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German Baptists Give Thanks continued

that we can celebrate together,” said the German Baptist leader. “We want to ask for God’s blessing in the freedom He has given to us.” Stiba and other speakers in the worship service compared the fall

of the wall to the Jewish exodus experience. The challenge, Stiba said, “is to live into the freedom and not leave this Promised Land.” Stefan Stiegler, former rector of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Elstal who preached the 25th

anniversary sermon, admitted that it

was a risk to compare the German experience with that of the Jews during the exodus, but he indicated that East Germans lived under repressive communist rule for roughly 40 years. There was, Stiegler said, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness

on the one hand and 40 years of socialism on the other. Germans have experienced freedom of the mind. There was great rejoicing in the freedom experienced by the Jews, and Germans also experienced great joy at the fall of the wall and the reunification of Berlin and the entire country. Present day Germans, Stigler maintained, have the task “to advocate for freedom and justice.” Manfred Sult, president of the Baptist Union of East Germany

in 1989, told the congregation how the two Baptist unions in West and East Germany came to be one. Even during the time when the country was divided, the two unions did their best to be in touch with each other. Sult said maintaining this contact was difficult due to the difficulties faced by persons crossing from one side to the other.

Sult declared that as soon as the country was united, Baptists on

both sides were eager to form one union. “We wanted to become one union again as soon as possible.” Several meetings between the executive boards, the youth departments, the mission agencies and other departments were held. A major disappointment, Sult claimed, was the refusal of the Pentecostals, who were part of the union in the east, to join the new entity. “This was painful,” he said. Members of a youth choir that last sang together in 1989 reunited for the first time in 25 years during the worship service. Also in attendance were BWA General Secretary Neville Callam,

who brought greetings, and Associate Director of Communications Eron Henry.

Callam with Astrid and Hans Guderian at the Bornholm Bridge, where the first breach of the Berlin Wall took place on November 9, 1989

Callam bringing greetings at the worship service with Hans Guderian translating.

“It cannot be done. Never has been; never will be. That will never happen.”

Perhaps, you have heard people express this sentiment at one time or another. Their intention was to convey their certainty that a proposal being put forward was not workable; that a dream being voiced was impractical; that a hope being cultivated was fanciful. It was not capable of fulfillment. It saddens me that, sometimes, people express this negative sentiment in response to some far-reaching proposal being put forward, some marvelous idea being suggested, within the context of church life. A doubting Thomas responds dismissively: “That can’t be done.” After being associated with the church for a long time, after garnering years of experience as a disciple of Christ, that person certainly knows when idealists spill their wares.

Thirty years ago, some people scoffed at those who anticipated the fall of the Berlin Wall. “East was East and West was West and that was that. Berlin would never be reunited,” they argued.

Then came November 9, 1989! The impossible happened.

The Wall that divided people – that shameful monument to separation – came crashing down, proving that East and West could meet and people once forcibly separated from each other could develop new patterns of relationships. Today, 25 years later, we gather to remember. We assemble

to give thanks. We come together to pray. And, today, should we fail to recognize that it is OK to dream and to dream big; that it is OK to drink at the fountain of Spirit-inspired optimism, we would be doing ourselves a great disservice. When I was growing up in Jamaica, I heard my mother say

again and again, “Can’t is a word that is found in the lexicon of cowards who refuse to dream.” Sometimes, she put it more directly. She would say “Can’t is in the dictionary of fools.” This is what she told us; “Don’t ever say, ‘This can’t be done

20 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE CAN’T

The following is the greeting brought by BWA General Secretary Neville Callam at a service to mark the 25th

anniversary of the fall of the Berlin

Wall on November 9, 2014, at the Baptist Church, Berlin-Weissensee.