( Sermon Eph 5: 1-2.8-10 ) [ German Sermon ] [ Announcements (German)603.83 KB ]
Dear Congregation, I like to bake and I think many of you do too.
And the children come out of their room, attracted by the scent and suspect that there is something to lick from the bowl and with craned necks, they look curiously what happens.
Mine recently got their own children's baking book. It is touted that this would be possible without adults, but of course it is not entirely like that. Break open an egg, beat an egg, grease the backing tin ... someone must have shown you that before it works, and yet, of course, some things go wrong. You have to be relaxed about that. The eggshell ends up in the dough, the bowl tips over, and a soft layer of flour spreads over all the worktops in the kitchen.
It takes a lot of patience to bake with children. And whenever I'm about to take the spoon out of my child's hand because it's faster and cleaner, I have to pull myself together. Because I know myself how demotivating it is to hear: you can't do that. "You're still too small for that!".
The children love to mess around in the kitchen.
And the scent spreads in the kitchen and thus also in the whole house. It smells of fresh bread, vanilla and cinnamon. Milk and honey. Diligent work, perseverance, striving to get everything right, dedication and patience, forbearance and forgiveness, confidence and joy.
Children learn by watching and imitating.
By showing them something and letting them try it for themselves.
It is important that they feel: Mom and Dad trust me to do it and I can make mistakes.
Then they get it right and are proud of it. And so are we as parents. And every time they become more independent in what they do. And they like to do it.
Imitate God as beloved children. We hear in the sermon text.
But we are expected to do something great! Imitate God Himself ...
Will we get that right? Where can you watch him? What can I learn from him?
"Walk in love as Christ also loved us." Look at him, this Jesus of Nazareth. How he moved across the country, to every village and on to the next. Because he wanted to carry the hope of God's infinite love to the last corner. The confidence that God is looking at you with His merciful and patient eyes.
Look at the teachers, who are particularly patient these days when learners have to get used to everyday school life again, forget materials and have tasks explained repeatedly.
Look at the parents who get it right to get family and work balanced even in times that are far from normal again. Who do not lose their patience and carry on. Day after day.
Look at this Jesus, how he has patience with his disciples who disappoint, misunderstand, betray him. Peter denied him three times before the rooster crowed. When they meet again on the lake shore at Easter, Jesus entrusts him with a new task: feed my sheep!
You can see patience and devotion in Jesus. So is God. You are his beloved child. With him you can experience kindness and learn from it. Become kind yourself.
"He gave himself for us, as a gift and sacrifice, to God to a lovely smell."
Jesus' devotion a sweet smell to God. Can you smell goodness?
When you get to know someone, you often decide very quickly whether you like them or not. Unfortunately that is the way it is. Somehow. Of course, some things can still change in retrospect. And first impressions can be deceiving. But it is like this: you have not yet experienced anything with the unknown, you have not found out whether the person is honest or generous or insidious and wrong. But you grasp something of his character at first glance.
It has to do with the sense of smell, says science. You can stand that person or not. Maybe you can smell goodness, justice and honesty after all?
You can smell the cake on a Saturday afternoon when it rises in the oven. And also the love that is in it.
In the first rays of sunshine of the day you can smell God's love, who awakens the world from its sleep and carries hope into the last corners. Open the windows. In the rain after a long drought, you can smell God's love when the ground steams and the raindrops patter on the earth.
On the evening before the Jews begin the Sabbath, two loaves of plaited white bread lie on the table and smell. Two candles are lit. The parents put their hands on the children’s head to bless them: You are my beloved child. And at the end of the Sabbath, a jar of aromatic spices is shaken - the scent of the Sabbath that blows away, goes away.
In everything you smell and see, God's special presence comes into your home on this special day. Almost as if you could see and smell them.
The Sabbath is a foretaste, a breath and fragrance of paradise. Then you are together with family, also with guests. You have it good and let God's goodness dwell with you. The love, the patience, the honesty.
We don't always get it right. A cake goes wrong. The family peace is imperfect and the blessing hangs crookedly in the air. But God has patience with us.
We look to him, to his patience with us, his beloved children.
He shows us how to do it again and again with devotion and trusts us to do it.
Every morning he starts anew with the world. He sends smells and shows us how beautiful life is.
We imitate it and practice.
Bake, set the table, open the door. Come to the table from the room, we try it with each other.
And it is possible to spend a short or long moment at the laid table on Sunday for breakfast or coffee.
Be good together, be good to each other. Let God dwell among us. Sometimes just for a moment. A breath, a scent of paradise. We're still practicing.
Amen