Reformation Sunday – Synod Sermon
Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36
Dear friends in Christ and co-workers in God’s kingdom on earth,
I send you prayers of grace and peace on this Reformation Sunday from myself and the saints at Big Timber Lutheran. We remember you in our prayers and we trust that you remember us. On this day, we remember our shared history with other Christians around this world. The glory of this day does not belong to Martin Luther or other reformers, but to God, our Holy Parent, who speaks through the power of the Holy Spirit in every age to those who will soften their hearts and receive a message of reformation with a willing spirit.
The focus of this holy festival remains the same as every Sunday’s focus- a celebration of God’s faithfulness, of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, of the Spirit’s on-going work through the holy, universal church, the community of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the life of the world to come – even if we do not fully understand all those things. None of this work depends on us, but Luther would want us to remember that it is God’s pleasure to make this work happen through and among us.
In his seminal work Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote, “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is [a lapse] from which the enemy may launch [a future] attack otherwise impossible.”
Our worship together today is a fine example of Lewis’s words. Our holy honoring of God’s trustworthiness, revealed in the best of faithful actions, is the small decision that sets up our week ahead for discipleship and rightly anchored hope. Our confidence in God’s consistent character and relationship is the truth that makes us free. As we revisit this covenant, inscribed on our hearts and made tangible in our baptisms, our lives of faithful action are built on a firm foundation.
If, on the other hand, we instead celebrate human division- rights and wrongs, historical upsets, and make fellow children of God into our enemies (whether in history or in the present), we are doing the thing Lewis warns against. We are building a fortress not for discipleship, but for the forces which oppose God to use for sowing pride, dissension, division, anger, and idolatry.
Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us important guidelines for how to live as Lutheran Christians in the world. He reminds us that we are all accountable for our actions before God. This is not a directive toward shame or guilt, but toward relief. God already knows we are sinners. God is very familiar with our work. We cannot hide and, therefore, our accountability is a relief for God will make us right when we fall short, even as we strive to live into our baptismal promises of caring for neighbors and creation.
The way that God squares the uneven relationship between humans and the Divine is through Jesus. Christ’s faithfulness is more than a moral model for us; it is our very salvation- our rescue, our hope, and our life. The forgiveness and correction God grants through Jesus is the definition of amazing grace.
Since we know that this is God’s work and not our own, Paul reminds us, the only testimony we have is, “To God be the glory”. The only faithful witness is, “Thine the amen, thine the praise.” The only boasting is, “I give thanks to God.”
When we come to this holy day, rightly focused and with joyful hearts, we can perceive the compound interest to which Lewis referred. Our church buildings, while temporary, are acts of trust in God committed by those who came before us. Our hymns and songs are demonstrations of the gifts of God by steadfast siblings in faith. The gift of the written word of God in our own language and in our hands is a testament to those who lived and died for translation into common language and distribution into common hands. Compound interest indeed.
On Reformation Sunday, of all days, let us turn again to Psalm 46:10, “Be still, then, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” Let the exaltation, celebration, rejoicing in the power and promise-keeping of our God begin in our hearts and then carry through our words and deeds into the world. Let the interest continue to compound on the righteous and obedient work of servant-hearted followers of Christ, who are grateful and proud to be part of God’s work done on earth as in heaven.
When we pray for God’s presence to be revealed in clear and tangible ways, friends, let us be ready for it to be through us, in us, and for us and all people. On this day and forever. Amen.
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