Service held to celebrate Danish EU presidency

EU MP calls it ‘disgraceful, bizarre, distasteful and quite unprecedented”

To mark Denmark’s assumption of the EU presidency for the next 6 months an ecumenical service was held at Copenhagen Cathedral in January. To underline the ecumenical aspect the service was attended by representatives from the outgoing presidency (Poland) and the next presidency (Cyprus) as well as by those from the Roman Catholic and the Methodist churches in Denmark.

Prior to the service the EU MP for the Danish People’s Party, Morten Messerschmidt, had called it ‘disgraceful, bizarre, distasteful and quite unprecedented”. His argument was that the service was doing religious favours to the EU, and that religion and politics should be kept apart: “I want a Danish church that has room for people who are just as much for the EU as I am against it, and that will be very difficult if we use the church to celebrate an EU event like this,” he said.

“We pray for our politicians” 
Representing the Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, , the organisers of the service, Heidi Martinussen rejected the criticism outright. “The Danish Lutheran Church has no position on the EU,” she says. “It’s just like holding a service at the beginning of each new Parliament, where we pray for our politicians. The council has no political agenda, and such services have been held before in other countries when the presidency is handed over.”

Bishop Jerzy Samiec of the Polish Lutheran Church brought greetings from Poland and spoke of how Denmark was assuming the presidency at a difficult time, a time which required much prayer. Polish-made candles were lit to symbolize this, and the congregation members received a candle each as they left the church.

By Edward Broadbridge
Photo © Niels Thure Krarup 2012

 

 

Bishop of Copenhagen Peter Skov-Jakobsen presided. The text of his sermon follows here:

Sermon for 1st Sunday of Epiphany 2012.
Text: Mark 10:13-16
“People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

Jesus is on the move again. All the time he’s on the move.
Jesus is a different kind of sanctuary from all the others, the temples and the synagogues. He is always on the move, moving towards people.
Mark must have seen him as the master teacher constantly moving along with his disciples.
The rest of us must wonder where all those children suddenly come from.
Truly to understand what happens next we need to show some understanding for the angry disciples. No wonder they’re angry. By the custom of the time everyone must have been thinking: Of course they’re angry, for what are all these children doing here?  
It is the privilege of the master to expect his disciples to listen. Especially women and children must be quiet. So Jesus’ response must have struck the disciples with wonder. For they had not said a single word which they did not imagine their master would appreciate.
Then suddenly their world is turned on its head! They have to see things from a whole new perspective.
When Jesus remonstrates, it is not in order to say anything sentimental about childhood, or the child and its mother.
We’re not about to hear an ancient story about how great men are the friend of children. Jesus is not a politician seeking election who needs to prove his credentials by picking up a child for a photo-opportunity.
We still believe that whoever shows a love for children will also show veneration for other people – and we believe this despite European and world history showing us how tyrants have consistently abused children by using them for cosmetic purposes to achieve their horrifying goals.
So when Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me”, we are faced with one of the most provocative statements in world history.
In Jesus’ day only men were equal – adult men, that is. The pious Jew gave thanks that he had not been born a woman. In the Roman courts of the time women were not even accepted as witnesses.
So much has happened since then that we find it hard to understand the history of this development. Perhaps it began on that day Jesus blessed the children and said, “… anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
What he is saying is very simple really: We are all at eye level with one another. When we stand before the Creator of Life we are all equal.
No one can stick out their chest with pride. No one can claim the privilege of being a king or queen. For there we are all equal. Of equal worth in God’s eyes. Worthy of respect.
What then are the major differences between the child and the adult?
Firstly, of course, adults have gathered a wealth of experience. If you ask us adults, we will readily admit that some of our deepest experiences have to do with joy and sadness, fear and regret, care and affection. We carry within us the feeling and experience of loving and of being loved – but we also carry the fear of being abandoned.
We spend much time trying to contain what we see as attacks from others. We are scared of being found vulnerable, of our angst being discovered. And we can be wary of giving ourselves over to love because of the fear of betrayal.
Children, in contrast, do not yet have these experiences and would not dream of securing themselves against the world.
They have no reason to put up barriers – or to become reserved. 
Spontaneity is a concept we often link to children. They say what they feel and think, and they assume that the truth will prevail, that justice will be fully served, and that of course you don’t cheat with words. To take a biblical moment by way of illustration: Children cannot believe that the man who kisses Jesus in the garden is the same man who has betrayed him to the soldiers, for this intimate sign of friendship cannot possibly be employed to deceive.
The child believes in truth, in justice, and in love. If all is as it should be, it is the child’s experience, that there is no way you can ask for bread and be given a stone! Of course somebody will come and help me, says the child, Of course my honesty will be rewarded!
Of course I trust other people!

Until Jesus spoke these words children were only to be corrected and raised! Now Jesus presents the child as a person to be learned from – and to become like.
The disciples had always believed that childhood was a phase in life that had to be got through before becoming an adult. But then they met Jesus, who knew how to change their ideas and arouse their wonder.
That day too, a new world order was created.
Mildness, light-heartedness, childishness are suddenly part of the battle against devilish boredom and painful reservation.

The events around Jesus and the first church were not just traditions that were linked to Jerusalem and Jewish culture. The narrative soon acquired a European context and joined the traditions from Athens and Rome. Already in the earliest churches the belief that all people have equal value in the sight of God led to a great attentiveness to all those who were on the fringes of society, including the sick, the downtrodden, and the imprisoned!
Characteristic for these churches was the living awareness of Jesus’ parting words in Matthew’s gospel. When he says, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” they know he is not talking about the power of uniforms, of money, of the threats and the weapons that so often cause chaos in the world. 
He is talking about a quite different sort of power! The power of the imagination! The power that creates freedom! The power that looks at an enemy or an opponent and sees a fellow human being!

Our continent ought to be a seedbed of new and exciting ideas. Our history is so rich in insight. Europe became the continent of many nations. And national feeling has taught us, if nothing else, how beautiful it is that people use their mother-tongue and their own culture to explore the rest of the world. Through our language and our culture we seek the truth. We seek to explain the same as the others, but in the particular way that our own language and culture make possible. However, we also know that ‘national’ can all too easily become ‘nationalist’. And suddenly there are barriers and borders. The mother-tongue and culture are no longer allowed as means to explore the rest of the world. Now they are used in order to withdraw from others, in order to isolate one self. Now there is no longer a reaching out to the world and its problems but an anger  and a pig-headedness that create enemies.
We know as well as any the scars that war inflicts on us. Throughout the 20th century we have experienced how political savagery and barbarity can make life impossible for the continent’s citizens. We have seen how people can lay violent hands on each other. We have seen how political ideas can create totalitarian systems, and how societies can be paralysed by secret police. We know about power, and we know about powerlessness too.
In previous centuries many were the thoughts in Europe about work and politics, about culture and economy. These ideas bore fruit and changed the everyday life of our citizens, mostly for the better. For we have sought a society in which the idea of community and the common good have been central. Unfortunately our religion, Christianity, often placed itself in opposition to these developments – against democracy, science, and social equality.
In recent years faith has acquired a new meaning for many people in Europe. My hope is, that faith will become the fundamental base on which our expectations can be built. We believe in so much in modern Europe – such is our new world. In the case of Christianity I base my starting-point on the core of faith: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.” My hope is that we dare to place God at the centre and understand the world in the reflection of the light from Bethlehem.
He was always coming towards people! He healed the sick! He gave eyes to those who would not see. He spoke to the downtrodden and to their oppressors! He made people of them! He showed them that that the world can never be centred on justice. It must be centred on love.
Love is not just directed towards God – the command to love points also to our fellow human-beings.
As for Jesus? They never really understood him. But they did feel that he loved them, even though he broke down all their ideas about God. They also felt that God loved them and that made them free. May we too believe this – in a world of economic, political, and social problems. May faith commit us to hope, and may love rule among us.

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