Nov 9: Berlin Wall Falls and John Knox Preaches His Last Sermon

Host 1 Welcome to this Day in Church History. On this day, November 9th, we are taking a deep dive into some sources that well they reveal a pretty amazing historical paradox.

Host 2 Yeah we're looking at how massive you know heavily fortified borders and turbulent reformations are so often decided by well by frail men and flickering candles not armies.

Host 1 Right exactly. I want to invite you, the listener, to explore two moments with us today that just show the deep, enduring influence of the church, like we're going from a frail pastor in Scotland all the way to a completely peaceful revolution in Germany.

Host 2 So jumping right in, we really have to start in AD 1572. The Scottish Reformation is in full swing and its leading voice, John Knox, is preaching his final sermon.

Host 1 And this was it, Saint Giles Kirk in Edinburgh, right?

Host 2 Yeah, exactly. He was there to officially admit his successor, James Lawson. But Knox's voice was so weak, I mean, he could barely be heard preaching on the duties of a pastor and a flock.

Host 1 Reading that part of the source material, I couldn't help but picture like an exhausted relay runner, you know, a guy on the final leg of a race lungs burning, just desperately trying to pass the baton before he collapses.

Host 2 Oh, that's a perfect analogy. The physical toll on him was just staggering. There's this one vivid detail in the accounts where after he finishes, Knox leaves the pulpit and returns home just leaning heavily on his staff.

Host 1 Wow.

Host 2 And he was actually attended by the congregation as he walked. Then the very next day he was seized by a violent cough and he never left his home again.

Host 1 He died just a couple weeks later right on November 24th he did yeah

Host 3 But that final public act is what matters so much because he made sure the congregation at the very heart of Scotland's Reformation wasn't just left without a shepherd.

Host 1 Right. So he was securing the future of his local flock and then if we transition over to our second source we see a local flock actually shaping a whole nation's future.

Host 2 Exactly. We're jumping to East Germany in AD 1989. If you trace the opening of the Berlin Wall back to its roots, you actually land at Saint Nicholas Church in Leipzig.

Host 1 The Nikolai Kirche.

Host 2 Right. They have been holding these weekly peace prayers based on Micah 4.3 you know the verse about beating swords into plowshares. And over time a handful of people swelled to thousands

Host 1 okay but I have to play devil's advocate here for a second we're talking about the Iron Curtain

Host 2 yeah

Host 1 how exactly does a localized prayer meeting crack the Iron Curtain without firing a single shot like how did that actually happen on the ground

Host 2 well it all culminated on October 9th 70,000 people marched with candles led by Pastor Christian Fuhrer and the crucial thing is the police didn't intervene

Host 4 just because they were holding candles

Host 2 pretty much yeah the non-violent momentum from that night completely neutralized any excuse for a violent crackdown and that led directly to November 9th when a guard at Bornholmer Strasse finally raised the barrier

Host 1 there's that amazing quote from Bettina Schuster in the notes she was a Leipzig teacher and she said without October 9th in Leipzig there would not have been a November 9th in Berlin.

Host 2 it's so true it's just a profound modern example of churches giving shelter to a non-violent freedom movement in fact congregations in Berlin's Pankow district still hold an ecumenical service at that crossing every November 9th.

Host 1 that is incredible and you know just a quickly hit our other historical notes for today we see that same kind of quiet endurance elsewhere too

Host 2 oh definitely like way back in AD 324 by tradition Pope Sylvester I dedicated Rome's Cathedral the Lateran Basilica

Host 1 though the exact date there is historically disputed to be fair

Host 2 Right. Yeah.

Host 1 And then in AD 1844, we have Barton W. Stone. Ah, the preacher at the center of the Cane Ridge Cain Ridge Revival.

Host 3 Yep. Yep. And a founder of the Christian Church, the Disciples of Christ. He actually died on a preaching tour that day. Just working for the flock right up to the very end.

Host 1 It really leaves you with a profound thought to mull over. We always think of history as being shaped by politicians and armies. But so often, massive world altering shifts actually hinge on the quiet, steadfast faithfulness of local congregations thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow