Britta Taddiken (Senior Pastor): Sermon for Sunday, March 6, 2022 at St. John's Southgate Melbourne.

Описание: Britta Taddiken, Senior Pastor of the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig: Sermon for St. John's Southgate Melbourne, Australia.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Cantata BWV 183 "Sie werden euch in den Bann tun" and Luke 4:1-13.

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"Throwing things into confusion" - if we look into one of the texts for this Sunday, it also occurs there. In the Gospel of Luke, in the fourth chapter. There is talk of the "Diabolos" - "muddler,” which is the name of the devil in Greek. And if we as Christians want to deal with him, then this text is very suitable. For much more interesting than the question of whether the devil exists is the question of what he does. He throws everything into confusion: truth and lies, dream and reality, need and desire. Sometimes, as in this story, he even succeeds in twisting things while keeping the wording. Three times he tries this with Jesus. "If you be the Son of God, speak to this stone, that it may become bread." This is a temptation after forty days of fasting. It is a temptation not only because one would content oneself with short-term satisfaction and reduce one's humanity to external needs, but also because the thought is naturally appealing that one could eliminate hunger, the greatest scandal in this world. But what if a human being had this power? He could and probably would use it to deny others much-needed bread. The real temptation, then, is to think that one can be unrestrictedly and permanently good and just.
Jesus resists this challenge just as he resists the second temptation. It consists in confusing trust in God with the fantasy of being invulnerable: "If you be the Son of God, throw yourself down from here." Wanting to be like God - to be wise and immortal. This is the original sin of humanity. Jesus puts the devil in his place: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

And finally, in perhaps the most diabolical of the temptations described, the devil tempts the man Jesus in his need for security and livelihood. He can have it all if he worships Diabolos. But Jesus resists that, too. He knows that hunger, powerlessness, and despair are part of life. And that they cannot be defeated where they are evaded. And so, he fights and overcomes them with his means, not with devilish tricks like making bread out of stones, throwing himself down from a high mountain, or doing something else to impress people. He uses his powers to help those who know this about themselves: they are neither omnipotent, strong, nor invulnerable, but of limited abilities, weak, and vulnerable. He makes himself the advocate of those who know all this about themselves.
People like Christiane Maria Ziegler and Johann Sebastian Bach knew this. They dedicated everything in their lives, as it says in the alto recitative of the cantata, "to him." And from this they gained a strength that allows us to hear their texts and their music even today and that gives us comfort and strength--all over the world. Dear sisters and brothers in Melbourne, may this bind us together. May God make us strong with his Spirit in these difficult times.
And may he bring us together one day in Melbourne or Leipzig! God bless you!

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