Ebenezer Presbyterian Church
Wednesday Evening Lenten Services
February 20, 2013
A few years ago there was a
faddish notion to wear a reminder that in our lives we should always ask “WWJD;
What Would Jesus Do?” Here in Nazareth
Jesus preached his first public sermon. He
told the gathered crowd that both Elijah and Elisha had taken the blessings and
grace of God to alien peoples, and that he was here to do the same. If a preacher were to follow the example of
Jesus in his preaching, then he needs to be prepared to be thrown off a
cliff. I don’t think I’ve ever made a
congregation that angry.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that
I have only rarely made congregations angry at all. That means that either my congregations have
been filled with perfect Christians or my preaching is not sufficiently
prophetic. I have not sufficiently
proclaimed God’s message.
Bette Midler is one of my
favorite performers, and a few years ago she had a hit song called “From a
Distance.” The song seems to imply that
if we could just step back and view the world from a distance we could make
more sense out of it. We could learn to
live with one another; to love one another.
And the chorus emphasized then that God is watching us from a distance.
It’s a wonderful song of
humanistic longing. One could even say
that it describes a world in which the reign of God has been completed. But as Christians we acknowledge and worship
a God who is right here, not off in some distant watchtower called heaven.
“The Old Rugged Cross” was my
mother’s favorite hymn, but recently I got to thinking about that opening
line: “On a hill far away….” The hymn describes the passion of Christ, but
it would be possible to interpret that description as an event that is distant
from us. I suspect that some of us sing
those words “I will cling to the old rugged cross” with sentimental longing
that holds onto a memory of Christ on the cross as if it is still something at
a distance.
Christ is here among us, and
because he is here among us the cross is not distant: it is a constant presence in the life of
every Christian.
Sometimes the presence of the
cross in the lives of Christians can lead to death, just as it did for Jesus.
Germany had a tradition since
Luther of binding nationalism and “Christian faith.” Although he himself never wanted a “German”
church, Luther’s protectors and followers fell into that idolatrous trap. Four hundred years after Luther, in August
1914, on a day described by theologian Karl Barth as the “dies ater,” the black day in German history and church history in
Germany, 93 German intellectuals, including pastors and theologians, published
an endorsement of the military policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II as Germany plunged
into World War I. In essence they
assured the German people that God and history were clearly on their side and
that God would vouchsafe the victory of Germany.
Five years later, on June 28,
1919, the German people were defeated and humiliated by the provisions of the
peace treaty. Many Germans believed that
they had been abandoned or condemned by the God they were told would lead them
to victory.
Thirteen years later, as
Hitler solidified his ascent to power, efforts were again being made to link
official Christianity with the fate of Germany.
In 1933, a young pastor by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached
loudly against the growing idolatry of patriotism and nationalism even as
Hitler’s followers began to infiltrate and reshape the church in their own
image.
Fifty-eight years after his execution
on April 9, 1945 (two weeks before the Allies liberated the concentration camp
in which he was put to death), Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains one of the most
influential theologians of today.
Bonhoeffer came from a wealthy and influential German family. He had
several opportunities to get away from Germany in the 1930’s, and in 1939 he
made a brief last trip to the United States at the urging of friends and
relatives. He knew it was the wrong
thing: "I have come to the conclusion
that I made a mistake in coming to America. ... Christians in Germany will have
to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation
in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of
their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these
alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security."
[Bethge, P. 655] He returned to Germany on the last passenger steamer to
cross the Atlantic for several more years.
By 1939 Hitler was in full control of
Germany, and his policies – especially his rabid anti-Semitism – drove
Bonhoeffer into active participation in the movement to relocate Jews out of
Germany and to remove Hitler. But always
the core of Bonhoeffer’s opposition was his Christian faith and his
overwhelming belief in the Lordship of Christ.
Bonhoeffer recognized in 1933 that
turning the Gospel to the service of the nation – any nation - was a demonic
and idolatrous event. That recognition
became the continuing heart of his opposition to Hitler’s policies. In 1935 he was the director of an illegal
seminary training pastors to proclaim the Lordship of Christ first and
foremost. It was during that period that
he looked deeply into himself and scripture and wrote Discipleship [sometimes called
“The Cost of Discipleship”].
The book is a study in the call of
Christ and what it means for us. It
includes a unique study of the Beatitudes that stresses that no form of human
behavior satisfies God unless it proceeds from following Christ. An exposition of Bonhoeffer’s view of
Christian faith and discipleship is not a proper topic for a sermon. You would be sitting here for a very long
time beyond the 6 weeks of Lent!
Except.
Except! Except!!!
Except that his view of faith and
discipleship can be summed up in a few sentences. We are called by the living Christ to
discipleship, not some form of human agency or social norm. Discipleship is a commitment to Christ alone. He alone must be followed, and we must follow
on His terms, not ours. His Gospel
message is not some theological doctrine that might appeal to our
intellect. Christ creates in us a whole
new existence. He made it clear that to
“believe” in Him meant simply and completely leaving everything behind,
abandoning all the idols which this world and our own culture would tell us we
must worship, and following only the incarnate Son of God. [“Discipleship,” pp.
58-62]
Friends our God does not sit back at a
distance. He became one of us. He calls us to follow him onward to the cross
and his victory over what we call death.
He calls us together to form His church, to be the visible presence in
this world of his Gospel message of hope and love and justice, to give witness
to God’s love for His creatures and His creation, to be transformed into the
vision of God’s true existence for His people.
The “Kingdom of God” exists wherever the reign of God’s rule is supreme,
and we are called as people and as a church to bring God’s reign into our hearts,
into our midst and live now in the Kingdom of God.
Neither God nor that “old rugged cross”
are at a distance, far away. This Lent
begin anew your journey as a disciple of Christ. You may have faltered and fallen, but Christ
will pick you up and lead you again. He
calls to us right here, in our assembly, calling us to put all else aside and
follow Him. As Jesus reminded the crowd
in the Gospel, He calls many whom we
would not expect. But it is He who
calls. He calls us to be transformed
today and follow Him through the cross into God’s new creation.
Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment