Saint and Sinner, Ash and Starlight

10 -27 – 19 – Reformation Sunday 

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by the Power of the Holy spirit, amen.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that it feels like nearly everyone I know is writing a book… It turns out that the upside is invitations to participate in a LOT of book launch teams – which usually means getting to read advance e-book copies! One such book was the launched “Holy Disunity” by Presbyterian Pastor Layton Williams, which I highly recommend, partly because I’m convinced that she’s a Lutheran in secret.

In her book, Pastor Williams shares a Jewish teaching called “the two pockets.” Imagine you have 2 pockets, each with a slip of paper in it. One paper says, “I am but dust and ashes.” The other one says, “for my sake, the universe was created.” Williams reflects, we “live somewhere in the midst of being both dust and ash, and once for whom the universe was created,” (56)  This reminded me very much of Luther’s theology of “Simul Eustice Et Peccator” – I am simultaneously saint and sinner… both at the same time. I am both a beloved child of God and a broken imperfect person in need of being forgiven.

In each chapter of Williams’ book, she explores this “Simul” of how such unlikely gifts as Difference, Tension, Doubt, and Uncertainty separate us, how these gifts show up in the Bible, and finally how each of these gifts can ultimately save us and lead us to a more true unity.

This Reformation, we are going to take a page out of the book of this Presbyterian, and add our own chapter, which we will call: “The Gift of Reformation” – How reformations separates us, where reforming shows up in the Bible, specifically in the readings we hear every Reformation Sunday, and how reformation can save – or free us – for unity in Jesus’ name.

How can something that we as Lutherans hold so dear – The protestant Reformation – also be something that separates us? The truth is, the legacy of Martin Luther and the Reformation is complicated. The same can be true of our Lutheran heritage – something that we can cling to and frees us, but also is filled with evil acts we would rather forget about.

 When Martin Luther set out to nail his 95 theses to that church door in Wittenberg five hundred and two years ago, “The protestant reformation” was not his end goal. He did not want to separate from the Catholic Church, but instead reform from within. But nothing ever really goes according to our plans … especially if other people are involved… and especially when the plans involve change and giving up power. The long-term fallout on Luther’s actions (and some of his more controversial writings against Jewish people and minorities) caused centuries-long religious wars, and it has been argued, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. 

And spoiler alert – church splits didn’t start OR stop with the Reformation. Five hundred years BEFORE Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox church split. And after Luther, we split separated further into the denominations we are more familiar with today – Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, etc. And even Lutherans separate all the time – even AFTER the merger of the ELCA happened, other groups have split of and become their own entities for one reason or another. And the ELCA itself is far from unified.

He may not have known what was to come, but Martin Luther felt he was following in a very long tradition of reforming our faith that comes from the Bible itself… all the way back to the Old Testament. The audience that heard the words of the Prophet Jeremiah were in desperate need of a word of renewal, hope, and reformation. The people of Israel at that time were in exile, scattered, and had suffered so much loss and were facing so much uncertainty. The royal line of King David was broken, their temple in Jerusalem was broken, and their covenant with God had been broken. Just as they wondered if God would abandon them, comes the word from Jeremiah – a new covenant was coming, one written not on dead stones that can be broken, but on their hearts – dynamic and beating with life.

As Lutheran Christians, we see the embodiment of this new covenant in Jesus, and in this particular instance, remember that Jesus is talking to Jewish people who already believed in him! They were not conveniently forgetting the centuries of suffering under the rule of foreign powers. Every year at the Passover they retold and remembered the story of going from slavery in Egypt to freedom. Their declaration to Jesus is an act of defiance that says, even though we have been under the yoke of others, we are only beholden to God. Then Jesus challenges them to take that same defiance and apply it to their own lives – to the sin and brokenness of the human condition that challenges all of us. Jesus teaches that we are beloved children of God, but broken people of dust and ash, ruled by our fearful and sinful natures… and there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s love…. A daring, reforming idea that got him into a lot of trouble, and led to his crucifixion.

In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul is seeking to clarify and interpret the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and what they mean for us – in reforming previous ideas about what “makes us right with God.” Paul reminds us that it’s not about what we do. It’s about what JESUS did.  Jesus died for the sake of the world, to stand in defiance of those who would hoard God’s love for themselves, to redeem his beloved children of ash and starlight… so that sin and death do not have the last word – resurrection does. New life DOES. Jesus DOES.

And thousands of years after, Martin Luther took these ideas and ran with them. Luther loved the book of Romans, and this passage specifically helped to change the course of his life. From the life and writings of one person in Germany, to us here today, in twenty-first century Pennsylvania. And it’s not just us, bearing Luther’s legacy in a Lutheran church in North America… this reforming work of the church in ongoing and spreading – as I saw so well when I went to Namibia and met Lutherans from all over the world – Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Canada, and Guyana…. sometimes even gathered as one over coffee, the third Lutheran Sacraments.

The road that has gotten us there is fraught, but and we are still far from unified in being “of one mind in Christ Jesus” as Paul wrote in another letter. But we are getting there. If one amazing Presbyterian pastor weren’t enough… In the words of another Presbyterian, who wrote a beautiful book of prayers called “Ash and Starlight,” she writes “… freedom sometimes comes in one, glorious breakthrough … More often, freedom comes through a muddy trail run …weaving and winding, not always moving forward….” . Just as we go in search of this freedom, [Jesus says]“You are already free. Now live into that truth.” (49-50).

The gift of the reformation is that it’s not over. Jesus is still freeing us from sin, death, and brokenness of life that holds us captive. Jesus is still sending us out into the world to serve our neighbor who are in need … especially those who are different or with whom we disagree. Jesus is still setting us free from our fear. Jesus is still leading us to constantly be re-making ourselves … even if that means sometimes separating for a time. Sometimes Jesus is still peaking, even if it’s through someone who is not Lutheran. The church is still reforming, and we are still figuring out what this freedom means for us. And sometimes Jesus is every using us saints and sinners to do God’s freeing work.

We have already been made free by Jesus, and there is nothing we can do to earn it – that is the revelation that Martin Luther had all those hundreds of years ago. And that nothing will stand in the way to access the love of God. Just as Jesus was a living person, with a body made of ash and starlight, just like ours, arriving as a baby in a manger show us God’s love in the flesh … our faith is alive, still being made new in every moment, as we are made new people every single day, without fail.

Not death, not sin, not powers or principalities of this world, not our own fear and limitations, can stand it the way. Not even WE can stand in the way of this reforming work begun in Jesus… Which we do all the time. It’s that whole “same time sinner and saint” thing. Despite our urge to fight and divide, Jesus is still forging the way to freedom…. For all. And we’re invited along for the ride. Thanks be to God. Amen.