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Last Sunday was the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the
event that heralded the collapse of the communist system and resulted in the
reunification of Germany less than a year later. To mark the occasion,
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel led celebrations attended by more than
300,000 revelers.Part of the celebration included 8,000 helium balloons stretched across a nine-mile length of where Wall at been. ("Wall" is usually capitalized because it loomed so large in the lives of people in Germany at the time.) With lights shining on them, the balloons were released into the night sky.
In a speech earlier in the day, Merkel called the fall of the Wall proof that dreams come true, and said that its collapse continues to offer hope wherever "freedom and human rights are threatened or even trampled on."
The Wall, which had not only divided Berlin but also symbolized the "iron curtain" imposed by Communism on the countries where it was the rule of government and society, had stood for 28 years. Wikipedia tells that the Wall "included guard towers placed along large concrete walls which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the 'death strip') that contained anti-vehicle trenches, 'fakir beds' [beds studded with nails] and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the 'will of the people' in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period."
Along with the celebrations were tributes to the 138 people who were killed over the years trying to cross the Wall and the approximately 1,000 more who died attempting to cross the 856-mile border between what were then East and West Germany.
The barrier dividing the city of Berlin came about as the eventual aftermath of the division of Germany into four occupation zones following World War II. Each zone was controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. The German capital city, Berlin, although fully within the Soviet-controlled zone, was similarly subdivided into four sectors, each controlled by one of the occupying Allies.
After the Soviets refused to agree to reconstruction plans making post-war Germany self-sufficient and refused to account for the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure they'd removed from the zone they controlled, Britain, France and the United States, along with the Benelux countries, combined the non-Soviet zones of the country into one zone for reconstruction. Likewise, the parts of Berlin under their control, although an enclave surrounded by the Soviets, were combined.
In October 1949, East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) was declared, consisting of the Soviet Zone. According to Wikipedia, "By a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets penetrated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control." Also, indoctrination in Marxism-Leninism became a compulsory part of school curricula in East Germany.
The other three zones, combined into one, thus became West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). It developed into a Western democratic country, unlike East Germany. Eventually, because so many people were fleeing East Germany by crossing into West Berlin, and from there flying out to other places in West Germany or elsewhere in the West, the Soviets had the Wall built.
In this closed state, the East German secret police, the Stasi, became one of the most hated and feared institutions of the communist government. The Wired Word corresponded this week with Brigitte Downey, a former producer for the BBC, who has worked on several documentaries about the fall of the Wall. In a newspaper article she wrote in 1999 titled "The Spy Who Is Still Out in the Cold" in connection with a documentary for the 10th anniversary of the Wall's fall, she told how the Stasi operated:
... the Secret Police had infiltrated every strata of society until they had perfected a system where children spied on parents, pupils on teachers, friends on friends and spouses betrayed their partners. These people weren't officially called spies. They were IMs -- inoffizielle Mitarbeiter -- informers. One in 10 in the population was an informer, writing reports on neighbors, employers, lovers, pastors. They collaborated with the Secret Police for various reasons -- personal gain, career advancement, greed, vanity, power, belief in the Marxist system. "A landscape of lies" is how Jürgen Fuchs, the writer, described his country. The extent of those lies and the truth were discovered in the 112 miles of Stasi files in Berlin after the Wall came down in November 1989.
During the years that the Wall stood, "the churches were the only place in East Germany where any kind of political opposition could take place," Downey said. (See also the article in the link below, titled "The Church That Helped Bring Down the Berlin Wall.")
"It was vital to the Stasi to know what the opposition was up to besides praying," Downey added. In her "Spy Out in the Cold" article, she told the story of an East German citizen who'd been forced by the Stasi to spy on fellow church members for 20 years and report back to his Stasi officer.
Fast-forward 28 years: In 1989, as Communism was collapsing in the East, communist authorities gave in to mounting pressure and opened the gates of the Wall, relaxing travel restrictions. Germany reunited into one country on October 3, 1990, and the Wall was removed.
For people not only in Berlin but around the world, the fall of the Wall came as a surprise, something they hadn't expected to see in their lifetime. Most considered it to be essentially a permanent barrier supported by Soviet might.
But as one TWW team member commented, "Nothing is permanent -- except God."
More on this story can be found at these links:
Fall of the Berlin Wall Celebrated 25 Years Later in Germany. CBS News
Germany Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall. Wall Street Journal
The Church That Helped Bring Down the Berlin Wall. USA Today
Berlin Wall. Wikipedia
The Big Questions
1. Name a problem or troublesome circumstance in your life that seems unending. Does it wall you in or out? In what ways does it oppress you? What helps you deal with it even as it continues?
2. Name a problem that you expected to go on indefinitely but which surprisingly came to an end. (Here are some examples to get you started: The moment you learn that a long-standing lawsuit against you has been dismissed. When you finally leave an abusive but addictive relationship. When you finally reach retirement. When some huge, onerous assignment is at last complete. The hour you learn that the boss you despise is being fired and that a person you respect is taking his place. When you learn that some idea you held that kept you from trying new things is only a superstition. The day you walk out of prison after completing your sentence.) What did that teach you about life? What did it teach you about patience and trust in God?
3. If you were living in a part of the world where you were politically and economically oppressed, what aspects of your Christian faith might help you face that circumstance in your immediate, everyday situation? Would there be aspects of your life of faith that might seem next to impossible to practice? What choices would you make about public and private piety?
4. What is the practical life-application of this statement: "Evil belongs to time; goodness belongs to eternity"? In what ways is this statement not true? (For instance, if one assumes that creation as made by God is good, does one have to wait for eternity to experience God's goodness?)
5. TWW team member Frank Ramirez comments, "When we stress (rightfully so) over groups like ISIS and Boku Haram, it is good to remember they are pipsqueaks compared to the huge wrongs of the 20th century -- Fascism and Hitler, the Soviet Union and Stalin, Imperial Japan and the Rape of Nanking, the mindset about Empire and saving face that led to World War I, the genocide of the Armenians under the Turks, the Jews under Nazism, African genocides and the other genocides of the 20th century, including those by Mao Zhedong and Pol Pot. Are these appropriate comparisons? How do they affect your view of life today? How were these actions dismissed as unworthy of notice at one time? To what extent, if any, is it significant that these were all atheist (Communism and National-Socialism) or non-Christian (Shintoism or Islam) movements? Can Christianity be long corrupted by evil? What within Christianity can serve as a corrective?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Exodus 14:30
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. (For context, read 14:26-31.)
This is a concluding comment from the chapter in Exodus that tells of the Israelites safely crossing the Red Sea between parted waters, and the drowning of the Egyptians when they attempted to pursue the Israelites. Consider what a powerful moment is suggested by this verse, when the people of Israel stood on the far side of the sea watching the bodies of the enemy and the wreckage of their chariots washing up on the shore.
Remember that at that moment, they were looking at the absolute end of a situation that had been part of their lives as a people for something like 400 years. Every one of those Israelites standing on the shore that day had been born in slavery. They knew no other way of life. Yet, now, all at once, that circumstance was forever behind them. Whatever they did from that point forward they would do on their own. They would not be subject to Pharaoh's wishes ever again.
The people in East Germany must have felt something similar when the Berlin Wall fell. Note also that refugees from North Korea are known for having extreme difficulty adjusting to life under a relatively free government.
Questions: What do you think the Israelites learned from the Red Sea experience? (Hint: See Exodus 14:31.) What do you learn when you suddenly come to the end of a situation that had seemed as if it would never end? How easy is it, do you think, for people who have lived in slavery (such as the Israelites, and to some extent the East Germans) to adapt to a life of freedom? Does Exodus seem to describe an easy or difficult transition from slavery to freedom?
2 Chronicles 28:27
Ahaz slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem; but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. (For context, read 28:22-27.)
In the view of the biblical chronicler and, apparently, in the view of his own subjects, King Ahaz, who ruled Judah from 736 to 716 B.C., was one of that nation's worst rulers ever. He allied Judah with Assyria, had a copy of a pagan altar made in Jerusalem and set up other pagan altars throughout the land. Even worse, he sacrificed at least one of his sons to an idol and sacked Judah's own temple of the Lord. He was an idolater to the end. When he finally died, his subjects showed their disdain for him by burying him not in the tombs of the kings, but in a common grave.
Ahaz represented not only himself but his whole regime, so the treatment of his body was a repudiation of all he represented. His story suggests that the negative actions of a repressive regime are not quickly forgiven, and once it ends, its former subjects often move quickly to try to undo the oppressive things which that government had imposed.
Questions: When have you been able to contribute to the undoing of long-running wrong? Is it necessary to address the wrongs of your past, individually, congregationally or nationally? How important to our self-identity is our history? Are there times when you just wish that people would leave the past alone, such as when you have really worked hard to address the problems of circumstances you inherited? Explain your answer.
Nahum 3:18-19
... O king of Assyria ... Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty? (No context needed.)
The Assyrians had long been powerful oppressors of Israel, but finally they were defeated by a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 B.C. In the verses above, the prophet Nahum is essentially rubbing the noses of the Assyrians in their defeat, a feeling perhaps akin to what some felt when communist East Germany collapsed.
Questions: Although Nahum appears almost to be gloating, he no doubt also felt relief. When have you seen relief as a gift from God? When have you rejoiced because the source of a great wrong was no longer a factor? When have you felt a little guilty about rejoicing about the end of someone or something?
Matthew 13:30
... at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. (For context, read 13:24-30.)
This is from Jesus' parable about an enemy who sows weeds in a field where a landowner has just planted wheat. The two grow up together, but rather than uproot the wheat while attempting to pull the weeds, the landowner defers the sorting until harvest time.
Jesus told this parable to explain something about the "sorting" of humankind that will accompany the arrival of the kingdom of God, but it also serves as a reminder to us that there is a line that evil and wrong cannot cross. They will not make it into the eternal storehouse.
Questions: This parable takes a very long view of things. Is it helpful in the short run? Why or why not? Does this parable suggest that discernment or active removal of something contemptuous is not your concern?
Revelation 12:12
... for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short! (For context, read 12:7-12.)
While not referring to or demonizing the government of East Germany, this verse is a way of saying that no wrong thing is eternal. Wrong cannot last forever; its time is, relatively speaking, short.
This particular section of Revelation describes a vision John of Patmos sees: a war taking place in heaven in which Satan, who is pictured as a dragon, and his angels fight against the angels of God, led by the archangel Michael. Satan, supposedly a fallen angel, wages this battle in an all-out attempt to regain his position in heaven. Although the battle is fierce, Satan and his forces cannot prevail, and in the end, he is defeated and thrown out of heaven once and for all. But his rage at losing is such that he then turns his wrath upon the church of John's day, causing great trouble and tribulation.
This dramatic vision no doubt helped John and those to whom he wrote understand why the Christians of that day were being severely persecuted. John knew the reality of evil because he and his fellow believers were confronted by it. But in the midst of all that persecution is this word of hope: "... the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"
John maintained that Satan's time was short because Satan was already a beaten enemy. All Satan had left was only that time between his defeat in the heavenly battle and the final judgment. After that, this evil adversary of humankind would be destroyed forever.
Questions: "His time is short," of course, is a relative expression. If Satan's time is not shorter than our lives, then it seems really long. In what sense does the Bible mean that Satan's time is "short"? Is that helpful? Why or why not?
The book of Revelation presents us with a view of life as understood from the end. We might call it an "eternal perspective." It says to us that "this is how you will understand it when it is all over." That is not very satisfying when we are immersed in difficulties in the here and now. But how would our lives be different without that perspective?
For Further Discussion
1. Comment on the following: Several years ago, a retired minister who had worked as a missionary in China before and after World War II told the following: In the '70s, after Mao had opened the doors of the country, the minister returned to China to visit some of his friends. He asked his Christian friends how they were doing under Communism. They told him that as far as they could tell, this Communism thing was a passing fad, and was unlikely to last more than 400 years at most. Now that's a sense of perspective!
2. Discuss this, from TWW team member Stan Purdum: "Periodically we pastors conduct funerals for individuals who have been sick or infirm for a long time and for whom that person's spouse, parent or grown child has become the caregiver. Sometimes, in those days while funeral arrangements are being made or calling hours are taking place, the caregiver will mention a feeling of guilt because the primary response he or she is having to the death of the loved one is relief. Some of that is a gladness that the deceased will no longer suffer, but some of it is relief at no longer having to live with the restrictions the illness placed on both the sufferer and the caregiver. The guilt is often because the caregiver feels that he or she should not feel relief, that grief should be the overwhelming emotion instead.
"But that relief is neither selfish nor sinful, especially when the person has done his or her best to care for the sufferer. That relief is a profound gift from God. Often, as time passes, the more expected emotions -- grief and sadness over the loss of the loved one -- also emerge, but at the beginning, relief is something God gives to help us."
3. Read to the class the article "The Church That Helped Bring Down the Berlin Wall" and then discuss that church's methods that helped accomplish this feat.
4. Comment on this, from a U.S. citizen on a tour of Great Britain: "After seeing a number of magnificent centuries-old cathedrals, we went to see the modern cathedral at Coventry. That city had once had a beautiful old building, but on the night of Thursday, November 14, 1940, Coventry suffered through the longest German air raid of any one night on any British city in World War II. The old cathedral, along with much of the rest of the city, burned. The next day, only the four walls were left.
"Some years later, the new cathedral was built adjacent to the old walls, which were left standing as a memorial to that church's vital ministry of reconciliation, which was born out of the ashes of their building. The Coventry congregation has become known throughout the world for their ministry of outreach and compassionate caring. Goodness, they've demonstrated, cannot be bombed.
"This point is emphasized dramatically by a large bronze sculpture on the wall outside the entrance to the new cathedral. The sculpture, by Sir Jacob Epstein, is based on Revelation 12:7-8 -- 'Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated ....' The sculpture portrays the angel Michael defeating Satan." (See the sculpture here.)
5. Consider the walls that continue to divide people: physical walls (Mexican border/Israel), electronic walls (Great Cyber Wall of China); financial (rich/poor); historical (Armenia/Turkey), religious (Roman Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant), cultural (the so-called 'culture wars' in this country). Many of these or other walls make life harder. What does such "wall building" say about the nature of humanity? What should be the response of the faithful toward attempts to divide and conquer? Where in our communities do we see walls? What do these walls represent? Whom would we like to keep in or keep out? Why? What would our life be like if the walls we or others have erected were taken down?
6. Beyond political and economic expediency and beyond national security, why else should Americans care about what happens in other parts of the world? Why specifically should Christians care?
7. Respond to the following: In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis suggests that even devils are afraid of goodness. For while a virtue can be twisted (humility, for example, can be twisted such that we become proud of how humble we are), it cannot be destroyed. Lewis' point is that goodness has about it a sense of immortality because it comes from God. Goodness will outlast wrong.
Responding to the News
This is a good time to remind ourselves why Christianity is a religion of hope and not of despair.
You might also contemplate this, from Christian writer J.R.R. Tolkien, in his novel The Lord of the Rings: When Frodo Baggins complains about the difficulties of his time and how he wishes that none of this had come to pass in his time, Gandalf replies, "So do I ... and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Closing Prayer
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