Reformation
10-29-17
(Video of my sermon here, sorry for the terrible angle)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Did you all know that the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation is this year? Haha, of course you did. And actually, this is
exactly what we are celebrating today – that five hundred years ago on October
31st, 1517, a monk and professor at Wittenberg University nailed a
sheet of paper to the church door and the world would never be the same. What
was on the piece of paper, you ask, that was so radical that we still are
feeling the ripples down through the ages to this day? It was 95 thoughts on the
practice of the time of selling something called Indulgences. Hmm… sounds
pretty boring and irrelevant to our lives right now, 500 years later… or it is?
Now, bear with me for just a little bit before our eyes
roll back into our heads from Church History Bored. The church at the time of
Luther created an elaborate system of forgiveness. You sinned, you went to confession,
then you could take communion and be forgiven. But Luther noticed a big shift
when indulgences came along. Fewer and fewer people were interested in
confession and seeking ACTUAL repentance. Instead, they bought indulgences, a piece of paper that forgave
you. Imagine, or just a few coins, you had a “permission slip for any sin” -
past, present, future… for yourself
or any of your loved one.
If the 1500s had commercials, Luther might have seen one
like this – Having problems shopping for a perfect Christmas gift for “hard to
shop for family members”? Look no further! Introducing “Indulgences!” Forgiveness
of any sin, any time! No expiration dates! No strings attached! Transferable
AND portable! The perfect medieval stocking stuffer – yours for only a few of
your hard-earned coins!
This sounds completely ridiculous, because it is.
Ridiculous, and exploitative, since it not only played on people’s fears about
hell, but the money was also for an extravagant papal building project in
faraway Rome. Indulgences gave people permission to trust in a piece of paper
rather than on the grace of God.
Enter Luther, a hammer, 95 theses, and a church door.
Martin Luther had to remind us that there NO WAY we can buy our way into God’s good graces.
We are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves. But this grace has already
been given to us, free of charge. Grace is not
for sale, at any price.
The repercussions of Luther’s ideas have reverberating
throughout the centuries, and throughout the world. At the Lutheran World
Federation 12th Assembly I attended and preached at in May, every
one of the sub themes related to something being “not for sale.” “Creation, not
for sale…” “Human beings, not for sale….” And “Salvation, not for sale.”
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| Dr. Monica Melanchton |
On the day of “Salvation, not for sale,” presenter Dr.
Monica Melanchton from India shared that the 95 theses affirmed human dignity.
She told us that “the selling of indulgences reduces the believer to a mere
consumer of religious goods.” Dr. Melanchton reminded us that salvation is not
an abstract theological concept, or a commodity to be bought and sold, or even
hoarded and then given away by Westerners to 3rd world countries.
Dr. Melanchton shared a poem I won’t soon forget, told
from the perspective of a woman in India who survives starvation and experiences
the love of God as food in a famine-stricken
area. The poem goes, “I can hope to live one day more, for you made God come to
me as 200 grams of gruel… Now I know what you are speaking about, for God so
loved the world … every noon through you.”
In the poem, no one bought the starving woman an
indulgence. No one told her “our thoughts are prayers are with you” and then
stood by to watch her starve. God became incarnate to her through 200 grams of
gruel, and the hands that provided her that food every day at noon. God becomes
incarnate through these works of mercy. God becomes incarnate as we gather
together in the breaking of the bread, then going out into the world to share
that bread with others in need.
We are saved by grace through faith given to us by a
generous God. But we cannot make Grace into a new kind of indulgence, giving us
permission NOT to follow God’s call into the world to do acts of mercy. Not so
that we may earn our way into heaven – which we can never do – but because “God
loves the world…. THROUGH US.”
Martin Luther’s Thesis #42 reads, “Christian are to be taught that the pope does not
intend that the buying of indulgences should in any way be compared with works
of mercy.” Followed by #43: “Christians
are to be taught that the one who gives to a poor person or lends to the
needy does a better deed than if a person acquires indulgences.” Still think
that the 95 theses are dusty old relics?
The ELCA has a tagline that goes “God’s work, our hands.”
God used our hands this weekend when we packed meals for Feed My Starving
Children – which, by the way, I think Martin Luther would have loved the fact
that we celebrated the Reformation through acts of mercy rather than yet
another brat fry or German fest (not that there is anything wrong with them).
But perhaps a better use of our celebration would be to let God use our hands,
and also to acknowledge that the work of the Reformation that continues around
the world.
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| Turning over our check to FMSC (Second in amount to Merck Insurance!) |
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| FMSC Meal Packing Event |
The Lutheran World Federation was clear last May in it’s
world-wide commitments in working for justice for the environment and for
women, and to reform the church in a way that is “Global, Ecumenical, and
Ongoing. So, for the LWF to have
gathered for the 12th assembly in Namibia - a place that has seen
its fair share of hardship, colonialism, and apartheid - was a pretty big deal.
During the Global Commemoration service during the
assembly, Bishop Zephania Kameeta preached to the ten thousand Lutherans from all over the world on this very text. Here
in today’s reading, the Jewish people aren’t the “bad guys” – they are simply
voicing a question that we all would
have asked Jesus – “what do you mean, that we are not free?”
As Americans, WE have never been under the heavy yoke of
colonialism or apartheid as places like Namibia have experienced….oh wait… Except
that we HAVE. But having thrown off OUR English overlords, we have become a colonial power, imposing our way of life wherever we go. And we have created our own version of apartheid in the form of
racism - more subtle, but no less evil in nature.
As Bishop Kameeta preached: “All this can be true that we
are not slaves of anyone, but we certainly can be slaves of ourselves.”
Even in our celebration of the 500th
anniversary of the Reformation, we can easily become enslaved to the rosy
picture of our past. We have become enslaved to our privilege as Americans, we
have become enslaved to our whiteness, we have become enslaved to our heritage
and the temptation to drive into the future while looking into the rearview
mirror.
I’ll be honest, one of the things I was most looking
forward to about the Global Commemoration service in Namibia was to sing “A
Mighty Fortress” AKA the “Lutheran Theme Song” with ten thousand Lutherans from
around the world. I was totally anticipating all the goosebumps, and feeling
absolutely swept away in wonder…. And I was absolutely disappointed. Somehow my
section in the stadium got completely lost and we ended up singing the last
verse twice. So much for a transcendent experience.
… Except, I DID have EXACTLY the experience I was
EXPECTING… at the END of the Global Commemoration service… when ten thousand
Lutherans from all the world sang the South African hymn “We are Marching in
the Light of God.” It was like an out of body experience. It was a moment
beyond time, beyond sight, beyond language or thought. In that moment,
together, we were Africans, Europeans, Asians, Middle Easterners, North and
South Americans – TOGETHER, the body of Christ, one family of God. In that moment, I got to see what the kingdom
of God looked like, felt light, SOUNDED like.
It looked like diversity,
sounded like harmony, and felt like unity.
As one, with our beautiful harmonies ringing to heaven,
we proclaimed to one another that the Reformation will live on in us… that we
will march together, sing together, pray together, proclaim freedom together,
all while being sustained by the light and love of God.
When we continue to walk in the light of God, as Bishop
Kameeta said, “the amazing Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the over the top
love of God, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit will be with all of us.”
May this be our prayer for the next 500 years. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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