Evangelische Gemeinde deutscher Sprache in Äthiopien
Sermon in Mekane Yesus Congregation Amba/Debre Zeit
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is a great joy and pleasure for me to be invited and to share this service with all of you. I bring the greetings of the German Speaking Church in Addis where I am normally preaching on a Sunday morning.
Today I want to share with you the Gospel of this Sunday. The story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand is the only of Jesus´miracles which is reported in all four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - each of them tells in his own words how Jesus feeds 5.000 men. So let us ask why this story is so important that none of the evangelists left it out when writing his gospel. To give one answer right now: it has to do with the holistic ministry of Jesus. This is what I have learnt during my time in Ethiopia from my friends in the Mekane Yesus Church: as Christians we are called to share the holistic ministry of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
But let us start at the beginning. Jesus proves to be the good shepherd, first of all for his disciples, for his followers. They had been very busy, but now Jesus tells and even commands them: Let us find a place where you can rest for a while. Serving the Lord and having a rest - both is important for our Christian life. The good shepherd knows us. He knows that Christian belief is not only action. Before I came to Ethiopia I often heard people saying: Time is different in Africa. People have more time for each other. But now I am not sure about that: So many people are working hard, every night during the week and also the weekends are filled with further training for another qualification. Church people and even pastors are burdened with long board meetings and other activities and have no more time to share with their spouses and children. Brothers and Sisters, this is not the will of God! Yes, we shall burn for him, but he never said we should burn out! So Jesus tells his disciples to have a rest. They take the boat to cross the lake to find a lonely place.
When did you look for your lonely place during the last weeks? When did you spend time with the Lord, but also time with your wife or husband and with your children? Jesus is the good shepherd. He is caring for our soul and for our life balance.
And he is caring for the world around us and for those who not yet know him: "He saw the large crowd and his heart was filled with pity for them." The good shepherd does not only feed his own sheep. He is sent to the lost sheep, and so he opens his eyes and is looking at the crowd. His heart is filled with pity for them. For the people at Lake Gennesaret, for the people in Debre Zeit, in Addis, in the countryside. For the people in the streets of New York, in Beijing, also for the people in Germany. In my country people have more money but they are spiritually poor. The faces of people in Ethiopia are happier than the faces of people in Berlin and Frankfurt. Wherever people are they are hungry for life, they are hungry for truth and they are hungry for a meaningful life. So Jesus does the best what he can: He preaches the gospel of life. He tells them about the kingdom of God. I would have loved to listen to his sermon. Like all the others I wouldn´t have noticed the time passing by. I wouldn´t have noticed the sun going down. When Jesus is present you don´t think of the time.
However, all of a sudden is has become late. What to do with all these men and women and children? Meanwhile they are hungry, and the disciples want to get rid of the crowd. They have been told the word of God - so our job has been done. Let us dismiss them so that they can care for themselves. All of a sudden Jesus turns to his friends and tells them: Enante jemibelutin setuatscho alatscho! Enante! You! You give them something to eat, he says! How many loaves have you? Go and see. We got to know Jesus as the good sheperd. Now all of a sudden he challenges his disciples. He reminds them: you are not poor. The situation is not hopeless. The problem can be solved. You can help to solve it. It´s your turn now. Jesus wants his people to take the initiative. Not to wait until someone else will come and help. You can do it! Yes, we can, Obama said. Yes, we can. You know what Christians should add to this sentence? Yes, He can! Jesus can do it. With his help and his power we ourselves can do a lot.
Even if there are only five loaves and two fish. Two hundred years ago, a German pastor wanted to help the poor orphan children of his home town. But he had no money at that time. One day, a rich man gave him five dollars. This was the start for one of the most successful Christian projects at that time. The German city of Halle became a model for many other places where children were brought up in a Christian orphanage. Don´t ask me about the details, but this pastor took the five dollars as an encouragement and starting point for a huge social project.
Five loaves and two fish - they stand for very little. But Jesus can make much out of very little. If Jesus is with you, then little is already much. Not only little money, but also little skills. So many people think: This I cannot do. Others should do it. I remember one of our summer camps for young people. We were planning for a Sunday morning program but who should preach? Me, the pastor? They knew me and they probably thought: O, he is being paid for preaching. Well, I like to preach, but this time I felt someone else should do it. One of our young volunteers. So I asked a young student. Female. She said: O, I never did that! There are others among you with more experience. But I encouraged her, and finally she had a very good message. The most important outcome, however, was: she discovered that God had given her gifts, spiritual gifts. Later she went to South America to serve in a mission. She was no longer that hesitant.
So let us challenge each other. Let us all be challenged by God. Sometimes there are real handicaps, but God can even use our handicaps to serve his kingdom. Ruedi was twenty four when I came to my first church. His parents had both died. He was an orphan, but our church was his family. He was a baker, and he led a group of 12 twelve years old boys in our church. They all loved him. However, he had a slight speech defect and one of his ears was nearly deaf. Some young students laughed at him, they were mocking about him. But like no other young man he trusted in Jesus. One day he planned to the boys on a bike trip. The weather was bad, it was pouring with rain. So he came and said: Pastor, let us pray. There should be no rain this afternoon. At 3´o clock he had planned to start. At 5 minutes to 3´o clock the rain stopped.
Some years later Ruedi got very sick. The doctors couldn´t help him any longer. One day he told me what to preach about at his funeral. It was the bible verse which he had got at his confirmation: Jesus says: My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak. (2.Cor.12,9) A few weeks later the Lord took him to his kingdom. Although Ruedi had no more parents the whole chapel was overcrowded. His family was our church. They all come, even those youngsters who sometimes had laughed at him. They were now students at University but they all said good bye to the young man, the baker with a heart for Jesus. With his handicap and with his weakness he had given a testimony to the whole church. Even people who did not belong to the church somehow felt what God had done through this boy.
I still see him smiling and sometimes protesting against Gods ways with his life. He was not holy but he was honest. Sometimes he was desperate, but he knew his true shelter was Jesus. So he had a trust and faith which he passed on to others whenever he could do that.
Isn´t it strange that just twelve baskets of broken bread and fish remain in the end? One basket for each of Jesus´ disciples. Each of us has a basket of broken peaces to pass it on to other people. Each of us is gifted with some very precious talent. Even a handicap can be such a talent. Jesus can make much out of little. Ask him to show you what you can do and how you can trust him.
Look at Jesus and you see him caring for both, body and soul. You cannot separate the one from the other. Preaching the Gospel and feeding the hungry belongs together. Reading the Bible and helping the poor are two sides of the same coin. 50 years ago the EECMY was founded as a church all over Ethiopia. Christians all over the world have learnt from the wholistic approach of the Mekane Yesus Church. Which means to see and to serve the whole person, to preach the gospel and to respond to the needs of the people. These are the two hands of Christ. With each hand he serves us so that we can serve others. May God bless this your congregation in here in Amba so that his kingdom will be built and that people with hunger for life find the answer in Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Saviour and our good shepherd. He meets our needs and challenges our discipleship by asking us to pass on what we received from him. Enante jemibelutin setuatscho alatscho! Enante! You! You give them something to eat!
Amen.
Martin Gossens
