Dear community,
"integration of Turks and Germans in Germany and Turkey" - that was the subject of a conference last year in Konakli, where Rev. Korten and I attended together with community members from Antalya and Alanya. A contemporary theme - an old issue. "So you are no longer strangers and aliens -. But fellow citizens and of the household" So we have heard in the Epistellesung this Sunday, which is also Predigtext.
That was apparently at that time an issue here in Asia Minor with its various communities at very different places. In Ephesus, Sardis, Philadelphia and Colosse, in Perge and Antioch, in Cappadocia and who knows where else. Letter to the Ephesians is indeed addressed to these communities.
Why must be so written by the apostle: You're no longer strangers and aliens. Apparently they used to be. As elsewhere: guest workers and foreign nationals, asylum seekers and citizens with an immigrant background, and all must live with the many who think they have the old vested interests. This is more or see human societies in their diversity.
the time of the Apostle, the trenches were broken between the Christians who came from the synagogue, and therefore directly with religious roots in the belief which also came from Jesus: The Jews and the so-called Gentile Christians. Gentile Christians are the equivalent? They know but not the tradition of the God of the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and not the message of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the others. They're equally through side entrances into the Christian community come without the legitimation of the sacred tradition. Are not such a thing as spiritual seekers and therefore more or less at the mercy of the owner of the actual civil and domestic rights? Moreover, they were also often from the lower social strata that are now summarized under the term precariat. After all - they had become Christians, had the gospel accepted and were baptized. But even more than that. Everything else was missing. Above all, the rite of Judaism - circumcision. And many said: They either get the to and they adapt to - or are, at best, strangers and aliens, and if all goes well: be tolerated. But nothing more.
integration or adaptation - a technical term assimilation - that is the question. And it is not only in today's Germany or here in southern Turkey - it is also an issue in the church. Who belongs to who is a full member, so fellow citizens and of the household and who is a guest and stranger.
In the house where my wife and I since April 2009, used to be very beautiful show, which can drive the flowers occasionally called facts: Since Norwegians live and Danes, Dutch and German and of course Turks under one roof. And there are house meetings, which are in groups: Those who to whom to whom? This is often the question. Having an existing doorbell system comes out - this is not reached today. Now, after a few years ago a Turkish woman president. Maybe you can reach my successor by then bell and must no longer with the phone log on from outside, if you want to the pastor. Yes, those flowers, it can drive, when people gradations in the valence . Make
But back to the church: the apostles, it clearly states: All this behavior - and ways of thinking that limit exclude and - depending on the position - you have no room. For He, the Christ, came and proclaimed peace to you proclaimed that you were far off and peace to those who were near.
"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
're So you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone upon which the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy Temple in the Lord. "
The limits are lifted with it. However, not just random. The connection is shown, it is now the focus must be addressed. What unites Christians in the community?
first The peace of God
He has made peace between themselves and the people. This peace is sealed by the death of Jesus. Peace always requires sacrifice. As people are not in a position were - and still barely have - God has brought this sacrifice themselves. People always cause casualties in the other, or they are called senseless. However, the cross now stands as a sign that no victims are no longer necessary. Who stands under the cross and the power of nonviolent Love of and in itself can contribute, to learn the power of peace, we may ask for. Thus the cross is here on the altar and it is present in our worship spaces. The peace of God is the peace of the cross of Jesus. No one is excluded from this love and peace. And therefore no limits are more important. The peace of God is the binder of the Christian community.
second The message of the Apostle
We hear the same Gospel, we read the same letters and writings of the Bible. Binds us together. This experience I have made repeatedly - especially in ecumenical dialogue. I like to remember a great moment in this regard. We have the place of my had previous workplace as a pastor in service many ecumenical discussions. Closest we have come to us during an ecumenical Bible Week. We have done nothing other than read Bible texts, and told each other what they mean to us what they tell us in the current situation. Well we were never closer to us, the Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Free Churchmen. Much we have learned theologians of the laity, their approaches to writing are often much more direct than our exegesis and dogmatic theology of embossed thinking. And we always had the experience, the closer we get Christ, the closer we are together. He is the keystone everything with and ensure that the vault of the Church has fallen, but a good roof is for all who gather under it.
how we achieve the goal in fraternal solidarity, which to be aimed at:
third The spiritual and spirited home
"----- grows on which the whole structure is joined together into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are builded together for an habitation of God in the Spirit. "
a spiritual house. We could also say: A house full of spirit. Each house, each apartment is marked by the spirit which in him or her to blow. We feel that fast when we enter an apartment and meet the people, at home in it are. Is this a cheerful spirit? The Spirit of God is a cheerful spirit. Is there a peaceful mind? The spirit of God is a peaceful mind. Is that a liberal mind? The Spirit of God breathes freedom from all constraints. What spirit is blowing now here in our community on the southern Turkish coast Nicholas between Antalya and Alanya, and in both places even beyond - from Gasipasa up to Kemer?
Some experiences:
We have no churches in the traditional sense, even apart from the chapel in Belek. We have houses in which we celebrate religious services. Because discussion groups meet, there is coffee and cake Community maintained with all the trimmings. The buildings are hardly the binding, they are only available for rental or other provided. The church - which is not the building with a bell tower, these are the people who gather in the name of the triune God. They complain and praise, pray and sing, listen and celebrate the Lord's Supper. And the limits? They are hardly felt or little. The binding, the connecting element is present here, though not without error and shortcomings. We are only human and Christian people who, if they "have mercy Lord," the "Kyrie eleison," which, on Sunday to sing, even and especially to think of themselves have. But
much of the peace of the cross and the common ground of faith and a spirit that breathes the freedom I have felt and witnessed. May it remain so in time to come. The fact that I can take some of them with in North Friesland, for which I am grateful. Amen
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