I have just got back from a working dinner in London after a day of meetings. I seem to spend a lot of time on trains, so I usually take a book or a newspaper with me. Now, I know this sounds a bit esoteric, but this evening I was reading a book of sermons by the former German President Johannes Rau. Rau was a brilliant man, a good politician, an intelligent Christian and a great preacher. The book is called Wer hofft, kann handeln – Gott und die Welt ins Gespraech bringen and the particular sermon I was reading was preached in Wuppertal on 29 May 1993 in the wake of the tragic killing of five Turks in an arson attack in Solingen.
Based on a passage from Amos 5, Rau quotes Johann Christoph Blumhardt: ‘Jesus, das ist der Trotz Gottes gegen Armut, Suende und Elend’ (‘Jesus is God’s defiance against poverty, sin and misery’). I liked that. It sums up with great simplicity the truth about God that is easily forgotten amid the sideshows of ecclesiastical or theological strife and the screaming voices of people who want to turn Jesus into the defender of their particular cause. We all do it.
I guess what I want to hold on to is the perspective that keeps in proportion the minutiae of church life that can occupy all the time and energy whilst brilliantly missing the point. I immediately associated Blumhardt’s words and Rau’s sermon with the striking imagery in Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers in a dangerous time: ‘got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight when you’re lovers in a dangerous time.’
