The Blessing Cycle by Rev. Margot Kasemann

The Blessing Cycle: Ephesians 1,3-14

By Margot Kasemann

[This sermon at the 2003 Ecumenical Church Day in Berlin is translated from the German on the World Wide Web. Margot Kasemann is an evangelical Lutheran bishop in Hannover, Germany.]

…The understanding of the church and the connection between Christ and the church are central themes of the Letter to the Ephesians. The Roman-Catholic and the Reformation understandings of the church are quite different…

Who wrote this letter? We know little about the one who wrote under the pseudonym of Paul. He pretended to be Paul to use the teaching authority of Paul for his own theological statements. Paul’s Colossians’ letter was well-known to him. He followed in his style. Let us call him Silas. Between 80 and 90 A.D., he wrote his treatise. Ephesus was chosen as his addressant. He had lived in the large and famous capital (with 300,000 inhabitants of the Roman Asian province) for some time. The Ephesians letter shows that he was not focused on a concrete community and specific cares and distresses. He offers a declaration of principles or perhaps declaration of a theological committee. When we hear the text, we notice the author speaks very impersonally of God, in a distanced way in the third person. This is hardly a letter. This text was written to communities in all the world and in all times. This morning it is directed to us…

THE BLESSING CYCLE

(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Yes, dear Silas, we can join in your song of praise today. We experience ourselves with God in a realm of blessing (Klaus Wengst). God blesses us and we praise God, returning the blessing to God in the cycle. “Praise” could also be translated “bless”. Blessed be God. Because God holds us and we know ourselves held by God, we are blessed. We shout back: Blessed be God!

Blessing is important to us. Our whole ecumenical church day stands under the motto “You should be a blessing”. Are we a blessing? Blessing is a controversial subject in the church today. Who may bless whom? When and why is there blessing? Blessing and the unfolding of blessing are more questions of our relation to God than of our acting and judging. Magdalene Freitloh proclaimed at the Stuttgart church day four years ago: Whoever is blessed belongs to God and no one else. Blessing is the ennobling hand of God.. Blessing is God’s promise and permission for the outrageous enjoyment of our happiness in life.” What a beautiful description! Blessing is the relation and movement of God to us and us to God.

We seldom enjoy ourselves outrageously. Christians often have a hardly sensual relation to the world. They either bear the whole burden of injustice or suffering on their shoulders or imagine laughing and Christian existence as incompatible. Still a whole multitude of joyful people whom God loves appear in the Bible. “A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance.” (Prov 15,13) We pray: Create in me O God a joyful heart… The church day is a school for joyful Christian existence… Jesus Christ is hard to proclaim sometimes since proclamation sounds awkward and almost fundamentalist…

(4) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

We are chosen. As a Lutheran bishop, I have problems with the election idea in two regards. On one hand, Israel was chosen first. We have struggled over the formulation of Israel’s permanent election. Through Christ, we first have access to this God. What predetermines this access with all our errors up to Auschwitz? This is hard to understand!

On the other hand, this seems to suggest little effort is needed in life since everything is predetermined. We say “by faith alone!” Works accomplish nothing in making us beloved by God. Or does election mean: God intended from the beginning to open a way for all people? I can understand that universality. God chose us before all time. We were in God’s hand before we were born and will be in God’s hand after our death. We are embroiled in great conflicts today around genetic engineering. Can embryos be used for research? Is it allowed to join together semen and ovum outside of the womb and then sort out the fertilized egg cells with genetic defects? The thought that God knew us before we were born helps us make our decision. Imagining we can create the perfect person according to our image and not according to God’s image is a delusion. This goes so far that some like the Italian doctor Antinori or a sect of Raelians think they can clone persons. I’d like to cry: Keep your hands away!

This is also true at the end of life. When God preserves us amid all suffering, dying and death as God preserved Jesus, the dying one also retains his or her own dignity and may not be simply “dismissed” through active euthanasia. You can’t even imagine what is going wrong here! On one side, people do everything not to become old, vacuuming fat, silicon implants in the most different places and botox toxin against wrinkles. No one wants to age. When one is old, he or she should die as quickly as possible. Active euthanasia is then praised as an achievement. We have an important task in Germany to make dying socially acceptable again and bring it out of the backrooms of nursing homes. Giving the dying their dignity and allowing them to let go is probably also a question of faith in God.

What does it mean to be holy and blameless? Being holy means belonging to God. We should live so it is clear we live in relation to God, from God, to God and in responsibility before God. We don’t have to completely discuss this theme among the churches. For evangelicals, there aren’t individual saints. Rather we are all holy because God has chosen us, not because of our own achievement. From God, we receive life. Therefore we may live in responsibility before God as stewards who know ourselves answerable to God. That is holy.

We also know ourselves as blameless even if this word sounds somewhat dusty or stale to us… Today everything is allowed in the name of freedom, shopping around the clock, marrying as often as it suits me and evading taxes when I want. That freedom means that a bond to a community, to God’s word and to basic agreements in society is lost. “Blameless” means I accept basic norms and values of cooperative life. Living this is not easy today because we don’t want to be spoilsports. The fun society regards every rule as a disturbance.

(5) He destined us to be his children through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

What a calling to be God’s children! Being children is not easy for us. No one wants to be a child; everyone wants to determine him- or herself. In Germany, there are fewer and fewer children. Still this is a marvelous image. Peacemakers should be called God’s children. We have tested this directly in the last months. The churches of the world spoke out against the Iraq war in a common ecumenical way. There were only a few exceptions. The churches had to swallow criticism for their vote… Weren’t we resurrected from dictatorship by war? “Weren’t the peacemakers naïve who demonstrated? This can be heard everywhere now. “We see the pictures of rejoicing Iraqis liberated from a brutal dictator.” “Isn’t war justified like the liberation from Auschwitz at that time? In the end, only weapons help.”

God’s children do not have an easy time. Their will for peace is a disturbance. They ask: Why is injustice ignored again and again? No one looks for instance to Pakistan, to the sudden attacks on Christian communities. The cruel civil war in Sudan isn’t worth a single headline. The oppressed women in Afghanistan aren’t interesting. Who champions peace in Nepal, Georgia, Burundi and Sierre Leone? More than 50 armed conflicts rage in the world, forgotten wars, far from the eyes of the world public. What leads nations to produce more and more weapons? Why aren’t weapons exports emphasized in the media? Must violence really be the last means again and again? Do God’s children – children in so many places of the world – have weapons in their hands? Or are all these questions incredible because the weapons have “won”?

$80 billion were approved for the Iraq war by the US Congress. At the same time, the UN says it needs $55 billion to satisfy the immediate needs of the starving in the world. Does this drive us to despair? This isn’t discussed. Why is no one ready to invest in prevention, intervention and peace? Couldn’t it be seen positively as a learning process of Germans that they no longer see war as a solution? Must not all exports of weapons be immediately stopped? Must not all human rights violations be denounced? What is international policy with regard to Zimbabwe, Algeria and Cuba? Is a world domestic policy needed? Or is thematicizing the unjust structures simply too uncomfortable? If everyone lived like the Americans and Western Europeans, the earth would collapse. Whoever asks all these questions is reproached today for anti-Americanism. Are all these questions signs of the naivety of God’s children?

Isn’t our predetermination in love to be God’s children all too often overshadowed by the attempt to legitimate wars theologically and find criteria for “just war”? Yes, we could even become culpable by rejecting war because people could be seduced to evil again and again. One cannot argue with Jesus in the matter of war. God cannot be used to justify waging war.

God’s children have the freedom to endure invective and blasphemy and to be regarded as naïve like the whole Sermon on the Mount. In the memory of the 20th century, the true heroes are not Hitler, Stalin and Idi Amin but Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi and Aung San Suu Kyi with their consistent attitude of nonviolence. To the question whether they improved the world, we can only say: Yes, they kept the hope alive that a peaceful cooperation of people and races is possible. They deserve the title “God’s children”.

Whoever beholds the world “through Jesus Christ” doesn’t need to fear death but can accept death as part of our life and simultaneously challenge it. God encourages us to rebel against hunger, injustice, war and senseless dying on the battlefields of this earth in the forgotten slums of the world. God seeks life in its whole abundance.

(6) to the praise of his glorious grace which he bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Grace is a word that is a little out of fashion. Still we understand it. To experience something as presented, a marvelous day, a love or a child, is a grace. God gives us support in life, orientation and hope with Jesus Christ. God turns to us though we are a somewhat pitiful troop. Living from this love and affection is grace. Therefore we can join in the worldwide praise of God that continues the message: Go tell it on the mountain.

OUR PART IN THE BLESSING CYCLE

(7) In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.

Redemption, blood and forgiveness of sins are at the heart of our debates today. We have wrestled theologically since the Reformation and even earlier over the meaning of redemption through his blood. In the last years, feminist theology asked: Was the blood and death necessary for reconciliation? Many ask that question today. Did the death on the cross actually appease God as a sacrifice? Or should it be understood as devotion? You cannot imagine what heated debates have occurred.

How do we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, to his remembrance? Paul had his first problems with this in Corinth. In the course of the centuries, thousands upon thousands of books have been written about this and still there is conflict over who may celebrate with whom. Some ignore the feuds and simply act… Church leaders should let us celebrate the Eucharist today. The Eucharist will not be perfect in this world but could give a foretaste of the heavenly meal.

Going back to the beginnings would be best. Jesus understood the way of the cross as the consequence of his own life. He probably couldn’t imagine at that time how complicated the interpretations would become…

(8) For he had made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ.

The mystery is made known but access remains difficult. That God comes into the world is the greatest mystery up to today. Dorothee Soelle who died in April 2003 provoked her church again and again with themes and theses. The culminating point was 1965 with her book “Suffering – A Chapter of Theology after the Death of God”. The outrage or indignation was great! Is God dead? Then and in the following years, Dorothee Soelle was vehemently criticized. She didn’t reject Christian theology. She criticized the picture of the omnipotent, solitary and lonely God who sits somewhere and isn’t interested in people, the “Papa-will-judge God” as she called him. God’s power is different. God takes us into his history with humankind. We are sent into the world to change it, to set signs of God’s reign. No, God’s mystery is not completely revealed to us. But in Christ we see God’s love and affection for all people, a people of God from all nations.

(10) which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

That would be beautiful when all things come together. Again and again we hope for a new heaven and a new earth. Somehow we don’t believe in their fulfillment. Or we don’t believe doing God’s will ourselves. We find resignation and retreat into inwardness today. People turn away from the church and community with God. They don’t hope for anything any more.

Finding one’s balance between individualism and community, between action and contemplation seems increasingly difficult. As Daniel Berrigan said, “There is “a cult and idolization of action . There is an idolization and cult of prayer. The first is a foolish flight; the second is a consumer article, an anesthetic, everyone for him or herself, activism and passivity, one without the other is hard to recognize as human action. Activists become annoyed and incline to force. Meditations are way behind the times and cerebral or intellectualized. What is central is not integrating the two. What is crucial is renewing them. What is now formless and devalued is lost: empty action and hollow prayer.”

This is true. An ancient wisdom emphasizes holding together heaven and earth, contemplation and action, prayer and work. Christ builds our bridge from earth to heaven and back to the blessing cycle. He encourages us through his promise to expect a great deal.

(11) in him according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will.

What is God’s will? That they all may be one (John 17,21). We have fought for this for nearly 100 years in the ecumenical movement. This will is hard to fulfill. One time there are advances and hopes as in 1982 in Lima or in 1999 in Ausburg. At other times there are setbacks as in 2000 with the Dominus Jesus. Being one concerns the world, not only the churches. Divided as we are, can we really contribute something to the unity of humanity? Isn’t the division in poor and rich, marginalized and influential, healthy and sick, workers and unemployed, childless and large families becoming greater? This can produce fear and anxiety.

(12) we who first hoped in Christ have been appointed to live for the praise of his glory.

We are appointed to praise God and God’s glory. Yes, we hoped for rescue or deliverance. Rescue is God’s offer. Jesus is God’s outstretched hand, so to speak, drawing us into the blessing cycle. Many aren’t concerned about being saved. People live in the everyday routine and are completely shocked when they fall in a life crisis or when life ends. I hope we find the courage and the language to praise God’s glory today so people find a way to the Beloved.

4. WELLNESS FOR CHRISTIANS – THE DIFFERENT FITNESS PROGRAM IN THE BLESSING CYCLE

(13) In him, you also who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Paul and Martin Luther emphasized hearing the word. Faith comes from hearing. Strangely enough, many people are not even interested in their blessedness. They spend more time in front of the television than anywhere else. Blessedness certainly wont be found there. Souls dangle. A whole industry exists for diversion today. Fulfillment is only to be found in oneself, in the advertised body cult and in wellness. The recruiting or advertising slogans include: “like born again”, “when was the last time that you did something for yourself?” (I think immediately: When was the last time that you did something for someone else?), “because you are worth it”, “what is central is your well-being”, “get this feeling!”, “your individual well-being program!”, “here you find your own way to feel reborn again and again”, “recreate yourself”, “discover new sources of strength for body, spirit and soul!” and so forth and so on.

Since the body became the object of worship, my well-being is central. Life can become marvelously solitary or lonely. Still we shouldn’t only condemn this. No, on one hand, anxiety over the well-being of body and soul should be seen very positively. Perhaps we have done something wrong as churches. Protestants are enormously top-heavy. However the Gospel of John proclaims the word was made flesh. This means living, experiencable and observed physically. Jesus makes faith very experiencable in meditation, contact and eating together. Great fear or anxiety always exists among us.

God shows us truth. But we avoid truth. A whole truth avoidance industry exists. We are dazed and dizzy with soap operas from Lindenstrasse to Big Brother. We escape into illusions. Even the press is not a guarantor of truth. Truth is a scarce commodity. How can truthful relations arise? In 1889 the world assembly for justice, peace and preservation of creation formulated: “Truth is the foundation of the community of free persons.”

How do we find faith? All this haunts us. The experience of God’s presence is not a subject that we can simply leave to esoteric movements. Remembering our baptism may be a good beginning. Through many debates, the ecumenical patience is badly strained.

(14) which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Without Jesus the Jew, without Christ the Resurrected, we would not be part of this blessing cycle. The first blessing was and remains God’s blessing for the people of Israel. Our church day motto may not be ignored. “You should be a blessing” was and remains first of all the promise to Abraham. As Christians, we are added or grafted on the vine. The blessing cycle was opened for us. However the blessing promise is not taken from Israel. There are tendencies to forget this today! The Holy Land with its terror and all the injustice in which God’s children have little air to breathe on all sides quickly force the blessing for Israel into the background, the guarantee as down payment or first installment. We understand first installment very well today! We leave almost everything. “Buy now and pay in three months”, it is said. “Do you want a payment break?” The down payment or first installment is comforting. The redemption has not occurred but will occur. That is a promise. We still sigh with the whole creation…

Let us praise God above all things! Theological exegetes may know Paul’s Letter to the Colossians and terms like “faith”, “grace” and “works” without having the faintest idea about the whole doctrine of justification or the Letter to the Romans. Can’t theology be more alive? We have become speechless in our faith partly because of our language. Can’t theology involve less brooding? Can’t we proclaim a little heart theology as with Ernesto Cardenal or clear and sometimes crass language as with Martin Luther King? We have a longing for words of truth and clarity, Phillip Potter once said. Perhaps the future language of theology can only be poetry! Therefore let us end with a poem. Kurt Marti described the blessing cycle in his way as the presence of bread, wind and thus God’s presence:

bread and wine: fruits

the sun the earth

once gods goddesses

and then

his body

his blood

and now

resurrection

rebellion to life

still time

still possibility: earth

home for humankind.

Thanks for journeying along… In these days we struggle to live our Christian life. We remain in the blessing cycle and are strengthened by common hearing and experience.