Service June 28th 2020 German Church Atlanta
Welcome Psalm 103: 1-13 Praise the LORD, my soul, and what is in me, his holy name! 2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and do not forget what he has done you good: 3 who forgives all your sin and heals all your infirmities, 4 who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with grace and mercy, 5 who makes your mouth happy and you become young again like an eagle. 6 The LORD creates justice and peace to all those who suffer injustice. 7 He has made known his ways to Moses, the children of Israel his deeds. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, patient and of great kindness. 9 He will not fight forever nor remain angry forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins and does not reverberate us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, he shows his grace over those who fear him. 12 As far as the morning is from the evening, He removes our transgressions from us.
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13 As a father has mercy on children, so the LORD has mercy on those who fear him.
Song 1: Lobe den Herrn
Reading from the letters: 1. Timothy 1: 12-17 12 I thank our Lord Christ Jesus, who made me strong and considered me faithful, and put me into the ministry, 13 me, who used to be a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and a villain; but mercy has come to me, for I have done it ignorantly, in unbelief. 14 But the grace of our Lord, with the faith and the love, which is in Christ Jesus, has become richer. 15 This is certainly true and an expensive word: Christ Jesus came into the world to save the sinners, among whom I am the first. 16 But therefore mercy has come to me, that Christ Jesus should first show me all patience, as an example to those who should believe in him for eternal life. 17 But God, the eternal king, the imperishable and invisible, who alone is God, be glory and glory forever. Amen Reading from the Gospel of Luke: Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-31 But all the tax collectors and sinners came near him to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man accepts sinners, and eats with them. 3 And he said to them this parable, saying, One man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to the Father, Give me, Father, the inheritance which is mine. And he divided his belongings among them. 13 And not long after, the younger son gathered all things together, and went into a far country; and there he brought through his inheritance with prassen. 14 And when he had consumed all things, a great famine came upon 12
that land, and he began to dwell 15 and went and asked a citizen of that land to serve him. He sent him to his field to guard the swine. 16 And he desired to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs devoured; and no one gave them to him. 17 Then he went into himself and said, "How many day laborers does my father have, who have bread in abundance, and I perish here in hunger." 18 I will rise up and go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be your son; make me like one of your day laborers! 20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still far away, his father saw him, and he mourned, and he ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring the best garment quickly, and put it on him, and give him a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet 23 and bring the fattened calf, and kill it; let us eat and be happy! 24 For this my son was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to rejoice. 25 But the elder son was in the field. And when he came near to the house, he heard singing and dancing 26 and called to him one of the servants, and asked what it was. 27 And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf, because he has him back and healthy again." 28 And he was angry, and would not go in. Then his father went out and besought him. 29 But he answered and said to his father, "Behold, for so many years I have served you, and have never transgressed your commandment, and you have never given me a goat, that I should rejoice with my friends. 30 But now that this son has come, who has lost his possessions with harlots, you have slaughtered him the fattened calf. 31 And he said to him, "My son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But you should be joyful and of good cheer; for this your brother was dead, and has come to life again, he was lost, and is found again. 12
Song 2: Vater Deine Liebe
Sermon The word of God for this preaching is written in the book of the prophet Mica in chapter 7: Therefore, I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, Mica is introduced to us in the first chapter as a small, insignificant prophet prophesizing disaster while living in the countryside. Small, because no one wanted to listen to him. Insignificant, because his words faded like smoke, and people interrupted him whenever he spoke of God and of righteousness. Living in the countryside because he was living more safely isolated and perhaps was scared for his life. Mica's name means: “Who is like God?� Sometimes prophets like Mica are seen in our time. Prophets who have something to say about God about the problems of our society: to collective selfishness - terror, violence and war - to racism and systemic injustice and everything that is associated with it. Sometimes we want more prophets in our time. We can well imagine that such prophets would be isolated and lonely. They would be regarded by many as 12
crazy as they are desperately resisting the current of time. The normal recommendation for such prophets in our society today would be adaptation. "Go with the flow" “Schwimm mit der Stroemung!” Go with the times! Adapt! Haeng your faehnlein after the wind! Join us! Some of us may observe developments in our society with concern. Some may wish that everything would be very different. But - we still do not have many prophets. No, no one wants to be a prophet. And: no one can become a prophet by himself. Prophets are made and sent by God. Nevertheless, we are clearly realizing in our life today: we need prophets who speak the truth in God's name. And so, we want to listen to Mica. He, who worked about 2700 years ago, he is supposed to speak into our lives today. We are hearing Mica as a prophet of the 21st century: He said at the beginning, "But I will look to the Lord, and I hope for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." The Prophet clearly sets himself apart from the society in which he lives. He swims against the current. Against the “Zeitgeist” he sets himself: “but I”! Where things no longer go as he would like them to be, there he puts his trust in God. God will lift him up and prove himself to be the God of salvation. Such trust, dear sisters and brothers, costs strength. It is not easy to look at God when everyone is turning their gaze elsewhere. It's hard to put my hope in God, when no one is standing with me. I am isolated. Everything speaks against such trust. Mica brings about this act of strength. As a prophet, he says, "But I will look to the Lord." The frightening environment of the Prophet is described plaintively in the preceding verses: the pious people are gone in this land, and the righteous are no longer among the people. ... Their hands are busy to do evil. The ruler and the judge demand gifts. The powerful speak according to their own benefit. ... No one believes his friend anymore, no one is looking after his neighbor! Keep the words of your mouth from the one who slumbers in your arms. The son despises 12
the father, and the daughter opposes the mother ... and a man’s enemies are his own housemates. We can say and complain like this today. It is as if Mica has our society in mind. One wonders where the 2700 years have remained. 2700 years lie between Mica and us today. In an almost frightening way, Mica is up-to-date. Collective selfishness and greed for power, corruption and bribery, mistrust and hostility all the way down into families - all of this is exactly what concerns us in the 21st century. But what then has this to do with God's wrath or punishment? The Old Testament seems too far away with this language, this concept. Bear God's wrath? – That is nonsense! What does the present situation of our society have to do with God? It is difficult for us to speak of the punishment of God. The Old Testament keeps saying that God is simply allowing people to get lost into their sin. Punishment is therefore not regarded as a judgement from the outside. Punishment is not meant here as an active behavior of God, but as decay and a getting lost of us human beings to our own failure. Martin Luther speaks similarly about “being lost” as sin and as separation from God. “Being lost” also means a separation from other people and also ultimately from ourselves. Today's Sunday is all about that what has been lost. Have you ever lost something very important? Has something very valuable disappeared from your life? Each and every one of us could now probably tell a personal story of losing. From the worries and pain it means to have lost a memorabilia or a cuddly toy, a larger sum of money or important personal documents. Incomparably heavier than lost things, the loss of living things. "Run away" we say when a cat, dog or rabbit suddenly disappear. A desperate search in all sorts of places follows, self-reproach and self-accusation arise. How could this happen? Why was I so inattentive? What will happen without that what has been lost? The perspective of the lost one, although it is so important 12
for the seeker, often gets out of sight with all the fear and excitement that the loss and search trigger. Have you ever been lost? Do you remember the feeling of suddenly losing connection, of being left alone in unfamiliar surroundings? Countless people have suffered this fate while fleeing, in the horrors of the world wars of the 20th century or while fleeing threatened countries, including the children of parents who wanted to flee Mexico. One can also lose one’s homeland, or be foreign in a new culture. Lost can also mean that one gradually distances oneself from one's own roots, one's own religion or one’s lived spirituality. All this often triggers great anxiety in the lost, and also doubts or the feeling of being to blame for the situation, in which one has now fallen. Lostness can also be experienced differently. I think we are living in these weeks and months at a time when we as a society and as individuals are losing a lot. For example, the taken for granted Western American lifestyle. Or we have lost our carefree social behavior. Our economic safety. And the feeling of being physically safe. And then there are other possible losses: like the threatened loss of no longer living in a democracy, including freedom of the press and the basic principles of our legal system. We have already lost a government that takes science seriously and that works with numbers and statistics. We have lost politicians who see their mission of pursuing the common good of all people. We miss a government taking responsibility in a pandemic. The book Mica, which was written over a period of several hundred years, describes just as many losses. God had lost a part of his people at that time because people lost faith in him in times of exile and threat. But God also lost his people at that time through prosperity, power and false certainties‌
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Given these realities, it is surprising how the book of Micha begins and ends with the words: "Who is a God like you? Or: Where is such a God as you are?" " Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.� These are astonishing tones for an Old Testament prophetic book that throughout has been proclaiming disaster. Mica astonishingly begins writing something like a psalm, a prayer, a hymn of a saved man. No more threats to those who do not or do not yet profess to God. No recrimination, just grace. This is how the early theme of "grace or mercy" sounds in the Old Testament, which Martin Luther later made into the center of his theology. It is interesting that when Luther developed his theology of grace, Rabbi Moses Cordovero also lived in Israel, who devises an ethics of radical mercy under the title "The Palm Tree of Deborah". He described a mercy that cannot be "earned" by good deeds. Both theologians stated that God seeks His people, seeks the lost, among whom we also belong, in order to envelop them with His grace, which gives new beginnings and new life. God seeks us. Shouldn't we look for him, if he gets lost to us? A Jewish wisdom story may catch our eye: "Rabbi Baruch's grandson, the boy Jechiel, once played hide-and-seek with another boy. He hid well and waited for his companion to look for him. When he had waited a long time, he came out of hiding; but the other was nowhere to be seen. Now Jechiel realized that the other had not been looking for him from the beginning. He had to cry about it, walked into his grandfather's room crying and complained about his playmate. Then Rabbi Baruch's eyes were overflowing, and he said, "Thus God also says, I hide myself, but no one will seek me." Have you ever been found again? Whoever is found feels deeply relieved and happy. In any case, this certainly applies to everything that is alive. For the 12
hoarse kitten, which can be freed from the shed after days of searching charcoalraven-black. For the run-away rabbit, which the neighbor reaches over the garden fence. Maybe it even applies to the doll, which can be picked up a bit smudged from the lost and found office. All those who were lost are blessed to be taken into another’s arms, just as "the Prodigal's Son" is in the Gospel of Luke by his Father. This parable of losing and the joy of that what has been found is also called the "Story of the merciful Father". The two headings reflect the two perspectives mentioned, those of the lost and that of the one impacted by the loss. The son suffers from his decision, he regrets having left the house of the father having said goodbye. This is also a symbol of the freedom of the people of Israel to abandon God, as a large number of them have done in the course of history, not only in the Babylonian exile, but again and again. But God remained faithful to His people, sought and found them even in the most remote places, and proved to be merciful and kind. Jacob and Abraham are called by Mica as representatives of all the people to whom God keeps his faithfulness, as those he pursues and whom he seeks, to this day. Dear congregation, these words of Mica should also stand at the end of this sermon. The distressing situations in which Mica found himself and in which we too find ourselves today should not have the last words. The last word has God's mercy. In times like ours, when much is lost, we marvel anew at the undeserved love of our God. Mica is amazed. He has seen so much decay. He preached so much judgment. But his last word remains that of the love and affection of God. How good to know. We may come with all the broken pieces of our lives. We may look at the shattered pieces of our relationships. We may be surrounded by a sick society. We may experience a lot of injustice and lawlessness. We may experience today 12
what the Old Testament calls "God's punishment", as the collective decay and the loss of us human beings to our own failure. And yet, the last word is not wrath, not judgment, nor punishment. God ultimately says yes. He makes whole what has been broken. He makes healthy what was already dying. He gives life where only death was to be expected. In Jesus Christ, God has once and for all made known his eternal love and mercy for us human beings and for our creation. Dear sisters and brothers, dear friends, this is our hope. We hold on to these words against all evidences of decay and estrangement in our society and in our own lives. We have heard the voice of the Prophet. Mica still preaches today. Amen
Song 3: Wo ist solch ein Gott?
Intercessory Prayer Let us Pray together: Merciful God, The year is at its height. We pray to you, Creator of heaven and earth. We look back and pray: Transform into Blessing, which has become a threat and a burden in recent weeks. Give new life, where illness and hatred caused our breath to stop. Creator of Heaven and Earth, Go with your creatures this summer. The year is at its height. 12
We pray to you, Origin of life. We are looking for what what will come and pray: Protect those who set off for new things. Stay at the side of the weak and anxious. Origin of life, Go with your creatures into this summer. The year is at its height. We pray to you, Source of Justice. We remember John the Baptist and pray: Join your friends, when they raise their voices. Set our feet on the path of peace. God, Source of Justice and Peace, Go with your creatures into this summer. The year is at its height. We look back and look ahead of what is to come. You Lord of Time and Our Life, we trust you in the uncertainty of today and we ask you: let your Mercy have the last word through Jesus Christ, our Brother and Lord Amen. We pray together: Father Ours in Heaven 12
Be sanctified Your name Your kingdom is coming Your will be done as in heaven, so on earth. Give us our daily bread today And forgive us our guilt, just as we give up to our culprits and do not tempt us but let us know of the boesen For yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory In Eternity, Amen
Blessing Organ
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