Constantly Reforming
Oct. 26th 2014
Matthew 22:24-46
20th Sunday after Pentecost
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church SE Portland
Grace Mercy and Peace to you
Happy Reformation Sunday. Today, is the day we celebrate our history in the church, we celebrate our history of being reformers. Today is the day that we reflect on the work that Luther did all those many years ago, 497 to be exact that set the Protestant Reformation in motion.
He was moved to speak up and speak out because of verses from Romans likes these…If one is under the law they will never be able to get out from under it. There is no possible way to live in the law and be justified by ones own measures.
There is something else and something more that just this law…there is a God of Love.
Luther found the God of love and the God of righteousness. He found a God that was loving, forgiving and full of grace. You see Luther was tormented by his past, by his sins and his short comings haunted him. While he was still a priest in the Catholic Church he would wear out priests during his confessions, he was known to have finished confessing, leave the confessionally booth and immediately return because he remembered sins that he had not confessed.
He was tormented by his sin and the thoughts of a God of vengeance and judgement.
However when he dived into the writings of Paul and the Gospels he found a God of love and redemption. A God that was a loving rather than a condemning. Justification for Luther was found in that redemptive and saving act of Jesus on the cross.
It was in that redeeming act that the world was no longer kept in check by the law but rather the world was freed by grace. No longer are we being held captive by the law but rather we are freed by the Grace of God.
However, what does this freedom mean? We hear Jesus in the Gospel this week speaking about being freed by the Son and that the truth will make you free. However, this is was foreign concept to the audience that Jesus was addressing and is very different from the notion of freedom that we have in our society currently.
You see in our society today we understand freedom to be something that allows to us to do and live as we desire. It allows us to be able to speak, act and live in a certain way, where besides some of the basic tiers and tenants of society is more or less open.
However, what Jesus is getting at is a new freedom in Christ and a new freedom in the world to live for the world and in service to one another. Jesus does not simply say that you are my disciples if you believe, but he said that if you continue in my words then you are truly a disciple of Christ. This is not a yes I’m saved and I can do whatever I feel, but it is a yes I am saved and for a purpose.
It was these very words from Christ that spurred Luther to continue to push and work towards reforming the church. He did not want to sit idly by the wayside but to push to make the church truly the Body of Christ and to continue to live into the calling of Christ, to be His disciples. That is why he sought to reform the church.
We are a part of this heritage and I do believe that we are still a reforming church, we are a church of the Reformation. The Reformation did not end 400 years ago but we are a church that is constantly being called by the Gospel, to be disciples and constantly calling us to act on that new freedom we have in Christ.
This week I came across an article that is one Lutherans take on what the 95 thesis would look like to the church today. I feel that it touched on some interesting ideas that I wanted to share with you today.
The first idea is that we are called to live a life of repentance. We are called to speak when we are wrong, acknowledge our shortcomings and ask for forgiveness. It may be counter to our society today, which seems to be me focused, individualist and not looking to admit wrong doing.
However, the life of a Christian is one that is called to repent and to seek that healing that comes with forgiveness, this matters not just between us and God but between each other. It matters with those people that we interact with on a daily basis.
We cannot live a buffered life that is removed from one another and removed from God. We cannot move through life not acknowledging and realizing our sin in the world. We must seek that repentance.
Repentance, is the second idea and that this focuses us on the importance of being in the world, entrenched in the community that surrounds us and not trying to live above or beyond our communities.
Repentance will lead us to a deeper relationship with one another, one that is not looking to one up each other or best each other but to look towards the future together and to work for the betterment of the world.
The Reformation sought to create new forms in the world, these new formations correct the wrong habits that we have sunk into. The work now of the disciples of Christ is to create those new habits and formations which will form a new way to work in the world.
This like learning to play an instrument, memorize a speech, shoot a basketball or anything that is learned, requires repetition and a community to grow in. Christ modeled the way in which we are called to live, the scripture reveals to us the ways in which we are call to live. These are lives of worship and service, and that is our calling as disciples to learn, to grown into those lives.
We are not being held accountable by the law but we have been freed by the Gospel to grow into being disciples of Christ, this freedom reforms our lives, church and world to continue in the worlds as Christ taught us.
amen
