06.09.2020 GCA Readings - English

Readings 9-06-2020 Word for the Week: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:2 Psalm 89 I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

The heavens praise your wonders, Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.

6 For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings?

7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.

8 Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

9 You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.

11 The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.

13 Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

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15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.

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The Gospel Matthew 3: 13-17 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

The Epistle Romans 12: 1-8 3

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

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HAVE DIFFERENT GIFTS Romans 12, 1-8 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God— this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Dear Congregation, At a time when the rich are ruling. At a time when the disadvantaged are receiving less and less support and are 5

becoming more and more vulnerable. At a time when lies are creating advantages and a class system of the "have" and the "have nots" is becoming more and more profound. In a pandemic where private schools are protecting children but public schools are forced to open. At a time when the advantage of the few is being played out on the backs of the suffering of the many, we hear Paul's words: "Change! Do not adapt to this world, but change your thinking! Learn what God’s will is and what it is not! " What does God want? In this time of race war? In this time of class war? At this time, when human life no longer counts more than a number on the TV screen. At this time when empathy or compassion is being abolished by our politicians.

Change! Do not adapt to this world, but change your thinking.

Recognize what God wants!

What does God want? For our church community, for our civil community, for our society? Here's a story:

„My name is Rico Doretti and I am a low gifted child. That means I can think a lot, but it takes a little longer than with other people. It is not my brain, as that is just the same size as everybody else’s. But sometimes some things slip and unfortunately I never know before when that will happen.

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Also I cannot concentrate very well when I am telling something. I usually lose the red line, the story line as they call it. With me the story line could be green or blue, and that is my problem. In my head things sometimes gets mixed up just as a bingo drum. That is why I can only walk straight ahead and don’t see much of the world around me. To make up for that, I love to look at the homes of other people.” This is how Rico, the main character in the Novel “Rico, Oskar and the deep shadows” („Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten“) introduces himself. Low gifted- this expression was created by Rico and his mother as they did not like the word „handicapped”. Rico is a happy and friendly child – just not as fast and good with words as most of the kids his age. Low gifted as we said. His school is a special school that is luckily not far from his house, so he only has to walk straight and turn one time. Rico is just able to do that by himself. His is by himself often, as he does not have friends and his mother works at nights and then sleeps all day.

Then one day he meets Oskar. Oskar is the opposite of Rico, he is highly gifted. And very good with words. He talks a lot and talks fast and knows nearly everything, like about the medieval times, the distance of the moon or the accident statistics of children in Germany. As there are about 40,000 children a year who have an accident and 25% of those are pedestrians, Oskar wears a helmet. And this all the time. Of 7

course that looks somewhat funny and people think that he is somewhat strange, just like Rico because he is so slow in his thinking and he likes to look at other people’s homes. Low gifted and highly gifted – Rico and Oskar- You can imagine what happens, dear congregation, the two of them become friends.

They are somewhat similar – as they are different from other people, and yet they are very different from each other as well. Rico looks at this difference and says: “I see the difference between us: I usually am in a good mood, but don’t know as much. Oskar knows all kinds of things, but is mood is often down. Maybe this is how it is when one is smart – with all the beautiful things you always remember some horrible things right away.”

That is pretty smart for a low gifted child, isn’t it? I have thought of these two and of the book “Rico, Oskar and the deep shadows” („Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten“) because Paul writes to the church in Rom about giftedness, as we just heard in the Epistle reading. Just as we have different members to our bodies that each have different functions, this is how we Christians together become one body with many members that contribute different gifts to our community, our Christian church.

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We are not different here in our German church. We also try to bring those things that we are good at – who can read in German offers that as a reader during worship. Who is able to bake well, brings cakes and cookies. Whoever is a good cook brings soups on many occasions. Whoever likes children helps our with Sunday school or Confirmand class. Who can take good pictures captures our special church moments on camera and who is good at organizing, plans church festivals and the Christmas market. Everybody tries to contribute something – and sometimes we discover dormant gifts that we did not even know about ourselves.

But what about the giftedness that cannot really used for the community right away? Giftedness that doesn’t seem to have a purpose for others? As for example Rico’s slowness, his low giftedness, as he calls it? Or Oskar’s high giftedness that allows him to know many things, but he also always lives with much fear and sorrow so that he lacks in joy and childlike cheerfulness?

One member is the other members complement – this means that only in being together, in complementing each other we become one body. So, it is not really about becoming especially impactful in my giftedness, but it is about becoming a community. Our particularities and giftedness are not always useful at first glance. However, that does not mean that they 9

are less valuable. Maybe some giftedness only becomes powerful in combination with others’ giftedness. That is what happens with Rico and Oskar. The slower Rico is able to solve a crime of kidnapping, because he stayed calm throughout.

And his friendship with Oskar gives him the courage to go for it. For his friend he dares to bike in all directions through the city, even though he usually only dares to walk straight and can’t remember left from right. And yet he is able to make it safely home. And this slow boy who does not get scared easily makes it possible for Oskar to feel safe with him so that he dares to take his helmet off. Every kind of giftedness, whether it be low or high and totally different even, whether it looks useful or not, is a gift of God and is valuable. Only with all those differences: those different traits and particularities do we become one body in Christ.

God says: Each and every one has abilities that are so valuable for the community that it is important to let them show.

The most important however is: God makes the first step. His unconditional love accepts us, just as we are. And then we open ourselves to this accepting God: „Here I am, God, you have made and accepted me, therefore I want to be available to you: Place me wherever you will need me!”

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Yes, and then we can be patient and allow to be placed, without comparing ourselves, exactly at the place that matches our gifts and personality.

Our congregation is a body in which each of us is equally important. We humans are the ones who make life at times difficult for each other when we think we have to constantly evaluate: That is better, more important or worse, or less important. Often we allow our gifts to go to waste, because we think that others will not accept them. We forget to remember God’s promises and instead fear people’s judgments. Any community, even a Christian community gets sick when we judge based on a deficit or “lack of” thinking.

People and human abilities, gifts, talents and graces – they always want to grow! And the best soil, is the soil of the unconditional acceptance and promise of God. God’s unconditional acceptance and compassion are what encourages people to grow into the sentence: „Here I am, God. Take me wherever I am needed to serve you!” The more people feel like this, the more growth will happen.

I have a dream of a community and society.... where nobody puts the gifts of another down, where nobody uses power over another and nobody wants to have the final say and where nobody is afraid that somebody else could do things better than oneself.

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I have a dream of a community and society….where everybody can find a place where they can grow their gifts, not to match certain church building concepts, but based on the joy that comes with God’s unconditional acceptance.

I have a dream of a community and society…. where everybody delights in the success of another, where we encourage each other and not deflate or judge each other.

Where every person is of equal importance and the whole as a community is more important than individual accomplishments or shortcomings.

I am so grateful to our compassionate and loving God, that this dream has become a reality in church communities and civil communities in the past over and over again. And I pray that this dream as the will of God will also become a reality in our society against the “Zeitgeist” that rules at this time.

And may the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding keep our hearts and mind in Christ Jesus, our brother and our redeemer. Amen

Jesus Christ, you are the foundation of life.

You are careful, you do not break the bent tube.

We ask you for all those who are in pain, all those who have to say goodbye and mourn.

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We ask you for those who have been bent and have no more strength.

Jesus Christ, you comfort, you heal, you save.

Comfort, heal, save your people.

Jesus Christ, you are the foundation of righteousness.

You carry the right into the world, you do not erase the glowing wick.

We ask you for all who serve justice. We ask you for all those who mediate between enemies and who bravely confront violent rulers.

Jesus Christ, you admonish, you reconcile, you free.

Remember, reconcile, free your people.

Jesus Christ, you are the foundation of our faith.

You awaken in us love and give us your Holy Spirit.

We ask you for your worldwide Church, for those who yearn for your Word.

We ask you for the disappointed and rejected.

Jesus Christ, you speak, you encourage you fill us with new life.

We pray: encourage and renew your people.

Jesus Christ, you are the ground of our life and the reason of the world, we trust you.

Hear our prayers.

Amen.

We pray together with the words Jesus taught us: Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be Your name Your kingdom come 13

Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our sin, just as we forgive those who sin against us.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory Forever and ever, Amen

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