Predigt zur Tunnelabschlussfeier DESY Hamburg 14.6.2012

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14. Juni 2012 - Hamburg/Schenefeld

The call of Abram: The Book of Genesis 12,1-4: The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. 'I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.' So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

1. Decampment

• A decampment into the Unknown. A nomad from the south of Iraq is to make the long journey through Anatolia to Palestine. With him begins the history of what will be th People of Israel. It all starts with God's call to depart and with God's promise to bless this way and to protect it.
• It can hardly be overestimated, what is reported here. Not only Israel, the whole culture influenced by the Bible over thousands of years, is formed by this call to departure. The People of Israel will break out of slavery, brought down a path through the dessert, blessed with the promise that life is possible in justice.
• We have the inheritance of this biblical unrest within us to break up and find the new. The goal is the Promised Land. But the experience of the Bible teaches that this Promised Land will never bee accomplished but we are to go further on to meet it. What we have and where we are is never possession of a homeland. It is a station on the way to go further on.

2. Evolution

• The Bible shows us God who called Abraham to depart. It is the same God who created all that exists. God's signature in the universe is the beginning, the progress, the evolution. Modern science has helped to understand this. For too long it has been assumed that God had indeed called Abraham to leave, but has created the world statically. The discovery of the principle of evolution has helped to understand more deeply, to recognize the hand of the God of Israel, not only in the history of the faith, but also in his work of creation.
• Today's celebration looks back on a great work. Many people have contributed to make it possible. They have braved difficulties and kept going on. Each and every one in their personal way had share in this decampment.
• At the beginning we have asked Saint Barbara for her blessing; she is the patron saint of the tunnellers. Today we can be grateful that there have been no serious accidents. I am convinced that such a thing is possible only if the people working together show respect for the value and abilities of each one of them.
  I express my respect telling you that you have participated in the great work of creation, which was not completed in 6 days. Rather, we take part in the development of the universe. Like Abraham we are called to depart. You have created a building that can help in the upcoming years to understand more deeply how the universe, which we are part of, was created by God in order to develop in evolution.

3. Blessing

• All of the above would be not only incomplete but false if not something essential would be added. The word of God to Abraham, as we have heard it from the Bible ends: "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." What we have and what we are capable to achieve is entrusted to us, in order to be a blessing for others. Already in the vocation of Abraham, there is the perspective to the people of all nations and generations. The calling of Abraham is to be a blessing to all.
• Teilhard de Chardin, the great Frenchman, has opened our eyes to the relationship between evolution of creation and the human vocation to participate in God's work through men's work and science. However, de Chardin was not naive. He knew that we would miss the target of our live when we use the means given to us only for ourselves, and if all that would end only at the advancement of blind selfishness and enrichment.
• The tunnel is completed. The building will be handed over to the scientists. It is up to them and up to the politicians, that all this will be a blessing. In our care is entrusted a lot. We are called to turn it into a blessing for all nations and generations. Amen.