Paul points out to his con-gregation: That it is Jesus and He alone as the crucified, who de-livers us and reconciles us with God. And it won’t change anything, if someone is not able to make any sense out of this, or if someone does not like this way of salvation. It is the humiliating and cruel death of Jesus that saves us; just like the Hyena remains a Hyena, no matter whether we like this animal or not. God’s way of salvation, His wisdom remains the same, not matter if people like it or not, or if people see any sense in it or not. And there always have been people who refused to believe in Jesus, because His death was in no way acceptable and compatible with their idea of salvation. Paul uses the Greeks just as an example. Their idea of God, as the epitome of all good things, was incompatible with the message of someone, who suffered the hu-miliation of the cruelest punishment of that time, which was actu-ally reserved to the most despicable criminals. How can it be something good, if someone suffers humiliation? How can it be something helpful, if someone powerful becomes helpless? In the same way Jesus didn’t fit into the Jewish idea of the Mes-siah. They expected the Saviour to be someone, who would free Israel and found the new kingdom of David with divine power and miraculous signs. So many Jews despised Jesus, who actually showed them that God’s word has to be understood and lived on a far deeper level than just politics. There are people like the Greeks and the Jews until this very day: People who either simply fail to believe, because they cannot fathom what God achieved by slipping into our role and suffering our fate and punishment. Or people fail to believe, because the humiliated Jesus on the cross simply doesn’t fit into their image of God. And thus the message of the cross becomes foolish for them, because they measure it with their own standards.
Those however, Jews and Greeks, meaning Israelites and heathens in the same way, who trust in God’s word and promise, see in Jesus at the cross the most powerful and beautiful manifestation of God’s wisdom and might. For God enabled them to see with an uncovered heart. In faith God enabled us to realize that only in this humiliating death, He could make up for our iniquities by entirely sharing our weakness and thus taking care of it downright.
The message of today’s Bible word for us is therefore very much the same as last week: Any God given talent or potential should be used to support the spreading of this Gospel. However: If we at some stage rely more on our talents than on the message, we have lost the right track. Because: It is not a particular methodology that creates Christians. In the same way it is not a particular type of music that creates faith within people; neither the music Johann Sebastian Bach nor any particular modern or African Style of music. And if music is the reason why people come to church, then something is not right. We should beware of this, never putting more emphasis on our talents than on what we are actually trying to support with them. In the same way we should be aware of splitting up the Gospel of Jesus, just telling the nice part with His resurrection, the Gospel of glory. This is it, what Paul also points out by means of today’s word for the sermon, when he says: “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.” Unfortunately one can find it very often in contemporary churches that they just preach the powerful and glorious Jesus and that he takes care of you and will manage everything. This is not wrong, but often people haven’t been told, why Jesus is able to take care of us, and that He wants us to trust in Him, meaning His sacrifice for our sins. People often haven’t been told that Jesus had to die, because we are simply not able to help ourselves. But only if we share THIS message, people will be able to see Jesus on the cross together with us as who He really is: The ONE and beautiful God, who humbled himself, in order to share our fate, and thus to care for us in the most loving and thoughtful way. May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our crucified and risen saviour!
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It is very sad that Bafana Bafana is out of the tournament, isn’t it; although they played in a very promising and respectably manner. But they leave us with positive memories and expectations. France on the other hand, which is the one of the great European teams, which I actually favour the most after Germany, left the tournament in disgrace, and us without any positive memories or expectations. I am pretty sure that many of you are far better informed about the details of the awkward incident, but what happened was – to summarize it very roughly – the following: For some reason a player disobeyed the orders of his coach and started to argue with him in an inadequate way. The coach reacted to this misbehaviour by sending him home. The team protested against this form of punishment and caused a team wide quarrel. One can‘t prove that the whole thing influenced the performance of the team, but it is more than likely that it did, for the result was not only a poor delivery of the French equip in view of the playing. The team gave a bad impression to the South Africans as their hosts. The preliminary end of the story is: The French team had to return home in shame, and Thierry Henry was summoned into the Elysee Palace to give report to the French President Sarcocy. With it the whole incident has reached a political dimension, as a reporter from SABC NEWS put it, two days ago.
And why all this fuss? I think one of the reasons is the following: As a member of a national team, a person – be it a player or a coach – no longer just portraits himself, but together with the whole team, represents –his country. Most consequently, such a person should live and behave on behalf of the country, and according to its values, principles and maxims. Because: Every misbehaviour or poor performance has an immediate effect on the reputation of the country, and with it – as we can see – awkward consequences: for the team, the single players, and the nation. Not only that South Africans will most likely think of the French as rather unfriendly people in the future. There might be other effects, far worse. It is something very similar that Paul explains about Christianity to the Christians in Rome, and thus to us as well, for his thoughts are the bible word for today’s sermon, taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 14.
“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God. 13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.”
The first thing, which Paul points out, is the fact that we through baptism in faith are part of Christ’s team. Thus we do not live to ourselves anymore. We live to Christ, our Lord, and we are bound together in and through Him. This is a fact. In faith, Christ is our Lord, we accept His principles, we have the desire to live according to His values and maxims. And these values and maxims are those of God’s love and compassion. This is the reason, why Christ died in the first place. Love is the reason, why God sent Christ into this world, in order to free us from our sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. This is it, what Christ himself practised and preached in his earthly days and His public ministry. This is what He taught His disciples, and what He ordered them to teach others, in order to become new disciples. Secondly and most consequently we should live and behave according to these facts. Because: In faith they aren’t a matter, which is left to our discretion anymore. In faith we voluntarily accept Christ’s values and principles as true and desirable, and make them ours. Unfortunately, and this is the reason why Paul actually had to write these lines, we Christians repeatedly fall back into a selfish, or self-righteous behaviour. We judge others, we look upon them in despise, we give up on them etc. It is an Attitude or behaviour that is in marked contrast to the principle of Christ’s divine love and compassion, because it doesn’t try to help others, but claims a divine prerogative; but we aren’t judges. We are not in the position to say: this person will goes to heaven, and that one to hell; not even in view of non Christians. We simply can’t tell, because we do not know, and we do not decide either. The only thing we have is the definite certainty of salvation that is given unto us through faith in Christ. And whenever we dare to judge others and thus to put ourselves in God’s position, it will destroy things, will keep people away from the Gospel rather than to invite them or to help them in their faith. It is for this reason that Paul emphasises that we should behave and live in a way that reflects God’s compassion, that He has shown towards us. For we expect God to judge us by taking into consideration Christ’s sacrifice, knowing that we over and again make new mistakes, knowing that we cannot merit His mercy in any way. But God deals in the very same way with every other person, who trusts in Christ. No matter, if we like this person or not. Not matter, if this person’s spirituality or way of believing and trusting in God is exactly like ours, or different.
Most consequently it should be our desire to help people to come to, and to remain in this liberating knowledge of faith rather than to give them short shrift.
But how can we do this in a good way? Well, there are lots of ways and, as I said two weeks ago, God has given unto us lots of gifts and talents to contribute in the spreading of this liberating message of the Gospel. But I think one very important thing we need to remember always is to take notice of the people, to have an impartial perception, and to take our neighbour seriously before making any quick whipped comments or headily giving advice. To take some one serious is the trait we can discover in Jesus over and again. When He for instance approaches a sick person. He asks: What can I do for you? What is it that YOU want? Jesus never ignores someone’s personality and freedom. In the same way we shouldn’t take ourselves, our spirituality, our traditions etc. as the ultimate norm of how to live in faith. We should rather be open for the distinction of others, and then try to understand each other. For only then we will be able to avoid destructive consequences, awkward situations, and to help each other in faith in an appropriate, meaning loving, caring and compassionate way. This doesn’t necessarily mean to deal with each other with velvet gloves. But it means to deal with each other in accordance to the principles of Jesus’ divine love and truthfulness. And thus we will honour our Lord, and contribute to the wellbeing and good performance of Christ’s team. AMEN
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It is the picture of God’s general invitation that accompanies us throughout today’s service. It’s the picture of God, who wants all people to be saved and to participate in His feast of eternal life. In today’s Gospel reading, which we just heard, Jesus however tells us that people also do refuse this great invitation. Jesus firstly hints with His story at God’s chosen people Israel, for the Israelites were the first to be invited to God’s heavenly feast, and many of them refused this invitation, which was presented to them by Jesus Christ. However this also applies to many of our contemporaries, who are not Jews. But anyway; because Israel refused His invitation, God extended His invitation to others as well, heathens. Those people, whom Jesus describes as people who wander around, who are blind and lame. Because: In contrast to Israel, who knew God’s word, the heathens didn’t see nor did they knew the true God, and thus they couldn’t walk in His ‘right’ ways. At least, it was like this, until they met God’s servant, Jesus Christ, and accepted God’s invitation, which was presented by Him. The acceptance of God’s invitation however led to the situation, which is addressed in today’s word for the sermon. It is the Epistle reading for this Sunday taken from the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, where we can read:
„He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. “
The congregation, which is addressed with these words, was a congregation of former Jews and heathens. It was a community of people, who would never ever have been together before or outside the Christian community. Because: for a Jew it was strictly forbidden to be in contact with any heathens – and we do have such cultural barriers until today. But faith in Je-sus Christ united all those people in one congregation. However it was a unity, in which people, due to their different spiritual upbringings, due to their mixed cultural backgrounds, also emphasised different aspects of their now common Christian faith; united and “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone … to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit”. And exactly this is the situation, which applies also for us. Not, that there is a party of former Jews and another one of former hea-thens in our congregation. Nonetheless, we are people from many different places, cultures, social and religious backgrounds. And this is the reason, why we, too, emphasise different aspects of our common Christian faith in different ways. We can find the same phenomenon by the way in many other Christian congregations all over the world. And looking at the various different denominations and churches all over the world, we can see even more that they, too, display this fact. The various Christian confessions resp. denominations differ very much when it comes to particular questions of faith. However, all of them are part of this unique temple, built and joined together by the Lord. Not, because they, or we could create this unity. It is solely, be-cause in faith we all are built on the ONE cornerstone Jesus Christ. In all differences, and in all their strife for the truth, Christians are built on the ONE foundation, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who also sustains us in faith. Because – and this is the core message of today’s bible word –: It is Jesus, who builds and sus-tains His Church on earth. It is not we, not our control, not our regulations or anything else. He builds and sustains His church. He also put us into His temple, by calling us through His word, and by giving us his Spirit. He has made us parts of his body by merging us into His body, the church, through Baptism. It is there-fore no wonder that in spite of all the differences which separate the major Christian denominations from each other, they – except for one – recognize this fundamental Christian Sacrament of Bap-tism, no matter if one has been baptized in a Roman Catholic Church, or a Methodist Church or a Lutheran Church. Because: by Baptism each person has become a member of Christ, and is invited to God’s heavenly banquet; “no longer as a foreigner or alien, but as a fellow citizen with God's people and a member of God's household”. Seeing this fact, it should be most consequently our aim – as Paul says – to live this unity, which is built on Christ. But how could this happen in the best possible way? It is the picture of the temple, the building and its cornerstone, that shows us how it should happen: In order to build a steady house with bricks, the bricklayers need to do a certain thing over and again. Do you have any idea what this is? They need to use a perpendicular in order to see, whether they have built an upright and straight wall on the foundation. Because: What happens, if the wall isn’t perpendicular, meaning not straight and upright, not built in a vertical line with the foundation? It is instable, and thus in danger of collapsing. What Christians, both the various Churches and denominations in the world and also we in our congregation, need to do to live the unity, which is based on Christ is therefore the following: As members of God’s household, as bricks of Christ’s temple, we need to align ourselves over and again to our foundation, which is Jesus. This means that the churches and denominations should constantly strive for a right understanding and teaching of Christ’s word and the right administration of His sacraments. We as single Christians should moreover strive to follow Christ’s example in our daily, and especially in our congregational life: Firstly by trusting in God’s care and forgiveness more than any-thing else; and secondly by serving each other in this love and forgiveness, in which God served us through Christ. And Paul points out very clearly in several of his letters, what this loving service means, and what it doesn’t mean: It does not mean any kind of selfishness or judging each other because of the various differences, in which we live our faith. For those things edify no one. On the other hand helping each other in the right understanding of God’s word, and convincing each other by means of words and deeds, which are based on, and motivated by God’s word; this is what edifies us in faith. To serve each other in this way includes – according to Paul – everything that helps people in faith and brings them closer to Christ. Every gift or talent for instance, which God has given unto us, and which is useful to tackle this aim. Every such talent should be used to do so! Otherwise it would be a wasted talent: If one of us for instance is good in storytelling, and this person is not yet Sunday School teacher, he or she wastes a God given talent. If one of us is good in playing the organ or another instrument, or in singing, and this person is not sharing this gift with the brothers and sisters in this congregation, he or she wastes this talent. If one is good in organizing functions and events, or with secretary work, or with designing or public relation work and is not yet involved in our congregation, or any outreach project, he or she wastes a God given talent. We are united in Christ despite all differences, in which we live out our faith. Christ has brought us together and He has built this congregation by means of His word and sacrament. However we are, just like the Ephesians, being built together in Him in order “to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. “ And we are constantly tempted to loose and detach as members in God’s household, as bricks in Christ’s temple. We are constantly tempted to drop out and to smash because of selfishness, or laziness or doubts etc. And thus we are constantly tempted to refuse God’s great invitation to become united in Christ, because we take other things, take ourselves more important than God’s invitation.
Let us therefore over and again align ourselves towards Christ, our foundation. Let us listen to his word and receive His sacrament in order to be fastened as members of his household, and in order to be strengthened to serve each other according to His example. So that we may celebrate the feast of eternal life with and though Jesus Christ, our Lord, now and here, and also in eternity! Amen
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Liebe Gemeinde,
Sprache ist immer und überall auch Barriere. Entweder, man spricht nicht dieselbe Sprache oder Mundart, so wie ich für viele von euch das in diesem Augenblick tue. Oder man spricht dieselbe Sprache, doch die Mehrdeutigkeit der Worte, ihre Betonung, und die Gestik, deren man sich bedient, sorgt für Missverständnisse. Dear Congregation: Language is always a barrier between people, as some of you just have experienced. Either you don’t speak the same language or dialect, which leaves you without any understanding of what is being said at all. Or you do speak the same language, but the ambiguity of your words, your pronunciation or gesture can lead to misunderstandings. Much of our daily communication fails, because of these things, meaning pronunciation, gesture, accentuation etc. You know what I mean, don’t you? Although language is an amazing means of communication, it is unfortunately marked with this stigma of not being barrier free. From the biblical point of view, we have to understand this fact as a punishment. Because: The bible tells us – as we have heard in today’s Old Testament reading – that people once where one, and they shared one common language using the same words. However forsaking God as the core issue and landmark of their lives, they tried to supersede Him with something self-made: a tower “with its top in the heavens”. This tower should serve them as a reputation of their own power and abilities, as some kind of protection against others, and also as some kind of orientation and bonding point to hinder them from being “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” In order to prevent that they continue to rely on themselves instead of trusting in God, the Lord came down from heaven, confused their language, and thus scattered them, away from their tower. Ever since, humans have to live with the barriers of language, and the consequences of its misunderstanding. However God didn’t leave it there. On the day of Pentecost, He continued taking care of this language matter in a new and very different way. Because:
„When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? – Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
On the day of Pentecost, God broke down the barriers of lan-guage. He took care of the disorientation that had been caused by human distrust in Babel, and which dominates human communication ever since. Because: Firstly we learn from today’s bible word that on the day of Pentecost people through faith in Jesus Christ voluntarily turn towards God as the core issue and land-mark of their lives. Secondly we learn that people – empowered through God‘s Spirit and influence – are enabled again to talk to each other in such a way that they definitely and without any form of misunderstanding, understand each other in spite of different languages, and in spite of all other forms of reservation or intended misinterpretation. We learnt that on the day of Pentecost there was such a deep understanding of what was said, that more than 3000 people came to faith and thus built the first Christian congregation ever. Today, we celebrate the day of Pentecost as a special festive day to commemorate this wonderful doing of God. And this way we also remind ourselves of the fact that God works in people through his Spirit until this very day: Not only by means of ena-bling people to speak in other tongues, which certainly happens in some Christian congregations. At least this is what one can hear every now and then. And even though we might, along with those God fearing Jews in Jerusalem, look a little sceptical at such things, because we can’t assess them properly – which is no won-der, taking into account their extraordinary character, and know-ing that some people even fake them in order to create a hype. More important is that God works in another way through His Spirit amongst us in the same way as He did on the day Pentecost: Namely in a way that people from so many different countries, and so many different language and social backgrounds, are led together by God’s Spirit. And this happens in order to learn through faith in Jesus Christ, how to understand and to bear each other without misunderstandings and without barriers. Because: By hearing and believing the Good News of Jesus Christ God’s Spirit enters us. And by entering us, He starts to ‘shepherding’ our way of thinking. God’s Spirit makes us talk and do things in a way that avoids any false, ambiguity, and mistaking. Thus God eventually creates a community, in which people can be cer-tain of things, in which they can feel safe, and in which they are able to trust each other.
Now, one could object: But, are we there already? Is our congre-gation such a barrier free place without misunderstanding? Or don’t we still talk, think and behave in a way that causes lots of misunderstandings, even if we share the same faith and use the same language? Yes, we do! However it shouldn’t deprive us of our motivation and hope in faith. Most of all, it shouldn’t deprive us of our certainty that God is already at work amongst us. Because: Even on the day Pentecost it was not the whole commu-nity of Jerusalem that believed in what Peter told them. And I am pretty sure that after Peter’s sermon, some of them continued with their jokes or sceptical comments – just as people do today.
Those however, who heard the message, and were cut to the heart and turned to Jesus Christ as their saviour, got baptized and de-voted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, as they spent much time together in the temple, breaking bread and prais-ing God and having the goodwill of all the people. (Acts 2:45-47). It is no different to we have and what we do in this congregation!
I don’t know, how you feel about this, but I get frustrated very often because of all the misunderstandings and the way, in which Christians, in which we talk to, or about each other. And some-times I long for God to work and to change us and all people in a more noticeable way. If you feel the same way, let us first of all continue to listen to God’s word. For God gives His Holy Spirit through word and sacrament, as through instruments. And it is his Spirit, which works faith in those who believe in Jesus Christ. And let us always ask our heavenly Father in prayer that He may fill us with the power and the gifts of His Spirit, so that we may experience over and again, and God willing increasingly noticeable, our own days of Pentecost, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN
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Do you know what to do, if you are in an open terrain and you get caught in a thunderstorm?: One should look for and go to the place which is the deepest possible level in the surrounding area and hide there; but not by any means seek cover under a tree or something like that. If there is no deeper lever available, you should kneel or even lie down, in order to avoid becoming the highest point, because lightning normally strikes the highest point. And to know this could save one’s life, because it enables one to realistically evaluate one’s own situation in a lightning, and then to behave in an appropriate way.
It is a prayer for exactly such kind of saving knowledge, which we have in today’s word for the sermon, even though not in view of lightning. It rather talks about and involves our whole existence and the question of how to persist. It is taken from the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3, and reads as follows:
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Being “strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” is what people, what we need in order to be saved, in order to persist rather than to perish. For as soon as one believes that in Christ, God himself became human to destroy the blinding power of the devil, and thus to redeem us from the debt of our error, and to lead us into a new life that trusts in God and follows his word instead of being sunk into the vicious circle of sin; as soon as one trusts in this Jesus Christ, one is enabled to apprehend, how things really are, how this world really works: It is a world that was made by God; everything was created by Him; every family in heaven and on earth takes its name from Him, as our Bible word puts it. And that means that everything and everyone eventually has to answer to God about their own existence, no matter if one likes it or is aware of it, or not. And to realize this is nothing else than to realize the own position and situation; which is obviously not powerful or mighty, or able to put forth any claims. For everything we are, and everything we have, is given unto us by God. It is lent to us, according to the riches of His glory, in order to make something out of it in re-sponsibility towards God. We however, together with all humans, out of mistrust and hubris, mistrusted God and tried to make something of ourselves. We try to be independent. But behaving like this, we are causing great damage, which is everywhere around and within us. It is this, which the blinded world is unable to realize, while we are enabled to see and to understand it clearly in faith; the same faith that frees us from all this by giving us the knowledge of sal-vation in Christ. It is this, what today’s word for the sermon means, when it talks about understanding the full breadth, width, length and depth. It is all about realizing one’s own situation, and thus how to ‘behave’ appropriately in order to be saved. And the guideline in faith is somehow very similar to that of how to act in a lightning, for it says: It is fatal to extol oneself just car-ing about the own advantage. One should rather follow Christ’s example in becoming low and humble by loving and serving each other; or as today’s Bible word prays: “that you may … know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God ... as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” By trusting in Christ, we do not only accept our position as God’s creatures, his loved creatures, which are nonetheless accountable for what we have done in life. By trusting in Christ we also try to follow his example in serving each other in brotherly love. And whenever we do this, we behave and handle earthly things differ-ently than other people; namely in a new way that is in accordance with our sincere knowledge of our salvation: We don’t devout ourselves for instance to earthly things; be it money, the career, fame and fortune, our property or whatever. Because in faith we know that all these things will perish, so we rather use them along with our talents and gifts in a way that pleases God. In faith we use all these things as instruments to take care of our loved ones, or to help those in need, or to support the spreading of the Gospel. Because: Thus we may help to produce fruit that won’t perish; people who will come to the saving faith and thus be saved together with us.
I have another question in view of the picture that I used as an example at the beginning of this sermon: If you should really get caught in a thunderstorm and lightning is everywhere around and very close: Do you always remember ex-actly what to do, and how to behave appropriately according to your knowledge? Or isn’t it also very often possible that, because of the terrible fright that one gets, one forgets about all this? It is, isn’t it? And the same unfortunately applies for our faith. We very easily get distracted or anxious in life, and then we panic and hold on to earthly things rather than to trust in God’s promise. Financial crisis, health problems, relationship lows or things like these are often the reason why Christians ignore what they actu-ally believe in. It is for this reason that today’s word for the sermon is a prayer. For it is God, from whom everything comes, who planted faith in our hearts in the first place. And it is He alone who is also able to sustain us in faith and to keep us on the right track. We should therefore join this prayer – if possible every day – in order to be strengthened in our inner being with power through his Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are rooted and grounded in love, now and forever. AMEN
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Before I read today’s word for the sermon, let me ask you some-thing: What is it that people usually pray for? What is it that you normally ask God in your daily prayers? [Collecting answers] Thank you.
Now, having collected a couple of things, let’ see how St. Paul advices his co-worker Timothy and all other Christians how to pray. For Paul writes in today’s Epistle reading, taken from his 1st letter to Timothy, the 2nd chapter, as follows:
“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
There are three things, which I would like to emphasise in view of Paul’s words: Firstly the fact that he encourages all Christians to pray for everyone. What does this imply?
Secondly I would like to ask why Christians should pray espe-cially for those in authority, and what this implies in view of our present political situation and responsibility. And thirdly, I would like to follow Paul’s encouragement to pray in a ‘fourfold’ way.
So, let’s look at: What it implies, that Paul encourages all to pray for everyone. It implies two very important things, namely that prayer is and should be a part of the spiritual life of every single Christian, for prayer is the expression of a living faith that ad-dresses God in expectation of his answer, trusting in his promises.
As a relationship is in danger to die, when there is no communica-tion, our faith is in danger to die, where we neither listen to God’s promises nor answer them in trusting prayers. But what is at least as important as the fact that prayer is a vital part of faith, is that we as Christians shouldn’t pray just for our-selves. Paul says, Christians should pray for everyone, which means literally every person on earth. However reading between the lines it points out that we should pray for all the people we know, no matter, if they are family or friends, or people, whom we don’t like, even enemies. And the reason, why Paul encourages us to do so, is very simple: We are Christ’s disciples; and our Lord died for all people, not just for us or those, whom we like. He died for everyone, no mat-ter where this person comes from, what he looks like, what her income is, or their social status. Jesus especially died for those, who are lost in sin and guilt, outcasts, unrighteous people. And to trust in this Lord therefore means to trust in his love for every single person on earth. It also means to trust that God can help, or change people, even if we have given up on them. To pray for all people means to express our trust and hope in God, who loves all, and who is capable of saving even the most notorious sinner.
But why should Christians pray especially for those in authority, and what does it imply concerning our political responsibility? To find a reasonable answer to this 2nd question, it might be help-ful to know that in Paul’s days the political imperial Roman au-thorities dealt rather harshly with Christians. Christians refused to participate in the emperor’s cult and to worship him as a God. This rejection was however esteemed by the Romans as subversive and hostile to the state. And this was crucial, because for the Romans a functioning state was the highest good, for it guaranteed peace, prosperity and order. Something that even Christians had to admit – as Paul’s words show us. It is for this reason that Paul encourages Christians to do what is in their power to support and influence the policy of the empire in a way that pleases God: which was – because of the imperial structures – prayer. There was no other way of influencing the absolute sovereign of Rome. To pray for the emperor and the empire was therefore the only possible sign of loyalty, without renouncing one’s faith in Christ, the only true king of the world. And by praying that God may influence the decisions of the mighty in a way that peace and harmony may prosper, Christians also expressed their hope for practising their faith undisturbed. We in South Africa on the other hand live in a democratic society that guarantees us to practise and live our faith in peace. We also have the chance to influence the government by actively taking over political responsibilities. However a political career is not meant for every one of us. So we are left with our right to vote; and prayer. For until this very day people can’t take it for granted that governments secure order and peace and conditions, in which people can practise and live their beliefs, and in which Christians can invite others with the Gospel of Jesus, who died for all.
It is for this reason that Paul encouragement to support and to pray foremost for the authorities, and to ask God to give them wisdom and faithful hearts, addresses us, too. Because: Only if politicians come to the saving faith in Christ, they will do their job in responsibility to God, and according to his will for the welfare of all people. And this is so important, that Paul encourages to pray for it not just in a simple, but in a fourfold way, namely in requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving.
I would like to follow Paul’s advice therefore at the end of this sermon in the style of Martin Luther’s private prayer, the so called fourfold garland, which Luther describes as follows: „If I have time and opportunity to go beyond the Lord’s prayer, I deal ... [for instance] with the Ten Commandments [as follows:]… taking one part after another [I] make a gar-land of for strands: ... first of all, I take … [it] as a teaching ... and reflect on what our Lord God earnestly demands of me here. Secondly, I make a thanksgiving of it. Thirdly, a confes-sion. Fourthly, a prayer.“
So let us pray: Lord, you have installed all governments on earth, because hu-mans over and again just look for their own advantages, forgetting about others. Governments however are meant to secure peace and order for the welfare of a whole nation and the social safe-guarding of all people in a society. In this way you instructed Saul, the first King, to rule over your people, and in the same way it is the commission for all Govern-ments on earth until this day: be it a kingdom, a democracy, a province, a community, or the authority of parents over their fami-lies. It is your gracious will that all people in power put themselves out for those who are entrusted to their care. And you want us to support them in respect and loyalty in this strife. It is for this reason that we give thanks to you, for you have blessed us with a Democracy that allows us to influence and par-ticipate in politics for the welfare of this country, and that gives us the freedom to live and share our believes without retrenchments; which we shouldn’t take for granted. Forgive us therefore, where we have just criticised and talked badly about those, who try to work for the benefit of all, without showing any sign of support for these people. We ask you to for-give us also, where we have lived at the expenses of others; where we have followed the selfish model of this world rather than to reflect your love and care for all people. It is true, how shall we reflect your light, if we as Christians evade taxes, just because our colleague does the same? How can we expect that the social stan-dard of this country will increase, if Christians live at the expenses of others, just because they follow their friend’s example? Lord, how can we expect this country to become a safer place, if Chris-tians even don’t abide to the rules – for instance of traffic –, be-cause everyone does it? What is the future of this country, if Christians keep out of politics, just to say afterwards: We have known it all along? Forgive us, where we have erred. And help us, that we may support those who have to take care of our wellbeing, by using our rights and by fulfilling our obligations, by engaging ourselves and giving constructive criticism, but most of all by praying for them.
All this we ask in the name of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives, and reigns, one God, now and forever. AMEN
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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Did you know that the ability to focus and concentrate on something actually has to be trained? It doesn’t come naturally. Distraction on the other hand is everywhere around us, always at hand. This is what my wife and I are experiencing at the moment in view of our daughter. She is already quite good at concentrating on things, but she gets distracted far easier. We as parents are, however, not much better. Just take me ‘doing groceries without a list’ as an example: How often does it end in a disaster, even though I only have three things to remember. But without a list, I sometimes forget even two of the three things. And I am pretty sure that I am not the only one, looking at the numerous men using a mobile in a supermarket. And my wife: A couple of weeks ago she complained about how often she gets distracted in doing her housework, giving me the following example: She actually wanted to iron the washing, which she usually does in the living room. However realising that the living room needed to be cleaned up, she first did this. But while she cleaned up she found a toy of our daughter and brought it back into the children’s room. Noticing the mess in the children’s room, she then started to tidy up there, instead of finishing the living room or starting with ironing; and so on. At the end of the day – what a surprise – she had the feeling of having accomplished nothing.
When she told me this story, I remembered a management training I had to absolve, where one of the speeches was about this topic, namely focusing on one’s goals in every day’s chaos; and how to set reachable goals, in order to manage them rather than to lose them out of sight.
And it is nothing else, which Paul tries to achieve in view of the Colossians by means of today’s word for the sermon: He wants them to focus. He writes there in the 3rd chapter of his letter:
“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Before we look at, how Paul tries to get the Colossians focused again, let's ask how they did get distracted? Colossae itself was a commercial town in Asia Minor, today’s Turkey, and thus abuzz with many different cultures, religions, philosophies and traditions; and the Christian congregation, merely some 10 years old, was a reflexion of this picture. It is therefore no wonder that things like the observance of food regulations, which were quite common in those days, or various different philosophies entered into the practise and belief of the Colossian congregation; very much to the distress of its leaders, who asked for Paul’s help. But how does Paul proceed, in order to get the Colossians focused again? Paul reminds the Colossians with his words of what they are, and thus of what they can be thankful for, through Jesus Christ: “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, … be thankful!” In Thursday’s Vesper, one of the Seminarians very impressively pointed out in his sermon about the beginning of the letter to the Colossians, how Paul literally fractures everything down to Jesus Christ. For Paul describes Jesus at the beginning of his letter to the Colossians as the visible image of the invisible God. Thus Paul explains what St. John elsewhere describes by saying that Jesus is God’s powerful and creating word; namely that Jesus, as the expression of God’s life loving and creative power, was not only involved in the creation of the world at the very beginning. Being God’s powerful creative word, he sustains all creation until this very day. And by becoming flesh: visible, touchable, this word made flesh died and rose again from the dead, in order to become the firstborn from the dead and thus the head of the church and the new creation. So everything we are, and every good thing we have, was given unto us and is sustained by and through Jesus Christ. First of all our existence, the fact that we got the chance to live here on this earth; with everything that belongs to this life: food, clothing, companionship etc. And then also the honour to live in eternity: God made you and me to be his sons and daughters, evoking faith and trust in us; and all this through and by Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that Paul encourages the Christians to be thankful by mandating everything they do, to Christ. And in order to achieve this, Paul invites the Colossians – and also us – to firstly orientate over and again towards Jesus’ word; but not only by reading or listening to it. No, Pauls wants Christians to teach each other also by singing God’s word in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Like someone, who repeats a written shopping list over and over again, in order to remember every little item on it; at some stage this reciting changes into a kind of chanting. Secondly Paul wants Christians to follow Jesus’ example by putting on “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgive [-ness] and love” in order to remember and to focus on what we are, through God’s word. Because: To iterate what shouldn’t be forgotten, helps not only with groceries or housework, it also helps in faith.
Therefore it makes absolute sense that we on this day listen to these words. Not so much, because our congregation is in a very similar situation like the Colossian congregation: Very young, and located in a modern political and commercial metropolis with hundreds of different cultures, traditions, philosophies and religions. It is important for every single Christian to remain focused, no matter where he or she comes from, for it makes a difference, if we approach things in our everyday life with a Christian supposition.
One of my teachers at the theological seminary in Germany, who once preached about this text in a daily devotion, pointed this out, by showing us how simple, yet effective it is to really do this: It makes a difference to start your car, to go for a run, or to prepare for an important business meeting by saying: Let’s go in Jesus name. Because: You do not only commit your safety into God’s hands by saying this; you also headline your actions: your driving, your arguing etc. by remembering Jesus’ compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgive [-ness] and love. And what could be better for you, me and the people around us, than to experience the effects of God’s powerful and creative word, and the life of his new creation in our words and deeds.
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“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Dear Baptismal Candidate, dear Confirmees!
You are baptized and confirmed on a day that is called ‘Misericordias Domini’, also known as ‘Shepherds Sunday’. The day is called this, because the biblical readings for this Sunday remind us of two very important aspects of Christianity by means of this picture of Jesus as our good and merciful shepherd.
The first of these two aspects is that we as Christians indeed have a good shepherd, who takes care of us. This might sound a bit odd at first, but some of you might still remember Joe Burnham’s sermon from a couple of weeks ago, where he talked about what makes our faith in Jesus Christ so special compared to other religions: And it is exactly this fact that we have a God who has taken care of us rather than to just leave us with the expectation of leading a ‘good’ life. Because: It isn’t by far the strife for an ethically and morally correct life that makes us different and unique in the religious world. There are lots of devout Buddhists or Muslims, or Hindus. What makes Christianity unique is the fact that we acknowledge in faith that, even though we try hard, we are utterly unable to live up to God’s expectations. We acknowledge in faith that we constantly fall short of what God demands. In the same faith how-ever we also know that we are still accepted by God, because He, himself, made up for our mistakes, and He is willing to forgive and to help us through Jesus Christ. There is no other religion in this world, which can claim to have such a caring, merciful and good God.So, we defiantly have a good shepherd, who takes care of us. And the consequence of belonging to this good shepherd, Jesus Christ, who redeemed us, is that we are His flock, the sheep of His pasture. This however means, if we look at it from the other side of the relationship, that we are not autonomic or self consistent, or totally independent. Christians do not live their lives without consulting God, without listening to his advice, without bearing in mind his good will. As Christians we rely on our Lord, who guides us in our lives. And with this thought we come to the 2nd important aspect that we should always remember as Christians: In faith we accept that we will see and taste the care and protection of our Shepherd, only where we trust in his leadership, meaning where we stay close to our shepherd, always following Him on that path that He leads us. And where does he lead us? > To eternal life! Absolutely! This is the final destination, but what about the path leading there? Isn’t it interesting to see, where Jesus went in his earthly days? Jesus went to preach to the people and to discuss with the Phari-sees. He went to comfort those, who mourned, and to be merry with those who celebrated life. And although He, himself, didn’t follow the temptations of the devil, he went to help sinners, sick, and outcasts like prostitutes, rather than to exclude or condemn them together with the mob. And this is what we can see as the major principle in His life and way: Jesus didn’t go with the flow. What led his steps was the trust in his loving and compassionate Father. It is therefore no wonder that it was a part of Jesus every-day life to go to a silent place to pray, or to go the synagogue on a Sabbath day to listen to God’s word. This steadfast trust in God and this compassion for others – especially for those in need – was however also the reason, why His way was and is inseparably connected with suffering and rejection – as we can learn it from today’s Bible word which says: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” The way, that Jesus leads us, isn’t the way that is normally chosen by humans, because it is a way that trusts in God alone and cares about others rather than to just think about one’s own advantage. This it is the way, how Jesus has overcome the vicious circle of mistrust, violence and guilt. It is the way that leads us to the Easter victory; the victory, which we can happily celebrate, be-cause God lets us participate in it through the suffering of His Son Jesus Christ. Following Christ as our shepherd – and thus to benefit from his care and guidance –therefore means to imitate Jesus’ example of God’s compassionate care. For instance by: Talking good about others rather than to gossiping about them. By focusing not only on our own advantages, but behaving and dealing with others in a just and merciful way. By helping others rather than watching how they suffer. By coming to someone’s defence rather than to join the choir of those who condemn and say: We have known it all along! But most of all it means to keep the contact with God, our heavenly Father. Even if others should make comments about us going to church or praying before meals or reading the bible or praying for his spiritual guidance. I know; every day we are tempted as Christians to choose the line of the least resistance; a temptation also Christ had to endure. If we however permanently give in to this temptation not to follow Christ on his way, we will definitely go astray, just caring about ourselves. And thus finally we will be alone; apart and far away from the shepherd, who is willing to take care of us. I personally don’t want to imagine, what would happen, if God eventually – at the end of my life, or at the end of all times – would see just me, and what I have done in life; not looking at his Son Jesus Christ, and what He has achieved in order to help me!
It is for this reason that all Christians, not only newly baptized or confirmed Christians like you; no, all of us do more than good to listen and look at our shepherd Jesus Christ, following his lead and example, in order to be returned to the path that leads us to the eternal feast of Easter. That you, together with all of us, will always recognize Jesus’ voice, and follow His call and example, this is my wish and prayer, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. May therefore peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus! AMEN
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“We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Once, it was still in Germany, I visited someone, who had been seriously ill, but eventually was cured by means of a transplanted organ. Perhaps you can imagine that this person told me in very positive way about Organ transplantation, and that it is so wonderful to get a new chance. Now I know that organ transplantation is a very controversial issue, even if things are done properly and in a legal way. Even if an organ is solely transplanted, when the person, who decided in life to become a donor, dies – let’s say, because he or she was involved in an accident. And even if the recipient not finds out, whose organ he or she received, in order to make it easier to live with the new organ, to enjoy life that without the organ would have ended very soon. Even in such a case, where everything is handled in a proper and leagal way, organ transplantation remains a controversial issue. Nonetheless, let me use organ transplantation as an example in view of today’s bible word.
Imagine you had an incurable heart disease. Your heart would be extremely weak; so weak that it would be just a matter of time until it would stop beating. Every part of your life would be affected by it. It would trammel and deprive you of joy, because it would force you to live constantly with death on your doorstep. Now imagine that someone voluntarily died to help you; and this without your knowledge, without consulting you. Imagine this person as someone close to you: Let’s say your spouse, or your child, or a dear friend of yours; someone, who was healthy, with a still high life expectation. This loved one of yours would have died out of love on your behalf to donate a healthy heart to give you another chance to live. And the only thing, that would need to be done, would be to give your permission to the doctors to operate. What would your reaction be? Would you refuse to do the operation: Maybe out of grief over the death of your loved one; or out of pride, because you could not accept that someone had to die, in order to give you the chance to live? Or would you accept the new heart, live the new life; so that the sacrifice of your loved one wasn’t in vain? Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! We humans are seriously ill. We have a disease, which is so severe that no doctor in the world could ever cure it. Many wouldn’t even be able to detect it, because it is so deeply connected with our nature that for most people it doesn’t even appear as a disease. We humans are suffering from sin, which corrupts our hearts, senses and all other parts of our bodies. Thus it affects many areas of our lives in a destructive way, and eventually it causes death. We would be doomed without god, who is the only one, who is able to help, and who did help us in Jesus Christ. Because: Jesus, who as the only human being ever committed no sin, sacrificed his life – even before we were born – to offer us his strong and healthy heart, and with it the opportunity of anew chance, a new life. Jesus suffered the pain and consequences of our disease. He paid, what is actually our bill, and died on our behalf. Your brother, Jesus Christ, died on your behalf, N.N. , because He, the sinless suffered the consequences of our sin. This is, what Paul points out by saying: „God made him who had no sin to be sin for us“. And the story of Christ’s suffering shows us, how literally we have to understand this: You know that the religious leaders of Israel, the devout teachers of the law, the Pharisees, and Priests were hostile to Jesus because of the way he taught the people about God. They didn’t agree with him; his teachings didn’t fit into their picture of God. They didn’t like the idea of a righteous God, who humbles himself to associate with sinners, in order to save them. So they made a plot against Jesus, arrested him in secret, accused him by means of false testimonies, and convicted him, the Son of God, of blasphemy. However they weren’t able to execute the judgement because of the occupying power of the Romans. So they brought Jesus to the Roman Governor Pilate, accusing him to be an agitator. They said, Jesus tells the people not to pay taxes, and to refuse the authority of the Roman Emperor, even though Jesus publicly said: Give to the Emperor, what belongs to the Emperor. Pilate on the other hand, who despite of all their lies couldn’t find any fault with Jesus, still sentenced him to death. Because: He feared the crowd, who hysterically demanded Jesus death, and a real agitator and murder to be pardoned instead. Bearing all this in mind, we can see that Christ was accused and sentenced for all offences that his opponents actually should have been blamed for. Jesus bore the blame of the blasphemy of the religious leaders, who presumed, God has to conform their ideas rather than to obey and to believe. Jesus bore the blame of their false testimonies, which they arranged and get Jesus out of the way. He bore the blame of the agitation of those, who incited the people to call for His death. And last but not least Jesus bore the blame of those, who killed Him by taking his life, although He was not guilty of anything. However – coming to the essence of his passion – while Christ suffered the death penalty for all these crimes, a murderer and agitator was pardoned instead of Jesus, getting a new life, a new chance and new freedom. Now as we look at this pardoned agitator and murderer, Barabbas, which in English means: ‘Son of the Father’, we are actually looking at ourselves. Because: We benefit in the same way from Jesus suffering as Barabbas did, who was acquitted of all charges and received a new life, and a new chance.
Jesus suffered and died on our behalf. With him all our guilt died and is forgiven by God. He, the sinless, bore the consequences of our sin to give us a new chance; the chance of a new life. The only thing for us to do in order to get this chance, and in order to be called sons and daughters of God, is to accept Jesus’ sacrifice in faith, to accept God’s therapy. It is for this reason that Jesus committed this message of reconciliation to his disciples, to Paul as well as to us. Because: He wants us to implore each other on his behalf, to accept his self sacrifice; to accept his new and righteous heart, so that his death was not in vain. Sp be reconciled to God, who made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Amen
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If someone is ill, and there is a medicine that can help, it is good to know, which medicine it is, and how one must take it, in order to get better. Or is it for instance of great use to dissolve an Aspirin and rub it onto your sunburned skin? > No! It wouldn’t help at all; on the contrary, it would make your skin even worse, because it contains acid. So; it can even have devastating consequences, if one acts without knowing what exactly is wrong, and what treatment is needed for a cure. The same applies to the Sacrament of the Altar, as we can learn from Paul’s words from his 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11: „For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.“
Speaking about ‘eating/drinking in an unworthy manner’, Paul describes in view of the Lord’s Supper, what I meant by pointing out the consequences of unknowing, or even ignorant behaviour. But what is this unworthy eating and drinking in view of the Sacrament? Paul himself gives us an answer to this question a couple of verses before today’s word for the sermon. There he refers to incidents and behaviour in the Corinthian Congregation, which conflict most blatant with the Lord’s Supper. He writes there: 17In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. [And] 20When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, 21for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without wait-ing for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! What Paul points out with these words is the following: Whoever receives the Lord’s Supper, should receive it in awareness and responsibility of the unity, in which Christ places us by means of his sacrament; namely the unity of his body and blood, which is nothing else than the congregation that is united in his meal. Jesus unites us at His table like a family comes together at one table. And like family members take care of each other, Jesus wants us to take care of each other, and not to ignore one another. So; receiving the Sacrament regularly in a particular congregation without showing any interest in, or compassion with any of its members, would be like letting yourself being tied together with people, whom you are afraid to touch. It would be like eating con-stantly at a table of strangers. It doesn’t make any sense; and sooner or later it will cause trouble as you can imagine. On the other hand – says Paul – it is the given body and blood of Jesus Christ, which one should always bear in mind, when one receives the sacrament. Because: This is, what makes us children of God, which makes us a family despite of all differences, it is the forgiveness of our sins, which we receive for the sake of Christ’s sacrifice. Now you could say: Of course we have Christ’s body and his blood in mind, when we come to receive His sacrament. What else should one have in mind? Well, let me tell you that I experienced and learned over the years from ‘Christians’, that there are sometimes seemingly more im-portant reasons to go to the sacrament than the forgiveness of sins. Once for instance I talked to a man, who said: I can’t stand to remain seated while all others go. Even if I actually don’t want to, I rather go and receive the sacrament, just because I don’t like to stand out. So his reason was peer pressure rather than the desire to receive Christ’s forgiveness. Or: There was a sponsor, who said, he wants to go to the sacra-ment at the confirmation of his Godchild to show their bond. But to demonstrate such a bond by means of the sacrament is not only nonsense. It is devastating. Christ invites us to receive the forgiveness of our sins and an aid in faith through the unity that HE makes possible by means of his presence in the sacrament. This is the purpose of the Lord’s Sup-per, nothing else.
It is for this reason that only those people should receive the sac-rament, who – like the disciples – were taught in the understand-ing of God’s word and the meaning of the sacrament. And this is also the reason, why we admonish people before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. How else should someone benefit from the Sacrament, if he or she doesn’t know, what Jesus offers in His meal? If people celebrate the Lord’s Supper just as a nice ceremony with bread and wine, but with no deeper meaning, they won’t see what Christ offers in his forgiveness and help.
Because: Only those, who know, what’s wrong, and what medical treatment can help, are able to use the right medicine in the right way. It is this, what Luther puts in simple terms saying in his Small Catechism that only „that person is truly worthy and well prepared [to receive the Lord’s Supper] who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.” It is for no other reason why in former times many Pastors in the Lutheran Church also examined those who wanted to receive the Sacrament by means of questions before each service. They tried to prevent that people eat or drink judgment on themselves. However, this is – as Paul points it out – the responsibility of each and every single Christian rather than that of a Pastor. Paul explicitly implores therefore all Christians to practice this self examination seriously. Because: As it is with medicine that is taken in the wrong way, it is also with the Lord’s Supper. Whoever – says Paul – receives it in an unknowing or ignorant way won’t benefit from it. He or she won’t receive what Christ offers by means of his meal, namely forgiveness of sins, peace with God, comfort, and strengthening in faith. And if someone doesn’t receive all this, what else does that mean than judgment; a judgment that is caused by people’s disrespect and ignorance! Let us therefore examine ourselves over and again:
Let us remind ourselves, before we receive His body and blood, whose death and sacrifice we proclaim in this meal, so that we may benefit from his presence and help. AMEN
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When I made my first visits in a congregation as a vicar, I experi-enced something strange, though it was quite normal for that region of Germany. As soon as I was invited into the entrance door, people more or less pushed me into a special, second and very neat living room of the house. It was mostly a room, which is only used on special occasions or when special visitors come to visit. I found it strange not only because of the thought of having such a second living room. It seemed odd to me, because I very often ex-perienced that the air in these rooms was stale, which indicated to me that these rooms don’t get used very often, which is either sad or a waste. However, the intention to present ones home – and with it oneself – in a neat and presentable way, is most certainly also known to us, even though not necessarily in the same way. But I am pretty sure that even South Africans would try to conceal an untidy room from you, if they would have you as a guest in their house. It tells us something about good hosting, if everything appears neat and tidy. It hides on the other hand the reality of our daily routine, or the trouble and effort, which one puts into the preparation for a visi-tor, if one conceals for instance the kitchen with all the cooking equipment that is still dirty. What I actually want to point out to you by means of this very common behaviour of hosts is the following: This behaviour shows, how we, very often, deal with each other or with ourselves in other areas of our lives: in our relationships, in our jobs etc. Or don’t we prefer to see and present ourselves in a positive way, while we tend to blind out where there is chaos and frustration in our lives, or things that we haven’t managed? We do, don’t we! We wouldn’t include our weak points in an application for a job that we desperately want to get, would we? Neither would we admit a lapse, if we had to fear that our reputation would suffer severely, or our relationship could end because of it! Now Paul says: Such an attitude and behaviour is not only unnecessary in a Christian congregation, it is fatal. And with today’s word for the sermon, Paul points out why it is like this. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians he writes as follows:
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Just to give you the background of these words for a better understanding: Paul just escaped the danger of death. A couple of verses after today’s word for the sermon, he writes about a situation, in which he had already given himself up. He was ready to die, he says. So he must have been in a very poor condition. However in the midst of this depression he experienced something that built him up again – Christ’s comfort as he puts it. He experienced, how he got strengthened and redeemed by a power that was definitely not his own, but Christ’s, as he says; a divine help, which enables people to endure even the most hopeless situations of sorrow and tribulation. It is this experience that determines Paul also in view of the Co-rinthian Congregation and its particular situation, for Paul’s words are part of a serious dispute with members of this Congregation. However being assured of God’s help and comfort, Paul does not fear this quarrel, but has the best hope for the future of the Corin-thians. He even speaks positively about them, because he knows that God’s help proves itself, when one is stuck and isn’t able to help oneself anymore. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the best example, as Paul indicates: Jesus prayed for instance for God’s mercy in the garden of Geth-semane, crying, because he was so frustrated and burdened. He was frustrated about His best friends, who would abandon him, being afraid to share his fate; a fate that was caused by one of his friends who had sold him to his opponents. And he was ultimately burdened with the guilt of the entire world. Nonetheless Christ surrendered himself in this deepest depression into God’s will, trusting in God’s help. So he died, but eventually was raised from the dead by God’s glory. Thus he became the proof of God’s help that proves just in situations, in which we aren’t able to help ourselves anymore.
Sharing exactly these kinds of experiences is, what helps and comforts us in faith, says Paul. Christians shouldn‘t therefore stay with the neat and tidy areas of their lives, pretending to each other that everything is just fine. Because: First of all, we know that it isn’t everything just fine. And secondly it doesn’t help us at all to pretend that everything is just fine. It makes us rather lonely. Paul therefore invites the Corinthians as well as us today to be open to one another as Christians, and not to hide the untidy areas of our lives at all costs. Because: Only if we are open and straight with one another, we can give each other the chance of mutual comfort. This is by the way, what makes us as Lutherans so unique: Following Paul we do not pretend that we as Christians are free from error. To be reborn by God’s Spirit does not make us sinless and perfect; it makes us trusting in God’s forgiveness and help, and seeing the sense of his good will; a will that shows us our errors and helps us to make it better. And how else should someone hope for God’s comfort, if this person doesn’t learn about God’s sincere help from other Chris-tians? How else should someone hope for God’s comfort, if he or she doesn’t hear from his brothers and sisters in faith that God has helped them in situations of affliction, sickness, mourning, when they were hurt, burdened or lonesome? To be open for the sorrows of others as well as to be open in view of one’s own weak points, this is it, what Paul invites us to do. This is it, what gives us the chance to comfort each other by shar-ing the experience of God’s help with one another. And I say it again, this applies to everyone in our congregation, who shares the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Because: Each experience of God’s help – and not only the Pastor’s experience –can serve to edify the congregation in its spiritual life. AMEN
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“1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
I have a good friend, who every so often comes up with the same joke during a meal, mostly at formal parties. This is what he does: You sit next to him having a normal, sometimes even serious conversation with him, and the next moment, when you’ve just turned away for a second, you look back and try to continue your conversation, but you can’t. It is impossible, even though he seems to try his best to keep it going in a serious way. It is so funny to see, how people get distracted again and again, and how they react: Either they try to point out to him discreetly that there is something wrong with his face. However, this normally gets even funnier, because then my friend plays the innocent not understanding clumsy fellow. Or people simply start to laugh out loud, which is – bearing in mind the formal setting – also quite funny and sometimes at least as awkward as his face. Why do I actually tell you this? I do it, because the behaviour of my friend contains all important aspects of today’s word for the sermon: It contains hope. In my friends case the hope to cheer up the atmosphere of a stiff party. It contains embarrassment and the fear of it, by which people get distracted. And it contains joy; in my friends case as a result of his behaviour.
In today’s word for the sermon Paul describes the antagonism of a human life’s issue – and with it of your and my lives issue – by means of the two opposites: embarrassment and joy. Either we get disappointed; or, if we more literally translate Paul’s words, we spoil the look of and disgrace ourselves, which means something much more severe than just to blemish ones face. We spoil the look of how God actually wants us to be as his most cherished creatures. And thus we also fall out of his grace. Or we rejoice; which is also translatable as: to praise or to take pride in. One can even say: to boast; meaning we will laugh as God’s children and live in peace with Him, our heavenly father. How people on the one hand disgrace themselves, we have heard in today’s Old Testament and Gospel Reading. You do remember the two stories about a man and his vineyard don’t you! And how they tell us about God, and how HE created, cared, lost, and repeatedly tried to win back His people Israel. Israel disgraced itself by forgetting God as the one who had brought it into existence in the first place. Israel forgot that God was the one who had redeemed them out of slavery and led them into the freedom and prosperity of an own country – like a man, who plants and builds a vineyard on the fertile hillside. At some stage Israel must have taken everything good for granted and forgot about God and His loving care. Yes it even blamed God for all the bad things that happened, rather than to confess its own faults and sin, and to bring forth good fruit like they had promised. Because: They also forgot about the covenant and that they – as God’s people – had promised ‘to love and fear God more than anything else, and to love their neighbours as themselves.’ Israel disgraced itself by means of this self-righteous attitude and behaviour, which we as Christians can also very easily adopt. But not enough: Israel’s spiritual leaders, the priests and the Pharisees, rejected God’s authority in an even more ironic way. It is a way that also we as Christians are often tempted to set course for: It is the way of Hypocrisy. What Jesus described in the picture of the vineyard with the evil reaction of the tenants, is nothing else than the dashing idea that we could manage to live a God pleasing life, that we could run the vineyard on our own, without God; and that we could eventually earn all the fruits for ourselves. This attitude is the reason, why Jesus eventually was killed. And as we hear these stories, we shouldn’t think they have just been told in view of Israel. As I indicated, these readings are actually also talking to, and about us Christians. They are our stories. Because: Whenever we fall back into self-righteousness or hypocrisy, we are disgracing ourselves rather than to live according the ‘grace in which we now stand’, because we ‘have been justified through faith, [and] we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace’. This is the great evangelical message of today’s Epistle. In Jesus Christ, in his self sacrifice for our sins as well as in his resurrection, in which God confirmed His will to save and to care for all people out of his fatherly and divine love; in this Jesus Christ we have the most certain reason to rejoice. And with rejoice Paul means to praise God’s love by trusting in his forgiveness and care – even in difficult and challenging situations. For not to give up hope in faith, but rather to remain proud of being God’s child bringing forth good fruits in faith, even in challenging situations of life, might look stupid for others at first, but eventually and actually it is more like being in the situation of my friend, about whom I told you at the beginning of this sermon. Because: Trusting in Christ we are on the safe side already. We have freedom with God. Nothing can really hurt us, dishonour us as God’s children, or rob us of our seats at the heavenly banquet. And due to this certain hope, due to this spiritual self confidence in Jesus Christ, it should not matter at all, if we seem to lose countenance in faith, because it might seem that God has forsaken us and left us to the hardships of life. Paul says: Challenging situations will more likely show our God given character, and God will use us in our persevering faith as an instrument that aims for joy rather than to disappoint us. Like my friend, who isn’t bothered, if people stare at him, because he knows, eventually they will realize what he is aiming for by destroying the formal, stiff and big front with a blob on his nose, and they will join in laughter.
Last week, I had an amazing encounter. We went to get petrol at a station. After greeting each other, I asked the attendant, how he is. And he said: I am blessed. I have never heard something like that in Germany, and not at all from a fuel station attendant. And to be honest, I wouldn’t expect it from a guy like him. More likely from a better situated person. So his answer hit me like a hammer. I don’t know why, but I asked him to share his blessings with me. And he said: Let me share my blessing with you by giving you some words – and he didn’t know that I was a Christian. He said: Everything you say, everything you do or think, let Jesus always be the beginning of it. Let Jesus be the first thing in your job, let him be the first thing in your family or wherever, because then you will see, what the blessing is that I have received. I think this is, what Paul meant, when he wrote about praising and priding ourselves of the hope that we have. May God enable us therefore to follow this invitation by rejoicing in the grace of Christ! AMEN
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John 6:37b I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Amen.
In Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters, we sometimes inconvenience people, when we drop in on them unannounced – although I found, that especially here in South Africa people are still friendly and make you feel welcome even though you are barging in on them unexpected. ¶Now today I would like to tell you about someone who never gets annoyed,unfriendly or even slightly inconvenienced when we come to him no matter who we are, no matter how late it is: YOU ARE WELCOME! In fact, you are very welcome. All the time and forever. He says: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Now that is a pretty sweeping statement to make. If we were to make a statement like that, it would sure backfire on us. We might find ourselves very soon with all sorts of unwanted characters and undesirable subjects on our doorsteps, and it might all become a bit much, more than we can handle. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Only Jesus Christ can say that. WE wouldn't say that. We would rather make sure first. We like to sift and study, throw out and eliminate, before we cautiously start a new relationship. – Sometimes of course we loose our head completely and get into all sorts of trouble with someone or other. But normally we like to ask many questions like this: Who is coming? When is he coming? Is he coming alone? For how long does he want to stay? Why is he coming? Is he rich? Is he poor? Is he clean? Is he dirty? What's his social standing? What does he do for a living? What sort of upbringing did he have? Which class does he belong to? Which race? What's his nationality? Who were his parents? What's his political background? Is he trustworthy? Is he good looking? What church does he go to? Does he drink or smoke? Are there any mental deficiencies? What's his HIV-Status? AND SO IT GOES ON! In the line of my duty as a missionary I sometimes got questionaires from hospitals and other institutes to fill in, and I was asked to give confidential reports about people from my congregation who were seeking employment. They even asked questions like this one: Has he got a happy or a gloomy dispostion? OR Do you know of anything detrimental in his past? We humans are like that. We want to know and we want to be sure, and more often than not we like to make doubly sure. Check and recheck. Now Jesus Christ doesn't do this. He doesn't ask these questions, not one of them! He simply states: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.NEVER! Now our presence here this morning in Arcadia bears witness to this fact, and that's something to be very happy about. We have all heard his invitation. We have all come to him, although we are a rather mixed congregation. We come from different countries. We speak different languages.We even come from different churches.And it does not matter at all. We are all one through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all one in Him! UNITY is a gift only he can bestow upon us. He won't ask you: What's he doing here? OR What does she want here? Nothing like that! But he simply states: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. And that's a promise you and I can trust. 100 %! The old translation of the King James Bible says: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now we all know, what an outcast is: a dropout freak, somebody who's had it, someone with whom we wouldn't normally associate, unpleasent character.We wouldn't like to be seen with someone like that.¶Jesus Christ doesn't mind. He died for all of us, pleasent or unpleasent. His invitation stands once and for all. He shed his prescious blood for all of us. Aren't we all outcasts of sorts in the eyes of God? Forever rebellious against him, and sometimes even our best intentions backfire on us, its frightening. Day by day our sin seperates us from God and from each other. We are by nature sinful and unclean. Of course we don't like to be reminded of that, but deep down we know, that everything is not as it should be. And what a mess we sometimes make of our lives, of our days, of people and things that we are entrusted with, that we are responsible for! ¶Now we can of course try to straighten things out on our own. Only, we won't get very far that way. I've tried it, and it doesn't work. We are soon back to square one. AND THEN WHAT? Dear brothers and sisters, we won't find the solution in ourselves, that's for sure. We won't square things with God ourselves. We need help. We will only get there when we get to HIM, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who says: Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying your heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
That's the whole secret! Let us stop pretending and surrender to him. That is so easy, and that is so difficult, because we don't like to admit defeat and failure, we don't like to acknowledge mistakes and wrongdoings. – Let Christ take over, that way we'll last longest, in fact we'll last forever. With him this venture – our life her on earth – won't be an adventure that ends in desaster. We are all important to him, every single one of us. With him it's like a person to person call. He means you personally, and he means me personally, when he invites us like this: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. That to me is a great comfort. And I have experienced it in the darkest hours of my life: He is always nearest to those who need him most. It might take a lot of patience and prayer, but it's true what he says: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.
I don't know who you are or what's in your heart this morning. I can't see into your soul. But I know this: If you are full of doubts, afraid or worried, if you are anxious, scared or confused, if you are drifting or searching, if you are shy or just hiding behind your big mouth and your designer clothes, if you have big or small problems, if you are lonely or if it is dark around you, just open your ears & listen: You are welcome! If people shut doors in your face, he opens new one: You are welcome! There is more: We are allowed to come as we are. He will change us himself in time. So let me show you the Lord, as he hangs on his cross for you and for me. His arms are widespread, inviting us all in his merciful love to come to him and to stay and accept his forgiveness. There is no need to be miserable any more. Why don't you tell him that you are and ask for a new start? Why despair and be frightened? His invitation stands even tomorrow, when we start another week full of work and worries. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. With that we can start a whole new life. Jesus Christ will open new horizons for us. You'll be surprised. His promise is reality. His word is clear, straitforward, sobering and trustworthy; rocksteady, solid and dependable, something to cling to and to depend upon in a crisis. This will hold when everything else snaps. I am inviting you all to believe that, to accept his friendly invitation: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Thank you for that, dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
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People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Dear congregation,
When a baby is born, it needs care. It cannot survive unaided, because a baby isn’t able to do much. When it needs something, it cries. Older children can already speak and walk, yet they are still used to being cared for, of getting food and clothing from their parents. To go shopping with a little child sometimes ends up in tears, because the child sees many beautiful things, and wants them. “Can I have this? Can I have that?” It wants what it sees and doesn’t think about working for it. A child takes it for granted, that it gets help, when it needs to be washed, or to dress up and to get something to eat and to drink, when it is hungry or thirsty. However, as a child gets older it learns to wash and to dress up all by itself, unassisted, and thus it becomes increasingly independent from its parents. As grownups they are eventually – like us – used to doing things on their own. Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will by no means enter it. ‘This striving for independence might on the other hand be the reason, why it is so hard for us adults to accept salvation as a heavenly gift. We normally tend to give something in return rather than to accept salvation for free: “What do I have to do, to come into heaven?” The bible tells us, how we receive forgiveness of sins, faith and salvation: You can only receive it as a gift out of God’s hands. Holy Baptism points this out to us in a most significant way. Getting baptized doesn’t mean that one has to do something before he gets baptized. Or that you have to experience your baptism as a special thing so you can build your faith on that special feeling you had at your baptism. But getting baptized means, that one receives something: The bath of rebirth in the Holy spirit. One becomes a child of God by getting baptized. And one doesn’t receive the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, because one decided, to do so. One receives the Sacrament like a child, who is being brought to Jesus by its mother, so that He may lay His hands on it and bless it. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Dear congregation, Let’s also talk about these Pharisees, who wanted to trick Jesus by talking about divorce. Moses had allowed getting divorced. Is it still allowed or not? Skipping the particular subject of divorce, I would like to point out to you today, what is significant in the behaviour and the words of the Pharisees. It is the way they use God’s commandments. The Pharisees behave like children, in a negative sense: They checking out their limits. “How far can we go without getting punished?” It’s a normal and important behaviour for a child. Children need to do so, to learn. The Pharisees however are adults, very faithful people. It’s nonsense to think, that one will come to heaven, if one fulfils the ethical standards of the bible. If I ask what God wants me to do, I do it, because I’m already a child of God and because I love my father in heaven. By asking for God’s will, I’m not testing out the conditions, under which I will get saved. I’m doing it because God loves me and wants what is best for me. It is significant, that Jesus doesn’t talk exclusively about divorce. He tells us out of God’s word, how woman and man have been created, which thoughts God had about man and woman, and which kind of good order marriage is. To believe in God doesn’t mean, that one has to watch what is allowed, and what is forbidden. To believe in God means to accept that God loves me, and to love him in return. And if one loves God, one will definitely also ask him, how He wants us to live. It is something, which every one of us has to do in one’s own responsibility:” To ask, what God wants one to do; and then to be obedient. It’s not my job as a pastor, to give you rules, how to live your life. It’s my job as a Pastor to show you God’s word and good will. To believe in it is on the other hand, what you have to do by yourself. I can’t do that for you.
Live your faith, not forced and not only to get saved from hell. But because you are already saved, and you already belong to God and because you love God and want to stay with him.
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I need your opinion on some questions: If a person kills someone else, should this person be punished? [expected answer: YES] Good; that means a woman, who kills an armed robber while she tries to defend herself and her child against him, expects the same punishment as a guy, who hijacks a car and kills its passengers, because they refuse to leave the car? [expected answer: NO] These examples might be bold and simple, but they show that it isn’t easy at all to judge. To make a just judgment, one needs to know a lot of things.
In view of these given examples, a judge would actually need to know the exact circumstances of the acts: Was it self defence? Was it a planned crime? What was the mental condition of the offender? Maybe even: What is his or her case history? etc. Having all this information, it could actually happen that two people, who committed the same offence, get a totally different Verdict: The woman for instance could be freed of all charges while the hijacker gets a maximum penalty. Because: Would it be just to punish a mother for defending herself and her child against a violent intruder by killing him? [expected answer: NO] Or: would it be just to absolve a hijacker, who planned his crime, taking in account that he might kill people to get a car that is not his own? [expected answer: NO] Bearing all this in mind, can we agree that it is necessary to be well informed, to be a good and just judge? [expected answer: YES]
And exactly this is the comforting message of today’s Epistle Reading, which is our word for the sermon. It is taken from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4:
“12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
‘God sees everything, meaning: He can judge between GOOD and EVIL; even in view of our most hidden thoughts’. People – even we as Christians – area often tempted to see this as something terrifying: The idea that we are uncovered before God. And the reason for this reaction is the actually same, as it was in Adam’s and Eve’s case: Somehow we know that we have done something wrong, something against His will; and we are afraid that God could use everything he knows, against us. But whoever understands God’s word right, namely through Jesus Christ, who is God’s incarnated word, knows better. Yes, it is true: God’s word penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrows. Meaning: We can’t hide anything from God. He knows about what is good and evil. And he will cast all evil into eternal damnation. But: God’s word is not only active in this way. It is most of all living and life giving; like it was in the beginning, like it is now in Jesus Christ and His Gospel, and like it will be in all eternity. What I want to point out to you about today’s word for the sermon, is this: The fact that God knows and sees even our inmost thoughts and emotions; the fact that he discovers all this by means of his word; the fact the we are therefore laid bare before his eyes – like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – means: He does not only see our mistakes and our sin. He also knows about our weakness, our need of help, our history etc. He is not just looking at what we have done. He doesn’t just stare at the symptoms, but discovers the roots and the reasons of our wrongs. And He does this to penetrate and separate all this evil from what he has created with the intention to live eternally. Like a good surgeon, who cuts away the infected parts of a wound, and treats it with antiseptics, so that it can heal. In Jesus Christ, God tells us that He knows about our inability to trust Him and to follow His good will, but HE also helps us.
The message of today’s bible word is therefore something totally different than the terrible idea of ‘Big Brother is watching you’? It is firstly an invitation to all of us to expose ourselves to God’s active and living word, so that it CAN penetrate us and separate every evil from God’s creation, which He wants to save. It is an invitation to come into His presence to give account. Not only when it might be too late, and when we have to be terrified of His omniscience and the fact that we are uncovered before His eyes. No: He invites us every day to trust in His care and mercy – like Adam and Eve before they fell. They were naked and didn’t care, – like children are not afraid of being uncovered before their parents, because they trust in their love and care. It is an invitation to repent and confess to God, what we have done wrong, where we have failed, and where we are unclean in his eyes – and this includes not only the things that we know about. Sometimes, one is ill not knowing that something severe is going on in ones body. – Because only then, after confessing all our sins an iniquities to God, after giving account, we will also hear the active and living word of His forgiveness, which cleanses and heals us. Secondly: today’s word for the sermon invites us to refrain from judging each other easily, like we so often do, because it reminds us of what it takes to judge justly: It takes more than we mostly are capable off; which is why our Lord says (Mt 7:1): “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” And following Christ’s advice, the Apostle Paul writes (Rom 14:13): “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.” And: “do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.” I am very grateful that it is the Lord, who is going to judge me, because HE knows me the best, and in His love and mercy I trust.AMEN
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“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict train-ing. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
What Paul does in today’s word for the sermon, is actually noth-ing else than what a motivation coach does: He reminds the Chris-tians in Corinth of what they hope for in faith, and that it is worthwhile to fight for it. But why is such a kind of motivation necessary? It is, because sometimes we lose the grit in faith and get tired and lethargic. Partial defeats as well as injuries can cause such tiredness, not only in sports but also in faith. I am talking about defeats like seemingly unheard and unfulfilled prayers. Or injuries like the realization that one has done some-thing sinful, even though one intended firmly to refrain from do-ing it. To experience something like this in faith can be quite de-motivating.
Motivation is therefore everything: Not only in sports, not only in many other parts of life, but also in faith. Because: If we let our-selves go in spiritual lethargy; if we would say: It’s not worthwhile to pray any longer, because God doesn’t listen any-way. Or: It’s not worthwhile to fight the temptation to do something sinful, because I will fail again anyway; we are in danger of being disqualified. We are in danger to edge away from our saviour and his aid. It is for this reason that Pauls tries to prevent a disqualification in faith in every respect by motivating. And he does it not only by preaching. He says: It doesn’t help or motivate others, if one preaches to oth-ers, but doesn’t practise, what one has preached. It would be like a doctor, who, with a cigarette in his hand, would tell a patient to refrain from smoking, because it is unhealthy and causes lung cancer. Or a guy, who is drinking his sixth beer on the way to his car, and enlightens his buddy about, how dangerous it is to drink and drive. It isn’t very convincing, is it? How on earth should a young boy or girl comprehend that it is good, helpful and worthwhile to be confirmed, and to go to church, or to pray, if the parents hardly come to church, or pray at home? Or: How should a congregant be motivated to live in the hopeful and forgiving love of Christ, if the only thing he or she learns from the Pastor’s sermons is: How useless and failing he or she is? Please don’t misunderstand me: Christians should, following the example of Paul in today’s word for the sermon, definitely point out mistakes. A preacher and Pastor should point out mistakes or sinful behaviour in his congregation. Congregants should do the same in view of each other (including the Pastor) as well as in view of others. Because doing this, they act like a good coach, who tries to erase wrongs in the technique of his athlete. However, we never should stop there, but always motivate: A pastor should motivate the congregation to make it better in the future, and Christians should motivate each other (the Pastor in-cluded) and others in word and deed, in counselling and in setting examples. And let us always bear in mind when it comes to setting examples: If a coach shows a technique to his athlete, then it doesn’t happen to show, how great the coach is, but rather to mo-tivate and increase the technique of the athlete. A pastor or a con-gregant never ever should convey the impression to the congrega-tion that they are ‘better Christians’ than the rest. Nor should Christians pretend to be better people than Non Christians. Be-cause: First of all it isn’t our right to judge others, it is and remains God’s privilege, who alone is able to judge rightly, because he alone sees our hearts and thoughts. Secondly: We confess that no one deserves or can merit God’s favour, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). My teachers at the university gave me three simple rules in view of preaching, which we can actually see transformed also in today’s word for the sermon, and which also apply to the way, in which we as Christians should behave in view of others: 1st rule: Don’t pretend that everything is just perfect. Only naïve people would believe you, because every one of us actually knows that there are things in our lives, which are not perfect at all. And God wants us to see and realize these wrongs, to overcome them by means of his forgiveness and help. So we need to reveal faults and errors by means of God’s will and His perfect standards. Paul does this indirectly by encouraging the Corinthians to go into strict training. If we literally translate, Paul says: to exercise self control. And with it he refers to concrete misbehaviour in the Co-rinthian congregation, which he was writing about a couple of verses before today’s word for the sermon. However – and this is the 2nd rule –: Paul doesn’t leave it there. He starts his letter, and he continues his letter with positive moti-vation. He doesn’t disqualify the Christians in Corinth because of their faults! He doesn’t say: You are useless, and it is not worth-while to put more effort into you. No! He reminds them – and also all of us – that it was actually God, who put us in the race of faith. And it is God, who by means of his forgiveness and the help of his Holy Spirit enables us to run, and also to win this race of faith. So refrain from just preaching about our sinfulness and unworthiness. And most of all – and this is the 3rd rule –: Never, ever preach from above, giving the impression: You, as a preacher or a Chris-tian, have won the race already. Because: It is neither true, nor does it motivate the congregation or others. It will rather evoke their suspicion or scorn. Always include yourself! Include yourself, when it comes to God’s Holy Will that convicts us all of our sin. And also include yourself, when it comes to the Gospel that comforts us with the message of God’s forgiveness, and which motivates us by point-ing out the hope, which we have in Jesus Christ, because He is our motivation.
He is the reason why we are in this race of faith in the first place. He paid our dues and brought us in the righteous shape by sacri-ficing himself for our sins, and giving us faith and hope. He also supports and sponsors us in this race of faith, by accom-panying us and nourishing us with his word and sacrament. And in His resurrection, He has given us the sound hope that we live a new life in Him. It is the life, which has started in our Bap-tism, and which becomes visible, whenever we live according to his good and life giving word, bringing forth fruits of joy and happiness for us and others in love, compassion and forgiveness. And it is the life into which we merge completely, when He fi-nally takes us into his kingdom. Jesus has shown and proven to us that it is worthwhile to trust in God, because there is a victory waiting for us, and a price, which – as Paul says it – will last forever. And who doesn’t want to be a winner. Let us therefore refrain from doing what makes us tired in faith, but rather hold on to Christ and his word. Let us also refrain from behaving in a spiritual demotivating manner, but rather encourage each other by word and deed, so that we may run together, and receive together the prize, which is waiting for us in Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory forever and ever! AMEN
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Isn’t it helpful and good to have a torch at home; it is, isn’t it? As we agree on this, I would like to ask your opinion on something else: What conditions are he best for one to test, whether a torch works properly, whether it is powerful enough, or not? > It has to be dark, because would it make much sense, to test a torch on a bright summer’s day, say at noon? No! And exactley this experience might help us to understand, why Paul talks in today’s word for the sermon in such different a way about life’s difficult times, even darkest hours, hardships and trials.
He writes there in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians in chapter 4:
„For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. “
It is very seldom that we get something so positive out of the negative things that happen to us, be it privately, at work, or in our congregation. It is more likely that we hope to escape such experiences. If we however still have to face hardships or difficulties, we often ask: “Why? Why exactly now?”, or: “Why me?” Maybe even: „Why must people, who believe in God, who trust in His blessing and protection, have to suffer at all?” Paul on the other hand comments these negative experiences quite differently; and he talks like this because of his faith in Jesus Christ, which he experiences as the light of his life: Whoever hears God’s call, says Paul, and trusts in His word, meaning whoever believes has been enlightened by God: „For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” It is as we, too, confess it in the Apostle’s creed: Whoever believes is included in the communion of saints, meaning; whoever believes, receives the treasure of God’s eternal life, and lives in the light of His new creation. However: This light of God’s new creation becomes noticeable the best in this life, when it shines in times of need and darkness – just as it is with a torch. Our faith in Christ proves as something helpful and becomes most distinct for us and others, where it carries us through the dark times of life. Because: How else could we be assured of the fact that God holds us in his hand, if we wouldn’t fall? How could we ever experience, that God is near, if we wouldn’t know what it means to be lonesome? How could we ever be comforted by God and his word, if we wouldn’t be sad? How else should other people realize, that we have something in faith that gives us a halt beyond our own strength, if there wouldn’t be situations in our lives, in which other people would be at the end of their own strength and possibilities? If we as Christians wouldn’t have to face problems at all; if we would just fare well in life, our faith wouldn’t be put to the test, and thus it would neither become certain noticeable for us, nor could it point out to other people our true halt, namely Jesus Christ. And would we be just content, if we would fare well, we wouldn’t be different from other people, who don’t believe at all. To see things from this side might sound very strange to us, but Paul says: Our faith in Jesus Christ, which God has evoked in us, actually becomes noticeable for us and others in a positive way most of all, where it is challenged. Paul doesn’t give a false colour to the difficult things, which happen in our lives. Don’t let him be misunderstood. He doesn’t pervert the bad things to be good. He knows too well, how much one can be hurt in life: “We are hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.” He himself had to endure failures, loneliness, danger of death, physical and mental violence, rejection and much more. And it is most likely that he, too, wished to escape these things. However, facing them, he dealt with them in a positive way, looking at Christ, who overcame even death, though he was not spared to endure suffering. Christ, who promises to all, who believe in Him, that we will participate in his victory. And it seems that Paul experienced exactly this: that God’s power proves to be effective in us limited humans, us ’jars of clay’ as he says, especially in those dark moments of our lives. And Paul obviously realized something else in connection with hardships, he had to endure, because he says that God’s treasure within us is to be shown, and his glory in us should be revealed. It seems that Pauls sees a God given momentum of witnessing in the challenges we have to face in faith. Whenever God carries us through in faith, because we are at the end of our tether, we actually point out to others, what we believe in: God’s new life in Christ. A life that cannot be destroyed, not even by death.
This believe makes Paul inviting his fellow Christians so boldly to look differently to further difficulties and dark times waiting for us in life; at home, at work, or here in our congregation. Because to trust in the risen Lord, who himself had to go through suffering and death to reveal God’s ultimate power and glory, means to discover hardships in a new way: as challenges, our faith proves to be real, and God invites us the most to cling on his light, which is Christ himself; for the benefit of others as well as for our own benefit. Just like a torch that we have at home, which is there and works, even in bright daylight, but is needed the most and seen best at night, when it is dark. We benefit from the faith, which God has created in us, all times of our lives, also during the happy times. But it proves to be helpful for us and others most of all, when we have to endure dark times, and when we or others need the light of faith to orientate. Therefore: May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the light of life, now and forever! AMEN
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“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
With these words, Paul continues his train of thought of last Sunday’s Epistle Reading about the spiritual, or better translated, the ‘reasonable’ worship. A worship that Paul describes in a life, which is founded on God’s irreversible and life-giving promise in Baptism (Rom 6), and that – trusting in this promise – orientates towards God’s standards in Jesus Christ (Rom 7-8) , and tries to put them into practise, even in its daily routine. Paul continues this train of thought by making some concrete suggestions of how such a life, such a reasonable worship could look like. And he does it in two stages: Firstly, he describes, how the Christians in Rome should deal with each other, meaning within the congregational boundaries, within the church. Then, in a second step, Paul describes, how the Chris-tians in Rome should deal with their Non-Christian surroundings, how they should behave towards other people.By doing this, Pauls uses a strategy that we know from a totally different area, namely from team sport like soccer – you have noticed it, haven’t you: We have arrived in 2010. By firstly describing a reasonable worship amongst Christians before getting to a reasonable worship in view of others, Paul pro-ceeds exactly like a coach, who prepares his team for a match with a new tactic.
And there is a good reason, why Paul proceeds like this, even though he probably didn’t have sport in mind, when he wrote these words. The reason is the following: As it is good in sport, if all members of a team know and train one common tactic, and then play ac-cording to it, it is the same with a Christian congregation. Only by becoming, remaining and behaving in one Spirit, by ‘living in harmony with one another’ a Christian congregation can be in a positive way effective inwardly and outwardly. Because: What happens, if not all players of a team play in accor-dance with the team tactic. [Get examples from the congregation]. Realizing this in view of sport, we can also see why many things within a church or a congregation don’t work. The reasons for this inefficiency and disharmony might then be very different in detail. However, the fact that we grow up and live in a society that imparts and lives according to other standards than those of our Lord, is certainly a common cause. I am talking about standards, which make us think selfishly rather than for the common good of others. Influenced in such a way, we might be tempted to treat our faith and Jesus standards rather as something private: an inside matter, hidden from the surrounding world, just recognizable on Sunday mornings between 9h00 and 11h00; but definitely not as some-thing that has to do with others. However, if this happens, we lose as Christians and definitely as a Christian Congregation. We would be like players, who are part of a team just because of the nice looking outfit, but not because of the team and its success, not because of what this team stands and fights for. We would refrain from using and sharing our talents, our knowledge, and our strength, and thus we would not only cause damage in view of the congregation. We would also be overcome personally by our opponent: from evil, as Paul points it out directly after today’s word for the sermon. If we as Christians don’t live and play for Christ and his team, the church and congregation (our team) we play against Christ. There is no passive membership; we are all members of Christ’s team. It is for this reason that Paul encourages the Romans, and also us, to practise a baptismal life, a reasonable worship; firstly within our congregation, and then increasingly also towards other people: In devotion, in joyful and patient hope, faithful prayer (which applies especially to those members, who aren’t able to serve the Congregation in another way), in frankness and hospitality. These are training goals for every one of us as well as goals for our congregation. If we achieve them, together as a single minded team, they will enable us to have an effect also on our surround-ings; God will enable us to become a blessing for each other and for others; even for people, who hate us, and who wish us evil. Because: By living according to these goals, we can head off trouble and frustration in as much as every one of us will be able to find backup and support in our congregation, for we stay to-gether. Like-minded, not as a group of lone fighters, driven by personal ambitions, but always willing and enabled through faith in Christ, to question ourselves by means of God’s standards. Paul exemplarily points this out with the subject of vengeance. If we trust in God’s superiority, if we follow Christ’s example, we will abstain from any form of revenge – be it in our private life or in business. For revenge is something that leads into no good and damages cooperation and coexistence – not only in sports, where pay back fouls hurt the team the most, because one gets a red card.
Therefore: Where we as a Christian Congregation live a baptismal life according to the goals of a reasonable worship inwardly, and then also outwards, God makes us a blessing for others, and thus leads us towards the victory, which Paul describes as the over-coming of evil with good. And which other victory could there be for us as a Christian Con-gregation than people, who join us and our congregation in faith because of the good that they are experiencing here?
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