( Sermon Ephesians 2:4-10 ) [ Predigt ] [ Abkündigungen403.76 KB ]
"There still has to be life in life".
On days that are just rippling along. Or I am chasing one appointment after another. When it is exhausting, and nothing works without hustle and bustle. Or in times when nothing works under my own steam. Everything in me stands still.
"There still has to be life in life".
Sings the old songwriter and lyricist Wolf Biermann. I like to remember him at the end of a week that marks the 60th anniversary of the building of the Wall between East and West Germany. Where people and families were torn apart for almost 30 years.
Wolf Biermann is considered a harsh critic of the SED and the GDR. His volumes of poetry are among the best-selling in German post-war literature and have been awarded many prizes.
"There still has to be life in life".
And Wolf Biermann sings about everyday life, about overtime and sitting in front of the TV in the evening watching the Paradise, about managing, and striving and coughing and haste. Is that supposed to be it?
Wolf Biermann sings of the desire to be alive.
In the letter to the church in Ephesus in the sermon text for today, there are lines that also tell of liveliness. And that sounds like this here:
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Dear congregation, God is merciful and full of love for us. And he has made us alive with Christ. For me, that is the intention of all the following verses. That is the message for me.
And when I think about it, that is for me the message of the Christian faith in general. Made alive. In life. In death.
Translated into Biermann's song and his line slightly modified, the resolution is an encouragement. And it is a promise: Then it is not said: there must still be life in life, but it is said: there will still be life in life.
How does this happen? Where does it happen?
It happens through touch and being touched.
Just like those who are told in the Bible that through touch they can hear again, pray, and speak, move, and walk again.
There is still life in life.
How does this happen? Where does it happen?
When someone is lifted up. Like the bent woman who no longer has to stare at the ground and her feet, but whose gaze is lifted, who stands upright, face to face and can look into the distance.
How does this happen? Where does it happen?
When we are together again and share something with each other - food, thoughts, feelings, promises.
That is when life comes into being...
How does this happen? Where does it happen?
When I can withdraw. On the mountain, in nature, out of the crowd and the stress of everyday life. Where I succeed in finding a place of retreat with myself and within myself.
Life comes into being after all.
Stunted things can rise again. The dead can rise again.
A deep breath.
...Life comes into being. Back then, in the presence of Jesus, people felt this. Just as they do here and today. And that, dear congregation, is a gift. It benefits me without me having to do or being able to do anything in return.
And even if some think that my performance as a Christian person is needed first and that I have to follow rules. Jesus turns to those who have nothing to bring. Those who have made mistakes and are aware of their weakness.
Do this and do that.
Putting people under pressure or even threatening them and locking them up behind walls does not correspond to the will of God.
Our God is a God of freedom, and he stands for liveliness. The Exodus from Egypt showed Israel: God wants everyone to live and remain free. So that life comes into being.
It is a gift from our God Yahweh. I am with you. I walk with you. In living and in dying. I am with you. This promise is for me. Confirmed in my baptism. The celebration of life par excellence.
No matter how I feel now and how empty I sometimes feel. I am in God's hands, and I am allowed to be me and be happy. God means well with me. Besides all the everyday things that happen and that we must do, there is the kindness of God in our lives, what the Bible calls grace. We are allowed to live under God's protection and blessing. I do not have to perform. Not be a winner. I am loved by God. He looks neither at performance, nor profit maximisation. Achievements like "my house, my car, my boat" count for nothing before God. Just as I am, I am good. Child of God. Unfinished and infinitely loved. Just like that. And undeserved.
And the more I feel that the more life comes into my life. All by itself. Without my doing anything. Then I notice how my lungs become full of the fresh air that God gives me. Breath of life. Breath of life. That is God's gift, when I recognise:
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Such encouragement brings life into my life.
And I want others to experience that too.
I am prepared to be good to others. This is a lifelong exercise and task. I know that I do not always succeed. I know that as a creature of God. Something always gets in my way: when I feel better than others and look down on them, when I hide my light under a bushel and do nothing where I should help. And much more.
This is called sin. Sin always prevents us from participating in life the way God wants us to. Sin also destroys life. And it gets in our way again and again, and we just cannot get it out of the world.
Not on a large scale and not on a small scale either.
Jesus came into the world for us so that we might work together as children of love and heavenly fellow human beings. Jesus came into the world to bear our sin, to carry it away. To support us when it is arduous for us to put one step before the other.
That is God's grace: to be His work and to do His will.
And God shows us how to do it and has done it for us long ago. He has lived, suffered, loved, and fought with us. He went through ups and downs, joy, and sin, and finally died as a result. And came back to life and walks with us as the Risen One. And my life comes to me anew, always anew, when I see myself as he sees me.
When others look at me the way he does. Especially in the times that are hard for me.
And when I look at others the way he does. Undeserved.
There is still life in the life. Again, and again. Always new.
Created, loved, and destined for good cooperation.
I want to see a bit more blue
And a few more square laps, I want to do
This is how the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann ends.
That is how I too end for today.
Alive. Hopeful. Creative. Destined for good.
Amen
