Friday, April 17

Good morning church,

It is a mighty difficult time for people in various sectors of the economy. Especially people in the hospitality, travel and airline industries are being hit hard. Hotels are empty, airports deserted, and hardly anyone dares to make travel plans. I sure hope the stimulus package will reach those folks who are bearing the brunt of unemployment right now… Lord, have mercy!!!

For this morning I invite you again to come with me on a journey down memory lane. You can skip if you like, but it has relevance for our time, you will see. It’s what happens when you give an introvert and introspect too much time…  Many years ago as a young pastor in Philadelphia we organized a wonderful special event with music and readings about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who resisted the Nazis. I was serving at Tabor Lutheran, an old German immigrant parish in the greater Olney area of Philadelphia. For that special evening’s event, we invited, among other people, a lady from Doylestown. She is still alive as far as I know, in her nineties now. Her name is Sybille Niemoeller-von Sell. She came from Prussian nobility and was related to the German Emperor Wilhelm. On our way back from the event, after I had driven her home, she showed me the old pictures to prove it. Sybille von Sell experienced the last years of the war as a young woman. She grew up in a posh Berlin neighborhood that would be totally destroyed by the end of the hostilities. Raised in a Lutheran Church in Berlin-Dahlem, the pastor who taught her confirmation class was a certain Martin Niemoeller. Those of you who know only a tiny bit about German resistance will recognize the name. Niemoeller was a fierce critic of the regime, and when even the biased justice system would not put him in prison for his inconvenient critique, Hitler simply declared him his personal prisoner and threw him in prison where he spent the rest of the war years. It’s what dictators do. But he survived and in fact became the first president of my home synod in Germany (we don’t have bishops), the Church of Hessen and Nassau. Many years later, his wife having died in a car accident, Niemoeller met his old confirmation student who now lived in the United States, was once married and divorced and had converted to Judaism. They fell in love and married. Hence the connection. It’s a small world, you know? Niemoeller’s most famous quote is a warning not to become a bystander in difficult times and it is a statement that is eternal in its relevance. He said, “First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I’m not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I’m not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.”  I have pondered this sentence in recent days, not for any political analogies, mind you, but because it occurred to me that it in a certain sense it really relates to the crisis beyond the pandemic that we are facing as a human species in this century. I could easily paraphrase his statement, and it would sound like this: “First we heard about the melting of the polar caps, but since we don’t live near the arctic we did nothing. Then we heard about wildfires in Australia and California, but since we don’t live in those parts of the world, we did nothing. Then we heard about the death of various species but since we are not part of the plant and animal world, we did nothing.  When the crisis reached us, it was too late…” Bang!!!

I don’t want you to think that I am a pessimist. I am actually not. I sincerely hope that we can learn from this pandemic that we are going through right now, but the lessons God wants us to learn will not simply be accomplished by revving up the engines of the economy again once this is all over. I know and I am absolutely certain that we need to learn deeper lessons, transformative lessons which involve change on a national, global and personal level, and I pray to God that we will. Because while we watched our sports games and went to our restaurants and bars and churches, the world was increasingly facing a crisis even before this corona pandemic, and there was a sad sense of inevitability. We were heading down a perilous path. Let us please not forget this! And I pray again: God have mercy!!!

Today our prayers are with Sally N. Exactly one year ago she lost her husband, our beloved friend and long-time church member, Pastor Ed N. It was a shocking moment on a Wednesday during Holy Week, a death that came without any warning. If Ed hears me typing these words, I can assure you Ed: you are still being sorely missed by so many people! The first anniversary of a loved one’s death is always particularly difficult. May God provide Sally with comfort and help her through this day!

Please do not forget that we have our Manna on Main Street Food Collection today between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Please place your bags on Lisa’s pickup truck. Surely the donations are needed at this time!

We say Happy Birthday today to Kirsten O. and Jackson S. May the Lord bless you! 

 I have fifteen volunteers for the St. Peter’s Devotional Project. I am looking for a few more. If you have thought about it but are hesitating, say yes! We will get this started next week.

Be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner