On the Eve of the Epiphany, the Remembrance of Pastor Kaj Munk, +1944

On this date the body of Pastor Kaj Munk was found in a ditch in his homeland, Denmark.  He had been killed by the Gestapo.   He was shot through the head. His crime?  Preaching the Gospel in the teeth of the Nazis.  When someone thinks they are “preaching to power”, especially by passing some resolution at some church assembly/convention which will be disregarded like yesterday’s leftovers by the powers that be, and I think of true martyrs like Pr. Munk, then we must pay attention. He like John the Baptizer preached truly to the powers and principalities and suffered the Cross.  Here is a quote from Pr. Munk’s New Year’s Sermon which is quite the  antidote to the slappy-happy, sentimental Christianity in our day which I think is, to be blunt, pretty crappy. (For another quote from Pr. Munk see this post here)   Like the Roman Catholic G. K. Chesterton said that every age has it’s saint…that is those who are opposite, as opposite as salt.  We need His  cure of our illness of  spiritual self-indulgence in the middle of decadence.

Do not trust too much in the preachers.  As a rule they are poorly paid.  They are brought up as humanists.  They have forgotten–or never learned–what Christianity is. They have imbibed lo-o-ove with the bottle milk in the cradle. In a world of men they too often plead the cause of the effeminate.  They “abstain from politics”.   They preach peace at any price for the uplift of the devil, who rejoices to see evil develop in peace. The Scriptures do not say: When your neighbor is smitten on one cheek it is your duty to hold him so that he may be smitten on the other cheek also. Do not trust the preachers until they wake up and remember that they are servants of the whole Gospel, and of the Prince of Peace who came not to bring peace but a sword; of Him who forgave Peter and permitted Judas to hang himself; of Him who was meek and humble of heart and yet drove the sacrilegists from the temple courts.

And do not trust the majority, which likes to take things easy and therefore is easy to please. . . . Do not trust the great neglected masses. I believe that the heart of the nation is strong, but it has become encased in fat. . . .

This is what our old nation needs; a rejuvenating power, God’s rejuvenating strength, that a new people may come forth, which is yet the old, worthy sons of the fathers. The gospel will have to teach the Danish nation to think as a great people; to choose honor rather than profit, freedom rather than a well paid guardianship; to believe in the victory of the spirit of sacrifice; to believe that life comes out of death, and that the future comes out of giving oneself;—in short, faith in Christ. What would it profit a people if it gained all the advantages of the world, but lost its soul?

The cross in our flag—it is long since we realized that it stands for something, and we have forgotten that now. And yet it is the cross that characterizes the flags of the North.—We have come to church —the few of us who go to church, and we have heard about the cross, about Christ’s example of suffering, and Christ’s words about self-denial and struggle. We have thought that this was all to be taken in a spiritual sense, and that it did not pertain to our time. We thought we were Christians when we sat in church and sang Amen. But No, No! We are Christians only when we go out into the world and say No to the devil, renounce all his works and all his ways, and say Yes to the Holy Spirit.

Lead us, thou cross in our flag, lead us into that Nordic struggle where shackled Norway and bleeding Finland fight against an idea which is directly opposed to all our ideas. Lead old Denmark forth to its new spirit. Not by the grace of others, or by their promises, shall Danneborg again become a free banner. For freedom only God can give; and he gives it only to those who accept its responsibilities. Lead us, cross in our flag, forward toward unity with other flags of the cross. With honor and liberty regained, the old Denmark in the young North-that vision looms before us this New year’s Day.  We who have vision will give ourselves to its realization.  We promise we will. May God he hear our vow and add His Amen!” (as quoted by Rev. Philip Pfaitteicher in Festivals and Commemorations)

From The Apocalypse, now called The Book of Revelation, chapter 7:

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
 ¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
   and serve him day and night in his temple;
   and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
   nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
   and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”