GCA Worship Bulletin 7/12/20

Worship July 12. 2020 German Church of Atlanta Greeting and Announcements

Psalm 73: Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.

3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.

10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.[c] 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

Gospel Reading Luke 5: 1-11 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Sermon Text: Ephesians 5: 8b-14 Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Sermon 7-12-2020 Grace be with you and Peace from God our Father and from our brother and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen Dear Congregation, In these past four years, and especially these past months we experience how the fear and the hatred between people of different races is being intentionally heightened … False Truths!

We experience how fear and violence are being used to justify the oppression of persons who belong to another religion…False Truths!

The deaths of innocent lives, men and women, violent deaths of many innocent people brings helpflessness, rage, fear and hatred…. False Truths!

What is the truth that needs to be brought to light?

What is the mandate that today’s text has for me? For us as a congregation?

We can start with the worldwide crises and then choose our radius increasingly smaller until we get to ourselves: our own life – with our family and friends, as citizens and as Christians.

And everywhere we discover much darkness: Hunger for power, recklessness, discrimination, abuse of responsibility and power, people are being bullied, judged or excluded as they are being gossiped about.

Young people are left hanging with their longing to have a future and a meaningful life, but currently unsure how their education or their professional journey can continue. adults have lost their jobs or their health and are worried how they can continue to provide for their families. Many don’t know currently where they belong and all are worried and nobody knows where “all of this” will lead to.

The sermon text today, even though it is about 2000 years old, can be really enlightening. We are hearing from the letter written to the congregation in Ephesus, chapter 5, verses 8b-14: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

"Live as children of light”, today we would say: “Be clear and unambiguous in your speech and in your actions.” And this seems a very basic, not complicated instruction for living. Similar to the instruction that Jesus gave in Matthew 5:37: “But let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these comes from the evil one.

I remember hearing stories that happened during the Second World War. Members of the Wittenberg peace movement went through challenging times being tested by the Nazi regime. Their Motto was: “Surprise them with clarity”.

Again and again the regime tried to turn members of the circle around Friedrich

Schorlemmer into informants for the system. They tried to bribe them, in interestingly they usually approached them at night in the “protection of darkness”. The response would be: “That is flattering that you have so much trust in me, I have to tell my wife about it.” After such an answer the attempts stopped to win the person “for the fruitless deeds of darkness". Today we don’t have the Stasi anymore. And yet this lesson can still be helpful to us…

“Find out what pleases the Lord”… We could put that on a sticker on many cell phones. Our text says: “It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do (and say) in secret.” Not only the deed, but also the passing on is destructive.

Gossip is a slowly poisoning force that can kill a church, a family and a society. Out of false truths and rumors come misunderstandings, out of misunderstandings grows hatred, and hate leads to war.

If we think about it: the first and fundamental that God did was to separate light from darkness. Already in the Old Testament light is a symbol for the godly sphere.

It means “life”. Darkness is a symbol for what brings death and for what interrupts the relationship between God and God’s creation. In darkness nothing can grow, neither plants nor animals. Even people who call themselves atheists know that every living being needs light. In the dark all life withers, which one can see looking at plants that grow inside the home. And lack of light is not only bad for our eyes.

"And everything that is illuminated becomes light” – wait a moment, is that really true? Aren’t there things that better nobody uncovers and brings to light, because they are so awful and disgusting that they better remain hidden forever?

Especially in today’s society and politics there are so many dark secrets and shady things that it turns one’s stomach when one looks closely at those.

But if we refuse to look, then honestly that would mean to agree to live a life in a grey zone. At least when it comes to one’s personal hidden depths. For our text is not about pointing fingers at “shameful” deeds of others, but it is about looking within. And it is surely rarely a happy or enlightening thing to look inside one’s self.

And this is why we try to avoid that as long as possible. Often we are afraid of conflict or we long to be loved by others – and so we engage in many lousy compromises.

This can be experienced even in our churches: One staff member is concerned about his professional future in the church. Those who are part of those committees that make decisions know that the position has long been prepared to be cut, but nobody dares to be honest with him. That would have been much more compassionate and would have given him time to look for something else.

Instead,in church and in other organizations we go on with a typical wishy-washy “we will not get clear, so we don’t have to take a stand – and so we cannot hurt anybody.” In the end the pain and destruction of relationships is much bigger than a clear word would have been.

“Everything that is illuminated becomes light” – yes, but only then when it is being taken out of the dark. And this process can be painful, but it changes the situation.

It is comparable with an operation. The intervention feels painful, but is necessary for the recovery. It is being done having the healing in mind.

The alternative to this painful process is death itself. That might sound radical, but maybe you know some examples of this in your family or among friends.

Somebody who burries something deep inside, a memory that he or she does not dare talk about based on shame, horror or feelings of guilt. These persons are changing, they lose their freedom and sometimes appear like dead. Only when they finally unpack everything, they are set free and can become whole again. And how this is with individuals, it also applies to a community. Where false and harmful things are hidden and not being talked about, the whole community is getting sick.

Unfortunately the church at large often lacks in clarity. “Church should stay away from politics” some people think. “I don’t like sermons that involve politics”.

“Staying away” is also a stance, and it is highly political. It is stabilizing, especially when a regime of injustice is in power.

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” And the "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

During the second world war not many who were active in church were joing the confessing church. Many did not see with enough clarity what was “the best for the city”, and many avoided to look more closely.

The Stuttgarter confession put it this way: "but we accuse ourselves for not standing to our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.” The Second World War is by far not the only time that the church has failed throughout history. We are pretty good in looking away.

And some “harmless” behaviors can still indicate some great injustices. For example, in 2014 America and Europe spent as much money feeding their house animals as would have been needed to eradicate hunger around the world – is this more neglect to come to the aid of others or is it theft?

How many freedoms can one culture take without provoking conflict with other communities? How much solidarity is necessary to be able to stabilize a social order internally? How much tolerance and respect does a person need in a culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse world?

When we see injustice on TV, we often feel helpless and overwhelmed. We become spectators who sit there touched and passive. “What can I do?” we ask ourselves “I cannot change anything. The impact I could make is too small.”

We can all become more courageous speaking up, or disagreeing when we see injustice. In the end we have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.

And to love more intensely we have received everything we need in that area from Jesus Christ. His whole life was a passionate fight against death. Not the natural experience of death, but against the suffocating force of oppression, of apathy, or lack of compassion.

Sometimes it hurts me when I see the eyes and body postures of people at the store, standing at busstops, or driving in their cars. They breathe, they function, but they look as if they are not truly alive. They give the impression as if they don’t live but that they are “being lived”.

And then I wonder, if real worship might be to give them a taste of how God is, right there where they are. The theologian Dorothee Soelle wrote: “Christ is like

fire. To look from far, it is glowing, as you come closer, you can warm yourself and receive comfort and if you come really close, you catch on fire.”

To cath on fire, to live in the light, to give our longing a direction, all of this we can do when we begin to talk freely about our hope in Jesus.

We can suffer with those who are suffering, we won’t leave or abandon them, but we augment their calls for justice.

We can talk in a manner that Christ is being missed, even by those in whose lives he has not even appeared yet, or who lost him out of their sight.

And therefore these words of the Apostle are meant for us as those confessing Jesus as the Christ and as those following him, and it includes also all who currently live in fear, who are „being lived“ and who experience the shadows of deaths around them: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Amen And may the light of God that is much brighter than all our understanding keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen

Intercessory Prayer Good Lord For us to go new ways with you, that is it.

To eject nets, where there are also fish.

Living with you, comforted and nourished.

Instead of all the fear of everyday life, the pressure, the “musts” and “should” and in the end, hunger.

Oh God, hear us: Nevertheless, I always stand by you;

For you hold me by my right hand.

For your church I ask you, God. Let's be on our way in your name to the people.

Awaken your church to be prophetic and speak the truth.

Let your Church all over the world bring light, uncover untruths and lies And serve all people.

Oh God, we ask you, hear us:

You lead me according to your advice and accept me with honor at the end.

We ask for decision-makers and mighty people, for wisdom and prudence.

We ask for protection for all people, for enough physical distance, and yet enough emotional closeness.

Our path is dark, over-the-top and confusing. Show me yourself, God, in the midst of chaos, again and again.

Listen to us: When I only have you, so I ask nothing for heaven and earth.

I ask you for children and adults on vacation. Moments of free time and light hearted moments, We ask for all the workers in the nursing and service professions.

Give strength, give courage, and make our society to support all of them and all the sick, all the unemployed, all the desperate and all the homeless. oh God, we ask you, hear us:

If my body and soul faint, you are, God, comfort and part of my heart all the time.

And for our restless hearts I ask you, God. Pressured for everything, thinking: "I will have to do more", or every "I didn't do anything".

Let us be with you, be in you, who is grace, is life, is breath, is happiness.

Pulse through us, breathe and work through all of us here as we are, and hear us: But this is my joy that I keep to God and put my confidence in God the Lord, that I proclaim all your doings.

We now pray together with the words that Jesus Christ taught us: 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 sins, as we forgive those who sinned against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen

Blessing: May our gracious God fill you with His love; May God send you His Spirit and His Light; May the Spirit make your ways bright, make clear your eyes, that they may see the way,

that God wants to lead you.

May God take you by the hand, guide, accompany and hold you, that you can also travel long distances and yet not stumble or fall to the ground.

May the Spirit of God give you His light and power, that you may know, that God wants your well-being and safety.

The creator did not create you, to destroy you, but God’s will is, that you live and be happy.

May God's blessing come upon you and stay with you today and for ever more.

Amen