Reformation Sunday 2017
#Refo2017 #Refo500
[Jer. 31:31-34; Rom: 3:19-28; Jn. 8:31-36]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda.
‘The reformed or reforming church must always be reforming or reformed.’
It was one of the slogans of the Reformation we commemorate today, 500 years ago.
So let's start with a riddle:
How many Anglican vicars and Lutheran pastors does it take to change a light bulb?
….Change??!!
It's an oldie but a goldie, with a Porvoo Agreement twist.
For many in the Church ‘change’ is a scary thing, a threat that undermines dearly held beliefs and rituals…and positions of privilege and power.
But the ‘change’, the ‘reform’ we're commemorating today is one of renewal, not revolution. It was a loud call to turn a slumped, corrupted religion back into an energetic and energising way of living out the Christian faith.
Jeremiah tells us of a ‘covenant’ and that's a word many interpret as something set in stone. Unfortunately, then this covenant becomes rigorous and oppressive.
God’s covenant isn't like any other contract written in ink which fades over time, with an end date or conditions by which the agreement may be dissolved. It's an ongoing, surprising, exciting relationship written in the indelible blood of God’s own Son!
How to live in this precious relationship, this intimate bond with God was the question which was the Reformers’ prime concern.
In the debate regarding the meaning of this covenant the most important contribution the Reformation made to the universal Church is probably the emphasis that good works do not save, grace does.
What the Reformation didn't claim however is that good works aren't vital in the life of the Church! After all, by its fruits you will recognise the tree.
‘Justification by grace through faith because of Christ alone’ never meant: ‘I'm redeemed and so to hell with all the rest’! It's no excuse to sit on our lazy backsides and be blind and deaf to the needs of our neighbours. On the contrary, it's a never ceasing mission for us all, as the people of God, for the people of God, and everybody else!
“In the world, not of the world” (cf. Jn. 17:16) has so often been misunderstood; it doesn't mean that your faith shouldn’t shine like a resurrection light that our Lord -who is the Light of World- kindles and lets burn in us by his Spirit.
Not to show off our faith -that may perhaps be pious, but is more often than not disingenuous.
Faith cannot be dead faith, it must be living faith. And the living God grants us living faith!
“In the world, not of the world” doesn't mean that you can lock the door, let down the blinds and turn in on yourself, like some Christian groups do. It cannot be an ‘us versus them’-mentality: that's self-centred, selfish and quite frankly self-delusional.
Yes, our Lord needed his own privacy and time alone...to then come down the mountain to the people, to preach in the synagogues and worship at the Temple.
Our forgiveness, our justification, our God putting us to rights with Himself for free and out of sheer Fatherly love doesn't mean we're not called to action.
It's not because the guiding principles that should order our lives are very often not those of a world governed by greed, commercialism, anger and whichever inefficient and destructive political or ideological hype on the news, that Christians can turn their backs on the world, on Creation!
A covenant of faith that's isolated is indeed a dead faith, it's a lazy faith, it's a complacent faith…it's a dangerous faith, because it has resulted in many so-called Christians to give up on the world, to give up on Creation and retreat into a place of self-pity and self-righteousness: not a living faith at all, a pessimistic faith, often proclaimed with a warped religious view of imminent doom and gloom, so obsessed with personal salvation that there's no concern for nature, or poverty and disease, for oppression or justice and peace.
Is this why God gave us his covenant so that we don't care?!
After the flood, the rainbow. After the call to leave everything behind, the promise of nationhood. After the exodus, a homeland. After the fall of man, the new Adam. After the crucifixion, the resurrection.
Ever moving, ever revitalising, always life-affirming.
Not change as a fashion trend: change to improve, change to clarify, change to make the Gospel approachable, make the Gospel visible, attainable, available. Change because change is sorely needed, change to correct the previous change, change even to return to the original.
The message of the Reformation in many ways was very conservative, very ‘unchanging’ in its call for change: ad fontes, ‘to the sources’ was one of its mottos, which at that time actually turned into a big reform. Reform to proclaim the old truth of God's love.
The contribution of the Reformation to the whole Christian Church was the emphasis that God had taken the first step, that God always takes the first step.
Good works will not earn you forgiveness, the Reformation pointed out, but the forgiveness and newness you receive will free you so that you may be an ambassador of God, of his covenant.
Our redemption will be our strength and inspiration that will carry us all, us here in this church today and guide us through those doors at the back there, to bring hope and kindness and joy to others, to Creation.
The covenant is the ever renewing and creative expression of a God who cares, of a God who's involved. It’s an ever reconnecting of heaven and earth, humans with God, and ourselves with our neighbours. It's a covenant on the move.
Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda isn't a battle cry for change for change’s sake, but for a conscious commitment to the Gospel and how it's redeeming presence is lived out in a world desperate for good news.
So,
how many Anglican vicars and Lutheran pastors to change a light bulb?
As many as it takes to let the renewing and reforming light of God’s covenant, his Gospel shine brightly.
And for this, we can truly say: now thank we all our God. Amen.