Martin Niemöller - Sermon Untitled (May 12, 1968)

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-	O Lord our Father, for all of us we ask	0:02
	to be free from our anxiety about loving others,	0:06
	and about becoming involved with their problems	0:09
	and their needs.	0:11
	Crack open our hearts, O God,	0:13
	that we may learn that it is in giving love	0:16
	that we can at last find it.	0:19
	Through Jesus Christ, who dared to become involved	0:21
	in other people's problems, who suffered	0:25
	the consequences and through it all became	0:28
	the conqueror of sin and death,	0:32
	and who taught us that when we come together to pray,	0:36
	we could pray saying:	0:40
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	0:42
	Hallowed be thy Name.	0:45
	Thy Kingdom come.	0:48
	Thy will be done on earth,	0:49
	As it is in heaven.	0:52
	Give us this day our daily bread.	0:54
	And forgive us our trespasses,	0:57
	As we forgive those who trespass against us.	0:59
	And lead us not into temptation,	1:03
	But deliver us from evil.	1:06
	For thine is the kingdom,	1:08
	And the power, and the glory,	1:10
	For ever and ever.	1:13
	Amen.	1:15
-	Grace be unto you and peace	1:39
	from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ.	1:42
	Amen.	1:48
	The topic for this Sunday morning service	1:53
	will be the Gospel and Conventional Christianity.	1:57
	And I read the text from Saint Luke's Gospel	2:06
	in the fourth chapter, verses 16 to 21.	2:10
	Then Jesus went to Nazareth,	2:18
	where he had been brought up;	2:21
	and on the sabbath day he went, as usual,	2:24
	to the meeting house.	2:27
	He stood up to read the scriptures;	2:31
	and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.	2:35
	He unrolled the scroll and found the place	2:39
	where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,	2:43
	He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.	2:50
	He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives	2:56
	and recovery of sight to the blind,	3:03
	to set free the oppressed,	3:09
	to announce a year when the Lord will save His people."	3:13
	Jesus rolled up the scroll,	3:20
	gave it back to the attendant, and sat down;	3:21
	all the people in the meeting house	3:28
	had their eyes fixed on him.	3:30
	And he began speaking to them,	3:33
	"This passage of scripture has come true today	3:36
	as you heard it being read."	3:43
	When I speak on the Gospel and conventional Christianity,	3:52
	then these two words, gospel and Christianity,	3:58
	they both are being used as if	4:03
	everybody knew what they mean.	4:05
	And even as if everybody, in using them,	4:09
	what means the same.	4:13
	When you put it to the test by asking various people	4:20
	what their understanding of gospel is,	4:24
	you will receive very different answers.	4:31
	But in most of them, the name of Christ,	4:35
	the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus Christ may appear,	4:38
	and surely, there is no Gospel, there is no	4:45
	good news of great joy, without Him.	4:49
	And the Gospel according to Saint Mark	4:54
	starts with a statement, "The beginning of the Gospel	4:57
	of Jesus Christ."	5:01
	And then, in the same chapter, Jesus is reported	5:04
	as preaching the Gospel of God.	5:07
	And it's essence is	5:13
	summarized in the sentence,	5:17
	the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.	5:20
	Repent and believe in the Gospel.	5:26
	Now, it never has been contested,	5:33
	the kingdom of God is at hand, that God is King,	5:36
	that God is Lord of all, and that nothing can happen	5:40
	and has happened nor will happen in any time	5:45
	without his will and without his permit,	5:50
	as the prophet Amos expresses it clearly.	5:53
	Does evil befall a city	5:58
	unless the Lord has done it?	6:02
	God's almighty direction of the universe,	6:07
	which he has created, that is no news.	6:11
	And certainly, this is no good news.	6:16
	The good news are that God will put an end	6:20
	to the futile rebellion of His human creatures,	6:25
	which began with Adam and Eve	6:29
	and produced enmity and death.	6:32
	That His kingdom will be recognized by its inhabitants.	6:36
	And that there will be peace among men,	6:44
	and that God as King will be pleased with them	6:48
	as His children who were lost,	6:51
	were lost.	6:56
	This kingdom, Jesus says, is at hand.	6:58
	And His earthly life proclaims this kingdom of God.	7:02
	Jesus, He lives it and He lives in it,	7:08
	absolutely in peace with God, His heavenly Father,	7:13
	and asking and inviting His fellow men	7:18
	to follow Him and to share in His life.	7:22
	Jesus has little success with His message,	7:28
	at least in His earthly days.	7:33
	People liked listening to Him, as they do even today,	7:36
	but follow Him, follow His direction,	7:42
	leaving oneself totally to the Father's care	7:49
	and caring only for His will, how to please Him,	7:52
	and to help you serve and how to help the neighbor,	7:56
	the fellow, is that feasible,	7:59
	is that possible at all?	8:03
	Must we not, like Adam and Eve did,	8:06
	add to God's Great Commandment, thou shalt love God	8:10
	and thou shalt love thy neighbor,	8:14
	must we not add to that the indispensable	8:17
	and most important, practically the greatest	8:20
	of all commandments, thou shalt love thyself,	8:23
	thou must love thyself?	8:27
	And here, my friends, is the insurmountable barrier	8:31
	that prevents us from really confiding	8:36
	and really putting our trust in God as in our	8:39
	loving Father and King, and from actually	8:44
	loving our neighbor as ourselves,	8:48
	since this, our neighbor, he may become or he may be	8:52
	my competitor, my rival, my enemy,	8:56
	because he loves himself just as I like myself.	9:02
	Where then remains any hope for the kingdom of God,	9:07
	the kingdom of peace?	9:13
	We cannot live, at least so we are convinced,	9:17
	we cannot live without taking care of ourselves.	9:22
	Now Jesus of Nazareth, He has to suffer,	9:28
	He has to be ousted, He has to be brought to court,	9:32
	He has to be sentenced, He has to be tortured,	9:36
	He has to be hung, He has to be crucified.	9:39
	Will He pass through all this	9:43
	without becoming concerned about Himself?	9:46
	Without admitting that His message of God's kingdom	9:50
	of peace, wherein men can fulfill his life	9:54
	without loving himself, just by loving God	9:58
	and by loving his fellow, that this is unrealistic	10:03
	and that this is a merely idealistic dream?	10:08
	Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth,	10:14
	He passes through all this	10:17
	without becoming disobedient to the Father's holy will.	10:21
	And without becoming unfaithful	10:25
	to His true and genuine humanity.	10:29
	He has said, "It is finished, completed, fulfilled.	10:35
	I have overcome the world,	10:40
	I have overcome myself."	10:44
	We may trust that the Gospel is no dream,	10:48
	that it is meant for human beings,	10:52
	that it is meant for earth.	10:54
	That to follow Jesus leads to peace and to life,	10:57
	since nothing is able, not even suffering and death,	11:02
	to separate us from the love of God	11:08
	if this Christ Jesus is our Lord.	11:12
	Here and Him and with Him, His Word has become	11:18
	true and trustworthy, the kingdom of God is at hand.	11:21
	The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.	11:27
	And now faith, Christian faith	11:32
	means to live	11:37
	with Christ Jesus, to live in following Him	11:39
	in His steps, means being redeemed and liberated	11:44
	from the self-imposed slavery to ourselves.	11:49
	From anxiously seeking to preserving	11:54
	our own life and existence by now and in faith,	11:59
	we know that whoever would save his life	12:04
	will lose it.	12:11
	The Gospel tells us that we, by faith,	12:13
	have our being in God's kingdom,	12:16
	that justified by faith, we have peace with God	12:19
	through our Lord Jesus Christ.	12:25
	Christian friends, if this is the Gospel,	12:30
	then now we may continue and ask what its position	12:36
	and significance is in Christianity.	12:40
	Christianity has started when Jesus	12:46
	had finished His earthly life.	12:48
	And that was more than 1,900 years ago.	12:52
	Since then, Christianity had to go its way	12:56
	through the world, to which Jesus had sent	12:59
	His 11 surviving disciples, who now	13:04
	became Apostles, ambassadors to the world	13:07
	with the instruction to preach the Gospel	13:11
	to every creature, to the whole of creation.	13:14
	The following of Jesus Christ grew	13:19
	and continued growing through centuries.	13:23
	The periods of persecution were followed	13:27
	by a long era of acknowledgment.	13:30
	The Christians had to live in the surrounding	13:34
	secular world, a social entity themselves.	13:37
	They needed some kind of social arrangement and order.	13:43
	They had to arrange their unavoidable living together,	13:48
	their co-existence with non-Christians.	13:53
	And since human and social life developed and changed,	13:58
	the Christian groups, the churches, could not help	14:01
	adapting their own organizational institutional form	14:05
	in some way or the other to the secular changes.	14:10
	These changes were not restricted	14:16
	to the physical and technical development.	14:19
	In nearly 2,000 years, great changes in secular	14:23
	spiritual life took place as well.	14:28
	For many centuries these changes in the life of the spirit,	14:33
	of the human spirit, were preponderant even,	14:37
	and especially in that part of the world	14:40
	where Christianity was strongest and most influential,	14:43
	in the area of the old Roman Empire,	14:47
	and mainly on European soil.	14:50
	The thinking and preaching,	14:54
	theology and liberty, had to be developed,	14:57
	had to be adapted to the times,	15:01
	and the question became acute,	15:03
	even many did not come to the service,	15:05
	what had become of the original message?	15:08
	With which Christianity had been commissioned	15:13
	by her master and Lord, the Gospel.	15:16
	Go ye into all the world and preach	15:19
	the Gospel to every creature.	15:21
	The original apostolic mission was changed	15:25
	from preaching Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ	15:29
	into the teaching, the doctrine,	15:36
	and the doctrines of the church.	15:39
	At times Christian believers recognized	15:44
	that the doctrine and the practical life of the church	15:48
	became defective, and they endeavored to reform them.	15:53
	We all know that the 16th century became the era	15:59
	of what we call Reformation, which wanted consciously	16:02
	to put the Gospel forward again.	16:07
	But the effect has been only partial,	16:11
	and even where the Reformation seemed	16:15
	to have been successful, the ecclesiastic tendency	16:17
	prevailed again.	16:22
	The message became doctrine again.	16:25
	And what we have of Christianity today	16:30
	is everywhere an historical result	16:34
	in which many factors have found and sustained their place.	16:37
	The church as a worldly social group of Christians,	16:44
	which every church is, demands the main interest	16:48
	and finds great regard and occupies most of the	16:54
	energy and the strength of its members	16:58
	for the institutional existence of the church,	17:04
	whereas the Gospel, yes the Gospel has become	17:08
	and is a mainly liturgical requisite	17:13
	brought forward and exhibited as	17:18
	a precious piece of undisputed church property.	17:21
	Part of the divine service.	17:27
	Originally, the Gospel has meant	17:33
	redemption of the human being from	17:36
	the hopeless state of being self-centered,	17:38
	and thereby doomed to basic inhumanity,	17:43
	in which God never has been pleased and can be pleased.	17:48
	And the Gospel has meant the restoration	17:53
	to original humanity in which God was pleased,	17:56
	in which the Creator was well pleased	18:00
	because it was very good.	18:02
	Now, in all kinds of conventional Christianity	18:07
	the Gospel is separated from the real, actual	18:10
	life of man, of the Christian people,	18:14
	having its place in divine service only,	18:17
	but outside the sanctuary, the Gospel,	18:21
	that means the Lord Jesus Christ,	18:25
	has very little to say, is not admitted.	18:29
	There the kingdom of God has to give way	18:35
	to the kingdom of this world.	18:38
	And in this world outside the church,	18:41
	there even the Christian, the member of the church,	18:44
	has to live according to the laws and rules of this world,	18:47
	and the contrast between the two	18:53
	is being disguised and veiled.	18:57
	We are not even becoming aware	18:59
	that we are obeying the rules of the world,	19:00
	where we have to follow the orders and rules	19:05
	of our Lord Jesus Christ.	19:09
	We are used to complaints that Christian influence,	19:13
	spiritual influence is fading in today's world.	19:16
	Especially and even in what is called the Christian world.	19:21
	The explanation for this regrettable fact	19:27
	is not difficult.	19:31
	Where do we Christians, nothing to say of our churches,	19:33
	where do we Christians stand up in this world	19:38
	for what we know is right?	19:41
	Would be right, because it corresponds	19:46
	with our Lord Jesus, the Christ.	19:49
	Normally, we do not do that.	19:53
	Our conventional Christianity never has told us	19:56
	to do that.	19:59
	We leave Jesus behind, and in this world	20:01
	we represent a certain amount of Christian principles,	20:04
	which may receive some consideration,	20:09
	but which to allow an occasional compromise.	20:12
	The Gospel does not proclaim Christian principles,	20:19
	but Christ Jesus, the Lord, who as the Savior	20:25
	of mankind, brings salvation from inhumanity	20:29
	to them who believe in Him and who follow Him.	20:34
	He, Jesus, teaches and instructs us	20:40
	in what is really human,	20:44
	and what therefore may reckon and trust	20:47
	on God's confirming blessing.	20:49
	Conventional Christianity in all churches	20:54
	is inclined to have regard to its own interest,	20:57
	at least outside the sanctuary and outside the liturgy.	21:02
	And just there Jesus Christ wants to be Lord,	21:06
	just there Jesus Christ is needed,	21:11
	not we call Christian principles,	21:13
	which as all human principles are not absolute	21:16
	and are not unchangeable.	21:20
	But we need the Savior Himself, who claims to be	21:22
	not just one way, one truth, one life,	21:26
	but the way, the truth, and the life.	21:30
	Conventional Christianity is understood in this world	21:36
	and by this world as just one special sort of religion.	21:38
	Not so decisively important anymore nowadays,	21:45
	but just welcome from meeting our religious needs,	21:50
	our religious inclinations, which certainly	21:54
	all over the world are decreasing.	21:58
	Maybe even, and I hope they will,	22:02
	soon begin disappearing into the post-religious era.	22:05
	But this will not be, not become, must not become	22:11
	the post-Christian era.	22:14
	Otherwise, Christianity would have to really degenerate	22:17
	into a mere religion, without any essential and vital	22:21
	relation to man's life in this world.	22:26
	No religion has any influence in this respect	22:32
	except by a few principles.	22:34
	But this religious tendency has already developed in part,	22:38
	in the everywhere that Christianity has withdrawn	22:45
	from human life into pure court.	22:48
	Worshiping service.	22:53
	Religion means God and the soul.	22:56
	I and God.	23:02
	Christianity knows that the basic message,	23:06
	the Gospel, offers and brings redemption and restoration	23:10
	to real and full humanity, to loving God	23:15
	and to loving their neighbor, their fellow.	23:19
	And that changes the whole life of the Christian believer.	23:24
	That makes a Christian who believes in Jesus	23:28
	and follows Him a different person,	23:31
	not only in the sphere of his religious engagements,	23:34
	but in his everyday relations with his fellow human beings.	23:39
	The one who accepts the call and follows Christ Jesus,	23:45
	the one who believes in Him, becomes different	23:50
	from all of them who still must and do care for themselves.	23:53
	To live for myself, to have to care for myself,	23:59
	that means the most cruel slavery man can fall a victim of,	24:04
	and becomes inhuman.	24:09
	To live for others, that is redemption.	24:13
	That is liberation.	24:17
	There we are, as Saint Paul has put it,	24:19
	no longer enslaved to sin.	24:22
	And I think this is one of the gravest errors	24:27
	which nearly all conventional Christianity	24:30
	has allowed to spread, and to prevent the Gospel	24:33
	from becoming effective.	24:37
	Christianity has suggested the Christian rank and file	24:40
	that to fall back into sin	24:46
	is something absolutely normal.	24:50
	That has to happen every day,	24:55
	and many times even every day.	24:58
	Friends, for the one who has heard Christ Jesus calling him,	25:04
	and who has decided to follow Him, for him it is sin,	25:08
	that means leaving Christ's footsteps	25:14
	and seeking his way without Him, something exceptional,	25:17
	a catastrophe.	25:23
	For sin is only, as Paul has said or written,	25:25
	what does not proceed from faith,	25:30
	from living with Christ,	25:34
	from following Him, and here then the admonition	25:36
	of Paul becomes due, who obviously does not think	25:39
	that sin must pass as something normal.	25:43
	When he writes to the Galatians,	25:46
	brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass,	25:48
	you who are spiritual, should restore him	25:54
	in a spirit of gentleness.	26:00
	This assures any hope that all conventional Christianity	26:05
	has to examine and to test its own work and its effects,	26:08
	whether it serves the Gospel to become known	26:13
	and understood and accepted.	26:16
	For the Gospel, the kingdom of God is in the midst of us,	26:19
	if we only have eyes to see and ears to hear.	26:24
	His name is the name which is above every name,	26:29
	Jesus, the Christ.	26:33
	The world needs Him to be saved.	26:37
	Mankind needs Him to be redeemed	26:42
	from inhumanity.	26:46
	Christendom needs Him to offer and to proclaim peace	26:49
	as being our common calling, that we as God's children	26:53
	and as human fellows may cease	26:58
	trying to live against each other	27:01
	and from each other,	27:05
	but that we may, by following Christ Jesus,	27:08
	live with each other	27:12
	and learn to live for each other.	27:16
	To, as the World Council of Churches Constitution says,	27:22
	to the glory of the One God, Father, Son,	27:26
	and Holy Spirit.	27:32
	Amen.	27:35
	Let's pray.	27:37
	Our Lord, Jesus Christ,	27:45
	Thou hast told us, as Thy disciples and Thy believers,	27:48
	that we should bring our prayer to Thy	27:55
	and our heavenly Father in Thy name,	27:58
	and so we do.	28:03
	Help us through Thy Holy Spirit,	28:07
	that we do that sincerely.	28:12
	Not in order to burden you,	28:16
	to go away without any obligation and duty,	28:20
	but in Thy name and obeying Thy call to follow Thee,	28:25
	that we live our faith with Thee by following Thee.	28:31
	By not asking our reason, and then being content	28:37
	with what our reason says,	28:42
	but that we bring all our thinking and planning,	28:45
	our doing and omitting to Thee, Lord,	28:50
	what wills Thou me to do.	28:54
	Because this is the following in Thy footsteps,	28:59
	the following to Thee, our Lord,	29:07
	trusting in Thy promise,	29:10
	I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.	29:14
	Thanks be to Thee, and thanks be to Thine and our	29:23
	heavenly Father, that Thy call still	29:26
	is be pronounced and proclaimed and still is being heard	29:31
	and followed, make us Thy followers.	29:37
	Amen.	29:43
	(organ music)	29:48
	(congregation singing hymn)	30:26
	(organ music)	32:37
	(soft organ music)	33:18

Item Info

Title:

Martin Niemöller - Sermon Untitled (May 12, 1968)

Description:

The Gospel is the proclamation of the redemptive power available to us in Christ Jesus to liberate us from our slavery to ourselves and enable us to live for and with others. Through the historical process of the institutionalization of the Church, this message has been transformed into a piece of church property, limiting its power to affect the outside world. We must, then, resist the impulse of concentional Christianity to institutionalize the Gospel and, instead, affirm the transformative power of the Gospel. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 03:52. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 27:37.
Key quotation: “The Gospel does not proclaim Christian principles but Christ Jesus the Lord, who, as the Savior of mankind, brings salvation from inhumanity to them who believe in him and who follow him.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48k75b9z

Date:

May 12, 1968

Speaker:

Niemöller, Martin, 1892-1984

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 4:16-21

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0433
ref6069_2wy
uachapelsermaud
duke:320288
dcrau001792
ark:/87924/r48k75b9z
20762f33-d43e-4cb6-ba78-c90bf052b5c6

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Martin Niemöller - Sermon Untitled (May 12, 1968)

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