Of the bad deeds of the bad people and the terrible silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King Day in Hamburg 2024.
Since 2012, theHamburg Baptist Congregationsthis day in the chapel of the Ecumenical Forum HafenCity. It is a holiday for Americans and is always celebrated on the first Monday after his birthday (January 15).
About 50 visitors came from Baptist congregations, from other churches, from the house community of the Ecumenical Forum, which is jointly supported by 21 Hamburg churches. The Forum wants to be a place of God's presence in a newly emerging district that invites devotion and conversation.
Anna Rubbertby the Catholic Church, which has recentlyLeadership of the Ecumenical Forumasked in her greeting what MLKing would say today?
Carsten Hokema, head of the Association of Hamburg Baptist Congregations, put the evening under the words of Jesus"Blessed are the peacemakers!".
Stefan Stiegler, retired pastor, accompanied the singing together instrumentally.
The main part of the evening was characterized byTilman Schreiber, head of the Evangelical Free Church Counseling Center,
with the lecture"The Peace Ethics of Martin Luther King". Instead of an erudite lecture, he traced his life up to the controversial statement on the Vietnam War at the time. That was a good thing and led to the highlight of the evening.
He recalled King's famous letter from Birmingham prison in 1963:
His statement on the Vietnam War has so far received little attention among us, Tilman Schreiber noted. This is a blind spot for us. It is easy to stay out of the political in favor of evangelism. By the terrible silence of the good guys, King meant the churches, but also his own silence. He was aware that his position on Vietnam could be misunderstood and that he could be defamed as a communist. He also did not want to jeopardize his good relations with President Johnson. His wife Coretta had already opposed the Vietnam War earlier.
In a lecture at the Riverside Church in Washington on April 4, 1967, he took a public stand for the first time. The time has come to break his silence. The Vietnam War had achieved nothing, so King called for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam. The reactions in his own movement were negative, as were those of the major newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post). King explained the reason: More resources flow into the war than for the poor. It is precisely the lower stratum of the poor, the blacks, who bear the brunt of the war. But at home they are not recognized as equals. Violence is used as a solution to the problem, but it poisons the soul of America. For him, the Oslo Peace Prize means working for the brotherhood of all people, especially for the enemies. Love of one's enemies, understanding the enemy, is a key to peace in the world. The US should end the war and accept the Viet Cong as a negotiating partner. In fact, President Johnson stopped bombing in 1968, but the war was to last another seven years. In the end, there were 1.3 to 3 million war dead and about 58,000 victims of the USA.
Tilman Schreiber asked questions at the end and cautiously drew some conclusions: Has the middle of society fallen silent, in the face of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, in the face of anti-democratic tendencies in our country? Is the language of violence so loud that the language of love seems ridiculous? The churches should raise their voices of love for their enemies. The ears open to the suffering, the screams of the victims, also to the enemies. To become capable of speaking for the language of love. The intercession should have a fixed place in the divine service and be as concrete as possible.
His lecture was followed by consternation and silence.
Thoughtful and helpful things came up in the subsequent discussion.What about love of one's enemies? What helps everyone, including the enemy? How much willingness to make sacrifices do we bring with us?There is time to talk and time to be silent. Implement the commandment to love one's enemies, first of all in our congregations. To get into conversation in small circles about our anger, our pain, and about what hatred and violence do to ourselves. Not conforming to the moods of the time, but to the message of Jesus, to our faith.
Three participants brought our intercessions before God accompanied by the sung "Kyrie-eleison".
As a new element of the M-L-King Day, some participants carried prepared cards with the prayer for peace into the neighborhood.
After the blessing, everyone was invited to a snack at many personal encounters.
MLKing Day 2024 was impressive and challenging and will have an impact for a long time to come.
