IN GOD’S MEASUREMENTS
Last Danish Sermons
BY KAJ MUNK
Nyt Nordisk Forlag
Arnold Busck
Copenhagen 1946
EXTRACT
TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
For The Church of the Holy Ghost in Copenhagen 1943
Therefore it is first and foremost deed, he has called us for, when he made us his disciples. To be Christian is quite the opposite of being passive. There is in fact two ways, by which one can benefit God’s enemy – and I do not know, which of them is the most dangerous. The one is to be active for the evil, the other is to be passive in the good.
Some believe, that to be Christian is church attendance and prayer. It has nothing to do with Christianity – not more than to buy shoe polish has to do with a shoe polisher. Prayer and Bible, that is our arsenal. There we get power and insight for our struggle for the Kingdom of God on earth.
People can delude themselves into believing, that Christianity is to be a saved human. It has nothing to do with Christianity. What good pleasurable feelings one can reach regarding oneself and the relation to the beyond, is not of any interest for Christ. What he asks for, is: Are you a suitable battle ally? To be Christian is a state of eternal conflict. Conflict with God, with oneself, with the world. My own desire is no longer my dictator. I have got higher gods than myself. And what happens in the world, is not unimportant to me. I cannot lock myself up in a church or a place of worship as in a shelter: “Now let the bombs of sin scatter outside! I am alright with God in here.” Then Jesus would tell us on judgment day: “Be not one who says “Lord, Lord!”, should be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, but one who does God’s will. – You lame and wicked servant, that knew, that I gather, where I did not spread, what have you done with the talent, that I entrusted you?”
“There shall not be spoken politics in the church,” says the devil. He says it with the emperor’s utterance, because the emperor is interested in, that the priests are quite about his filth. And he says it with the devoted Christian’s utterance; for the devoted Christians have deluded themselves into believing, that Christianity does not concern anything else than them and God – and outside lies the world.
The devil lies, as it is his practice.
“But, politics do we hear about in the radio and read about in the news paper.” Yes – but in which way! In the church we should hear about politics, put in relation to God’s will.
“Your Kingdom come”, the father prayed.
If the emperor is a good man, if the state is a truly Christian state, that works for the fruition of God’s Kingdom, then the church will bless them. But do God and emperor collide, then oppose the church, that is unfaithful and quite and by its silence approves the emperor.
And it must not neither just protest in general. It must mention things by its right name.
And it is better to be wrong by speaking than to be wrong by being silent.
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There is another area, where the church without weary must keep the people’s demands in sight. Our Danish fatherland is viewed by the Christian congregation as a precious gift. Also there it is the case, that every God’s gift also is a task; his grace is a seed, that must bear fruit. We can not just love our fatherland with a ballot paper, little singalong and little Ewald parties. We call ourselves democrats, but too many stand by their work and skills for the quite opposite idea’s victory. Love can not limbo. God’s curse over those, that want to serve two masters and bear the cloak on both shoulders.
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But that is not enough. It is not Denmark, we should put our lives in for, it is the Christian Denmark, i.e. it is the Kingdom of God on Earth, where the Christian Denmark is a province – where the language is truth, the law is justice, and the tone between people mercifulness.
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We have forgotten to pray in our times. We have understood to use the power of electricity and been so busy with it, that we in addition forgot the spirit’s. Now there are few among us, that have serenity and good faith enough to use this the most immense of all earth’s power sources. But if they may hang on and preserve, so we others get to learn it again, and that there also at us should be a congregation of prayer and service mind and sacrifice will and battle eager. So shall Denmark get its seat not only with honor at the table of peace negotiation, but among the work the light day, that we pray God will soon let shine upon the world.
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SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
At The Cathedral in Copenhagen 1943
For to be quite about the sin is to talk the devil’s language. When Christ thundered against the rich, castigated the Pharisees, he was certainly on economic and judicial grounds. When the Christians refused to sacrifice to the picture of the emperor, they were in open uprising. God reached us, if we do not understand, that the church is for just that: in every given moment to actualize eternity.
When there here in this country is raised a persecution against a certain group of our countrymen just because of there origin, it is the Christian right of the church to shout: This is against the constitution of the Kingdom of Christ, that, which is called mercifulness, and it is abhorrent to the free Nordic mind. And the church must go further without weary: should it happen again, then will we with God’s help try to raise the people for uprising. Why a Christian people, that sits passively by, when its ideals are stepped upon, lets the force of corruption into its mind, and God’s anger sinks upon it.
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NEW YEARS DAY
At Vedersø Church 1944
I do not stand here to preacher hate against anyone. That is me quite impossible. Not even Adolf Hitler do I hate. I know, what terror and misery the world is thrown into; I know, what debasement my own country has had to experience. I know, that I now in months have not laid myself to rest any night without thinking: “Do they come for me tonight?” And that is not a cheerful thought for one, who loves life, and has enough to do in his deed and is happy for his wife and children. And yet I cannot hate. For humans are of so many kinds and are occupied by all kinds of spirits, and the Savior has taught us the prayer: Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
It will never be Christian deed to make itself available for injustice, either it so happens of cowardliness, greediness or stupid compliance.
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We know well, that Jesus and his brave apostles did not let themselves scare as such. They would rather walk into death than let themselves scare to do, what was against their conscience. We could do the same. But we are little people. Maybe we should also hope, that God sets the binoculars at the blind eye. But when Danish men without imperative need and by own free drive and choice betray their fatherland and Christianity of corrupt desire for money, then they should also know here from the church, that the wealth, that they acquire by fraud, is Judas money and will lead to their destruction.
In the case of just and unjust one should never ask, whether it pays off, for that is the interest of the devil.
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