REFORMATION SUNDAY
John 8:31-36
With today’s celebration of reformation, I think today more than most we have to wonder: what is a reformation? What is a reformer? Or, pronounced another way, what is RE-formation? What is a RE-former? We think today of Martin Luther and celebrate this new way of being the church in the world—but the focus wasn’t just on shaking things up. He didn’t argue for these radical changes because he thought he was right; rather, he couldn’t get the remarkable notion of Jesus Christ out of his head. Jesus was central to all this, and so we have to wonder—what about Jesus can inspire such drive for RE formation in a person?
This “Jesus” from Nazareth strikes me as quite the reformer. There are a few reasons why. They are not universal, they’re not the only reasons, but they’re just a few that might help us think together. The first is that when he was reforming nobody had really heard of him. He’s a young man from a poor town, to whom no one paid any attention until they did. I find this to be the case with a lot of reformers in the world. They’re of course very well-known now, but in their early days, they inhabited pretty humble beginnings. They spring up out of nowhere and then, all of a sudden, the world is changing. Gandhi, the Indian nonviolent leader, was a quiet banker. Martin Luther King Jr. was a parish pastor; Martin Luther was a simple monk. No one was royalty and none were the center of the universe. Instead, they were from the sidelines.
For another, he lived in a place where there an authority pretty much controlled the world. To be a reformer, you need to have something to stand against. For Jesus, it was the Roman Empire. They had power over the entire known world; they believed their emperors were on the same level as their gods. And, for Judea, their rule was absolute. People were things that needed to be controlled. For Gandhi it was the British Empire that had colonized their home, for MLK it was white privilege and the institution of segregation. For Martin Luther it was the church under the pope. Not only were these people who were unknown,
they were Davids facing goliath. They were Israelites staring at the wall of Jericho and thinking it would never come down. The odds were against them all.
Jesus also made outrageous claims given the culture he occupied Outrageous to some,
anyway. That he spoke for God and was in fact God’s son was pretty outrageous. People respond with confusion and disbelief. “How could this be,” they said. Gandhi and MLK appealed to a higher truth and knowledge than the rest of the world did. Rather than settling for the way it had always been, they were appealing to the hope for way things could be. Martin Luther appealed to God’s word, a word that he couldn’t keep from ringing in his ears, in his head,
in his heart. How could he look at the same texts of the church and see something different?
Bigger than all these reasons though is that Jesus re-formed the world. Turned it into something new. Changed the way that things are and re-defined the way things can be. The social structures remained unchanged; the empire continued for centuries following. We certainly do not live in a world that reflects all of God’s goodness today. But instead, Jesus identified a new way, a new path, a new approach to being in the world. Of experiencing the world. He was a reformer because he did the work of re-formation. Since he was there at the beginning of time itself, his work of re-formation was also the work of re-creation. He did the great work of making something new out of something old, and called us to such great works as well.
It strikes me that there seem to be a lot of attempts at Reformation going on in the world lately. In the early part of the year we saw people in Egypt Syria Yemen Libya. It’s happening here too. The tea party rallies and now the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the country and even, this week, there have been arrests and other means of force used to try to quell what looks like a strengthening rebellion. Whether you agree with the principles of any of these movements or not, the people of this world are crying out for a new order. That things are not as they should be, a visible response that is being made to move the world in a different direction. They’re engaged in an attempt to re-make our world. To re-form it. To participate in and realize that recreation.
And at the heart of every great reform m movement, I believe there is something incredibly faithful, incredibly biblical, about this pull we have toward re-formation. To this pull that we feel into a place that calls out injustice or ignorance when it’s seen and hopes for something better. Jesus calls it his word—he said to the disciples, if you remember, that if they continued in his word, stayed with it, lived in it, remained in it, stood in defense of it, then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. The power of this word, the energy of this word, seems to be the starting place of all this work for truth and freedom.
There are lots of names for this word—sometimes we name it Jesus himself. The word is that man, that person, that friend, that advocate in the world that pushes and fights for things to be right, for people to be free and un-oppressed and made new. Sometimes we name the word as the bible. This thing that we could pick up and hold right now if we wanted to, filled with stories about how God is in the world, renewing it and changing people and changing the very way that things are. Sometimes we name the word as what was said at creation—light from darkness, order from chaos, dry land coming out of deep, new creation,
creatures, and life where it was unexpected. It’s this word—in Jesus, in this book, in the world—that powers this re-forming of the world, again and again and again. And when that word grabs us we are all participating in the recreation. Right here, right now, at this moment. As you hear my words, as you sing these hymns, as you heave this place, as you live your lives.
When Jesus tells us about this Word, when he asks us to continue in his word, he likens the word to a house. With a nice big kitchen, shingles, a family room with a comfy couch. Maybe a whirlpool and a sauna. Nice yard, garden. The word is a place where you can make your life, raise your family, return for rest, host parties. When Jesus says continue in my word,
he’s saying to remain there. To stay a while. For a few nights, or forever. You’re a permanent guest because it is JC who’s invited you in to live, to work, to live, to build the world anew. You’re not interchangeable and removable, like a couch or a dining set. You are there for the long haul.
The closest comparison I can think of right now is of a kid who’s graduated college,
has a degree, or went into the world to make their fortune and, once they realize how expensive rent is, how much food costs, how hard it is to get a job, returns to their childhood home. And even though it feels like a little bit of your freedom is gone, that you’re not out on your won anymore, you can have a full meal, a warm shower, a soft bed, a shoulder to cry on.
Instead of struggling through a difficult and unnecessary life, everything is made new. And of course, on the other side of the story—“when are they gonna move out?” “You’re back again?” like people who come to visit and then just won’t leave. But with Christ, in that household, it’s not like that. You have a place in the household because the son, the heir, says you do. And not only are you wanted, you’re welcomed. And you’re’ not embarrassed about whether you could go it on your own, because you’re home.
WE take up residence with Christ and that’s where the true, real reformation takes place. That’s where we begin to look at the world and participate in its recreation. WE return to the word again and again and again for strength, for joy, for comfort, and safety and then go out again to do the work of re-creation. We leave and return to do the work of Reformation.
Each of us. Captured by the power of Christ and made members of the household, co-inhabitants of it, co creators of the world with him. We can do nothing but share that liberation, that justice, that freedom. With all others who might come through the door.
Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have ea permanent place in the household. The son has a place there forever. SO if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Make a little house to live in out of the word. Live there forever. Gather strength from it, and make a new creation. That is what the reformation is. And in it, you will be free indeed.
AMEN
The Rev. Daniel Kuckuck + October 29/30, 2011
St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa
