St. Peter's United Methodist Church

Whether he intended it or not, Dr. Walter Hartmann kicked off our Advent preparations. On November 10th at St. Peter’s Church, Dr. Hartmann preached at the first Community Worship Service. His text was Genesis 11:1-9 on the Tower of Babel, and his title was “The Church and the Culture.” In this text Dr. Hartmann helped the assembled congregation, drawn from many different churches, to see an ancient people committed to building a city and a tower without God, and to see God stopping their project by confusing their speech.

Then, with the help of the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, Dr. Hartmann examined the history of more modern times. He considered the rise and fall of Germany’s Third Reich, the rise and fall of Communism, and the rise and possible fall of “capitalism.”

Dr. Hartmann vividly recalled that, as a boy, he watched Nazi troops, with torches blazing, march through his village one night. Attempting to create a civilization without reference to the God of the Bible, the Nazis, the National Socialists, failed. Then came the Communists. Their godless experiments in the Soviet Union and elsewhere also collapsed. According to Hartmann, both National Socialists and Communists tried to build cultures without the foundation of true religion, without Christ; so they were bound to falter.

Dr. Hartmann also pointed to the case of what he called “capitalism.” He warned that those, in American society and other societies, who try to create culture on the foundation of capitalism and capitalism alone are doomed to failure. After all, capitalism by itself lacks the foundation that only true religion can provide; and when that is lacking, the economic system will destroy itself.

(Here it might be said that, by “capitalism,” Dr. Hartmann probably meant unbounded capitalism, unfettered capitalism, capitalism without boundaries, or consumerism. Capitalism, as only an economic system, is not the problem. Capitalism run amok, capitalism that takes over all of a culture, is. After all, a free economy that is limited by democratic law and by Judeo-Christian theology can provide great material benefit to a society, its citizens, and those beyond is borders. But again, economics is not the be all and end all. A free economy -- or capitalism -- needs democracy, morality, and religion to flourish.)

The final part of Dr. Hartmann’s sermon had to do with character. Virtuous character. How can character be created that is ready, willing, and able to stand up to a culture without God and say No? For an answer, he returned to the days of his boyhood and youth under the Third Reich. His parents and their careful training gave him the intellectual and moral gifts to resist the Nazi tide. The suggestion was that the Church and Christian parents, in our day, can and should nurture the same character in their children.

The Season of Advent is a good time to consider these matters. Are our lives based on God’s love and law? Or are our lives based on activities and goals that have little or no reference to God?

This pastor is thankful for the Season of Advent. For he senses the need for self-examination in his own life. Do you?

There are four Sundays to begin preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ. Together, let’s get started.