|
|
As I mentioned in the children’s sermon, today is Reformation Day. In a lot of ways it’s a great day to engage in some good old fashioned Lutheran pride. We break out the exciting red colors as a sign that the Holy Spirit was alive and well when Luther posted those 95 Theses and the reformers put together the Lutheran Confessions. We remember how the princes in northern Europe went before the Pope and King Charles V, risking their lives in the name of the gospel. We remember and celebrate by singing that great hymn that Luther wrote, which has become the Lutheran fight song if you will – A Mighty Fortress in our God. This is also a time to sing those great songs that speak of the prominence that the Bible has played in our lives and in our church, songs like “God’s Word is our Great Heritage”, “Lord, Keep us Steadfast in your Word”, and that great Methodist fight song, “The Church’s One Foundation.” Every year, the readings for Reformation Day are basically the same, as we re-read those foundational texts that Luther rediscovered, which led him to the revelation that we are saved by grace through faith and it is not by our own works. We heard this in Jeremiah 31, where it says that God will change the covenant from an external one to one that he actually places into our hearts. We also heard this in Romans 3, where Paul says, “We hold that a person is justified (or saved) by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” And we heard in John how important it is for all of us to remain in the word, where Jesus says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” These are great passages that the reformers leaned heavily on and anyone with a good sense of Lutheran heritage knows how important these verses have been over the centuries. Pastor John and I were at our annual Bishop’s Convocation this past week, which is a gathering of all the ELCA pastors in the Central States Synod, and at our worship on Wednesday night, we sang several of these great hymns and heard these great verses, and the hotel was certainly filled with Lutheran pride. Yet, for the first time in awhile, I began to reflect and wonder about what the Reformation means for us today. Nearly 500 years later, surely some things have changed, and the Reformation must mean something different for us than it did for the original reformers. If we are to carry this re-forming tradition and spirit forward, we really need to examine who we are and what we are to be about. The thing that really got me to thinking about this was while we were singing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” one of my all-time favorite hymns. Go ahead and take a look at the words as they are printed in your bulletin – its our hymn of the day. I can see how these words would be so meaningful for Martin Luther and the Reformers. They lived in a time where the “papists” were out to get them, excommunicating them, putting them on trial, and burning them at the stake. Their lives were in danger everyday, yet they so firmly believed in the words of the Bible that they willingly put their lives on the line. Its no wonder that they needed a God who was a mighty fortress, who would save them from the hordes of devils that filled the land (as in verse 3), and would shield them from those who feared the Word of God (as in verse 4), both of which are direct references to the Roman Catholics at the time. Hopefully, you can see how these words and images no longer apply today. In contrast to verse 4, none of us are in danger of losing our goods, honor, child, or spouse for the sake the gospel. The Roman Catholics are no longer burning people at the stake, we are no longer destroying their churches, and in fact, most people realize that Lutherans and Catholics are two of the most similar Christian denominations out there. In addition, although so many reformers died just so that the Bible could be read in their own language, present day Lutherans are some of the most biblically illiterate Christians out there. While I absolutely adore this hymn, which we’ll be singing it in just a few minutes, I think we are forced to reexamine how helpful its images are for us and the very meaning of the Reformation for us at Hope Lutheran and in our personal lives. In order to really honor our Lutheran heroes and what they stood for, we shouldn’t use this day to dwell in the past, but rather, use this day to re-form the way that we share the gospel in today’s world. To really carry the tradition and spirit of the Reformation forward, we need to ask ourselves two questions. #1 As a congregation, are we being true to the gospel message? And #2, as individuals, how are we doing in living out our faith? First, on a congregational level, are we being true to the gospel message? When you really boil down the gospel message and look at almost every single story in the Bible, you can come to this very simple conclusion: God is on a mission to love, bless, and save the world. From the time that sin entered into creation, God has been working very diligently to love, bless, and save our broken world. Through the likes of Noah, Abraham, Israel, and Jesus Christ, God’s message has remained consistent, “I love you and I want to bless and save you.” God wanted to make this so abundantly clear that he even sent his son to die just so that we would know the extent to which each one of us is precious and important. This has been God’s mission from the beginning, and he established the church as a means to love, bless, and save the world. How are we as a congregation doing at this? How are we are loving our community? How are we blessing the people of St. Charles? Has anyone outside these walls heard the message of salvation from any of our lips or through any of our actions? These are good questions to ask ourselves on this Reformation Day. To help us refocus in this department, to help us turn out toward the world rather than in on ourselves, the leadership of our congregation has determined that God is calling our congregation to do three primary things: Prepare ourselves through things like adult Christian education and enhancing our worship; Care for others through things like OASIS, Stephen Ministry, and providing meals for those who need them; and Share the gifts that God has given us, like our time, our building, our energy, our passions, our talents, and our assets. These three things are the core of our new mission statement. Hopefully, as you walked in, you had a chance to pick up one of these Vision For Mission 2007 mission plans, which lays out the concrete ways in which we plan to participate in God’s mission. If you haven’t picked one up, I encourage you to after the service. And I also encourage you to sign up for a cottage meeting where council members will be explaining the contents of the mission plan and answering any questions you may have about it. This mission plan is going to be a wonderful tool for us in the coming year as we live out our mission by sharing in God’s mission. Our congregation is deeply engaged in reforming ourselves, and the mission plan explains how this is working in much more detail. The other opportunity that Reformation Day provides us is a chance to reexamine personal lives and ask ourselves, “How are we doing in living out our faith?” This is a very personal question that only you yourself can answer. Are there things in your life that you need to repent from? Are there areas of your life that have gotten out of control and you need to refocus on what’s truly important? Have you become lazy in your prayer life, your participation in church, or in how you treat others and you need to reengage yourself in the work of the gospel? These are all great questions to ask yourself and to reflect upon, and as you do, I’m going to bring us back full circle and say that today is also a great day to remember…not just all the great things about being Lutheran, but to remember all the great things about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. It’s a great day to remember the life that he lived, the death that he died, the resurrection that he experienced, and the eternal life that he opened up to all of us. It’s a great day to remember that we are indeed saved by grace, not by our works, and that we receive this grace by having faith that he has saved us. For it is remembering the great works of our Lord that will inspire us for mission in the future. No one will ever accuse me of being a poet or a hymn writer, but I took a chance the other day and wrote an additional verse to “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” which is up there on the screen. Like Luther, I used an image from Psalm 46. For good reasons, he used the fortress as his image of God, but to me, a big stone fortress doesn’t say much to me about mission. Our world today doesn’t need more walls or more wars. I think a more helpful image for us in today’s world is to picture God as a river. A river is mighty, yet moving. It’s powerful yet changing. It is unstoppable, yet it brings things along with it. This is how I picture God in today’s world, and I think this image can be helpful for us as we seek to engage in God’s mission to love, bless and save the world. If you’ll bear with me, let’s just sing this as verse 1 and move directly into the traditional version of the song for the hymn of the day. As you sing these words, I encourage you to think about how you might personally be engaged in God’s mission and how you fit into God’s mission here at Hope. Amen.
A mighty river is our God, A fountain of grace flowing. His mercy, love, and aims are broad. Through gifts the Spirit’s blowing. The world will be our stage, In mission we’ll engage! Though change it may be hard, We’ll do it for the Lord! On earth God’s light must shine through us!
|
