Reformation 2016
Psalm 46
This is going to be quite a year to be a Lutheran. Today we enter the 500th year since Martin Luther began his critical, painful, passionate struggle with the church. And for the next year the Twin Cities may be the proudest metro in the country as we celebrate Protestant Pride — we’ll wave our team colors, chant our team slogans and sing our fight song long and loud, (A Mighty Fortress is our God…). And if this is all the church does, if one raucous hymn sing after hymn sing is how we remember and celebrate all year…well, we’d be seriously missing the spirit of the movement we so often label “The Reformation”.
It would be easier, of course, to drown out the intense spiritual struggle that haunted Martin Luther. The chains of God’s law that bound him, the confines of his own humanity that bound him. What we commemorate in this coming year is the freedom from this bondage, the liberation Luther uncovered through a life of study, hours of daily prayer and painful schisms with the church he vowed to serve. Luther discovered that the law which he failed miserably to fulfill was not the gospel in itself, but the law led him to the merciful promises of Jesus that brought liberation, redemption and reconciliation all on their own. Luther discovered not law as gospel, but the law and and the gospel fully present in God’s Word.
Psalm 46 is always the psalm used for the festival day of Reformation. This psalm is the inspiration Martin Luther used to to compose Ein Feste Burg, or A Mighty Fortress is Our God. The psalm does what we might expect and paints images of God’s strength and ever present help and protection…and there is also an intimacy to this psalm of praise as over and over it speaks to where our Almighty and Holy God can be found.
Psalm 46 says that though the mountains tremble and waters foam, God is present, very present.
The holy habitation of God is in the streams of a river that flows through the city, moving and nourishing the people of the city though they are subjected to cosmic chaos and perverse political powers.
The Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
God is exalted among nations and in the earth.
Deliverance through destruction, salvation through steadfast presence, God is more than a wall that surrounds and wards off injustice and oppression. This mighty fortress is also coming near, making glad, inhabiting, in, with, among and in again…God is here working redemption for the injustices and oppression that is at the core of every internal, spiritual battle that would besiege God’s people.
And Luther’s spiritual battle was an intense battle — he was tormented by the weight of God’s judgement, so imagine the revelation he experienced when he came to passages like what we heard in our gospel reading this morning. Luther read that “if you know the truth, the truth will set you free…and the Son will make you free forever!” Now for you and me, we are spoiled rotten that we live in a day and tradition that proclaims the freedom of the gospel every single week. But for Luther, this gospel news was absolutely world-changing, life-altering news. And we have this tradition because of the revelation that Luther discovered in God’s sweet, liberating Word. The reforming movement of the church did not begin as a religious power grab or competition over who exactly God’s fortress was surrounding…rather this movement began with one, lowly, tormented heart seeking divine redemption for his soul.
Five years ago Pope Benedict poignantly articulated this balance between powerful, Divine promises and still the inner struggle of a faithful man. Pope Benedict commented,
“What constantly exercised [Luther] was the question of God, the deep passion and driving force of his whole life’s journey. How do I find a gracious God? This question struck him in the heart and lay at the foundation of all his theological searching and inner struggle. For him, theology was no mere academic pursuit, but the struggle for oneself, which in turn was a struggle for and with God.
How do I find a gracious God?”
“How do I find a gracious God?”
After much angst Luther did find the answer to his heart’s question in the treasure of the gospel of Jesus. And the years that followed were filled with initiatives that would put this treasure in the hands of those who had not heard for themselves. The translating and mass production of scripture and accessible teaching tools like the small catechism, the leadership that told people of faith that their faith ought to be practiced first and foremost at home to raise up children whose would be able to hear the gospel promises right from the start. The reforming movement of the church moved through violence and mistakes and power struggles and division on every human level imaginable…but it did continue moving.
500 years later and that foundational question of Martin Luther’s heart is still an intimate and soulful question for humanity today, “How do I find a gracious God?”
In our contemporary context this question has nuance, of course. Schisms have become commonplace, we hear of political, racial, economic and religious schisms every day…division and disappointment is so commonplace we have come to expect it of the church and her mission.
We seek righteousness through accomplishments and glory, we place ourselves in the place where God should be, we define ourselves, we label our neighbors and just like Luther we find ourselves in bondage to laws we will never be able to fulfill.
Spending our lives climbing and commenting, striving and straining — even the quiet, earnest questions of our faith and existence become drowned out…”How do I find a gracious God?”
In the repentant spirit of Luther I think it is fair to say the legacy of the church has not always been as prolific at helping people answer this question as we are called to be. Our propensity toward division, proper order and self-righteousness has so often distracted the mission of the church and we forget to turn to the treasure we have been freely given. Meanwhile, the world around us continues to ask, “How do I find a gracious God?”
In order to continue the honest, critical movement of the reforming spirit, we must not only be comforted by the loud rousing of our team song and waving our team colors and rallying to celebrate the Reformation. We can go deeper, to a quieter, introspective place of repentance. Through repentance and the work of the Holy Spirit we find ourselves held tenderly and eternally by our gracious God. This is most certainly true.
My first pastoral call was to Holden Village, a lutheran retreat center that saw a different preacher climb into the pulpit nearly every day. Each person brought their own gifts and failings, their own agendas and proclamations. Some were amazing and some were not. But no matter the gifting of the preacher, they stood in a large wooden pulpit that had four words carved into the front, “We have this treasure.” In four words the truth of the gospel of Jesus was shared and named — it didn’t matter how long I rambled on, or how ineffective any sermon was, if nothing else could be grasped during the public proclamation there was a constant, sure promise.
“We have this treasure.” We have the living Word of God made available to us. And that Word drives us to despair in the law and carries us into the light of Christ. And that sure and eternal promise is our treasure.
We have this treasure…this did not suddenly become true 500 years ago. it was true as the spirit moved over the waters of creation, it was true 501 years ago and every year since. It is the promise we hold onto today, on November 8th and on November 9th…for the distractions of our living cannot push away the nearness of our God. And for the sake of this treasure we have been called to let Christ’s image shine forth renewed in us!.
For the sake of the world that lashing out and cries out and asks, “How do I find a gracious God?” We turn to one Lord, one baptism, one body of Christ and together we will say, “We have this treasure.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.