( Sermon Romans 10:9-17 ) [ German Sermon ] [ Abkündigungen664.75 KB ]
Holiday. For some it is just over, others are in the middle of it, somewhere on the way. And for others, as for me, it is imminent.
Relax. Let your soul dangle. It takes a few days to get into this state, but when the corset of everyday life collapses, then the holiday is definitely ... of lightness and tranquillity, of openness and cheerfulness, of a successful mixture of casual effort and liberated letting go.
Every holiday knows that this serenity will disappear all too quickly after the return trip.
But still: Holiday shows:
1. it is possible to live calmly and balanced.
And 2.: what we really need to live is often quite simple and close, if we only see it and get involved in it... in everyday life, unfortunately, this is often covered up and we do not see it.
I now claim: what the holiday shows is transferable to faith.
- With faith in God, it is possible to live serenely and balanced, and
- Faith is simple and close when we open our eyes and cars and engage in it...
Of course, I also brought you the sermon text that supports my claim:
Paul writes the following in the Letter to the Romans, 10:9-17: TEXT
How nice is the idea of staying calm, whatever happens? Instead, there is often unrest. How do I get everything under one roof?
But what constitutes life? What saves me at heart and gives me peace of mind?
Paul says: Focus on faith. That's enough. With faith, everyday life is like a holiday And faith requires preaching, the proclamation of the Gospel. Faith and preaching belong together.
Whoever believes with the heart will do justice.
Faith, then, is a matter of the heart. I can still read so many theological books, build up so many thought constructs. If they don't touch the heart, then there is no faith. Then a healthy relationship between God and me is not possible. But 1 cannot acquire the righteousness of God through performance. How beautiful and how liberating.
No one can bring anything to God, He doesn't want anything either, He doesn't care about my successes and my money. In the heart, God and the troubled soul find each other in a different way.
Seen from God, this means grace. Faith as seen from man. And who is this God?
Mysterious. Inscrutably. So big that we can't grasp it. But a glowing oven full of love, in Luther's words, that he can't help but show himself to us. He doesn't want to stay with himself. His love is looking for a counterpart. He takes the step towards us - in his Son Jesus Christ. The Incarnate Word of God, which is love itself. God becomes a man to pick us up where we are. Below.
We are all equal before God. Whether Jews or Greeks, pious church Christians and those who at most look through a hole in the fence; those with a normal, orderly life and also the others who do not want to succeed and who stumble from one embarrassment to the other; those who have known Christ for a long time, but also those who for the first time - half comprehending and half shaking their heads - become aware of him. Christ is close to everyone's heart, the spiritually poor first. The Lord is rich and generous to all who call upon Him.
Who accept it. Jesus Christus, which is very close.
Now someone can object: I really tried very hard to believe. But 1 don't get into that state of heart that I was hoping for. Sometimes I succeed, then I believe. But then this state disappears again. It is lost to me in everyday life. Sometimes doubts spread. Sometimes 1 am convinced of the opposite of what I read in the Bible.
Faith is exposed to the movements of human life. Enteral, sustainable and lasting is only the grace of God. Hearing about her makes faith grow.
Faith, then, comes above all from listening, from listening carefully to God's Word.
The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard understood prayer not as a medium of speaking, but as a medium of listening. Those who pray succeed in listening to what God wants to say to the praying. But faith in God does not stop there. In a quiet room.
Faith does something to a person. Faith in the heart affects one’s own relationship with the world. Faith relativizes the world.
Fitness, performance, success, career, I don't think all this is foreign to any of us. But if you only look at it; you make nothing but idols out of desirable goals. Faith now helps to bring the idols back from the throne. They are again assigned to the world. And that... gives serenity… a piece of holiday in the middle of everyday life.
But it is not enough to carry faith in your heart. Paul invites church members in Rome to profess their faith. Whoever carries God in his heart can also say publicly: This God has convinced me.
We don't have to hide behind our faith. The Christian faith arises in one's own heart, quite privately, but it seeks community and congregation and wants to reach other people.
That is why faith within also demands confession to the outside: I believe in this Jesus Christ. I am convinced of this God of the Bible. In each divine service, the congregation makes such a confession by speaking the Apostolic Creed. And no one must hide behind it. We are even allowed to sing about it loudly and mightily.
"I sing to you with heart and mouth, Lord, my heart's lust. I sing and make known on earth what I am aware of you.”
Amen