"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." – Hebrews 11:1
In 1964, a man who is best-known as having a dream of an desegregated United States traveled to a divided Berlin. He gave a sermon in West Berlin and then crossed the border to East Berlin to deliver a very similar message.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this message a year after his "I Have a Dream" speech, three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed.
"May I say that it is indeed an honor to be in this city, which stands as a symbol of the divisions of men on the face of the earth. For here on either side of the wall are God’s children, and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact. Whether it be East or West, men and women search for meaning, hope for fulfillment, yearn for faith in something beyond themselves, and cry desperately for love and community to support them in this pilgrim journey."
King believed that faith could destroy the barriers that separate us. He believed in the God who "destroyed the dividing wall of hostility" and "made the two one" in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:14-15).
There is one phrase that is nearly identical between King's "I Have a Dream" speech and his sermon in East Berlin, and it is a call to faith, to unity and a hope of freedom.
"With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of the nations into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to suffer together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
King would never see the fulfillment of these words in Berlin. Four years later, King would be assassinated. Twenty-five years later, the Peaceful Revolution began in Leipzig. Twenty-five years later, the Wall would fall.
Hate may build walls, but faith tears them down. Yet it is hard to believe in what we cannot see.
Nobody would have foreseen that a movement of nonviolence would bring about the Civil Rights movement in the United States, that a people created equally by God would also have equal rights. Nobody would have foreseen that peaceful protest and prayer would take the Berlin Wall down.
"Wherever reconciliation is taking place, wherever men are 'breaking down the dividing walls of hostility' which separate them from their brothers, there Christ continues to perform his ministry of reconciliation and to fulfill his promise that 'Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"
Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling, yet we still live in a world of walls. We still live divided. We still live in a world scarred by injustice.
Will we have the faith to stand? Will we stand together believing that we really can be free? Will we believe in the power of the God who made dry bones take flesh, who broke the chains of slavery, who crucified and resurrected His son to save us? Will we believe that He can reconcile us? That He can make us one in Christ here in Berlin and across the world?
Read Luther's East Berlin sermon.
In 1964, a man who is best-known as having a dream of an desegregated United States traveled to a divided Berlin. He gave a sermon in West Berlin and then crossed the border to East Berlin to deliver a very similar message.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this message a year after his "I Have a Dream" speech, three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed.
"May I say that it is indeed an honor to be in this city, which stands as a symbol of the divisions of men on the face of the earth. For here on either side of the wall are God’s children, and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact. Whether it be East or West, men and women search for meaning, hope for fulfillment, yearn for faith in something beyond themselves, and cry desperately for love and community to support them in this pilgrim journey."
King believed that faith could destroy the barriers that separate us. He believed in the God who "destroyed the dividing wall of hostility" and "made the two one" in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:14-15).
There is one phrase that is nearly identical between King's "I Have a Dream" speech and his sermon in East Berlin, and it is a call to faith, to unity and a hope of freedom.
"With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of the nations into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to suffer together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
King would never see the fulfillment of these words in Berlin. Four years later, King would be assassinated. Twenty-five years later, the Peaceful Revolution began in Leipzig. Twenty-five years later, the Wall would fall.
Hate may build walls, but faith tears them down. Yet it is hard to believe in what we cannot see.
Nobody would have foreseen that a movement of nonviolence would bring about the Civil Rights movement in the United States, that a people created equally by God would also have equal rights. Nobody would have foreseen that peaceful protest and prayer would take the Berlin Wall down.
"Wherever reconciliation is taking place, wherever men are 'breaking down the dividing walls of hostility' which separate them from their brothers, there Christ continues to perform his ministry of reconciliation and to fulfill his promise that 'Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"
Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling, yet we still live in a world of walls. We still live divided. We still live in a world scarred by injustice.
Will we have the faith to stand? Will we stand together believing that we really can be free? Will we believe in the power of the God who made dry bones take flesh, who broke the chains of slavery, who crucified and resurrected His son to save us? Will we believe that He can reconcile us? That He can make us one in Christ here in Berlin and across the world?
Read Luther's East Berlin sermon.
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