Martin Niemöller - "Human Weakness and Divine Strength" (February 24, 1963)
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| (organ music) | 0:03 | |
| - | Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father | 0:19 |
| and from the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. | 0:27 | |
| We listened to the text of the sermon taken from | 0:35 | |
| the 12th chapter in the second epistle of St. Paul | 0:38 | |
| to the Corinthians, verse nine. | 0:43 | |
| "And He said unto me, | 0:49 | |
| My grace is sufficient for thee, | 0:54 | |
| "for my strength | 0:59 | |
| is made perfect in weakness. | 1:03 | |
| "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory | 1:08 | |
| "in my infirmities | 1:12 | |
| that the power of Christ | 1:16 | |
| "may rest upon me." | 1:19 | |
| Certainly this word of Saint Paul | 1:28 | |
| we know it and we may have heard it many times. | 1:34 | |
| It is a very queer | 1:40 | |
| and most surprising statement. | 1:44 | |
| If it really stands as valid and true, | 1:50 | |
| we feel that those people who say that the days | 1:57 | |
| of Christianity are passing by quickly or may have | 2:01 | |
| passed by already, that these people might be right. | 2:06 | |
| That we in our generation | 2:12 | |
| have entered the prosperous era | 2:17 | |
| since our everyday thinking, our everyday living | 2:23 | |
| has become incompatible with this kind | 2:30 | |
| of attitude and claim. | 2:34 | |
| Ours is an era | 2:40 | |
| marked by the tremendous progress | 2:43 | |
| and success of science and knowledge | 2:46 | |
| of ability and efficiency. | 2:52 | |
| Human possibilities seem to us as being | 2:58 | |
| unlimited and boundless. | 3:02 | |
| We are very near, very close | 3:07 | |
| to conquer, to govern the universe. | 3:14 | |
| Our conception of nature and our relationship to nature | 3:21 | |
| has changed basically. | 3:27 | |
| We do no longer feel | 3:30 | |
| that there may be regions | 3:34 | |
| which will remain out of our reach, | 3:38 | |
| out of our dominion. | 3:42 | |
| Human power really is something, | 3:46 | |
| something in which we may trust. | 3:49 | |
| Our task of today and tomorrow | 3:53 | |
| is only to adapt | 3:57 | |
| our faculties in the right and in the best way | 4:00 | |
| to the challenges we just have. | 4:05 | |
| Strength, power, might, | 4:11 | |
| human strength, human power, human might, | 4:17 | |
| they are the things that matter. | 4:23 | |
| And to get rid of all inferiority complexes | 4:28 | |
| is an aim worthy to be striving for. | 4:34 | |
| The idea certainly is not to be weak, | 4:41 | |
| but to be strong. | 4:45 | |
| Human existence and these days and this hour | 4:49 | |
| is getting so complicated | 4:52 | |
| that only an austere and disciplined rigor | 4:56 | |
| will cope with it. | 5:00 | |
| Strength, power, might | 5:03 | |
| could depend on any help and assistance from outside | 5:07 | |
| to trust in somebody except yourself | 5:13 | |
| that is suspect of being afraid of weakness, | 5:18 | |
| a lack of needed self-confidence. | 5:23 | |
| At least this opinion and conviction is in keeping | 5:29 | |
| with the general spirit of our age, | 5:34 | |
| of our present age. | 5:38 | |
| Therefore, just therefore the religious element | 5:42 | |
| in human nature is losing ground. | 5:47 | |
| The consciousness of dependence, the very basis of religion | 5:53 | |
| is dwindling away. | 5:58 | |
| Today's atheism | 6:02 | |
| therefore is in no way surprising. | 6:07 | |
| It is just a logical by-product | 6:11 | |
| of modern evolution. | 6:14 | |
| We'll be able to explain everything | 6:19 | |
| and to dominate everything if not yet at present | 6:24 | |
| and today, then certainly | 6:28 | |
| tomorrow or in the near future. | 6:32 | |
| And we trust that we shall deal | 6:36 | |
| with all newly accomplished | 6:41 | |
| insight successfully | 6:43 | |
| when we consult only and rely upon only | 6:47 | |
| our own reason and judgment. | 6:51 | |
| Evolution means progress, | 6:56 | |
| this we do take for granted. | 7:00 | |
| This is why we are facing the present decline of religion | 7:05 | |
| among civilized nations, and especially the regress | 7:09 | |
| of Christianity in our formerly | 7:14 | |
| so-called Christian world. | 7:17 | |
| Today this retrogression | 7:23 | |
| is quite obvious and notorious, | 7:26 | |
| but it has developed already for a considerable time, | 7:32 | |
| for decades and maybe even for more than two centuries. | 7:36 | |
| It began when people began | 7:43 | |
| to omit or to pass over | 7:47 | |
| those parts of the Christian Gospel | 7:51 | |
| and its message | 7:55 | |
| which no longer were in accordance | 7:57 | |
| with their general feeling and their understanding | 8:01 | |
| of human nature and human life. | 8:06 | |
| When people began to become | 8:10 | |
| aware of their great talents | 8:15 | |
| then they began to achieve unprecedented progress | 8:18 | |
| in science and in techniques, they wanted, | 8:23 | |
| whether consciously or not, to forget everything | 8:28 | |
| which might reduce or even destroy their optimistic | 8:35 | |
| self-confidence. | 8:40 | |
| There was no room anymore for the message | 8:44 | |
| of sin and of redemption, | 8:50 | |
| for this craze of service | 8:56 | |
| and of weakness and the like. | 8:59 | |
| But still they clung to everything in the teachings | 9:03 | |
| of Jesus which seemed to | 9:07 | |
| call for a heroic and idealistic and active life. | 9:11 | |
| People clung to the Christian religion because they | 9:18 | |
| were still convinced that it had fervor | 9:22 | |
| and in the end | 9:26 | |
| had accomplished the abolition, | 9:28 | |
| for instance, of slavery. And | 9:33 | |
| Also the equal status of women | 9:36 | |
| in the world of men. | 9:40 | |
| That thereby Christianity have proved | 9:43 | |
| a genuine factor of human progress. | 9:48 | |
| It really was, it really has been, | 9:53 | |
| but with this curtailment and alteration | 9:59 | |
| of the Gospel message through which the continuation | 10:03 | |
| of Christianity became possible for this curtailment | 10:08 | |
| in those days and for a considerable time | 10:11 | |
| the Gospel lost | 10:16 | |
| its life center. | 10:20 | |
| Lost its Master and Lord. | 10:24 | |
| He was no longer needed, displaced at the bottom | 10:27 | |
| and in the midst of the Christian message was filled | 10:31 | |
| instead with His teachings. | 10:34 | |
| They, the doctrines were regarded as a main truth | 10:41 | |
| based upon themselves, no longer connected with, | 10:46 | |
| no longer dependent on the Master's person. | 10:51 | |
| So the faith in Jesus Christ was replaced | 10:59 | |
| by the belief in this doctrine, | 11:04 | |
| its precepts, its rule. | 11:07 | |
| The personal relation was abandoned in exchange | 11:11 | |
| for a system of moral | 11:17 | |
| or social commandments. | 11:19 | |
| In some parts of the world, | 11:24 | |
| Christianity has become something very different | 11:26 | |
| from what the New Testament understands | 11:32 | |
| by Christian faith. | 11:36 | |
| There, in the New Testament Christian faith means | 11:40 | |
| that Christians are the Lord's disciples, | 11:45 | |
| the Lord's own, the Lord's followers subject | 11:50 | |
| to the authority and | 11:55 | |
| attached to him personally | 12:00 | |
| knowing his spirit, willing to obey his directives. | 12:03 | |
| People responsible to the living Lord who, | 12:10 | |
| according to his promise, is present as our counselor | 12:15 | |
| and guide. | 12:20 | |
| We may ask him, no friends, we must, | 12:23 | |
| what he wants us to do. | 12:27 | |
| Lord, what will thou have me to do? | 12:32 | |
| But when we deal only with his teaching, with his rules, | 12:37 | |
| his precepts we may derive from his commandments | 12:43 | |
| a number of principles, Christian principles, | 12:48 | |
| which then we take into consideration | 12:54 | |
| and into our judgment ourselves. | 12:58 | |
| Principles are subject heavily. | 13:02 | |
| They are subject to our own judgment, | 13:08 | |
| and we select from them by making our own choice, | 13:12 | |
| putting aside what is not convenient to us | 13:16 | |
| or not convincing for us. | 13:21 | |
| And by doing this | 13:24 | |
| we maintain our own authority, | 13:27 | |
| our own decisive authority. | 13:31 | |
| There are many Christians nowadays who call such | 13:35 | |
| a selection of principles their faith. | 13:40 | |
| They do believe in these principles | 13:45 | |
| as far as they agree. | 13:48 | |
| There are principles among them, certainly there are | 13:52 | |
| which they think to be too difficult and too exaggerated | 13:57 | |
| and which therefore they do not acknowledge everything | 14:02 | |
| only of the Sermon on the Mount or on a word like love | 14:06 | |
| your enemy, bless them that curse you. | 14:11 | |
| Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them | 14:16 | |
| which spitefully use you and persecute you. | 14:20 | |
| This simply does not belong | 14:26 | |
| to this kind of Christian faith. | 14:29 | |
| That why there are quite a number of directives | 14:33 | |
| among the worlds of Jesus | 14:36 | |
| which meet with similar bouts and objectives. | 14:38 | |
| And to be sure | 14:44 | |
| none of these Christians | 14:47 | |
| who believe in principles of their own decisive directions | 14:50 | |
| has ever agreed. | 14:55 | |
| None of them will ever agree with this confession | 14:58 | |
| of Saint Paul. | 15:01 | |
| "Most gladly | 15:03 | |
| will I rather glory in my infirmity | 15:06 | |
| "that the power of Christ may rest upon me." | 15:10 | |
| This whole kind of Christian religion which is based | 15:16 | |
| on a collection of principles, it wants strength, | 15:21 | |
| wants power, wants might, wants something with which | 15:27 | |
| to live, with which to work, with which to succeed. | 15:32 | |
| Those who adhere this type of Christianity cannot | 15:39 | |
| and will not take the risk of infirmities. | 15:43 | |
| What they have in mind is rather how to avoid | 15:50 | |
| all sorts of weakness or possibilities of defeat. | 15:55 | |
| For they may believe in progress. | 16:01 | |
| At least we want to and we long for accomplishing | 16:06 | |
| our justification on our own account. | 16:11 | |
| Everything else would violate and hurt | 16:15 | |
| our pride, our claim to mastery, | 16:19 | |
| our claim to sovereign independence. | 16:25 | |
| Here it becomes clear. | 16:30 | |
| Here it becomes evident that this Christianity | 16:33 | |
| is absolutely indifferent as to God. | 16:37 | |
| And also indifferent as to Jesus Christ, | 16:44 | |
| and indifferent and utterly revolting even | 16:48 | |
| against the Gospel, | 16:52 | |
| for the Gospel announces the kingdom of God. | 16:55 | |
| It is announced as being at hand in the reign | 17:01 | |
| of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. | 17:05 | |
| The human being in whom Jesus Christ meets with us, | 17:08 | |
| his children, in order to bring us back into his kingdom, | 17:13 | |
| in order to gain us over and to bring us whole again. | 17:19 | |
| The power of Christ, the power this Lord. | 17:25 | |
| What then is it? | 17:28 | |
| Nothing it seems. | 17:32 | |
| At least the power of his opponents proves to be stronger | 17:35 | |
| than all he can do. | 17:39 | |
| So he finished his commission in this world of ours | 17:43 | |
| as we know and remember in the days of Lent | 17:49 | |
| coming to us in the near future. | 17:53 | |
| We remember yes, | 17:58 | |
| the end of his commission and suffering | 18:01 | |
| in death in total defeat. | 18:05 | |
| And yet all power of human pride | 18:11 | |
| and self-concern of hatred | 18:15 | |
| and vindictiveness | 18:20 | |
| cannot, could not overcome Him. | 18:24 | |
| Cannot, could not make Him use the same means | 18:29 | |
| of power and violence, not even in self-defense. | 18:32 | |
| Cannot seduce Him to the spirit and attitude | 18:38 | |
| of retaliation. | 18:42 | |
| So just so | 18:46 | |
| he becomes and remains more than a conqueror, | 18:48 | |
| for in dying we know he prays | 18:53 | |
| forgiveness for his murderers, | 18:58 | |
| his hangmen, his guardsmen, | 19:01 | |
| his persecutors, | 19:06 | |
| his traitor, his enemies, | 19:09 | |
| his faithless friends. | 19:13 | |
| In praying he dies for them all. | 19:19 | |
| For all of us, | 19:25 | |
| more than a conqueror, | 19:29 | |
| the Savior. | 19:32 | |
| In the last year of my imprisonment in one of Hitler's | 19:39 | |
| ill-famed concentration camps at Dachau, | 19:42 | |
| at gallows, was transplanted, | 19:47 | |
| transferred from the general camp | 19:51 | |
| into the courtyard of the so-called bunker, | 19:54 | |
| the prison inside the prison, | 20:00 | |
| prison inside the camp. | 20:03 | |
| The upper part of this gallows | 20:07 | |
| looked into my solitary confinement cell | 20:11 | |
| through the window bars. | 20:15 | |
| How often as this gallows induced me | 20:20 | |
| to pray for my comrades | 20:25 | |
| who were hanged on it. | 20:29 | |
| How often every day I had to control myself | 20:34 | |
| when the idea arose, naturally it arose, | 20:40 | |
| if these people will pull me out | 20:44 | |
| of my place here to that gallows | 20:47 | |
| what should I do? Shall I howl at them? | 20:53 | |
| Oh yes, I should like to, to love to. | 20:57 | |
| You criminals, you murderers wait and see. | 21:01 | |
| There's a God in heaven and he will show you. | 21:07 | |
| Then afterwards the torturing question, | 21:12 | |
| what would have happened | 21:17 | |
| if Jesus, when they nailed him | 21:21 | |
| to his gallows, the cross, | 21:26 | |
| if he had spoken like this. | 21:30 | |
| Then he would have crossed his enemies. | 21:33 | |
| Nothing, nothing would have happened. | 21:39 | |
| Only there would be no Gospel. | 21:44 | |
| There would be no Christian church or there would be | 21:48 | |
| no Gospel, no message of great joy. | 21:52 | |
| There would be no forgiveness of sin, | 21:56 | |
| no redemption, no reconciliation, | 21:59 | |
| no salvation. | 22:03 | |
| Then he would have prayed against his enemies, | 22:07 | |
| not for them. | 22:13 | |
| Then he would have died against them and against us | 22:16 | |
| and not for them, not for us. | 22:22 | |
| Thank God he prayed and | 22:27 | |
| he died a different way. | 22:31 | |
| "Father, forgive them | 22:34 | |
| for they know not what they do. | 22:37 | |
| "There it was that he said unto me, | 22:42 | |
| my strength is made perfect in weakness." | 22:47 | |
| "Therefore my grace is sufficient for thee." | 22:53 | |
| This then is a crucial, a decisive question. | 23:00 | |
| Do we, do I | 23:06 | |
| really know that he prayed for me, | 23:10 | |
| that he died for me there on Calvary, | 23:15 | |
| there on his cross? | 23:19 | |
| You see, no Christian principles | 23:23 | |
| will never do. | 23:28 | |
| Paul the apostle is right. | 23:32 | |
| When he renounces every idea | 23:35 | |
| of being anything for himself. | 23:38 | |
| All that matters is he, Jesus, | 23:42 | |
| and all that really counts is his power | 23:47 | |
| of sacrificial, self-sacrificial love | 23:52 | |
| by which he makes me his brother | 23:57 | |
| and thereby his Father's child. | 24:03 | |
| My fellow brother, my fellow's brother at the same time. | 24:08 | |
| But I need Him, | 24:14 | |
| not just his word, | 24:18 | |
| not just his directives, but Him. | 24:21 | |
| Him, himself. | 24:26 | |
| I need his person, | 24:28 | |
| I need his personal love. | 24:31 | |
| I need Him. | 24:36 | |
| "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory | 24:38 | |
| "in my infirmities that the power, | 24:43 | |
| this power of Christ may rest upon me | 24:47 | |
| and that I may confess. | 24:53 | |
| "I live, yet not I, | 24:56 | |
| but Christ, lives in me," | 25:01 | |
| amen. | 25:06 | |
| Let us pray, O Lord, make us see Jesus, | 25:14 | |
| our human brother. | 25:19 | |
| Make us recognize him, the Son in whom thou art | 25:23 | |
| well pleased. | 25:28 | |
| Help us by thy spirit that in looking to him | 25:32 | |
| we may become aware of his power which is thine. | 25:38 | |
| And which therefore being the power of thy grace, | 25:45 | |
| of thy love, will outweigh our self-reliance | 25:49 | |
| with all its seducing hopes and fears | 25:55 | |
| and which will replace it by confidence | 25:59 | |
| and trust in his Lordship and guidance that the power | 26:05 | |
| of Christ may rest upon us and remain with us, amen. | 26:12 | |
| Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 26:23 | |
| and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 26:29 | |
| be and remain with us all. | 26:36 | |
| (choral singing) | 26:46 |
