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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe! |
Monday, 19 September 2011 13:56 |
Dr. Martin Dutzman
5. Moses (Deuteronomy) 4, 5-20
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. Dear sisters and brothers, as you know, as a group of Christians from Germany we are guests among you in Biržai for some days. This visit, however, is different. We are not dealing with theological and social matters in a spiritual way as we did during former visits. This time we work physically on the Jewish Cemetery of your town. When we leave it shall look better kept than before. We do this, because many Jewish citizens of Biržai have been murdered exactly 70 years ago after the German troops have marched into Lithuania. When Germans renovate a Jewish cemetery, they cannot repair by this work the injustice that has brought on Jews by Germans. Too dreadful and too brutal had been the crimes that no person can take off this guilt. Only one thing we can do: to remind us of the injustice that had happened, so that it will never be repeated. Besides the renovation of Jew-ish cemeteries the reflection about the errors is part of this memory, errors generally speaking that people and particularly Christians have made in regard to the Jewish people. The text from 5. Moses for the sermon, which we have heard, will help us.The first fatal error was: That Christians have disregarded the biblical commandments of God to Israel, was one of the grave mistakes, which finally led to the assassination of millions of Jews. Even today it is fatal, to part from the commandments of God. I am convinced: Europe would appear differently, if we would consistently keep holy the Sabbath day (Sunday), if we would observe the prohibition to steal, even in the international relationship of trading, if we would enforce God's commandment to protect the foreign-ers and particularly the refugees etc.etc. The second error, Christians - particularly Christians in Germany - succumb to, is: They have thought that they should look for salvation in visible and earthly things. „Heil Hitler!" they have shouted. Blood and soil, race and nationality became God. Christians could have perceived it as error, if they would have read the Bible more carefully. For instance the paragraph of the Bible which is today the biblical text for the preaching. Moses warns the Israelites urgently and passionately to replace the invisible God by visible creatures. „Take care and watch yourselves closely - since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire - so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol of yourselves, in the form of any figure - the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the like-ness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them. "(5. Moses 4, 15-19) And Jesus? Jesus follows Moses entirely. When he was resurrected from the death and met with his disciples few days after Easter, Thomas demanded to see the marks of the wounds which they had caused when they crucified Jesus on Good Friday. But Jesus reprimanded him: „Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe! " (John 20, 29b) Now, dear sisters and brothers, perhaps someone may ask: What has been changed when Jesus came into our world. Did not Apostle Paul once say that everything has become new with Jesus? That is true! Jesus Christ has made it possible, that all non-Jews in the whole world - we also indeed! - do participate in the covenant of God with Israel; that the love of God refers to us as well and that his faithfulness is promised to us as well. In other words: Jesus has made us brothers and sisters of the Jews. That is one more reason to study not only the New Testament carefully but the Hebrew Bible as well and to live accordingly. Only then after all it will not happen anymore that Christians sin against Jews. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil.4,7). Amen |