The University of Hamburg department of peace church theology has awarded the Menno Simons Sermon Prize to Daniel Kaiser, head of cultural coverage at radio station NDR 90.3 in Germany.

The winning sermon was delivered on April 5, 2020, during Mennonite Church Hamburg-Altona’s worship service and broadcast live on NDR.

Titled “The Anointing in Bethany,” the sermon is based on Mark 14:3-9. It recounts a woman entering the “men’s group” of disciples to anoint Jesus with expensive oil that could have been sold to help the poor. Kaiser applied the story to the COVID-19 pandemic, when moralizing considerations take a back seat to immediate needs of compassion.

Kaiser is a parish elder at Saint Peter’s Church in Hamburg, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.

The prize encourages sermons that “bring the biblical testimony in the light of the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.”