Oct. 27, 2019 Conference Assembly - Reformation Sunday John 8:31-36

            Every time you hear this Reformation Sunday gospel reading I hope you laugh inside.  The Pharisees say to Jesus, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone, what do you mean by saying, “You will be made free?”’  What!?!

While they themselves may never have been enslaved they ironically ignore the origin of their nation and their faith.  You know the story well.  Judaism as a faith was born as God rescued them from centuries of slavery in Egypt.  God freeing them from slavery was their founding!

But that’s just the beginning of the irony.  The Jews were never a powerful nation.  They were bullied about by their stronger neighbors from the beginning.  And they were hardly ever actually free.  In the 7^th Century B.C. they were almost totally conquered by the Assyrians.  In the 6^th Century B.C. the Babylonians did conquer them; and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. 

Then the Persians ruled them.

Then the Greeks.

Then they were caught in the struggle as the Greek Empire fell apart.

Then a little bit of independence before the Romans ruled them.

            Never slaves!?!  Maybe they hadn’t been literally enslaved, but they were certainly ruled by every major empire that arose from the Bronze age to the Romans.

            And let’s remember their plight in the first century.  The were ruled by the Romans and their homeland was heavily occupied by the Roman armies.  Why?  Because the land had strategic importance to the Romans.  We often forget that in the 1^st Century immediately to the east of the Roman Empire was the Parthian Empire.  The Parthians were every bit as populous and every bit as massive as the Romans.  Each empire kept a wary eye on the other.  Jewish territory was a strategic buffer for the Romans.  It was so militarized they could forget any freedom.

            In literal truth and in spiritual truth, those Pharisees were enslaved, and so blind to their slavery that they couldn’t even see it.

            Here on Reformation Sunday we can laugh at their blindness, but before we do, let’s make sure we aren’t blind ourselves.  You’ll remember this line quite well, “Take the log out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

            On Reformation Sunday we celebrate – we champion – the idea of being saved by grace through faith.  God has acted.  God has won the battle with sin.  We are set free.  It is not by our own merit but by the pure love and grace of God who delights in us.  God does not want to see us enslaved to sin.  God wants us to be free as God created us to be.

            Perhaps we will reply, “We are Americans.  We are a global power.  We are not slaves to anyone.  Even if our ancestors were among those who were enslaved, there are no slaves among us now!”
            That could be taken any number of directions, but I suggest we have left ourselves become enslaved.

            What is of ultimate importance in life?  God’s love.  God’s love is the ultimate power and the ultimate hope we have.  Nothing else – NOTHING – is important compared to that. 

            If you serve on your church council, what did you talk about at your last council meeting?  Was it about the supremacy of God’s love?

            I miss a lot as the dean of this conference, but I’m not totally blind!  I know what you talk about!

You talk about dwindling Sunday morning attendance.

You talk so few kids in worship, or no kids at all.

You talk about finances, paying the bills, and keeping a pastor.

You talk about maintaining the building.

You talk about not having enough volunteers to keep things going.

You talk about trying old ways that used to work, and trying them harder and harder and harder.

            Are we free my brothers and sisters in Christ, or are we slaves?

            For many of us we are slaves to an idea, a concept of what a successful church looks like. 

-That is a building with a sanctuary, a Sunday school wing, and of extreme importance to us food-minded Lutherans, a kitchen!

-That is a worship service on a Sunday morning with a crowd of people in the pews led by a professional theologian called a pastor, and there’s a choir, and a liturgy, and communion, and special music, and all that.

-That is having a pastor – preferably full-time, and a secretary, and a paid organist/choir director.  And maybe a youth director. And a janitor or cleaning service.

            Slaves we are!

            We need to remember something, and remember it well!  That vision of church is not, and has never been, the norm!  It is a short-term vision of American Christianity that developed after World War 2 and lasted for a few decades.  That’s it.

            The congregation I serve, St. John’s in Victor, did not have Sunday morning worship for the first half of its existence.  For many years they worshipped every other Sunday in the afternoon.

            I grew up in a Lutheran Church that until 1972 was part of a union church – two churches sharing one building: a Lutheran Church and a Reformed (or UCC) church.  The Reformed church was part of a two-point parish.  The Lutheran Church was part of a five-point parish.

            Where oh where did we get the idea that it is so essential, and so much the historical norm, that we have our own pastor for Sunday morning worship every week?

And that it is God’s vision of the church and how it should work?

And that it is the only way we can serve God?

And that it is the only way we could possibly ever flourish?

            We are slaves!

            None of it – NONE – is essential to salvation!

            We Lutherans have a term that we like to use for that sort of stuff- adiaphora; that which is trivial, that which isn’t important, that which is not necessary for salvation.

            Be free my brothers and sisters in Christ from the enslaving power of stuff that is adiaphora!

            You are loved by God.  You are beautiful people!  You are capable people!  You are God’s chosen people for this time and this place to handle these challenges… in the same way the Pharisees that day that challenged Jesus were also God’s chosen people.  But they were blind.

            You are not blind.  You know the story.  Jesus will be captured and arrested.  Jesus will be mocked and beaten.  Jesus will be killed in the most ignominious and painful was ever devised by humans.

            And we get all worked up about stupid things like money and attendance and an aging furnace in our buildings.

            God’s love conquers death!  God wins!  Nothing can stop it!

            We are saved by grace through faith.  It is true.  It is secure.  It has been done.  It is an unchangeable fact and part of history.  You cannot undo history.  Therefore nothing else matters.

            You are freed by God’s love.  Enjoy it!  Rejoice in it!  You have a permanent place in God’s household.  Do not worry about unimportant things.  God’s got it under control!  And God is drawing it all forward into His sure and certain future!