Sunday, April 26, 2020 - German Church Atlanta

Gottesdienst 26. April 2020 German Church Atlanta

Greeting

Song

Dank sei dir

Psalm 118 The Lord is my strength and protector, for he has become my deliverer.

There’s exultation for deliverance in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord is victorious!

The right hand of the Lord is exalted!

The right hand of the Lord is victorious!”

I will not die, but I will live to recount the deeds of the Lord.

The Lord will discipline me severely, but he won’t hand me over to die.

Open for me the righteous gates so I may enter through them to give thanks to the Lord.

This is the Lord’s gate— The righteous will enter through it.

I will praise you because you have answered me and have become my deliverer.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is from the Lord— it is awesome in our sight.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it.

Epistle

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11

Now I’m making known to you, brothers, the gospel that I proclaimed to you, which you accepted, on which you have taken your stand, and by which you are also 1

being saved if you hold firmly to the message I proclaimed to you—unless, of course, your faith was worthless.

For I passed on to you the most important points that I received: The Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures—and is still alive!— and he was seen by Cephas, and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Next he was seen by James, then by all the apostles, and finally he was seen by me, as though I were born abnormally late.

For I am the least of the apostles and not even fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted God’s church. But by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace shown to me was not wasted. Instead, I worked harder than all the others—not I, of course, but God’s grace that was with me. So, whether it was I or the others, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Song

Gospel

Er lebt, fuer allezeit

Luke 24:13-35

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter 2

his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Apostles‘ Creed I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Children’s Devotion

Sermon

Song

Jesus, höchster name

Intercessory Prayer You, our good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Are we like the lost sheep?

We long to know the way.

You know the way.

We are praying together: Show us the way.

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Show the way To those who reign over us, Who make decisions on our behalf, Some who might want our wellbeing or others who walk astray.

We are praying together: Show us the way.

You, our good Shepherd, are you looking for us?

Lead us on the right way.

Have mercy.

You, our good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

We are captured in our sorrows.

You are seeing the fears of this world.

See all the people who do not see a way out those who are refugees, those in camps those in the midst of wars.

We are praying together: Show us the way.

See all those people, who do not have a home where they can find shelter.

And see all those For whom their place of shelter Is becoming dangerous.

You, good Shephers, are you seeking them?

Be at their side and carry them on your shoulders.

We are praying together: Show us the way.

Have mercy on us, you, our good Shepherd.

Do you see out faith?

Do you notice our hope?

Our neighbors who celebrate the Ramadan.

Us who are in the time after Easter.

Our siblings far away, our worldwide community, your church.

We do trust you, 4

for you are with us.

When we are with you, We shall not want.

We are praying together: Show us the way.

Are you comforting us?

Prepare a table before us and remain with us.

Have mercy on us, Today and all days to come. Amen We are praying together the prayer that Jesus has taught us: The Lord’s Prayer Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen Blessing

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Sermon

The Emmaus Walk

Dear Congregation, I don’t know where you are – but sometimes this is too fast for me, especially in our days: Easter arriving so quickly. These three days between Good Friday and Easter, from Jesus dying to him being resurrected. I cannot follow as quickly. I get stuck and the darkness is still much closer to me than the bright light.

The News of the past months. The horror images of the intensive care units, the many deaths. Those can take our hope away. And then yet also the warm spring sun, children who can’t stand anymore being inside the house and who start riding their bikes on the empty streets– we don’t quite know how to catch up physically and emotionally.

Easter – yes, that would be nice, and yet we have Good Friday on our hearts and in our bones daily!

Those two disciples in our story might have felt similarly. They are on their way – filled with grief and still in shock. The news told by Mary that the tomb was empty filled them with fear and confusion rather than with hope: “Hopefully nobody stole the body of Jesus.”

Also, everything that happened on Good Friday was still too close. Just as we are, the disciples are on their way hopeless and filled with sadness.

And the Easter message – they don’t know what to do with it. They are Easter “blind” and have all reason to be that way.

They tell the stranger who does not seem to know about the horror what happened, may be even with eyes filled with tears. Everything is destroyed. They lost their hope.

All the while they had expected and hoped so much from this Jesus. All their hopes have been destroyed. Jesus was dead- their disappointment could not be bigger. They just want to get away, run from Jerusalem as the place of terror.

I think each one of us knows those moments in our own life: When it is getting dark all around us. Our hopes don’t come through repeatedly. Maybe we trusted one specific person with our life – and now this person is gone. Or we had such high goals and ideals setting out- and now in our daily life, so much of that has just drowned.

We are disappointed by our politicians. Disappointed in the decisions they make.

How they put money and power over the wellbeing of people. Is it hopeless – all the attempts to protect the vulnerable? Aren’t there over and over innocent civilians who are being sacrificed and crucified in the craziness of fighting for power, status, maintenance of a comfortable lifestyle and economic gain? Sometimes the images in 6

the media make us feel overwhelmed and hopeless. It looks like all hope to find responsibility, protection of the vulnerable and sound minds in our political leaders has ceased.

Yes, maybe we feel in these days and weeks just like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus: Abandoned, doubtful. Even Jesus felt let down by God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he screams hanging at the cross.

“God is dead” is a slogan that Dorothee Soelle and other theologians in Germany came up with in the 60s, which screams this disappointment into the sky.

Yes, this is how the two disciples might have felt” “God is dead”, “Jesus is dead”.

This man of God who they revered, who healed and who preached God with authority so that God could be seen and felt in him; this man, for whom they had given up everything, whom they had followed: He is dead.

Talking about, screaming loud that God is dead is not a bad thing to do. For: when I talk about it this way, I then still remember that our world does not find its meaning within itself, but that our world receives its meaning from outside of herself. I am also being reminded that all my attempts to pull myself out of the quicksand are in the end not enough. At its core the sentence “God is dead” is a call for the God who does not look away nor abandons, but who can be a real hope for our life. It is a disappointed, a hidden call for a human empathic God, who comes towards us, who frees us from ourselves wherever we are frozen in fear and disappointment.

And exactly this, the call for God and being listened to in their despair, this is the experience that the two disciples were able to have. Suddenly, unexpected and not even hoped for: Their disappointment is not being ignored, but there is this stranger who joins them, and listens to their grief.

The painful disappointment is not being reversed; however, they suddenly no longer experience themselves as those abandoned, but as those accompanied. No longer do they feel left behind to fend for themselves, but they feel taken seriously and accepted in their loss and grief.

Yes, they are sad and the path they are on is the walk of disappointment. Yet then they experience how in the evening, gathered at the table, their eyes are being opened.

During a familiar, everyday custom, while breaking the bread, they suddenly realize: “We were already no longer alone when we were walking filled with sadness and fear.” And their call “Jesus, why have you forsaken us?” had been heard, even before they called out loud.

For he, the third person, the stranger “went in to stay with them”. Jesus saw the two on their journey when their eyes were still blinded from recognizing him. He 7

accompanied them, when they had no idea who he was. And gently he walked with them and finally their eyes were opened.

The faith born on Easter- that is the slowly dawning, the gradually revealing experience that He is with us. It is a happening that we cannot make or produce, but Easter faith happens within us.

If this is true, how then can we experience Easter very concretely in the midst of our daily life?

Sometimes for example when we watch the News, we hear and see how others are suffering and experience injustice: At that moment even if we are many thousands of miles apart, solidarity happens: emotionally and spiritually we are on the journey of disappointment and heartache together.

Or, if scientists and politicians from different countries and continents work together, exchange knowledge and resources, then we feel encouraged that destruction and death won't have the last word.

Or when I am walking by myself on a path of utter disappointment and I have suddenly somebody who walks with me, who calls me and takes time and listens.

When through the encounter I suddenly can see things differently, when I gain a new perspective, and recognize the bigger context of my life and find new meaning.

Then Easter is near.

Sometimes I am even able as the disciples to turn around and walk back with new courage. When for example many people declare the church as dead and meaningless, yet I experience a spiritual community that supports me: I am walking with others in Jesus name, we share our sorrows, we celebrate and experience joy and sadness with each other. Then I feel something like Easter joy. I feel that there is hope for the church and that God has not forsaken us.

And the Easter message, that is the message of God saying: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

Back then the fleeing and disappointed disciples could hear this only in retrospect.

Only through the words of the stranger who explained to them the scriptures and interpreted them. “Were not our hearts burning?” they later recognized, and they remembered: We asked him: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So, he went in to stay with them.

He responded to their longing to not be alone, especially now that it was getting dark.

First, they do not recognize Jesus, yet suddenly in midst of a daily occurrence, “the 8

breaking of the bread” he reveals himself to them. Suddenly their eyes are opened: “Jesus is with us.” Eastern happens within them.

And so, Easter- is not the promise that we will never be disappointed.

Easter- is also not the loud moral protest against human suffering- which we often cause or create ourselves.

Easter- this is definitely not the new great law, or the scolding finger, that points the disciples towards finishing all the tasks that God has not finished.

Easter is also not just the call to work hard on rejoicing. Easter is not merely the call to serve others or the call to think positive.

No, Easter is something different than a call “to cheer up” and be optimistic against all odds and against reality.

Easter, that is a liberating experience.

Easter joy happens. And this not because of our great faith, but because God is acting on our behalf. Easter, this is an encounter with God, it is an “eye opening experience”.

Very gently our eyes are being opened for a new perspective on the things around us, as well as our lives themselves. We might experience how after weeks of tears and sadness we have a sudden smile on our face. We remember. We feel comforted.

Somehow held. We are not alone.

Easter- that is not something we can produce. No Easter bunny, no children’s laughter, no beautiful arrangement of flowers alone can help us have such a liberating Easter experience.

Yet here in this story we witness how two desperate, tired, grieving and disappointed people are encountered by this joy of Easter. And the Good News that Jesus embodied and lived is that there is nobody whom God does not want to accompany and walk alongside.

There is nobody with whom Jesus would not break the bread, no home that Jesus would not enter, and no person who Jesus would not talk with in healing ways.

Whenever we ask God to stay with us as the darkness is near around us or within us, then we can know that he will not walk pass by us, but that he will enter into our homes.

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This story of the disciples on their way to Emmaus is one of my favorite biblical stories. It reminds me that this story is our story, fully and completely our human story.

Where do I find myself? Am I running away in disappointment from my Jerusalem?

Am I in need of somebody who can listen to me? Are my eyes held from seeing and believing, or are they gently being opened? Do I dare to ask: “Stay with me, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” Do I experience a community that holds and encourages me? Am I on my way back to where I had been fleeing from – but this time not alone?

Let us pray that God in Jesus will follow us as he followed the two disciples, and that he meets us and talks to us, just as we need to be talked to today. Amen And the peace of God that is higher than our understanding may keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ, our brother and our hope. Amen

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