"Procession of the Lost and Found: Celebrating 500 years of Reformation"
Sermon for Reformation Sunday 2017
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,
Jerusalem
The Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith
29 October 2017
Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
 |
| Reformation Procession in Jerusalem 2014 (ELCJHL) |
On the last
day of our vacation in Prague, I decided to take one more walk around the city before
heading to the airport. A long early morning walk had been my habit each day of
our week away, as the weather was just stunning, and the others in my family
are late sleepers. As I stepped out into the crisp autumn air, I plugged in my
earphones, tuned into a podcast, and happily set off through the Old Town.
Because I
had walked this particular path for six days already, I was feeling quite at
home. The same musicians were on the St. Charles Bridge, playing the same
songs. The same artists were there, selling the same tacky watercolors. “I
wonder if anyone thinks I’m a local!” I thought smugly to myself, silently
judging the more “obvious” tourists. In fact, I was feeling so comfortable that
when I reached the other side of the river, I decided to take a different route
home. And why not? Prague felt like my
city now, and there was still plenty of time before our flight back to
Jerusalem.
And then, everything
was fine, until it wasn’t.
I looked up
and realized I had no idea where I was. I took a left turn, and then a right.
Then another left, and another right. I studied the street signs, but of course
they were in Czech, so that didn’t help at all. I kept on walking, hoping a
building or a statue or even a tree would look familiar. I certainly didn’t
feel or look like a local anymore! I was mostly looking desperate. Thirty
minutes passed, then an hour. Our flight time back to Jerusalem was fast
approaching.
Well, I
started to get a little panicked, so I walked faster. At one point, as I ran across
a busy street that looked far too similar to the one I crossed 15 minutes
before, the heel of my boot caught in the train track and I fell face first in
front of a line of stopped cars.
I picked
myself up and brushed myself off as gracefully as I could, but there was no
denying the truth now: I was lost.
Utterly, completely, lost.
 |
| St Charles Bridge, Prague |
Since there
was no more denying this painful truth, I finally stopped walking. I pulled my earphones out of my ears and stared down
at my cell phone. Of course, to save money on the trip, I had not purchased a Czech
SIM card, so I had no way to call for help. But I stared at the useless device
in my hand anyway, as if willing something to happen.
And then, a
miracle happened! Two bars appeared at the top of the screen. I had WiFi! But
from where? When I looked around I saw I was standing in front of a fancy
hotel, which was inadvertently sharing its signal with me. It was just a flicker
of a signal, but to me that internet connection felt like manna from heaven! It
was a light, shining in the darkness!
Now
connected, I clicked on “Maps”, and as the image filled the screen, I saw that I
was not only lost, I was on the wrong
side of the river. How is it even possible to cross a river without
noticing? And why did I not think to check if I had a WiFi signal earlier?! Those
are great questions, but it didn’t matter now: By the grace of God (in the form
of Google maps!) I was headed home. I was lost, but now I am found.
“For there
is no distinction, since all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood,
effective through faith.” (Romans 3:23-25)
Dear friends
in Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
a gift for the lost. God’s grace is Good News for those on the wrong side
of the river, with no map, and no way to call home. The mercy of God is a free
gift for those who have gone astray, for those who are too filled with pride to
ask for help, for those who have no idea what to do next, for those who have
nothing to offer in return.
In other
words: Every. Single. One of us.
Let me say
it again: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gift for the lost.
This maybe
seem an obvious statement, perhaps not radical enough or important enough for a
sermon on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation! And yet, 500
years after our brother Martin Luther took a stand, proclaiming to all who
would listen that salvation is not for
sale, we still find it difficult to receive God’s free gift of grace. Five
hundred years after the Bible was translated into our mother tongues, so all believers could read “we hold that
a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans
3:28), we still want to try it our way.
We still want to earn our own righteousness. We still want to justify
ourselves.
We still want to find our own way
home.
Things have
changed a bit since the day Brother Luther nailed his 95 complaints on the door
of the Wittenberg church, of course.
Five hundred
years ago, Johan Tetzel was selling indulgences, promising Christians they
could purchase a fast-track out of purgatory and into heaven for their deceased
loved ones.
Today, preachers
are selling us the path to health, wealth, and true love, if only we will
donate to their mega-church ministry and fund the personal pastoral airplane.
Five hundred
years ago, Luther put himself through much bodily suffering, trying to deserve
God’s love through extreme diets and long hours of prayer.
Today, we try
to earn righteousness through a vegan diet, or exercise, or by joining a
political movement. We may not have specific worries about climbing a ladder to
heaven, but we climb the ladder of acceptability every day by achieving success
in our careers, or perfecting our appearances, or curating our social media
presence.
The Gospel
of Jesus Christ is a gift for the lost, and yet Christians today still live as
if we aren’t lost at all. We act as
if we already have a map, so we don’t need to be found. We act as if we have no
need of God’s free gift, because we have the means to pay for it ourselves.
This pride
and self-righteousness is the most
expensive indulgence of all. It costs us the freedom and liberation of the
Gospel. It costs us time spent hiding our true selves. It costs us the peace of
knowing that although all have fallen short, all can rest easy because our lives
are in the hands of the One who says “Come to me, all you that are weary and
are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) And it
costs the people of the world much suffering, for those who do not know they are
loved cannot love their neighbor, much less God.
Dear
friends, five hundred years ago, a faithful monk named Martin Luther went
searching for the core of the Gospel message, and he didn’t find it in a
cathedral. He didn’t find it in the institutional church. He found it in the
Word of God, especially Romans chapter 3 verse 28: “For we hold that a person
is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” This Gospel message
became a motto of the Reformation movement in the 16th century.
But the
Reformation of the church was not a single event. It did not happen on one day
in 1517. The Reformation was and is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Thanks
be to God, that Spirit is still stirring up trouble among us today! Ecclesia semper reformanda est: the
church is always being reformed!
The truth
is, the message of the Reformation is still critically relevant for the world
today. So many people, both inside and outside the church, need to hear that we
have been made right with God, not through anything we did or could possibly
do, but through the self-emptying love of Jesus. So many still need to hear the
truth about God, for this truth sets us free.
We really can’t
know the fullness of God’s grace if we’re still trying to hold everything together.
Earlier this
week, I was delighted to read a poem by the Rev. Laura Martin, a Facebook friend
and a pastor in Virginia. I have no idea if she wrote this with the Reformation
in mind (Actually, who does anything with the Reformation in mind, except for
Lutheran pastors?!) but to me, it captures the essence of what I hope this
Reformation commemoration will be about. She writes:
“Sometimes
the strongest thing
You can do
is
Come apart.
Come apart
like the
Seed giving
itself up in the dirt
Like the
rain changing to torrent
Like the
sand letting go in a storm.
Maybe this
is how you discover
Where you
belong,
And what has
always
Held you.”
Hear that
again: Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is come apart.
Sometimes
the most authentic thing you can do is stop and admit you are lost.
Sometimes
the most faithful thing you can do is say to Jesus, “I am weak, but you are
strong. I've got nothing for this. Come quickly!”
On this 500th
anniversary of the Reformation, what I hope the world hears from we who are
Christians in the Reformation tradition is this:
We are lost!
And--equally important--God’s answer to a lost and broken
humanity is the free gift of grace, poured out from the cross.
It’s a
scandal that God’s answer to our weakness is God’s own weakness.
It’s a mystery
why God chose to save a suffering world through God’s own suffering.
And yet,
that foolishness is our power. That scandal is our wisdom.
The cross is our
joy, and our hope, and our way home.
Dear friends
in Christ, on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 pm, the Lutherans and other evangelical
Christians will gather in the main sanctuary at Redeemer for a big festive
worship service. You will see representatives of every church in Jerusalem at
this event: Syrian Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians, Ethiopians, sisters in
habits and brothers in robes and believers of every stripe.
And you will
see at least 25 clergy from our Protestant traditions, processing solemnly to
the front of the church while singing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
We will look
like we know what we’re doing!
We will look
like we have it all together!
We will look like we know the way.
But if it
were up to me (and it’s not) I would love to see us do it a little different
for this 500th anniversary. I would love to see us tell the truth in that procession.
I would love to see the words “I’m lost”
printed on all our fancy robes. The color of the day is red, so maybe we could
write it in red! I’d like to see the bishops and pastors and deacons wearing the
truth, in big letters, for all to see:
“I am lost.
I need the gift of grace.”
“I am
broken. I need the healing that comes through the cross.”
“I am
lonely. I need the solidarity and friendship of the Body of Christ.”
“I have
fallen short! And I am loved.”
What better
witness could there be to the world, as we begin the next 500 years in the
story of the ever-reforming church, than to admit we are lost?
What better way to honor the
free gift of grace given by God, than to open our hands to receive it?
It won’t go
exactly that way on Tuesday.
But believe me, our Lord knows our failings! Jesus
knows we fall short, even in this. And still, he will be there.
Still, Jesus
comes to us, lost as we are:
In, with,
and under the bread and the wine,
Through
water and the Word,
Freely,
abundantly, mercifully, poured out for all the lost.
The free
gift of grace, leading us home. Thanks be to God.
Comments
Post a Comment