Sermons

Sermon at St. Peter's Church in Pretoria (Matthew 15, 21-28)

Bishop Dr. Wolfgang Huber, Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD)

September 14, 2008

I.
"Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world." This sentence will go with us in a particular way as the week´s verse during the next seven days. "Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world." This sentence, taken from the 1st Letter of John, suits the second part of the visit through Namibia, South Africa and Ethiopia being payed by the delegation of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) very well.

But what is meant by this sentence? Does it include the promise that we can relax and lean back while expecting this week and its end, being sure that we will have encountered all challenges victoriously then? Is it the banner with which we Christians should mark our stand at the market place of religious topics and questions of faith? Here is the truth - here is the victory? Does it give the necessary energy to Christians confronted with the never ending struggle of cultures and continuous religious arguments?

II.
However, the phrase of a "victory of faith" would get distorted, even wrong if this victory would be meant to be won at the expense of other people. Too long and too often the victory of faith was wrongly understood as a superiority of Christians. The phrase of a "victory of faith" would get distorted, even wrong if this victory would be meant as the defeat of people of other faiths.

Did not South Africa, where over 80 percent of the population are Christians, however acknowledge the freedom of all religions, respecting the coexistence of different religions and cultures in one "rainbow nation"? The word for the week to come does not lead us to any kind of extremist intolerance. Neither does it allow a pure relativism which does not take the need for a personal conviction  seriously. For its proper understanding we have to listen to the whole sentence, not only to its second half, as we did so far. The complete sentence sounds as follows: "For all that is born by God overcomes the world; and our faith is the victory that has overcome the world." Whoever understands these words as indicating a superiority of Christians above others, denies God's superiority above all. Whoever understands the victory of faith in such a sense, separates faith from God. That happened in dark times of human history - as we know them from racism or from xenophobia again and again. But whoever notices that the victory of faith is based in God and in the birth by God will never be able to use it to rise above his fellow human beings.

III.
What is the victory of faith all about? The gospel for today which we heard from the altar sets an appropriate example for what the "victory of faith" looks like. This gospel tells about a woman who is following Jesus. She is a "Canaanite" woman - the language of the Bible equates the term with a pagan woman. An unbelieving and unbelievable woman calls for Jesus, cries out for Him, piercingly and stubbornly.

The pagan woman struggles for her daughter, who seems to be in bad health. The mother places all her hopes in Jesus. She is following Him with hurried steps.
By that she makes us realize what faith means. The woman cannot easily be shaken off. She has a serious request. She, the pagan woman, has a mission - she seeks the help of Jesus.

She joins the long line of people who expect salvation and help of Jesus Christ. She keeps to her unwaverable hope for this man.
The woman stands ahead and plucks up all her courage in order not to be turned away by the first reaction of Jesus who reminds her that he is sent by God to his people of covenant, to the people of Israel. "Yet she came and fell down before Him and spoke: Lord, help me!" And as Jesus turns towards her and her daughter, she experiences "the faith that has overcome the world" in the most immediate meaning: "Woman", Jesus says to her, "your faith is strong. It shall happen as you wished."

IV.
The woman did not give up when a first obstacle piled up in front of her; and she did not give up when a second one was there. I know that many of us are familiar with this situation very well. How many obstacles stand against our most important plans! How quickly we therefore become lethargic or hopeless. But the woman does not hesitate; she does not give up, she argues, she makes every effort - until Jesus turns towards her: "Your faith is strong."

The gospels include only a handful of stories telling us that Jesus said such or similar words to somebody: Your faith is strong.
We are told that he speaks to another woman, who is ill herself and who yearns for touching the robe of Jesus - in the certain hope of being healed by doing it. And wavering between her shame and her restless despair, she touches the hem of His robe - and is healed from her disease.

Another story tells us about the blind man at the gate of Jericho who cries out for Jesus when hearing Him passing. The disciples do not let him get near Jesus- but he does not give up and cries and cries - and Jesus hears him.

We are also told about a woman called a sinner who works her way through to Jesus as he rests in a house sitting at the table. Although the disciples - again the disciples! - try to turn her out, she succeeds in washing His feet with her tears and then applies ointment to them. "Walk on", Jesus says to her, "your faith has helped you."

Those stories - mostly about woman! - exemplifie in different ways the "faith that has overcome the world". But none of them is turned against other people, excluding them turn the access to Jesus. No one of them tells about a struggle in which the believes in a holy war win the victory over and against others. In the contrary the victory of faith does not result in enmity, but in the love for enemies. Each of those stories shows faith as a way which leads directly to God in Jesus Christ. And it tells about people who follow this way. They invite us to do the same.

V.
The world requires faith. However, the world is not defeated by faith so that it would be the loser. Faith is challenged to deal with those things the "world" is concerned with. However, not victorious on the one hand and defeated on the other are facing each other at the end. It is rather the conviction to have found the source of life and to be sure of being able to live from it. Or to express it in the words your parish used to outline its motto: "Sheltered by faith, strengthened by the community, called to love."

"The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any double-edged sword (Hebrew 4, 12)". Again, we have to consider: It imagines no weapon to fell an opponent. But the word comprises the promise of a new life. This promise is the source of strength which enables us to bring a clear orientation into our personal life, the orientation of faith, and to act out of that, to act in hope and love. The way to a new South Africa includes many examples for that - and we see that in gratitude and respect. But new challenges border the way. We see them and ask Jesus for his help. And he evokes our faith, a strong and even victorious faith, victorious in praising God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. So our faith overcomes the world. Thank God. Amen.