I don't know why I keep agreeing to do this.
A week tomorrow I will be with the Meissen Commission in Eisenach in Germany. I have agreed to preach at the morning service in the Georgenkirche – where Johann Sebastian Bach was once the Kantor and Martin Luther preached. It is their harvest festival, but also the first in this year's series of sermons on the Reformation Decade themes. That's all OK, but I am doing it in German and I always agonise during preparation over how to say it without sounding hopelessly inarticulate.
Fortunately, we have a young German student staying with us and she has agreed to help me sound less stupid in her native language.
Actually, apart from quoting Bruce Cockburn at the end (I bet you didn't see that one coming…), it isn't hard to bring together harvest, creation, gratitude, ethics, music and metaphor in one narrative. But, it has reminded me (yet again) of the inextricable connection between worship and ethics: don't sing one thing and live another. Try Amos for what happens when we bear God's name and then institutionalise injustice and corruption.
In a week that saw further calls for justice to follow truth (Hillsborough), an appeal by certain football managers to end celebrations of innocent victimhood, further admissions of abuse by churches, police officers murdered in Manchester and violence erupting around the world because of bad film, a reconnection of the songs we sing with the ethics we enshrine seems all the more essential.
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September 22, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Of all the times to be in Germany, Nick – surely Erntedankfest is the best! We have no idea how to celebrate the turning of the year in the UK, and yet the Germans seem to turn their schools and churches and shopfronts into something that tells you – yes, summer is past and there is a beauty in erxcessive use of red leaves, pumpkins and sunflowers. Enjoy every minute!
September 22, 2012 at 6:15 pm
I hope you will post your sermon here!
September 24, 2012 at 8:27 am
And on this theme, a small Swedish choir (of which I am a member) will soon be celebrating the Creation by singing Haydn’s magnificent work in German. We hope to inspire the congregation with the meaning as much as the music.
And one day I hope i’ll hear you preach in German Nick. Viel Spass!
September 24, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Wie schoen in Eisenach so sein u auf der Wartburg fuer Erntedankfest! Alles Gute u Gottes Segnen . Sie sind so wie so den Bischof von “Little Germany” und ein englishes Accent ist vollig OK ! Geniessen Sie der Zeit !
September 25, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Have you caught up with Leonard Cohen’s ” Come Healing” which I heard for the first time at his recent concert? It just brings so much together.
September 25, 2012 at 9:46 pm
Martin, not yet. Is it out on an album?
September 27, 2012 at 5:15 pm
It’s on his 2012 cd ” Old Ideas” but you can hear it on You tube; have a listen and tell me if it is not Leonard at his most spiritual best . It grabbed me as soon as I heard it and the imagery wonderful. I have suggested we run a Church mini course on faith in popular song; you could even use this legitimately at a healing service.