Latest / Europe Calling Podcast / #265 Political Night Prayer: “Resistance – How Churches Stand Up to Authoritarianism.” (English)

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#265 Political Night Prayer: “Resistance – How Churches Stand Up to Authoritarianism.” (English) · Europe Calling Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Very warm welcome to all of you here this evening at Holy Cross Church.
0:05
Speaker 1: It's wonderful to have you with us, it is almost four degrees Celsius outside!
0:12
Speaker 1: Wonderful... ...to see you and an equally warm welcome everyone joining online whether your watching on your laptop or phone Whether you
0:22
Speaker 0: are alone at
0:23
Speaker 1: home or gathered with others.
0:26
Speaker 1: And if you would like Please introduce yourselves in the chat by telling us where you are joining from.
0:33
Speaker 1: The chat is at the very bottom and there's more information on that chat.
0:52
Speaker 1: If you like, you can briefly introduce yourself now In the Zoom meeting, feel free to write in the chat where you are joining us from.
1:03
Speaker 1: And if you want a translation... ...you can switch between German and English at the Zoom meetings….
1:12
Speaker 1: …and find the insurductions for that on the chat.
1:28
Speaker 1: My colleague Pastor Ljubardietz and myself, Pastor Christina Birre.
1:33
Speaker 1: And our guest Bishop Barber from the US and pastor Josephine Purian.
1:39
Speaker 1: Then Jakub Zawicki at The Piano and many others working behind-the-scenes with cameras sound engineering etc.
1:50
Speaker 1: thank you for that.
1:53
Speaker 1: And to make it possible to share this service with people in many places, It is being live-streamed and recorded which you could see at the entrance.
2:04
Speaker 1: I hope all agree on that.
2:09
Speaker 1: So we are one large congregation In many places tonight.
2:14
Speaker 1: Five or six hundred digital participants Everyone here in church.
2:20
Speaker 1: We're connected by prayer through music and through God's Word, it is a joy that all of you are here.
2:29
Speaker 1: We're connected by many places – in this church and other places we celebrate together.
2:43
Speaker 1: And we're celebrating the service with the name of God—the source for our life —in Jesus' name the ground of our hope and in name, of the Holy Spirit who moves us.
3:07
Speaker 1: This evening we have gathered to reflect together on what it means... ...to be The Church In Our Time.
3:18
Speaker 1: And when we speak about authoritarianism We're referring To more than individual political positions.
3:28
Speaker 1: Speak of a way of thinking that sees diversity as the threat concentrates power dismisses dissent and Gradually shifts.
3:38
Speaker 1: The boundaries or what is considered acceptable often at the expense of minorities And At the expense, of the democratic freedoms that belong to all of us?
3:53
Speaker 1: even in these uncertain times many people want help against that.
4:02
Speaker 1: And one thing is clear, it's important to strengthen social justice and while speaking out clearly and publicly whenever authoritarian ideas gain ground churches are called to serve on both of these fronts through a diaconical ministry alongside courageous public witness.
4:25
Speaker 1: but is that enough?
4:29
Speaker 0: Do
4:29
Speaker 1: we really know clearly what kind of society you want to live in together?
4:34
Speaker 1: And do we know, well as Christians We are called to protect and our democracy.
4:44
Speaker 1: Our churches... As the church courageous enough to resist authoritarianism I already mentioned that we have two guests with us tonight So were going talk about these questions with them.
5:06
Speaker 1: So we have international experience and the German experience tonight, And The question will be asked together What does it mean to resist authoritarianism?
5:22
Speaker 1: To start when We look at this Question It's good to Look At God.
5:31
Speaker 1: Let's Pray Living God, we gather here this evening in Your name.
5:40
Speaker 1: From You We come and to You one day we shall return.
5:45
Speaker 1: You accompany us in life!
5:48
Speaker 1: Tonight become just as we are with our bodies... Our spirit, our soul.
6:00
Speaker 1: And we come carrying all that weighs on us To you the heat.
6:08
Speaker 1: Many of us are suffering in this heat, and many of us worried that because of climate crisis it is only going to get worse And many of was troubled by political climates Far-right movements gaining strength and authoritarian movement.
6:35
Speaker 1: And we are here thinking of the people suffering from the earthquake in Venezuela.
6:47
Speaker 1: This is how we're also with our love for life, with our tenderness and vulnerability.
7:01
Speaker 1: We bless us so we can open our hearts within us and for our neighbors.
7:12
Speaker 1: Bless all listening, our reflection in our conversation singing this evening.
7:17
Speaker 1: Amen!
7:21
Speaker 1: Son of justice shine upon.
7:23
Speaker 1: now time let's sing the song together.
9:13
Speaker 1: So next we will hear the sermon which will be given by Bishop Dr William Barber.
10:36
Speaker 1: He is professor and director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, also important.
10:46
Speaker 1: he's a civil rights activist who has served in leadership within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
11:00
Speaker 1: initiated a new campaign, Poor People's Campaign nationwide for poor people and confronting poverty and racism.
11:11
Speaker 1: He did this also inspired by Martin Luther King who had also started the Poor People´s Campaign.
11:21
Speaker 1: Bishop This is a live, God's service as you can see.
11:49
Speaker 1: And Della Owens-Barber will pray for us.
12:10
Speaker 1: Pray with me O gracious Father in the heart of thanksgiving.
12:19
Speaker 1: we give You praise to the only wise God, our Savior.
12:28
Speaker 1: We repent of our sins and times when we have been silent on the face of injustice and
12:35
Speaker 1: oppression.".
12:55
Speaker 1: the gospel message of hope and not
12:59
Speaker 0: to shed
13:00
Speaker 1: innocent blood.
13:03
Speaker 1: Guide our feet through the plundering waves of trials, grief by keeping us steady anchored in your love In these times like the prophets and apostles so old empower us speak with clarity The certain sound that we and the world might be heroes and doers of your word.
13:34
Speaker 1: Use
13:35
Speaker 0: our lips
13:36
Speaker 1: to speak life, give us courage with unwavering faith to believe in power of Your Holy Spirit working through us as Your vessels And may Our lives glorify You As We Extend Grace and mercy as we have freely received from you.
14:03
Speaker 1: In the majestic holy name of Christ, We pray
14:09
Speaker 1: Amen.".
14:53
Speaker 0: To all who have gathered in this place both personally in person via social media This is truly Pentecost for we are hearing The Spirit in different sexualities, but we are here in Christ.
15:18
Speaker 0: I am so honored to be here at the local pastor for opening up this grand sanctuary and its tremendous history of serving the liable who has been so kind and gracious as you have indeed sown seeds to my wife, the Reverend Dr.
15:45
Speaker 0: Della Owens-Barber and lifting our prayers in our daughter Jamila who is here with us in Germany into Ashley Judd a dear friend of humanitarian who joined today.
16:00
Speaker 0: And would all other pastors or ministers?
16:03
Speaker 0: we have pastors and ministers from From the United States that are here at The Bonhoeffer House doing study.
16:10
Speaker 0: Would you all just stand?
16:11
Speaker 0: We might see you and acknowledge your work in service.
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Speaker 0: Any other pastors, any other pastors?
16:18
Speaker 0: We so thank God for You!
16:21
Speaker 0: Amen Today...in preaching I was sharing with the Bishop of The World Council of Churches some weeks ago from two passages of Scripture one Jeremiah twenty-two And the other Luke chapter four, verse eighteen and nineteen.
16:47
Speaker 0: Both of them are preaching where God instructed First Jeremiah to go literally down to The King's palace... ...and declare a certain word for the
17:05
Speaker 0: nation.".
17:07
Speaker 0: Then Jesus after thirty years of preparation in his inaugural sermon Talks about the spirit of the Lord being upon me.
17:20
Speaker 0: He begins to lift up.
17:21
Speaker 0: if you would what should be the moral and ethical focus?
17:27
Speaker 0: Professor Hans, too To this ministry today In a place I've never been in yet my Spirit feels like I have been here before.
17:39
Speaker 0: i want to Lift Up.
17:42
Speaker 0: will You Will we Be a witness?
17:49
Speaker 0: come with Me Come with me this evening to the year six oh nine BC before The Common Era.
18:04
Speaker 0: I want you take a hard long look at Jerusalem.
18:10
Speaker 0: in that moment King Jehoakam is sitting on a fragile puppet throne.
18:20
Speaker 0: fear Is being weaponized in the streets.
18:27
Speaker 0: The daily news is filled with rumors of war, economic anxiety and social unrest.
18:42
Speaker 0: And what does the leader of the nation do?
18:48
Speaker 0: In the middle a major national crisis instead of strengthening the social safety nets Instead of protecting the vulnerable, instead of feeding the hungry Jehovah comes decides to build a massive monument To his own ego.
19:22
Speaker 0: listen to the text in Jeremiah chapter twenty two Verses thirteen through fourteen after Jeremiah has shared what God shared about what the nation really should be doing.
19:35
Speaker 0: Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and he is upper rooms by injustice.
19:45
Speaker 0: Who makes his neighbor serve Him for nothing And does not give him His wages?
19:52
Speaker 0: Who says I will build myself a great House with spacious upper room?
20:01
Speaker 0: who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilium.
20:10
Speaker 0: The leader instead of caring for the least of these decides to build a mega house for himself.
20:22
Speaker 0: And in that place the prophet is called to speak... ...and the Hebrew text begins with a devastating exclamation.
20:34
Speaker 0: The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah does not say, excuse me.
20:44
Speaker 0: It doesn't offer a polite critique.
20:47
Speaker 0: Literally the Prophet is told by God to say to the King Whoa!
20:58
Speaker 0: Now in English that's how we translate but In original Hebrew language Hoy or Ho.
21:07
Speaker 0: H-O-Y Is NOT A polite warning It's not an email.
21:16
Speaker 0: Not a cute text message, it is not politically correct language!
21:36
Speaker 0: It was the sound when you were
21:38
Speaker 1: weeping
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Speaker 0: over dead corpse before even buried.
21:46
Speaker 0: Whoa, whoa!
21:58
Speaker 0: He is declaring that the king's empire is already dead in the eyes of the Almighty God.
22:07
Speaker 0: He's announcing a funeral cry for a living tyrant because he saying when you have power but use it to lift up your own ego instead of caring for the poor and at least these are immigrants you have engaged in the politics of death and not the politics life.
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Speaker 0: In fact, The Prophet is literally describing these policies moral policy as policy violence a kind of moral and spiritual death sentence for nation when our nation chooses or leaders choose to build themselves And not use power to care.
22:54
Speaker 0: Long before the physical walls of the palace crumble, a society that tolerates systemic cruelty is already dying.
23:09
Speaker 0: It's dying from inside
23:13
Speaker 0: out.".
23:15
Speaker 0: So I stopped by this evening to say what was true twenty-six hundred years ago... ...is still true today.
23:26
Speaker 0: God is still calling his church, like he called Jeremiah to go down the palace in public.
23:36
Speaker 0: In a public pulpit and say to power holders of the world if you want be in line with God care for the fatherless?
23:49
Speaker 0: Care for the poor?
23:51
Speaker 0: Care For The Immigrant?
23:56
Speaker 0: commands the protection of the foreigner, the orphaned and the widowed.
24:01
Speaker 0: These are three categories people who had no legal standing.
24:07
Speaker 0: The only way they got taken care of it is somebody decided to use their power because there was no legal standings or economic safety nets No political lobbying powers.
24:19
Speaker 0: They have no money for politicians.
24:22
Speaker 0: They don't have access.
24:24
Speaker 0: but God said that the well-being of every nation, whether it be Germany or America or any other nation depends on how we care for the foreigner, for the orphan and for the widow.
24:48
Speaker 0: But autocrats then and now always build their palaces by robbing workers—by robbing these very people.
24:59
Speaker 0: They cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy while cutting health care and education, wages to poor.
25:06
Speaker 0: And we face a crisis of authoritarianism in our world
25:11
Speaker 0: today.".
25:13
Speaker 0: As Pope Francis said before he left us... We have just witnessed the world's first trillionaire and masses of
25:31
Speaker 1: people
25:31
Speaker 0: who have no place in this world.
25:36
Speaker 0: In the United States, a hundred-and-forty million people more than forty percent our total population are poor at low income.
25:44
Speaker 0: They can work all week At minimum wage jobs still not be able to afford basic apartment.
25:51
Speaker 0: they could have two jobs instead sleeping their car.
25:55
Speaker 0: Many have to choose between buying medicine and buying a meal.
25:59
Speaker 0: And in the midst of that pain, we have political leaders who blame immigrants, blame gay people... ...and point their finger at someone else while they use the tools of government.. ..to destroy the social safety net….
26:17
Speaker 0: …and enrich their
26:18
Speaker 0: friends.".
26:20
Speaker 0: We've seen these figures rise to the highest offices in the land and my home country, but they are not alone.
26:26
Speaker 0: This is a global crisis And the same forces that have undermined democracy In my own country or at work even here in Europe.
26:39
Speaker 0: But the tragedy of our moment it's not just that their autocrats are seeking acting like autocrat.
26:46
Speaker 0: The tragedy is there sometimes.
26:48
Speaker 0: the church Is too often acting like their chambermaids.
26:55
Speaker 0: We've allowed a counterfeit right-wing neofascist religion to steal the vocabulary of our faith.
27:05
Speaker 0: and there is religious nationalism that tries to call itself Christian, I can't bring myself even say those two words together, Christian nationalism...I cannot find a biblical basis for doing it!
27:17
Speaker 0: They try do but doesn't line up with
27:21
Speaker 1: one single
27:22
Speaker 0: thing Jesus of Nazareth Or the prophet's ever taught lived or modeled.
27:31
Speaker 0: it is a kind of bewitching Of The Faith.
27:35
Speaker 0: It Is A Kind Of White Watered, White Washed Faith.
27:40
Speaker 0: It Bows At The Altar Of Abstract Weaponized Values That Are Used To Lock Out The Immigrant And Crush The Poor and Strip People Of Their Basic Human Rights.
27:52
Speaker 0: Sadly This Faith Is One Of America's Largest Exports Traces all the way back to slave religion and a religion that undergirded segregation That even Hitler said he learned from which is why I have come to learn From your history here, and to listen to the warnings from your church leaders about what happens When Christianity gets used to prop up an authoritarian regime.
28:28
Speaker 0: I've learned from your own history that when the Nazis rose to power here in Germany, In the nineteen thirties.
28:34
Speaker 0: The mainstream church surrendered its moral authority To third right.
28:38
Speaker 0: the German Christian movement tried to fuse the cross and the swastika And my friend Susanna Heschel daughter of a great prophet Heschell who walked with Dr King has documented.
28:54
Speaker 0: German scholars made sophisticated theological arguments for an Aryan Jesus, and preachers proclaimed this distorted vision from their pulpit.
29:06
Speaker 0: Many of them tried to remove the Jewishness of Jesus to align there faith with the lies that were being used to prop up the pseudo-populism.
29:19
Speaker 0: And yes, the confessing church objected to how doctrine was distorted.
29:24
Speaker 0: They drafted the Berman-Barman Declaration to reject The German Christian's theological errors.
29:31
Speaker 0: but even... ...the Confessing Church did too little to challenge attacks on their Jewish neighbors.
29:38
Speaker 0: at first they stayed silent sometimes while people were kidnapped from their homes and deported to killing centers.
29:49
Speaker 0: And it's a sad and troubling history, but Germany is not alone.
29:55
Speaker 0: Even before I come from a nation where the best theological libraries... The best ones at Yale and Harvard in other places still hold books From the seventeenth eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that explained why God made people who looked like me to be owned by other people.
30:25
Speaker 0: By so-called brilliant mind, they argued that slavery was good news for the enslaved and in some instances They even took Bibles And took charcoal and marked out of this Bible all Of the scriptures.
30:44
Speaker 0: more than two thousand of them That talk about justice and liberation and created what they called a slave bible.
30:51
Speaker 0: The left in it only the references say things like Slaves obey your master.
30:59
Speaker 0: truth is where I come from.
31:01
Speaker 0: even our churches that didn't affirm slavery did little to challenge it.
31:05
Speaker 0: Frederick Douglass in the nineteenth century critiqued thousands of divines who taught pure doctrine From their poor pits on Sunday, but did nothing The rest of the week to challenge a system.
31:18
Speaker 0: That held other people in change.
31:21
Speaker 0: We know what?
31:23
Speaker 0: It means for the church to fail to offer moral critique.
31:29
Speaker 0: We have been, as Dr.
31:31
Speaker 0: Martin Luther King said too often a taillight following the culture rather than ahead like shining the way forward to different future.
31:43
Speaker 0: but if I might say in my church tradition oh bless his name God always has witness.
31:52
Speaker 0: When we tell the truth about the failure of our churches, We learn to see how God always raises up a witness where least expect them.
32:03
Speaker 0: In nineteen forty-three right here in Berlin some six hundred women led only recorded public protests against the Nazis.
32:17
Speaker 0: For years German had watched as anyone accused even a friendliness to the Jewish neighbor was jailed.
32:23
Speaker 0: And on February of nineteen forty three, they the SS and the Gestapo made one final push around up there remaining eight thousand Jews in Berlin.
32:32
Speaker 0: about two-thousand of them Jewish men married.
32:35
Speaker 0: Christian women were taken into building across from the oldest synagogue in this city.
32:47
Speaker 0: moved by spirit determined to refuse to be silent like Jeremiah went down They went to the street and mice.
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Speaker 0: they didn't even ask for permission.
33:01
Speaker 0: They stood in the freezing cold And demanded give us our husbands back.
33:08
Speaker 0: when The SS pointed machine guns at them, they scattered but they came right back.
33:17
Speaker 0: Elsa Hosler later said we acted from the heart.
33:25
Speaker 0: We learned we wanted to show that we were not willing to let our husband go.
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Speaker 0: O bless his name, God always has a
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Speaker 0: witness.".
33:37
Speaker 0: The Lord gave them courage to refuse to cooperate with evil.
33:41
Speaker 0: and sometimes we must ask what if the whole world... What If the whole church had followed these women?
33:49
Speaker 0: And We've seen that same love move black and white people, Jewish and Christian in the United States to stand up against racism.
33:58
Speaker 0: When Black people who were denied voting rights in Selma, Alabama challenged that systemic violence they were attacked by an authoritarian regime.
34:09
Speaker 0: this is not new but it did not run away.
34:13
Speaker 0: when Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot more people came.
34:18
Speaker 0: When James Reeve a White Minister Unitarian beaten to death on the streets of Selma.
34:25
Speaker 0: People came and marched all the way from The State Capitol to Montgomery, they did not shrink back.
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Speaker 0: no God raised up a remnant even among those who were being crushed To offer moral resistance in the public square And church.
34:49
Speaker 0: we cannot counter the organized machinery of global policy violence with mere charity today.
34:58
Speaker 0: We cannot just run soup kitchens while accepting economic policies that starve the poor.
35:05
Speaker 0: Charity is necessary, social work is necessary but charity alone and social work alone can not fix structural injustice.
35:16
Speaker 0: God needs a witness.
35:24
Speaker 0: We must do what Jesus did even in Luke chapter four verse eighteen.
35:28
Speaker 0: He stood up, Jesus the one we honor and this place, Jesus.
35:31
Speaker 0: he stood up.
35:33
Speaker 0: a military dictatorship an announced counter policy agendas.
35:38
Speaker 0: look at it sometimes.
35:40
Speaker 0: first sermon not second third fourth fifth sixth sermon of jesus but his first public outpouring.
35:49
Speaker 0: he says The Spirit Of The Lord It's upon me to preach good news, and the word Good News Evangelical in that text means to proclaim a joyful revolutionary transformation of reality.
36:03
Speaker 0: it is an imperial proclamation That A new king has arrived To overturn The decrees Of Caesar.
36:10
Speaker 0: Not a King of Violence But a King Non-Violence And Love.
36:14
Speaker 0: Notice what he said.
36:15
Speaker 0: He said, I've been sent to proclaim liberty to the captives and captive.
36:20
Speaker 0: in that particular text The Greek word achamalatos literally means people who have made prisoners of war those caught In the geopolitical machinery Of empire Those were being held hostage by toxic systems And made To be refugees.
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Speaker 0: Jesus says i'd come to release them to declare healing, the word there is a feces.
36:49
Speaker 0: The physical release of those captives and their absolute structural cancellation of monetary debts have come to
36:57
Speaker 0: reliefs.".
36:57
Speaker 0: And then one word he uses in that text says I've come to bring sight to the blind...the word there means recovery of vision!
37:06
Speaker 0: not just physical sight, but a recovery of vision.
37:10
Speaker 0: A shattering of the delusions of imperial propaganda so that people can finally see things as they truly
37:19
Speaker 0: are.".
37:21
Speaker 0: Then he says I've come to set at liberty those who are bruised and the Greek word for bruise there means those being completely broken crushed shattered ground down under the heavy boot of systemic cruelty.
37:36
Speaker 0: I've come, says Jesus to bring them liberty for Jesus says my coming is to announce a global Jubilee.
37:46
Speaker 0: therefore an own-duty church in this moment must also organize a global coalition around concrete uncompromising counter-public policy agenda, global economic equality.
38:03
Speaker 0: We must demand an end to the policy violence that lets corporate kings build their houses on unpaid labor.
38:11
Speaker 0: we must demand living wages and robust labor protection and fair compensation for every worker wherever they are.
38:23
Speaker 0: We must defend democracy, we must fight tooth and nail against voter suppression.
38:28
Speaker 0: And gerrymandering on the criminalization of dissent from Selma to Berlin The radical protection of the vulnerable bus be our agenda?
38:36
Speaker 0: We must demand universal health care in climate justice an absolute sanctuary for all people that immigrant the refugee they gave a straight.
38:48
Speaker 0: To sustain this nonviolent fight This movement of love We need what Jurgen Moltmann, born in these lands called a radical liberating hope.
39:03
Speaker 0: But church you must understand that when we quote Moltmann as I come to my conclusion... ...we're quoting him on resistance!
39:13
Speaker 0: We are not quoting cheap academic theory just like when we wrote Bonhoeffer were not talking about cheap craze.
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Speaker 0: Moltmann's theology was baptized and the deep fires of personal catastrophe and immense suffering.
39:31
Speaker 0: Remember with me that as a nineteen-year old German soldier, Moltmann was drafted into the horror of World War II.
39:39
Speaker 0: He watched his home city of Hamburg get obliterated by Allied firestorms.
39:44
Speaker 0: he stood next to his closest friend who was shattered and killed by a bomb while Moltmann walked away untouched.
39:51
Speaker 0: he spent years behind the barbed wire completely broken, carrying the collective crushing guilt and shame of what his nation had done to the world under the Nazi regime.
40:07
Speaker 0: Multman entered that camp without hope.
40:12
Speaker 0: He entered it feeling abandoned by God.
40:17
Speaker 0: he entered it destroyed destroyed by sadness And destroyed by his role in history.
40:29
Speaker 0: But it was in those dark shadows, sitting in the mud of a prison camp that Montmont said I met The Crucified Christ.
40:44
Speaker 0: He realized God Was not distant judge Shearing on the empires Of the world and God was Not some deeply masculine mean figure.
40:58
Speaker 0: They loved to beat folk down.
41:00
Speaker 0: God was right there In That Prison Camp with him.
41:04
Speaker 0: God was right there weeping over the brokenness of humanity.
41:10
Speaker 0: And Jurgen Moltmann wrote out on that experience his theology of hope.
41:14
Speaker 0: and when I read it, It touched me all way across the Atlantic where I went to seminary and tried understand how my own faith in concert with others who make up the church could be a transforming witness.
41:27
Speaker 0: In, into a world were structural.
41:30
Speaker 0: sin crushes so many people!
41:32
Speaker 0: I was struggling...I was a church boy or preacher's kid but i was struggling And I've never forgotten Moteman's insight that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's ultimate cosmic know.
41:53
Speaker 0: No to death, no to suffering.
41:58
Speaker 0: No to tyranny!
42:01
Speaker 0: No to meanness.
42:04
Speaker 0: Christ gets up out of the grave after being crushed by all those things and God is saying NO!
42:12
Speaker 0: Moteman wrote his theology because he knew that The only way to survive the darkness of the truth-of-the present Is to pull the light of God's future into the here and now, my brothers and sisters.
42:25
Speaker 0: We in the church must know history is not finished.
42:30
Speaker 0: God has not finished even with all of this stuff we see going on.
42:36
Speaker 0: god Is Not Finished?
42:38
Speaker 0: God is not finish With Us!
42:41
Speaker 0: Motman wrote.
42:42
Speaker 0: This Resistance Is The Protest Of Those Who Hope And Hope Is The Feast Of People Who Resist is a deep, constant agitating prophetic imagination that looks at the dictators and the autocrats and says to them with clarity courage.
43:07
Speaker 0: And commitment you do not have than final
43:11
Speaker 1: word.
43:12
Speaker 1: maybe if Christ had
43:14
Speaker 0: not got up out of the grave You would have defined or work.
43:17
Speaker 0: but because of the gospel we declare The ground you are standing on belongs to God.
43:28
Speaker 0: The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, God is not finished.
43:34
Speaker 0: when the threat of state violence makes the struggle feel overwhelming to you and I When the rising tides of authoritarianism make You think that darkness is willing?
43:45
Speaker 0: Remember the Word Of God!
43:48
Speaker 0: When He got up And said
43:50
Speaker 1: i'll be with you
43:50
Speaker 0: always and all power Is in my hand.
43:55
Speaker 0: Remember that God is not through with us.
43:58
Speaker 0: God has not threw at this world, God does not throw it history.
44:03
Speaker 0: History's unfolding still and the great question Is will we join?
44:09
Speaker 0: The ministry of truth And love and a witness Of god in the very midst This unfolding first.
44:18
Speaker 0: John chapter five verse four says It like this for everyone born of God overcomes And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
44:32
Speaker 0: John reminds us that our endurance, our resistance and our refusal to bow through the empire of men are not a losing battle.
44:44
Speaker 0: Our Faith when expressed as conspicuous witness.
44:50
Speaker 0: an agitating public pulpit has already conquered the forces of tyranny.
44:57
Speaker 0: This is why I go back tomorrow and we've established a public pulpit right outside of The White House in Washington, DC where every Monday night industry right doing rush hour preachers mall activists nonviolent people who refuse to be silent coming together with those women like those here in Berlin in the farthest saying give us our husbands back.
45:24
Speaker 0: We are witnessing like Jeremiah.
45:26
Speaker 0: We are preaching right at the house of the palace And we believe it needs to happen all across the world, and so my friends let us dismantle the altars of religious nationalism because Let us reject the cheap comfort of choreographed holiness and truly love God, in God's justice.
46:03
Speaker 0: because we are called to be witnesses.
46:06
Speaker 0: And let us take our message out at quiet pews into screaming streets Like in Jeremiah and Jesus day, we need to build the public pulpit our witness of love And truth and non-violence rooted in God's vision of redemption.
46:25
Speaker 0: And Jubilee is what?
46:27
Speaker 0: The world needs now.
46:29
Speaker 0: let us Be a witness.
46:32
Speaker 0: Let us organize the counter agenda.
46:34
Speaker 0: Let us be a witness.
46:36
Speaker 0: We must stand as a conspicuous witness.
46:39
Speaker 0: why?
46:40
Speaker 0: until the poor caused by oppression, have good news and palaces of just injustice are brought low.
46:48
Speaker 0: Let us be a witness until the captors are set
46:53
Speaker 0: free.".
46:54
Speaker 0: Let us being witnessed until
46:56
Speaker 1: they're hungry
46:57
Speaker 0: or filled with good things.
46:59
Speaker 0: Let's be a witnesses until
47:01
Speaker 1: justice
47:02
Speaker 0: of God rose down like waters in the righteousness I come mighty streamed chattel slavery, when my ancestors of African descent
47:18
Speaker 1: were beaten
47:19
Speaker 0: and sold and legally classified as property.
47:24
Speaker 0: Madam pastor they didn't have steeples They did not have tiles in palaces.
47:34
Speaker 0: They do not have the backing of the empire's laws.
47:38
Speaker 0: The slave holders tried to use a distorted gospel To keep them in chains.
47:44
Speaker 0: But My Ancestors down in the secret brush harbors, In the woods.
47:53
Speaker 0: What we call The Hush Harbors and the dead of the night even after they had worked enslaved all day They would have church...they Would come together!
48:06
Speaker 0: They would meet the real Christ.
48:10
Speaker 0: And out Of that stolen Brutalized labor They gave birth to a sacred melody.
48:20
Speaker 0: They began to sing a song that defied the policy violence of slavery.
48:28
Speaker 0: they begin to sing A song, That set
48:30
Speaker 1: them free
48:31
Speaker 0: before the Emancipation Proclamation
48:34
Speaker 1: and Before
48:35
Speaker 0: The end Of the silver wall.
48:37
Speaker 0: What is it?
48:38
Speaker 0: That they sang?
48:40
Speaker 0: They Sing.
48:40
Speaker 0: I'll Be a witness for my love.
48:45
Speaker 0: i'll be a witness For My Lord.
48:48
Speaker 0: my Love Is a Witness For my love.
48:52
Speaker 0: standing for justice is a witness.
48:55
Speaker 0: For my Lord, will you be a?
48:57
Speaker 0: Witness from our love.
48:59
Speaker 0: You know what it means to be a witness in the face of an empire and a world that said they were nobody.
49:06
Speaker 0: A World has said they would ever never beat anybody.
49:09
Speaker 0: That song declared that there was more than just somebody.
49:14
Speaker 0: They were the official witnesses Of The ruler of the universe.
49:20
Speaker 0: It was a political and spiritual subversion to the empire.
49:25
Speaker 0: If God is the ultimate judge, And you are God's witnesses then Pharaohs court has no final jurisdiction over your soul.
49:34
Speaker 0: As long as poverty and systemic construct that create poverty exists I think The church needs To sing what my four parents sang saying I'll be a witness to love justice mercy.
49:50
Speaker 0: We cannot remain silent while the machinery of greed grounds down human dignity.
49:55
Speaker 0: As long as children are starving, as long as workers are being robbed up their wages... ...as long as boarders have been treated like cages for refugees The church must say something!
50:09
Speaker 0: The Church must mean
50:11
Speaker 0: something!!
50:11
Speaker 0: The Church should minister love and a radical liberating hope.
50:16
Speaker 0: we can not Go off duty.
50:19
Speaker 0: Yes, I'll be a witness.
50:24
Speaker 0: the world will challenge us.
50:25
Speaker 0: yes The autocrats were threatening us?
50:28
Speaker 0: Yeah some of them did me even about coming over here.
50:32
Speaker 0: The systems would try to quiet you but i came to tell You that the more challenges we face the More witness We must produce.
50:43
Speaker 0: When they stepped up their oppression We Must step Up our nonviolent Witness.
50:49
Speaker 0: When there is an increase in public violence, There must be an increase In public resistance.
50:56
Speaker 0: More challenge?
50:58
Speaker 0: more witness!
50:59
Speaker 0: More
51:00
Speaker 0: darkness?!
51:01
Speaker 0: More light!
51:03
Speaker 0: More tyranny!
51:04
Speaker 0: More
51:05
Speaker 1: truth!
51:06
Speaker 1: More hatred!
51:07
Speaker 0: More love!
51:09
Speaker 0: So I want to say that all of us tonight Will you be a witness.
51:13
Speaker 0: our LOVE MUST BE A WITNESS.
51:15
Speaker 0: Our HOPE MUST Be a witness.
51:17
Speaker 0: OUR TRUTH Our protest must be a witness, our policy counter agenda.
51:23
Speaker 0: Must be a witnesses for my Lord!
51:25
Speaker 0: I feel it in my bone that the great cloud of witnesses before us is looking down on us.
51:36
Speaker 0: Bonhoeffer's looking down upon us.
51:39
Speaker 0: King is looking Dorothy Day is looking down on us.
51:43
Speaker 0: Jeremiah Is Looking Down On Us.
51:45
Speaker 0: Those Ladies In Berlin Are Looking Down.
51:49
Speaker 0: And The Question Echoing Through This Sanctuary, and through the world itself It's Will You Be A Witness?
51:57
Speaker 0: For My Lord I Pray That The Church Says No Matter What No Matter what Yes!
52:08
Speaker 0: Yes!
52:09
Speaker 0: Hallelujah.
52:10
Speaker 0: yes i'll be
52:12
Speaker 1: a witness.
53:44
Speaker 1: Thank you for the sermon, for the encouragement.
53:49
Speaker 1: For these touching inspiring words.
53:55
Speaker 1: God is not done with us Not done this world And what You said shows just how important our inner guidance system.
54:11
Speaker 1: Let us repeat the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffner, written in nineteen forty three.
54:20
Speaker 1: He wrote these affirmations of faith and they can still offer as good guidance today like to speak them together.
54:27
Speaker 1: And let's get up at stand for this.
54:35
Speaker 1: I believe that God can't and will bring good out of everything, even out the greatest evil.
54:44
Speaker 1: For that purpose God needs people who allow all things to serve for
54:49
Speaker 1: good.".
54:50
Speaker 1: I believe.
54:52
Speaker 1: in every time of distress, God wants us as much strength to resist what we need but God does not give it an advance so that we may rely on ourselves and God alone.
55:08
Speaker 1: In such faith all fear of the future should be overcome.
55:12
Speaker 1: I believe that even our mistakes and failures are not in vain, for sincere prayers and responsible actions, and responds to them.
55:44
Speaker 1: Amen The kingdom of God is peace & justice.
55:56
Speaker 1: Let us sing together.
55:58
Speaker 1: let's be open for it.
56:01
Speaker 1: This a song from Tizy the Kingdom Of God Is Justice And Peace.
56:29
Speaker 0: Thank
56:42
Speaker 1: you for coming, Josephine Furian.
59:00
Speaker 1: Pastor Furian we invited you to flight chest and understand this sermon better against the German context.
59:15
Speaker 1: so You work very closely with the bases and issues of justice.
59:21
Speaker 1: You're a chaplain for asylum seekers, refugees.
59:26
Speaker 1: That's maybe important to know about you.
59:29
Speaker 1: So may be my first question what?
59:39
Speaker 1: That was very inspiring in terms of liberation and theology with a very foundational system, criticism.
59:56
Speaker 1: When systemic cruelty is tolerated by the church then the Church will die from inside.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: that's what I heard And everyone who's here doesn't want to be part of an economic system that destroys us, but we all also maintain and help carry the economic system.
1:00:19
Speaker 1: And second point is the criticism from those churches who are a part against transsexual people and hate foreigners, but also criticism of those churches who are really unvocal.
1:00:41
Speaker 1: And don't speak up in...don't criticize the ruling classes, and I also urge the call to action.
1:00:54
Speaker 1: The Call To Arms To Give Up Hopelessness And Don't Give Up Our Future.
1:01:00
Speaker 1: Not Don't give up the society we live in.
1:01:05
Speaker 1: Thank you.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: Yes, I really heard it as an empowerment also for this house.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: we do a lot with refugees and poverty.
1:01:19
Speaker 1: so how does the authoritarian shift in public discourse in your area refugee and asylum.
1:01:33
Speaker 1: In terms of migration policy, but also in other areas I think we're witnessing is a rollback to the nineties.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: It started with many smaller aspects to pay the way, but for instance a payment card or refugees.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: And now that's been enforced two weeks ago.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: But just because it is enforced doesn't mean its really something thats correct and legalised and forced.
1:02:11
Speaker 1: there is a center for external borders with forty spaces, for refugees and their children.
1:02:18
Speaker 1: And they can be kept up to six just because they are looking for protection and apply for asylum from a country that has a recognition quota, acceptance quota of less than twenty percent.
1:02:34
Speaker 1: The playground in the centre is no larger.
1:02:38
Speaker 1: then that platform up there.
1:02:41
Speaker 1: to call it that I think is camouflaging actual facts.
1:02:48
Speaker 1: we should call by its name.
1:02:50
Speaker 1: de facto this is imprisonment This is detainment.
1:02:54
Speaker 1: And we are called to name evil when we see it, that's our spiritual task and what you're working on.
1:03:07
Speaker 1: so go there and accompany these people in the prison-detainment centre.
1:03:18
Speaker 1: What would you tell us?
1:03:21
Speaker 1: We have a little discussion after the service, we're running a bit late but maybe will be able to talk about some issues.
1:03:31
Speaker 1: Have a discussion with everyone also.
1:03:37
Speaker 1: what can do as Christians and ordinary people ideas on that.
1:03:48
Speaker 1: Well, how can we live resistance and maintain a resistance?
1:03:54
Speaker 1: I mean there are so many Points that were in the sermon, I mean... ...I think mentioned a few.
1:04:03
Speaker 1: You've heard many more.
1:04:04
Speaker 1: It's very important to be rooted in the joy of being alive on this unique planet and the more you go into joy….
1:04:12
Speaker 1: …the more also you're able to go into pain where that planet is threatened.
1:04:19
Speaker 1: And my second point, Clara Bolting reminds us that we should not admire the Barra on pyramids, but just learn the perspective of those who built them and were not astounded by water.
1:04:44
Speaker 1: the system, but we are following in the footsteps of a political prisoner who was murdered by The Imperium.
1:04:51
Speaker 1: So again and again other communities and congregations wrote the Bible texts – they did that together!
1:04:59
Speaker 1: And again and state of affairs, through the eyes of refugees and slaves.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: So we were foreigners – we were slaves!
1:05:16
Speaker 1: And that's why That's how we can structure society.
1:05:23
Speaker 1: And my third point, so how come we shift that public discourse back from this authoritarian drift?
1:05:32
Speaker 1: Many with many little steps and in our congregations We will have polarizing discourses and we can repeat out This position an hour desire for a life indignity that poor people have as well.
1:05:48
Speaker 1: Refugees have us.
1:05:48
Speaker 1: while I brought you this It could be different together for protection and solidarity.
1:05:57
Speaker 1: More than seventy-two organizations, associations have signed it.
1:06:01
Speaker 1: also the Protestant Church in Germany assigned it.
1:06:04
Speaker 1: so this is a very major association and alliance of such civil society organizations working for human dignity, and refugees.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: So it shows what a broad movement we are even when sometimes that looks like were being marginalised.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: And well in church now.
1:06:25
Speaker 1: so In terms as the institution if Church-Church can give more protection When individuals are attacked We need the church denodes and the church councils to stand against that.
1:06:41
Speaker 1: And I think it's time... ...to move away from pragmatism, two principles.
1:06:49
Speaker 1: Asylum rights and hospitality – these are the oldest laws….
1:06:54
Speaker 1: …and they're essential for our faith and for our
1:06:57
Speaker 1: institution.".
1:07:00
Speaker 1: Thank you very much Josephine Forion for those ideas!
1:07:34
Speaker 1: So, let us now pray with and for one another.
1:08:18
Speaker 1: Please I would like to invite you to stand so after each part.
1:08:25
Speaker 1: when we say we pray You are invited to make it your own prayer by singing the Tzé refrain which just sung The kingdom of God is justice in peace God's source of life.
1:08:41
Speaker 1: We thank you for the community You give us.
1:08:46
Speaker 1: Tonight, You have given it to us!
1:08:51
Speaker 1: Here we are together as Your Church in this world.
1:08:57
Speaker 1: Strengthen us through This Community and help Us To Be There For One Another.
1:09:05
Speaker 1: Help Us To seek one another, to carry one another's burdens.
1:09:12
Speaker 1: And...to respect One other value one another.
1:09:18
Speaker 1: We pray
1:09:48
Speaker 0: Churches throughout the world give us courage to resist Whenever authoritarianism gains ground and injustice is done.
1:10:04
Speaker 0: Keep us from remaining silent or giving in out of fear when people are humiliated, or diminished.
1:10:16
Speaker 0: Give us clear words and the strength to act so that we may stand up for the dignity of every person.
1:10:30
Speaker 0: The kingdom of God is justice.
1:11:04
Speaker 1: Heilige Geistkraft!
1:11:06
Speaker 1: Erfülle uns mit deiner Liebe Holy Spirit, fill us with Your love.
1:11:14
Speaker 1: Open your hearts to all people.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: Help us see and protect our image in every human being.
1:11:21
Speaker 1: Root as in Your Love so that we may share it through Our words and actions.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: We pray Now, in a moment of silence we place this evening and all that is in our hearts into your hands.
1:12:25
Speaker 1: Everything that hasn't been said everything can not be said.
1:12:28
Speaker 1: We will put on the Lord's prayer.
1:12:33
Speaker 1: Our daily bread
1:12:36
Speaker 0: gives us today and forgives our sins, as we
1:12:41
Speaker 1: also forgive those
1:12:47
Speaker 0: who sin.
1:12:47
Speaker 0: And
1:12:50
Speaker 1: you do not seek us in temptation but dissolve us into evil because yours is the rich and the
1:13:06
Speaker 0: powerful
1:13:08
Speaker 1: and the glory in eternity.
1:13:33
Speaker 1: Amen.
1:13:34
Speaker 1: So I have three announcements to make.
1:13:36
Speaker 1: the first one about our collection tonight.
1:13:45
Speaker 1: So we would like to ask you to support two important ministries, one half that were going to collect during the next song.
1:13:55
Speaker 1: We'll go to Spirit and Soul Creating Spaces for Living Christian Spirituality Loving Free and Engaged Just Like This Political Night Prayer.
1:14:05
Speaker 1: And The Other Half Will Support the Inclusion Ministry of the Protestant Congregation at Halish's Tour Serving affected by discrimination.
1:14:17
Speaker 1: For example, people experiencing racism or queer people and people threatened with deportation.
1:14:28
Speaker 1: And if you are joining us online You can donate using the link The QR code Or by bank transfer.
1:14:40
Speaker 1: Then the next announcement.
1:14:47
Speaker 1: The collect for the land church at the exit, which will be for Christian scouts and a Protestant schoolbook.
1:14:58
Speaker 1: After this service we'll have very short break to refresh yourself.
1:15:05
Speaker 1: if you need leave then of course but if can join us or would like About thirty minutes of discussion here.
1:15:19
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming.
1:15:21
Speaker 1: thank You, for your attention or praying with us singing With Us and it is good that we're walking this path together.
1:15:31
Speaker 1: And if you joining online then please feel free to leave Your feedback in the chat.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you.
1:15:38
Speaker 1: Now we sing the song of good will, wonderfully bent.
1:15:53
Speaker 1: The three verses and chorus will be sung after every verse once.
1:18:13
Speaker 1: Go into the world as strengthened and blessed.
1:20:12
Speaker 1: And if you'd like to stand for this blessing, please... May God bless you and keep you!
1:20:27
Speaker 1: May God give a wide heart that you may feel what is happening around you!
1:20:37
Speaker 1: to stand up for human dignity and justice.
1:20:43
Speaker 1: May God give you love, a love that is greater than fear!
1:20:50
Speaker 1: And so may God bless you.
1:20:53
Speaker 1: the ground that sustains you, strength that lifts your heart.
1:22:08
Speaker 1: Nice!
1:22:42
Speaker 1: We are ready.
1:23:56
Speaker 1: Wonderful, we're ready now.
1:23:59
Speaker 1: I would like to welcome you to this holster conversation and um...I'd like to warn you right from the start that we will be closing at twenty-hundred hours a day at eight o'clock p.m.
1:24:15
Speaker 1: So please economize on the time.
1:24:20
Speaker 1: In Zoom, I think we have already collected a few questions and they've been voted and liked and Christina will be reading a question And if it works well The Bishop will receive English translation of this question.
1:24:41
Speaker 1: Does anyone need English interpretation?
1:24:44
Speaker 1: or the interpretation from in English into German?
1:24:49
Speaker 1: Okay, well if that's not the case then we won't interpret it but on Zoom you will be able to recap.
1:24:59
Speaker 1: Martin Bernauer raises a follow-on question.
1:25:04
Speaker 1: Well... authoritarian people in our times are no longer kings or queens.
1:25:14
Speaker 1: They're citizens, quite honestly.
1:25:19
Speaker 1: so what can we do to reach out the hearts of those citizens who Concentrated on their ways of thinking like the king of Israel in The Old Times.
1:25:50
Speaker 0: Thank you for your question.
1:25:52
Speaker 0: Well, right?
1:25:55
Speaker 0: In a sense that they are citizens and not kings per se.
1:26:01
Speaker 0: But those who get elected want to act like Kings And many of them, once they utilize democratic processes to obtain office then become authoritarians and decide that want destroy those very democratic process.
1:26:27
Speaker 0: That's what we're seeing in America.
1:26:30
Speaker 0: One thing the scriptures teach us today is There always has to be a public witness willing to challenge authoritarianism.
1:26:47
Speaker 0: Whether it's the king, a president, a prime minister... ...a city council person or governor Or whether there is some movement like a MAGA Movement or any other kind of movement that what we can't do based on Scripture Is fold?
1:27:08
Speaker 0: It's spout run or be quiet.
1:27:13
Speaker 0: One of the great things that I've learned studying your history in Germany this week are those parts of the history where people wish they had spoken up sooner and stronger, more clearly.
1:27:31
Speaker 0: The second thing however is if citizens utilize democratic processes to get into power And then utilize that power in very authoritarian and sometimes neo-fascist ways, uh...that hurt the very people that governments should be caring for.
1:27:57
Speaker 0: Then that means church can't walk away from democratic processes.
1:28:03
Speaker 0: In my country The civil rights movement was deeply spiritual but also deeply political and did not see the two as separate.
1:28:14
Speaker 0: And so, the fight for voting rights was seen as a fight of human dignity because to suppress someone's right to vote is in essence suppressing their humanity.
1:28:27
Speaker 0: Lastly one of the great teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures Is that The Word For Vote.
1:28:42
Speaker 0: So, if someone has utilized democratic process to get elected and then acts in undemocratic ways we have to be involved both protecting the right to vote and utilizing it.
1:29:03
Speaker 0: In my country ninety million people didn't vote on their last election The current Congress.
1:29:09
Speaker 0: that is only because of seven thousand votes.
1:29:14
Speaker 0: The current president we have was only because two million votes when ninety-million people didn't vote, part of what you have to do it's say to be if you deeply stand against the theories and thoughts or actions of authoritarianism then you must engage in power with a vote and a democracy.
1:29:44
Speaker 0: It's hard, you can never take time off.
1:29:48
Speaker 0: You must engage that vote.
1:29:51
Speaker 1: Thank-you for your answer.
1:29:53
Speaker 1: As the advocate of this question I would like to ask again The question was also directing people voting
1:30:08
Speaker 0: for these
1:30:09
Speaker 1: authoritarian people to get into power.
1:30:14
Speaker 1: So, and I think the problem we are facing is what how can
1:30:18
Speaker 0: we
1:30:19
Speaker 1: deal with people actually using their democratic rights?
1:30:24
Speaker 1: And they're voting for these...I mean it's not just happening It's by
1:30:32
Speaker 0: purpose.
1:30:33
Speaker 1: you know They want use democracy To Get Into Power.
1:30:42
Speaker 1: So I think this was also behind the question.
1:30:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe a short second... Go ahead!
1:30:48
Speaker 0: I have something to say today but i'll come back You?
1:31:01
Speaker 1: Maybe if you look at the personal level The radical factualism Now we don't have a mic and the emotional contact.
1:31:16
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, we have a microphone that comes in goes.
1:31:21
Speaker 1: I think That should be one of The main competencies Of the church.
1:31:27
Speaker 1: Yes unfortunately the microphone does not work very well.
1:31:32
Speaker 1: Let's try another one.
1:31:34
Speaker 1: So it is combination of factual thoughts and emotional approach or contact.
1:31:48
Speaker 0: That's exactly right, one of the things that The church has to do is what it's been called to Do?
1:31:56
Speaker 0: And that's a preach.
1:31:57
Speaker 0: and to teach to educate to form To lift up a vision of non-violence in love injustice as a movement and not just as a moment.
1:32:09
Speaker 0: One of the reasons The text I chose from Jeremiah is that Jeremiah wasn't just preaching to the palace or the powers in office.
1:32:21
Speaker 0: He was preaching for people, he was out with them and challenging and attempting to restore vision of the people.
1:32:31
Speaker 0: when Jesus did his initial sermon it's a public pulpit he was preaching in Nazareth where the authoritarians had ultimately destroyed this city.
1:32:42
Speaker 0: In fact, so bad that they said nothing good could come out of Nazareth and That's when Jesus went.
1:32:50
Speaker 0: So likewise a church has to go where people are.
1:32:54
Speaker 0: in my country When millions of people are cut from healthcare For no reason at all but just greed We have to go among them not only show compassion But to show them how this has happened and the power that they have To stop it from happening.
1:33:16
Speaker 0: when we have a hundred forty million people who are poor in low wealth of every race creed color Millions of people who make less than a living wage Then part of the work of The church.
1:33:33
Speaker 0: Go among them.
1:33:35
Speaker 0: if We look throughout the Bible the prophets were always sent among the herding and The remnant, the hurting people Were used by God to become the transformation of society.
1:33:52
Speaker 0: One of the great scriptures Psalm one eighteen says.
1:33:56
Speaker 0: The stone that the builders rejected Have now become the cornerstone.
1:34:03
Speaker 0: So the rejected people of the world Hold the power to become the cornerstone of a new reality.
1:34:12
Speaker 0: what?
1:34:12
Speaker 0: The church has to make sure she does Is not abandoned to be To now allow the authoritarians to be among them and the Church is not there.
1:34:25
Speaker 0: And we have to lift up constantly the vision of God both in the sanctuary but also in public portraits, and then personal spaces where the people are.
1:34:40
Speaker 0: That's for calling of the prophets, that is to call in Jesus and I believe it as a church because if we're not preaching good news to the poor then last but not least interesting word in Scripture is patokos which means those who have been made poor.
1:35:02
Speaker 0: think about this.
1:35:03
Speaker 0: Jesus said my primary mission is to preach good news, not at the poor.
1:35:10
Speaker 0: Not just on behalf of the poor but preaching good news too the poor To be embodied.
1:35:17
Speaker 0: You know Jesus became embodied On the back side of reality Not in a palace But in a barn In a manger Raised in Nazareth So that church can never give up its love authority, it's mercy authority and grace authority to be among the people.
1:35:39
Speaker 0: Among the people so that those who are feeling a pain of authoritarianism know what they can do to challenge them.
1:35:50
Speaker 0: but lastly we also have to challenge the authoritarianist because we preach.
1:35:58
Speaker 0: in challenged policies We never destroy people.
1:36:03
Speaker 0: We have to believe that there's a possibility for the redemption and repentance even of our enemy, whether they change or not.
1:36:11
Speaker 0: That is unique part who we are called as God's people on
1:36:16
Speaker 0: earth.".
1:36:22
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for this reply.
1:36:24
Speaker 1: I would like add onto question in your sermon.
1:36:32
Speaker 1: It is not surprising that authoritarian people will react or act as authoritarians.
1:36:42
Speaker 1: But where's the church?
1:36:44
Speaker 1: Why is there a Church at service of such authoritarian?
1:36:48
Speaker 1: Will you be witness for our Lord, stand up to our Lord whichever expression we may wish to choose but I think try to stand by what we believe in and also believe a clear message that must show some effect.
1:37:13
Speaker 1: That is probably the job of The Church.
1:37:21
Speaker 1: Now we also had questions in the chat and We would like to see whether someone of you around here has a question to use Athena or to the bishop, or is someone else?
1:37:41
Speaker 1: Thank You.
1:37:42
Speaker 1: I think it's good fit with the topic we just had.
1:37:47
Speaker 1: so in contrast to the US We in Germany have politicians fighting for democracy and who are rooted in democracy.
1:37:57
Speaker 1: I think that's a little bit different, so in all democratic parties... ...I used to be a member of the Bundestag or the Federal Parliament.
1:38:05
Speaker 1: they do fight for justice.
1:38:07
Speaker 1: So thats something i see very clearly That perception of reality split And very different people believe, are convinced that they fight for justice.
1:38:19
Speaker 1: They really believe it and we say... We have to fight the weaker people.
1:38:25
Speaker 1: but some people believe its older people who are weaker.
1:38:29
Speaker 1: other people need, it's younger.
1:38:32
Speaker 1: Some believe we need more social policy and for others to think that we need better economic policies.
1:38:40
Speaker 1: so nobody loses their jobs in the remote.
1:38:43
Speaker 1: There is more employment... So I think because of social media there has been this split perception.
1:38:50
Speaker 1: but how can you bridge that gap?
1:38:52
Speaker 1: How do they understand each other?
1:38:59
Speaker 1: between Democrats, so that Democrats don't fight with each other.
1:39:02
Speaker 1: Don't fight each other?
1:39:05
Speaker 0: Well it's interesting because I will tell you in our country the Democrats fight each others too and yes we have politicians who have various perceptions.
1:39:20
Speaker 0: You know even at a place like Germany where i was reading about today twenty percent of people live in poverty a lot of his hidden poverty.
1:39:30
Speaker 0: One of the gifts though, that the church has to give to society and I'm not saying everybody have to be Christian but one of the gift is we have some pretty clear frameworks on what justice.
1:39:43
Speaker 0: it's not just justice kind generally.
1:39:47
Speaker 0: you know Jeremiah said specifically your kingdom will be judged by how you treat the fatherless for orphan and the widow, that's pretty clear.
1:39:58
Speaker 0: So one of things you can do is when The Church steps into the public arena it asks this question
1:40:06
Speaker 1: how are
1:40:07
Speaker 0: immigrants faring?
1:40:08
Speaker 0: How other children faring?
1:40:10
Speaker 0: ?How are women or poor?
1:40:13
Speaker 0: Jesus gives us very clear.
1:40:16
Speaker 0: He says poor, blind, bruised, captives on all those who feel excluded.
1:40:27
Speaker 0: It's a very detailed ethical list, if you will.
1:40:31
Speaker 0: A very detailed public policy statement.
1:40:35
Speaker 0: and the question for us is who are the poor today?
1:40:40
Speaker 0: Who are the captives today?
1:40:42
Speaker 0: Whom are the brews today?
1:40:44
Speaker 0: whom they excluded today.
1:40:47
Speaker 0: Jesus goes further to say nations will be judged by how you treat the least of these the hungry, the sick.
1:41:00
Speaker 0: The imprisoned...the immigrant and those who are on the margins of society.
1:41:07
Speaker 0: So part what church does is it can help clarify what we mean by justice.
1:41:15
Speaker 0: Clarify What We Mean By Public Policy.
1:41:17
Speaker 0: Now in a movement that I lead..we take strong truths Of love & Justice born out of profits born out of Jesus and the Constitution.
1:41:31
Speaker 0: Our constitution says that, broader vision because otherwise what you kind of have is a general morality where everybody's just all over the place arguing and in some sense nothing ever gets done.
1:42:09
Speaker 0: Last I would challenge The Church, uh...the Pew Foundation a few years ago wrote up did a study at an America And they studied fifty thousand sermons in fifty thousand churches.
1:42:26
Speaker 0: The poor, that's the primary focus of Jesus was the least thing preached about in the church.
1:42:39
Speaker 0: In that sense and the Church is failing its own mission in some ways And that failure actually opens the door for authoritarians That will promise the poor and others rescue when really they don't intend to rescue them at all.
1:43:00
Speaker 0: of good news
1:43:01
Speaker 1: to the poor.
1:43:10
Speaker 1: Thank you very much!
1:43:11
Speaker 1: I think this service has really helped put out in focus and discuss who are the most vulnerable, weakest in our society?
1:43:19
Speaker 1: So we're at the end for a brief talk.
1:43:24
Speaker 1: there was one more question.
1:43:29
Speaker 1: Maybe we could have another question from the audience here.
1:43:32
Speaker 1: So, okay let's start with that.
1:43:34
Speaker 1: one last question for my audience and then while in one last Question now you had online.
1:43:41
Speaker 1: Yes Thank You.
1:43:42
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot For your talk.
1:43:56
Speaker 1: Well now I thought about questioning English.
1:44:00
Speaker 1: The public pulpit!
1:44:01
Speaker 1: this public council, the public pulpit.
1:44:05
Speaker 1: That's what you wanted to install?
1:44:07
Speaker 1: You're saying is that something you are planning or does it already exist?
1:44:11
Speaker 1: I think thats very interesting.
1:44:13
Speaker 1: It could go around the world.
1:44:15
Speaker 1: so i'm just thinking of scaling up.
1:44:18
Speaker 1: maybe we should get together and do something jointly.
1:44:22
Speaker 1: Could you tell us more about this?
1:44:23
Speaker 1: Is it something that´s already ongoing And do churches take take shifts, like?
1:44:33
Speaker 1: is that something only happens in Washington
1:44:35
Speaker 1: D.C.,
1:44:35
Speaker 1: or do you do it in various different cities?
1:44:37
Speaker 1: Maybe its an example we could join or orient ourselves
1:44:42
Speaker 0: at.
1:44:44
Speaker 0: Well actually It's the outgrowth of a movement We started in twenty thirteen called Morrow Mondays and I would ask to kind of Google when politicians from North Carolina decided have an all-out attack against poor people, gay people immigrants denying healthcare and denying living wages.
1:45:13
Speaker 0: And we decided that every crucifixion demands a witness.
1:45:20
Speaker 0: People will be crucified through public policy.
1:45:24
Speaker 0: Every Monday We would gather right at the State General Assembly non-violently and critique, an offer of vision.
1:45:35
Speaker 0: Now two thousand people were arrested over two years but we ended up winning.
1:45:43
Speaker 0: the extremist numbers became very low.
1:45:47
Speaker 0: People engaged not only in their voice for what they're votes And then began to shift power.
1:45:55
Speaker 0: We did not enter as Democrats or Republicans that weren't politicians.
1:46:00
Speaker 0: We had Marl Mondays as a moral voice.
1:46:04
Speaker 0: Now, in the face of nation that is engaged and a war of choice, unholy war of chores where we're seeing poor health care taken systems turned on citizens...we've now established Marl Monday public pulpit and in Washington DC.
1:46:32
Speaker 0: And based on Jeremiah twenty-two, based on Isaiah fifty eight, based don't look for an every Monday doing rush hour right in the middle of Russia clergy in full vestments with impacted people walk into the street from The White House.
1:46:53
Speaker 0: we put our pulpit up And we challenge what is going on and offer a vision for transformation.
1:47:08
Speaker 0: We started with maybe ten people, and last week when the hundreds of thousands are people who were tuning in... ...we will have the last one August third With The Massive Gathering A time Of Repentance On behalf Their Nations But also a call for people to put legs on their prayers, and they're preaching through speaking out.
1:47:33
Speaker 0: Through voting.
1:47:34
Speaker 0: I have had some conversation with my friends here And i've had someone at the National Council of Churches.
1:47:43
Speaker 0: What would it look like a worldwide public pulpit?
1:47:47
Speaker 0: what Would It Look Like To Have A Worldwide Moral Monday Where Say For A Month Every Monday churches and we not just Christians but we have Jews and Muslims, would gather in front of the places of power in their country.
1:48:06
Speaker 0: And lift up a vision kind of what I talked about in this sermon on what global economics ought to look like?
1:48:12
Speaker 0: What global justice oughta looked like?
1:48:18
Speaker 0: If could unite across the world every Monday same time, same place.
1:48:26
Speaker 0: public pulpit not just for what we do in the sanctuary, but also outside.
1:48:34
Speaker 0: What if that voice could reach people who may never come into a sanctuary... ...but resonate with the message of love and justice….
1:48:44
Speaker 0: …and truth redemption—the possibility of resurrection even from their greatest deaths or harms?
1:48:54
Speaker 0: I'm seriously thinking about this.
1:48:57
Speaker 0: Because what I do know, down in my bones is that we are required to be a witness.
1:49:07
Speaker 0: To give a counter-alternative narrative to authoritarianism and the church can never off duty for whether it's Pharaohs, religionists challenging Moses or the false prophets challenging Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
1:49:26
Speaker 0: whether it's the false teachers that challenge Jesus, whether is the false church that challenged those who tried to undergird Hitler.
1:49:35
Speaker 0: Whether its' the false teaching of slave master religion... Every age in every age The Church Is Called To Be A Conspicuous Witness In The Times Of Which It Lives.
1:49:57
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for reminding us again.
1:50:01
Speaker 1: So we're coming to an end.
1:50:02
Speaker 1: one last question to Josephine.
1:50:04
Speaker 1: so a lot of people have written in and it was very inspiring the sermon but then that enthusiasm wanes.
1:50:21
Speaker 1: What are your ideas on that?
1:50:28
Speaker 1: So this fascization that we're seeing, strengthening a fascism is something I find very worrying.
1:50:40
Speaker 1: And these social movements and the size of them gives me hope.
1:50:46
Speaker 1: so... The more you can come together rather than stay as individuals.
1:50:54
Speaker 1: We're not that great in social movements, but I love this memorandum.
1:50:59
Speaker 1: So civil society and other associations pro-Islam Germany have written it And every church congregation can sign it.
1:51:15
Speaker 1: The refugee convention of Geneva.
1:51:18
Speaker 1: We're saying we want a different kind of policy, no dignity for humans.
1:51:23
Speaker 1: So the community.
1:51:24
Speaker 1: that's very important and we've seen how great it was to have this service together whether with join digitally, online or here to hear the sermon.
1:51:35
Speaker 1: So our communities can be so important... ...to maintain that and Spirit & Soul is here for that.. ..for promoting solidarity and community To support that spirit!
1:51:50
Speaker 1: Just see where you could join how you can join.
1:51:55
Speaker 1: You need a microphone.
1:51:58
Speaker 0: I just want to say three things, particularly... Ah!
1:52:04
Speaker 1: Sorry.
1:52:06
Speaker 0: ...to the church and us.
1:52:09
Speaker 0: Remember Moltman's Theology of Hope where he said that resurrection is God's no to the injustices.
1:52:16
Speaker 0: having a last word?
1:52:19
Speaker 0: We have to walk in the faith And part of it means remembering those who were past times That took on something worse than what we see now stood and kept going.
1:52:34
Speaker 0: That song, I'll be a witness was not sung by people who were free.
1:52:41
Speaker 0: it was sung by the people who are slaves And would not be for another fifty years but their faith continued to push them to challenge that which had been enslaved.
1:52:53
Speaker 0: Secondly we have to remember The People Who Are Promoting Authoritarianism and meanness are people.
1:53:07
Speaker 0: They're not gods, they're not divines.
1:53:11
Speaker 0: They don't have more power than we had and certainly more that were in the church hand.
1:53:17
Speaker 0: And so we have to own our power Our calling To fulfill.
1:53:26
Speaker 0: as one of great hymns In my tradition said if We alive in this age?
1:53:34
Speaker 0: Could it be that God has some faith in us?
1:53:39
Speaker 0: That we're not just gonna bow and roll over.
1:53:42
Speaker 0: And could It Be, that We are going to be used Just like those before us?
1:53:46
Speaker 0: use my dear sister who's a gospel singer In this room came Over To me and started singing hold on Just A little while longer.
1:54:01
Speaker 0: Hold On It's a song that you're saying not when the battle is finished, but even in the midst of it.
1:54:11
Speaker 0: And then finally We have divine assistance The power of the spirit.
1:54:22
Speaker 0: Uh we are not called at this moment without?
1:54:27
Speaker 0: The visitation and the strength Of God.
1:54:30
Speaker 0: it is our purpose.
1:54:37
Speaker 0: Truth is the greatest thing you can do telling it in a season of lies and so Let us try It.
1:54:46
Speaker 0: let us try living out our calling.
1:54:49
Speaker 0: Let Us Try fulfilling The Calling that we have been born for.
1:54:55
Speaker 0: Could it be That history Is unfolding not finished?
1:55:02
Speaker 0: Its Not Finished And We Can Determine how it continues to unfold.
1:55:09
Speaker 0: and could be that we were born for this very moment.
1:55:26
Speaker 1: Now, the only thing that remains with me today is thank you of being here.
1:55:38
Speaker 1: I would also like We have a little present for you, William Josephine.
1:55:53
Speaker 1: Founded and it really comes from very small but very active movement The Antifascist Church for your demonstrations, maybe.
1:56:11
Speaker 1: It's useful and if even more courageous which you are.
1:56:19
Speaker 1: we have it as a t-shirt as well.
1:56:21
Speaker 0: so
1:56:22
Speaker 1: thank you very much.
1:56:24
Speaker 1: I fold this for you yeah?
1:56:30
Speaker 1: Yeah!
1:56:32
Speaker 1: And flowers,
1:56:43
Speaker 0: of course.
1:56:49
Speaker 1: Thank you very much Josephine for coming here.
1:57:00
Speaker 1: She asked a book by Bishop Barber.
1:57:10
Speaker 1: Order it from the United States, but as soon you will have it.
1:57:16
Speaker 1: And I would also like to thank my colleague of Spirit and Soul for going through to do with me today.
1:57:31
Speaker 1: Thank you, I would like to accept the bunch of flowers representing spirit and soul as a movement for political night prayer.
1:57:43
Speaker 1: And this is it!
1:57:45
Speaker 1: This is it.
1:57:45
Speaker 1: thank-you very much.
1:57:49
Speaker 1: Stay safe stay cool and hope to see again in near future.