“If You Continue in My Word…”

Sermon preached Sunday, October 25, 2020, Reformation Sunday, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

Today is Reformation Sunday. Each year, this special Sunday falls on or before October 31^st because on October 31^st in 1517, Martin Luther did something that would not only change his own life in a profound way, but also change the way Christians since have understood God and their relationship with God.

Frustrated by abuses he was witnessing in the Church, Luther wrote out a list of 95 statements he wanted to debate with fellow theologians and Church officials. On October 31^st in 1517, he posted these statements on the door of the church in town, the normal procedure for these sorts of academic endeavors. Instead of the opportunity for debate and discussion, Luther was called a heretic, eventually excommunicated for his continued writings and lived the rest of his life with the threat of death.

Why do we continue to celebrate this occasion?

We believe that God was working through Luther, revealing more of God’s grace and will for humanity. We celebrate today because we believe that God acted and that God continues to act.

We remember what happened five hundred years ago, but we will also be looking forward. That is, after all, part of the reason why we use the color red to commemorate this day.

Do you know what other Sundays we wear red? Can you remember?

We also wear red on Pentecost. Pentecost, the day when we remember the God giving the Holy Spirit to the early church and inspiring those early believers to come out of hiding and spread the Gospel.

So why red? What does the red represent?

Red is the color we give the Holy Spirit. Red, to remind us of the tongues of fire that appeared over the heads of the early disciples. Red to help us remember the vibrancy of our faith, of the Holy Spirit’s action in our faith.

Red to remind us that, although the Protestant Reformation happened nearly 500 years after the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was still working in the Church—and the Holy Spirit still is working in the church.

The Holy Spirit is a constant in the Church. The Holy Spirit is a constant from the beginning of creation! When the earth was a formless void, nothing but chaos, the book of Genesis tells us that “a wind from God,” the breath of God, the Spirit, moved over the face of the waters.

Jesus says today, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

“If you continue…” Continue. This word itself has the connotation of moving forward, doesn’t it? To continue means to keep going in the direction already begun. I mention this because sometimes we see this as more permanent; sometimes we hear these words and want to build something out of concrete and brick and refuse to move at all. But “continue” doesn’t mean never move, but rather move forward in the same vein.

What I mean to say is that sometimes we get so tied to what has always been done that we forget to look forward. We lock ourselves into a box or back ourselves into a corner and forget that God has called us on a journey, not simply to a destination.

If we are to continue in Christ’s work, we must constantly try to evaluate and discern what God’s will is for the world—what God’s will is for the world today. Through prayer and faithful interpretation of scripture, we can try to read and hear what God is doing in our world and how God wants us to participate in it.  It might look slightly different than it did in the past, but the basics are the same. God’s greatest desire is to be reconciled with all of creation. God wants to be in relationship with us. God loves us, forgives us, offers us grace and longs for us to do the same for others.

But the specifics might look different. The way we do worship might change. The way we engage our neighbors might change. The people we will be asked to welcome might be very different than in the past.

The biggest question for us, then, is “Is this really what we want?” We say that we want to continue in Jesus’ word, but that might take us to a place that makes uncomfortable. It is easier to pour concrete over our feet and stay right where we are than to branch out.

This isn’t a new phenomenon.

The early churches were different than the synagogues they grew out of. They welcomed gentiles, which some people found offensive. They worshipped God in a different way. The lived a radical way of life that made them seem strange.

And then the church changed from the persecuted minority to the religion in power. The Church took on the pageantry of the empire. Some believed that the Church was tainted, ruined by its new association with the empire. Others were unhappy that the faith was becoming codified with the making of creeds and finalization of our Bible. People were upset because it left some believers outside of the “official” Church.

The Church continued to grow and change until another great shift happened with Martin Luther. The mass went from Latin to German and people called it heresy. Luther gave the Bible to Germans in their own language, which some felt could be damaging to their very souls. Luther was separated from Rome and many believed that also meant he was separated from God.

If we continue on through history, the Church is always changing, still changing. Our own nostalgia leads us back to the time when Sunday Schools were full, businesses were closed on Sundays and Christians were in charge! …isn’t that what we sometimes long for? I’m young and so don’t know much of this first hand, but sometimes I wish that pastors were still offered the free lunch or haircut, or that maybe my collar could get me out of a ticket if I got pulled over.

…but nostalgia is also dangerous. If the church still looked the same as it did fifty years ago, I wouldn’t be up here. I wouldn’t be a pastor. I would be in some other career, fighting to ignore a calling God had given me.

When we compare the church of the past to the church of the present, it is tempting to name one as “bad” and the other as “good.” This really isn’t helpful. There was good then and there is good now. There was bad then and there is bad now.

What we have, then, is a simple recognition that the world changes. Culture changes. But there’s one thing that doesn’t. In a reality full of change, the one constant is God.

We have a God of the living, not the dead—God’s Word always speaks to us today in our world and culture, not only those who came before us. So even if our society looks different, God will still speak. God’s word is living, breathing, moving through us and doing incredible things.

We can look at the past and see a time when the Church was a power broker, when Christians monopolized the economy, politics, entertainment, etc. We can look at those times and be wistful for what was. But here’s something important to think about: Christianity almost always does its best work when it is working from the underside. Some of the greatest moments of our faith have happened when believers have been working against the dominant power and for the oppressed.

The early church was a group of persecuted outsiders.

Martin Luther was excommunicated and separated from the greatest religious power of the day.

The faithful witnesses in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s came either from the marginalized African-American churches and the courageous individuals who represented them or from those white pastors and leaders who had to put their job security and physical safety to fight for the justice God promises.

The church today is up to some pretty neat things, too. While the loudest voices in our culture seem focused on arguing and fighting over every little things, God is working through individuals and organizations to get things done: people are fed, clothes are given out, strangers are given warm welcome.

So today, we celebrate. We don’t celebrate because things have changed—we celebrate because we know that God is always up to something. Change means that God is at work.

We also celebrate because this morning we confirm three of our young people. Three young women who have thought about their faith and prayed and learned and decided that this is indeed a faith they want to claim for themselves. And all of us? We get the chance to affirm our own faith once again alongside them.

Jesus’ words are a promise: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

If we continue in Christ’s word. Not continue in our aspirations of the past, or attempts to do whatever is popular at the moment: both are dangerous pitfalls. If we continue in Christ’s word. The word of love. Forgiveness. Grace. Hope. Freedom. Life.

This is God’s word for us. Then—and now.

Amen.

The Wild Work of the Spirit

Sermon preached Sunday, June 9, 2019, Pentecost Sunday, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

Pentecost is definitely one of my favorite festivals in the church year. I’m not even totally sure why, but it is. The imagery is great, with the flames and the wind and the dove. And maybe it’s my tendency to root for the underdog that makes Pentecost standout, since the Holy Spirit is the person in the Trinity who often takes a backseat…but it really shouldn’t.

After all, the Holy Spirit is God’s promised presence with us. When Jesus was still with his disciples, he promised them an advocate. And the Holy Spirit is what inspired the disciples to finally leave the upper room and begin to spread the Gospel. Without the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t be here.

Today is not only Pentecost, but also Confirmation Sunday! The question then becomes, why do we do the Confirmation rite on Pentecost? We don’t need to, it’s not a requirement. In fact, we could Confirm our young people on any day the church gathers for worship. However, anytime there is a transitional rite in the church, we tend to invoke the Holy Spirit: ordinations, baptisms, and confirmation. It makes sense then, to Confirm our youth on Pentecost or Reformation Sunday, which is another traditional festival some congregations use—these are both considered Holy Spirit Festivals.

Confirmation is actually not even a unique rite unto itself. It’s really just an Affirmation of Baptism. When most of our youth were young, they were baptized, and promises were made on their behalf. Their parents or the folks bringing them to baptism promised:

to live with them among God’s faithful people,

bring them to the word of God and the holy supper,

teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,

place in their hands the holy scriptures,

and nurture them in faith and prayer,

so that your children may learn to trust God,

proclaim Christ through word and deed,

care for others and the world God made,

and work for justice and peace.

And for the past however many years, it has been the parents’ faith, the grandparents’ faith, the congregation’s faith that has stood up on behalf of the child’s. Today, however, two of our young people are going to be making those promises for themselves after years of learning more about the Bible and what we believe as followers of Christ. Today, Taylor and Rebecca will be making a transition from their childhood faith to the beginnings of their adult faith and they will be able to take their place as full-fledged members of this congregation with every responsibility and privilege that entails.

It’s this idea of transition to adulthood that makes me laugh a little bit at our readings for today. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

Of course, that phrase, “children of God” doesn’t refer to age, but about the way in which we relate to God. As “children,” we come to God unable to survive solely on our own, in desperate need of God’s guidance, love, and abundance. “Children of God” has nothing to do with age or status or a hierarchical church structure. It has nothing to do with the status of believers—we are all the same when we come before God.

The young people here at St. John’s, regardless of whether or not they are confirmed, are not the church of the future, as some folks may be prone to say. They are the church of today, the church of right now, just like the rest of us. They might engage the Church in a different way, they might have ideas that seem foreign. We might not know just how to make room for them—but they are here, the same way any of us are. And we have made promises on behalf of them.

When a child is baptized, the parents make promises, but the congregation makes promises as well. The congregation promises to support and pray for each individual in their life of faith—and supporting them means finding ways to fully include their true selves in our community. You’ll all make that promise again today—the promise to continue to support them and pray for them. Support does not require conformity, but rather encouragement and understanding.

After all, the Spirit that we celebrate and worship and remember today moves and guides the church in ways we often don’t expect or understand…or even want. That is the story of the early church breaking open on Pentecost. All of a sudden, it’s not just Jews, it’s not even just people who speak Aramaic or Hebrew or even Greek: it’s people of all tongues and nationalities hearing the Gospel. Eventually, as time goes on, the church opens up even more as newcomers aren’t required to conform into Judaism in order to follow Christ.

The Book of Acts and the story of how the Spirit has led the church is a story of things cracking open in new and different ways and conflict arising because always, without fail, someone opposed it. But always, without fail, God was at work, bringing some new out of the ever-changing church.

The past several days, I have been at Synod Assembly along with Carol Buckley. During those days, I was reminded over and over again the ways in which the Spirit is moving in the Church, both nearby in our synod and throughout the world. Global health, hunger, and disaster relief projects have been supported. Congregations have grown and changed and merged and taken on new mission. Individuals saw needs in the community and the Spirit helped them make connections with organizations and agencies to meet those needs. We also got to witness and participate in the ordination of four new pastors, when we literally sang, “Creator Spirit, heav’nly dove, descend upon us from above,” and asked for God to bless the ministry of these people.

If we are looking for it, the work of the Spirit is everywhere. Sometimes it makes sense and we can easily assent to it and embrace it. Other times, it might seem scary or strange or challenging and we might be tempted to shy away. But God’s reign will continue on regardless. Are we ready to join in?

Amen.