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So that the whole world may be
accountable to God... God is to be our refuge, our “Mighty Fortress” and
strength, a very help in a time of troubles. The whole world has been watching
and has been waiting. You want to know the truth? You can't handle the truth!
The Lord Jesus himself had to say it to Pontius Pilate before taking up His
cross: "I was born for one purpose," he says: "... to Bear
witness to the truth. All who can accept the truth can hear my voice!"
Pontius Pilate answers for all humanity by saying: “What is the truth?!” This
dialogue comes from my favorites Jesus movie, Franco Zefferelli’s ‘Jesus of
Nazareth’ from 1977. It's basically the scene of Jesus talking to Pilate for
the first time in front of the Scribes and before He is to be flogged and then
crucified. There was something in the way that Pilate says, “what is the truth!?”…
That reveals that vulnerability and cynicism we have, to not only God, but to the
truth of what we are to do in the world. Pilate was a little “pencil-pusher”
basically sent from Rome to keep the peace, he certainly did not understand yet
alone hear the revelation that Christ was to bring into the world. The cross
though, had to be realized for Grace to break into the world and save it.
I had a lot of things troubling my
heart this week in thinking about not only Reformation Sunday, which next to
Christ the King Sunday are my two favorite Sundays to preach on, but just
thinking about a couple words that start with the letter “R.” We have a very
small two verse reading from The Book of Revelation, which really only has one
thing to say to us this morning: “We, Christ disciples, are refugees with an
eternal Gospel to Proclaim to those who live on earth.” The word revelation, we
know is to mean revealing. Do we have revelations today in how we carry on the
torch of the Gospel, the Eternal Flame of the Gospel onward? I had to do some
deep thinking on that. If indeed, as the Prophet Jeremiah says: “God's law is
written upon our hearts, has Christ’ Reformation of love been instilled within
us to not let that eternal flame of the Gospel go out?
The world has definitely gotten in
the way of the Gospel, even more so now that we are in another are a quiet revolution.
I looked up the meaning of revolution and it says a revolution is a fundamental
and relatively sudden change in both political power and organization. This
occurs when the population revolts against the government typically due to
perceived oppression. On the same breath, I had to look up the word reformation
and outside of what we know of our history 501 years ago, we had some
individuals who wanted to “protest” the practices of the established institution
of church. Both words in somewhat frightening contrast between each other
require change, are about change. Neither the times that Jesus was preaching
and teaching His Gospel of love, nor the times of the established church of the
16th century were able to deal with what we must do if we are to be in right
relationship with God. Being a freely responsible servant of the Gospel calls
us to lay down and surrender our willfulness that we are in bondage to and take
up the sword of the spirit to defeat the battle of evil and selfishness in
order to reign in God's love as that river of Grace flowing upon all through
the wilderness of this world.
I was only 1 month and 13 days old
when the 1968 Chicago riots took place. The Holy Spirit had me here, shaking
in my heart what Paul says beginning this passage in Romans chapter 3: “… that
every mouth may be silenced and the whole world being be held accountable to
God.” I then started to hear the chant that began that eerie but sad song by
the band Chicago called 'Someday.' The song begins with the chant that the
whole world is watching. The people are saying this over and over, while
violence and hate is freely flowing over and over, because the need for a
revolution is being felt deeply and most disturbingly for the end of not only
the Vietnam War but for civil rights to reign in a victory. The whole world is
watching yet again and wondering what we're doing? Where's the voice of the
Gospel right here and now? Are we in profound denial that the church is in dire
need for a new Reformation?
We know the story a troubled German
Monk who nailed his grievances upon All Saints Cathedral in Wittenberg
Germany on October 13th, 1517 in hopes to begin a process of genuine
renewal and restoration of the Church of Christ back to its Gospel roots.
Little did he know that the revolution of technology with the printing press
would cause his Reformation to split the church. The church is still “protesting”
today as well as still dividing... but not necessarily about the right
things. Christ is less and less in the picture, and the world of the self
that we are in bondage to, is more the center's focus, agenda. This treatise
that Saint Paul would enlighten the reformers of the Protestant Reformation,
may have been in fact begun to be lost now that we are justifying the self over
and above the Gospel of Grace.
“You want the truth? We feel we are
entitled to the answers ....but we can't handle the truth!” I love those lines
from the movie, ‘A Few Good Men,’ and yes every time I do think of those lines
and this beautiful Gospel of John's, that conditional “if” gets us to think: “If
you continue in my Word…” says Jesus, “You are truly my disciples.” And He
continues to say to them: “… and you will know the truth, and the truth will
make you free.” The only few lines that are not in this Gospel Jesus has said
in other places: “…if you are willing to accept it.... Let anyone with ears
listen! Yet wisdom is Vindicated by her Deeds.” The Cross of Christ is what
made, reinstated us to a right relationship with God to whom we are to take
refuge within.
We are those who call themselves
disciples, refugees of God perhaps fighting in a quiet revolution between the
empty promises established by the wilderness of the world and the eternal Gospel
of love established as a free-flowing river of Grace between us. If we feel we
have been set free, why have we not lived into this freedom truly and
truthfully? The church in the world today is broken by personal politics, that
is this internal greed that is hoping to snuff out eternal light of the Gospel's
truth. The Church of the Reformation was dealing with external greed, where the
Roman Church needed to have their tax monies and so abused, misused scriptures
to get to their goal. Both scenarios just used politics to try to dismantle the
power and fortress of Christ’ Gospel in the world.
We do live in a world that has walls
and those walls have been guarded... but we have also built up and torn down
walls that we should not have ever thought of creating in the first place.
Jesus disciples still don't understand what kind of freedom Jesus is truly
seeking for them to understand. After His command or calling of obedience to His
Word, His disciples asked: “What do you mean by saying, you will be made free?”
He then begins to tell them: “…that everyone who commits a sin, is a slave to
sin.” But this bondage can be broken if our willfulness is transformed into a
willingness to surrender ourselves to being accountable to God whose Grace
freed us and made us to be responsible in love to our neighbors.
Perhaps spiritually we need to be
haunted by these words not only for this Reformation Sunday, but onward as we
are still to be "protesting" for the sake of the Gospel today. This
bondage can be broken if our willfulness is transformed into a willingness, a
willingness to serve God as His freely responsible servant. It is a fine line
within our human nature to spiritually battle between the thought of freedom
and the need for responsibility. Being accountable to Christ is what the
commission of the Gospel calls for those who truly hear and accept and see the
wisdom of God.
I am but one voice standing boldly
before you today for people to hear the truth. I can do this because I can't do
anything other. This brings us to the problem of being in the world but
striving to live beyond it for the kingdom of God. Most of the world doesn't
want to hear our witness. Most of the world wants to control and oppress our
witness not only as Disciples of Jesus but individually as persons needing to
speak the truth.
I saw a really funny post on social
media the other day that was a sign for a church. I believe it was a white
cross with lights around it and the horizontal piece of the Cross had JESUS
written on it and the vertical part of the Cross had CARES written upon it. The
reason for the post made it look like it said: JESUS SCARES. Outside of the
humor of that, there's ironically some truth currently in the culture of the
world today. The culture of the world wants to suppress the Gospel of Christ. I
genuinely believe this is so, out of fear. If people truly began to understand
what real Freedom means from Grace and then believe, receive, incorporate and
share that Grace… then no one would be subject to anyone in the way that the
world wants to subject another.
The burgeoning Christ-less world is
building towards a revolution that wants to politically crush the Reformation
of Faith needed in the heart to live as a disciple of Jesus. Strangely enough
we've seen a hiccup of this with the twentieth century’s martyr, witness
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The symbol of the Sun that was originally used in
Hinduism, was transformed into an ultimate sign of evil, the swastika. He began
to see Germany fall to the evil of this movement started by Hitler and his
followers. His book on discipleship and other writings on discipleship tried to
reign us back into obedience, to a willingness of following Christ, by carrying
the torch of the Gospel and transforming the world with it. While the whole
world was watching… the news and other things, a man lost his battle and was
killed for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his efforts to try to save the
Evangelical German Church.
We really are not in a place to see
a post-modern Martin Luther nailing papers to church doors anymore... For there
are too many in the church today looking towards a revolution of the self, not
a reformation of the self. What do I mean by that? What is a revolution of the
self, versus a reformation of the self? We have heard of the “Me generation.” The
“Me Generation” definitely champions the whole concept of the Unholy Trinity of
I, Me, Mine. It is centered in the self. It is about the self and its progress
and goals only. The revolution of that has become the culture of the self.
Reformation of the self, connects to what God continues to try to reach to us
who have ears, to hear. We realize the truth of God's Grace when our hearts
incorporate this Grace as our faith that we confess, that we hold hope in and
firmly believe the promise. This truth of God's Grace transforms our hearts to
reap that new nature which is a complete reformation of the self. This reformed
self is now to live freely and responsibly into a resurrected life that is
obedient to love God and neighbor with all the gifts God has blessed their
lives with.
So, when we think about those 3 R's,
we are to see them through the Light of Christ to be able to battle the ruler
of this world with the Gospel. Our Revelation in the world needs to be our
voices, hands and feet in response— active Grace. Our Reformation needs to
start within us. The first church of every person is the heart. The heart is
where God does His work as the Holy Spirit. We need this first church to commit
before we gather as the greater church in the world. We need this first church to
be accountable to God and to one another. Our Revolution as the Church of
Christ in this Christ-less burgeoning world may not be a printing press, and
hopefully not resort to violence but be a form of resistance that someday, the
whole world will be watching to realize Christ truly in our midst.
Gracious and Loving Lord Jesus,
We thank You and exalt You as truly
our Crucified Lord and Savior.
Help us to know the truth so that we
may free others
With the wisdom You have given us, Your
gospel of grace and promise
May we humbly be responsible to
realizing that we all fall short of Your glory in our efforts in this world
But we know that we hold Refuge
under Your overflowing Grace and Love that gives us strength.
We lift this prayer to your Mighty
ears
AMEN
Reformation Sunday; October 28th, 2018; Year B; Proper
25; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 46; Revelation
14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28 & John 8:31-36|| Jeremiah 31:31-34
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