[AI translation] Dear Brothers and Sisters! This Word, which I have just read out as a basic doctrine and which I would like to talk about, is so simple and clear that I almost feel that it should not be explained, but simply engraved in our hearts so that we remember it every morning: yes, that is why we are Christians, that is why God has made Himself known to us, that is why He has drawn us into a community of faith with Himself, so that I may strive to lead the way in good works! I, who believe in God! I do not wish to do anything more with this sermon today than to impress it really firmly on the hearts of all of us, so that we may indeed start each new day, each work and each conversation and engagement with people, with this exhortation. With this Word, "Let them that believe in God strive to do good works."Brethren, in the course of the past week, a very, very blessed life of a servant daughter of God, surely known to many in the congregation, Aunt Mary Pilder, ended her earthly life at the age of 80. I once heard from her, which I have said many times and preached in many places, because it really struck me, that she began her day every morning with this prayer: "Lord, show me today also whom I can be useful to by being Yours, by believing in You!" And God always answered his prayer. And he did his best, and indeed he was of use to all. Almost totally deaf and totally blind. Even in the hospital bed he was of use to everyone around him. He was useful because he believed in God. But it would be good if we could learn to pray this prayer from the fullness of our hearts, and pray every day, "Lord, who can I benefit today by believing in you? That I am yours? Because that is our task. To be useful, as the Word says: "These are good and profitable for men" (Titus 3,8c).
Sadly, we so quickly forget that this is why we should be Christians. We forget that this should be the practical manifestation of our faith in God. I have said it many times, but there are things that cannot be proclaimed enough: Christianity is not a doctrine, it is a life! So it is not a certain mood or a certain wave of emotion or a certain way of thinking, but a certain way of life, a certain lifestyle. Jesus was not born into this world to charm us with the romance of Bethlehem once a year, but was really born to bring a whole new way of life into this selfish, this bitter world. And certainly Jesus did not die so that once a year we might weep a tear or two from our eyes, lamenting how tragically He ended His life, but really to wash us from concrete sins! To really make us fit for that certain new way of life that He has brought. And Jesus did not rise from the dead so that we could treat each other to Easter hams and red eggs on Easter, but really so that by the power of His resurrection we might come to know Him, come to new life, and practice the new way of life.
The holidays are gone. So many times the Word has spoken here, God's Word has spoken to us in almost condensed form. Well, Brothers and Sisters, He spoke, and He still speaks, and He always speaks, so that this precious Word may indeed be sown as a heavenly seed in the soil of our souls, and there it may sprout and bear fruit. I often think that Christianity should become much more practical than it is. Unfortunately, we over-complicate it, but it is so unbelievably simple! It is as simple as the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus says: "Do not be angry with your brother, forgive him! And things like this: keep your heart pure, your body pure, your thoughts pure, your feelings pure, your soul pure! And things like this, to help the other person! And things like this, to tell the truth. Not false, but true! And things like, do good even to those who don't deserve it! Especially do good to people who don't deserve it. And to obey God's commandment in all things at all times. Such simple words as this, to love God through loving another person, through loving another person, and to serve God through serving another person! And we, instead of doing these very, very simple and practical things, at best we are busy with ourselves, with our own problems. It is a terrible thing when one is always dealing with one's own problems, always wondering how things are going with me, with my state of mind, and always measuring it, and always fattening it, and always taking care of it, one's own state of mind. And he starts to whine, "Oh, I'm so incapable, and I'm so unworthy, and I'm so guilty, and I'm so sad, and I'm so helpless, and I'm so powerless, what can I do? This constant self-absorption is what paralyses us, Brothers and Sisters, from doing for once what God has called us to do, to strive for good works, we who have become believers in God.
Someone once told me that he had to make a long journey on a very bad road, in a much worse car, and he had a lot of problems with his car, it kept breaking down again and again. In the meantime, he wanted to enjoy the beauty of the countryside, because he had never been there before, but unfortunately he never got to go, because all his time and all his energy was really taken up by the badly working car, the badly working machine. Well, that's the way it is with many believers. All their energy, all their time and all their efforts are completely occupied by their own dysfunctional spiritual life, their own inner life. And therefore he cannot free himself from himself and enjoy the world of God. He cannot enjoy the joy of good works. You cannot have compassion for the other person who needs it so much. Or relieve the burden of another person. He cannot take advantage of the opportunities that life brings him so abundantly to do good works. Of course, one must examine oneself from time to time to see how one is doing. He must subject himself to such self-examination as will lead to complete self-surrender and conformity to the will of God. But then one should turn away from oneself, turn away from examining one's own spiritual life, and turn towards the other person and do what God has called one to do! Continue at least to strive for good works.
I have a very dear friend, a serious man of faith, a pastor. He visited me again just the other day. From him I once heard this very good statement. I recommend it to everyone. He said, "I was complaining a lot once about getting my spiritual condition right. I couldn't do it, and then one day I began to obey the Word of God in earnest, and God put my mind right. Somehow I think, Brethren, that we should do the same. Perhaps that is what we lack. For once, we too should try to obey the Word we have heard, the Word we have heard so often, in a really serious way! That we ourselves might try for once to make a serious effort to do those good works. You know, I somehow feel that if Jesus were to look us in the eye and simply ask us: have you done something for someone today? Have you done something good for a fellow human being today? We would say: but it is still morning, the day has hardly begun! If a person does not find an opportunity to do something good for his fellow human being in two hours, he has not really tried. Have you done something good today, a kind gesture, a kind gesture towards your fellow human being?
Now, during my trip abroad, I heard about a church, a Roman Catholic church, which was badly damaged during the war. In this church there was a beautiful, large statue of Christ, which had had both hands blown off by a grenade. After the war, when this church was renovated, the statue of Christ was restored to its original position, but the two hands were not repaired. And now the statue of Christ stands there without hands. But they put an inscription in front of it, and it says: you are my hands! It is a moving sight. A Christ without hands, Who says: you are my hands! Many people stand in front of this statue and look at the inscription. A man dressed in simple working clothes, an old lady in a headscarf, a socialite who has just got out of her car, an elegant young man, a girl with freshly waxed hair, a young man with tattered hair and tights. They stand in front of the statue of Christ and look at the inscription: you are my hands! The hands of Jesus. What these hands have done! How many people they have strengthened and supported! How many wretched people they have blessed, helped and comforted! These hands clasped together in prayer, these hands reached out to the poor and miserable with great love and caresses. These hands reached out to the whole world with compassion and great mercy. These hands rested on children's heads in blessing, and reached out to haughty, proud people in admonition and warning. These hands drove out a kufar from the temple and protected a sinful woman. These hands broke bread and distributed it to starving people. They calmed a storm on the sea and in human hearts. They cast out evil spirits from wretched men. These hands have healed the sick, wiped away tears, lifted unfortunate people out of sin, guided lost souls to the true path of life. These hands! The hands of Jesus! And these hands are us!
Have these hands done anything for anyone today? And there are so many wounds to heal, so much to give, so much to forgive! And there is so much love and compassion needed. And there are so many waiting for a kind word, a firm guidance, a touch of the soul. These hands are us. It is true that Jesus did not say it in these words, but in this way: "if ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Mt 25,40) In another place in the Bible we read, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all things in my name" (Col 3,17) But in fact, in other words, it means the same thing: "My hands are ye.
Do you already know what good works are? Well, these are the good works to which those who have become believers in God should strive. That is what we should strive for, and that is what we should strive for with all our might. Do you know, brethren, that the greatest enemies of Christianity are not the unbelievers, but the unfruitful believers, the barren pious?! And not the scoffers, but the idle pious. And not the blasphemers, but the unfruitful lord-pleasers. These are the greatest enemies of Christianity. That is, those who ought to go before in the things of God, in good works. To walk in front, to walk ahead of others, pointing the way to a new, a more beautiful, a purer, a happier human coexistence. To walk ahead. And yet there are those who not only do not go ahead, but lag behind, and very often far behind those who do not even know God.
Look, not only is a life of bad and poisonous fruit a sin, but simply a fruitless life is just as much a sin. You know the Word, "Whosoever therefore shall know to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17) Where will all the Word-mass that we so often hear and so willingly listen to, or perhaps read in our daily silence, go? Where? Will the birds really take it? Or does it not go deep enough to its roots? Or choked by the thorns of worldly desires? And the thorns of the troubles in our hearts? How much of it finds its way into the invisible depths of our hearts, only to be seen again, in a loving gesture, heard in a kind word? In Jesus' parable, the seed becomes the fruit: what one sows, one reaps. Nothing becomes nothing! Something always becomes something. So it is the Word received, the Word received by faith, that becomes the good deed. But not automatically, that's why the Word says: "Let those who have become believers in God strive to do good works." So: put all your strength into it, seize every opportunity and use every chance to do it. And let them spare no pains and sacrifice. God, for his part, has done his utmost to infuse the power of Jesus' death and resurrection into the souls of those who believe in him through the preaching of the gospel. The rest is up to us, our efforts, so let us make the effort, Brothers and Sisters. I feel that we, the people of God, must learn today in particular not to retreat with our faith in God into the closed piety of the church, the Bible study and individual silence! Let us shift the focus of our faith to the world, to the hustle and bustle of our lives, for there is room for the particular good works that are being spoken of.
Even our daily work - whatever that work may be; whoever thinks now of the work he does from morning to afternoon, or from afternoon to evening - is an occasion for good works, if only we have eyes open enough and ears good enough to hear the occasions which God is preparing for us through our very work. Let our work not be an opportunity to earn bread, but an opportunity to do good works in the faith that we are the hands of Jesus. Jesus' hands! And the fact that someone has a lot of work is not at all an obstacle, but an opportunity to strive for good works! The more work one has, the more opportunity one has to strive to do good works. The whole of life is a great opportunity to testify in word and life that Jesus is Lord and that through Jesus the re-creation of this world has truly begun. When the ship is heading for the harbour, the passengers can see it, they can recognise it, that the coast is approaching, that the destination is near, that the seagulls are coming from the shore, far away, to meet the ship. A huge, big, beautiful white flock of seagulls with huge wing beats. This is the way every believer should be: to signal to this world that the Lord, the recreation of the world, is coming. As a herald of the purity, beauty and glory of the new heaven and the new earth. Jesus came so that we might be people walking and working in his power, new people in this world.
Dear Brothers and Sisters! I wanted nothing more than to emphasize this Word very much. Let us allow the living God Himself to engrave this Word on our hearts! So deeply that we may truly start each new day with it, and each work with it. In every conversation with man and in every dealing with man, let us remember this, this Word: "let those who have become believers in God strive to do good works".
Amen
Date: 9 January 1966.
Lesson
Mk 4,1-20