My Bible

10- 27-13 "My Bible"
Reformation Sunday       
Luke 18:9-14

 On October 31, 1517, a man walked up to the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany and nailed a 95-part message to the door.

He did so with conviction, not contempt. 

Each one was about the length of a tweet, or a face book post. Posts that packed a punch. 

Inspired by the bible, Martin Luther believed with every fiber of his being that others should have direct access to that inspiration as well.

Luther started out as a regular middle class kid making the right moves toward success (laid out by his father) when one day the ground beside him was quite literally struck by lightening. Within 2 weeks he was in a Augustinian Monastery studying for the priesthood. He became a meticulous follower of rules, trying to earn an evasive assurance that God knew who he was and cared. (I"m humming "Blessed Assurance as I consider his plight).  But instead, Luther became depressed.  The closer he got to the center of his religion (literally Rome), the more he saw how the church had disintegrated, been hollowed out. 

It was reading the Bible that put his feet on solid ground. (And now for a verse of "On Christ, the Solid Rock I Stand.....")

When Luther learned that faith was trusting God and God’s promises and that lack of faith was trusting anything else he wrote, “I felt myself born again.” His life work became translating scripture into German so that others could read it as well.  He came to think of the lack of educated clergy as a key part of the crisis.  Scripture was guarded by a select few and used to make their own lives better. 

Do you a special bible with you?  What makes it special?

Many of us have fond memories of people or events attached to our bibles.  
I brought a few of my own. Here's the one my parents received as a wedding present from their Swedish Lutheran pastor in 1959.  Here's the white one I received in third grade from the little Methodist church in Indiana that taught me faith moves out of the building in mission.  Here's the Serendipity Bible I bought for myself when I started leading small groups in college.  There's the Neslte Aland I had to buy in Seminary for Greek class.  Each one represents a part of my journey. 

There’s a new wave of folks tracking down family bibles that have been dispersed through good will, garage sales, and wandering family members. I wonder how many people actually read the bibles they bring back home. These bibles are precious not just for the family ties and memories, but because the inspired word of God shaped the lives of the people who carried and read them.  Yesterday when I went to gather this stack of bibles, I realized I've now given away many in my collection.  It brings me joy to imagine the role they may be playing in the lives they now share. 

We are 3 years from the 500th ann. of Reformation, (which will be in 2017, the same year we pay off the next of our 2 church mortgages, doubel the celebration!) We are on the painful cutting edge of reformation in our own denomination.  We are a faith community finding new energy re-forming our local way of doing church.

In every reformation some things are restored, 
some things are stored away for now, 
Some, like the violence in that earlier Reformation, we pray are gone forever,
and some new work of God is always discovered.  
The bottom line is reset.

Its tough work.

Now, before we go giving Pharisees a completely bad rap, we might remember it’s fairly certain that Jesus was one. (Otherwise its unlikely he would have eaten with them frequently as scripture records.) And before we go giving the Medieval Catholic Church a totally bad rap, we should remember that Martin Luther was one of its priests, educated and ordained.  These are family struggles, not wars with foreign agencies. They are internal reformations.  And the Catholic Church after Reformation is not the same church it was pre-reformation. 

Luther’s public struggle began with the war against indulgences. I won't read all 95. Here are a few:

44. Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, however, become better by means of indulgences but is merely freed from penalties.

45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God's wrath.

46. Christians are to be taught that, unless they have more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family needs and by no means squander it on indulgences.

47. Christians are to be taught that they buying of indulgences is a matter of free choice, not commanded.

65. Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which one formerly fished for men of wealth.

66. The treasures of indulgences are nets with which one now fishes for the wealth of men.

Here’s a reality check:  what would a reformer today nail to our church door?

If it’s a real reformation wake up notice, it will come from radical encounter with scripture and with the full odd lot of people we share our world with.  Becauce at our heart,  Church is the living custodian of the living word not the keeper of relics. ( Singing, "Wonderful Words of Life.")

The bottom line for Martin Luther was sola scriptura, a healing of the rift between God’s people and God’s word that couldn’t be paid out in coin with the false hope of forgiveness.  We Wesleyans would add the spiritual disciplines by which we stay in love with God, all of which flow out of our encounter with the Holy One of scripture. 

In our Stewardship season we're inspired by words like Sirach 35:12-15
Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford. For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold.  Do not offer God a bribe, for he will not accept it; and do not rely on a dishonest sacrifice; for the Lord is the judge, and with him there is no partiality.

Every generation has to relearn the truth Jeremiah spoke to the God’s people so long ago: Thus says the LORD concerning this people: Truly they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet;(14: 10)  …….Can any idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this. (14:22)

I think the bottom line where God longs to meet Brunswick UMC right now, this year, is building relationship to sustain healthy discipleship.         

Martin Luther didn’t get every thing perfect, he had a horrible unexamined case of cultural anti-Semitism. We won’t perfectly embody God’s kingdom here and now.  We’ll carry unexamined assumptions for the next generation to discover and discard. 

But that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

In our increasingly fragmented society, held together by the duct tape of popular entertainment, Reformation means forming deep relationship that are radical in their diversity. Not hunkering down and digging in with others who reinforce our point of view but planting our roots in God’s perspective altering word, branching out with others who are truly different from us.                                    

Life would be so much easier if we could just think of changes in the church as fashion trends, if we could just pat ourselves on the back, and say good enough. Judgment doesn’t come until later…. There’s plenty of time to update our spiritual wardrobe.

But this Jesus we meet in scripture gives us a reality check. He doesn’t want to meet us all decked out in our party clothes.  Jesus wants us clothed in his character:  in forgiveness, in mercy, in justice.

Luke 18:9-14

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Every generation has to relearn the truth Jeremiah spoke to the God’s people so long ago: Thus says the LORD concerning this people: Truly they have loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet;(14: 10)  …….Can any idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this. (14:22)

But lately I’ve been wondering . . .                                                      
Am I following Jesus or just believing in Christ?
                                    
‘Cause I can believe and not change a thing,
                                    
But following will change my whole life.
                                             
He never said, “Come, acknowledge my existence,
                                    
Or “Believe in me, I’m the Second Person of the Trinity!”
                  
But 87 times he said, “Follow me!”         Bryan Sirchio ,Lyrics to "Follow Me"

  
Gordon Cosby once preached:                           
There is absolutely nothing new about a new form of church. The church, the Body of Christ, is always changing. …we ask what Jesus would want his community to look like now, against this global backdrop. [of our particular period of history].

Jesus had to work out his life in the context of Pax Romana, and also in the context of Jerusalem, his local governing power center. [he summed it up for us in a little talk people call the Sermon on the Mount. That’s the only real peace.]…how are we who are followers of Jesus going to inwardly, faithfully embody God’s essence in our own Jerusalems?

…, I am finding that there are two ‘givens’ – necessary components – for a true embodiment of Christ’s community:

First, I will be a member of a small family group of extreme ‘opposites’ – people who represent diversity in terms of race and ethnicity, economics, education, personality and temperament, in all ways ….. Together we lift the extreme heaviness of each other’s burdens, and … participate in lifting the misery of the ages.

 Second, I will be a witness … – telling others of Jesus, who IS the good news. .. We easily ask each other, “How are you doing these days?” but the more important question, “How are you and Jesus doing?” goes unsaid. .. If we do a number of good works but never learn to introduce someone to a genuine relationship with Jesus and ways to nurture and deepen that relationship, we have failed to witness to the Source of Life itself.

I know many of us have been offended or amused or even disgusted by the ways some have ‘witnessed’ to us, but why should that be an excuse not to speak of the Love that is our Source…. I’m not talking about twisting people’s wills or persuading their minds, but gently picking the locks of their hearts – becoming such well-tuned locksmiths that hearts can be eased open for a mighty in-rushing of Love.[1]

[1] Gordon Cosby was the founding minister of The Church of the Saviour and a member of the Church of Christ, Right Now. “Being Church NOW” is condensed from a sermon preached on August 20, 2006. (MP3 Link)


Pastoral Prayer
God, we give you the praise that is due you,
O you who answer prayer!
To you we come with our brothers and sister around the world.
When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions.
You bless those who you draw near and satisfy us with the goodness of your kin-dom.  O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. As the harvest comes home and nature clothes itself for winter, your creation shouts and sings together for joy. (adaptation of Psalm 65)

With millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ we pray for the most representative gathering of World ever. Bless the more than 3'000 participants gathering this week for the 10th assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Busan, South Korea this week.

We pray for the dramatic changes in the composition of World Christianity this gathering will represent, moving its epicenter to the South and demographically becoming younger and much more diverse. We hear the intense longings for justice, peace and reconciliation in the divided Korean peninsula …in the Middle East, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and in our own United States.

Bless the delegates as they ambitiously work to formulate a ‘theology of life' that integrates the dignity of all, respects the integrity of all creation and transforms value systems in order to break destructive trends in the global economy.  (adapted from http://www.globethics.net/web/gtl/newsletter)

Thank you, God for living in a state that helps lead the country farm-to-school participation and Maine has come out near the top.  You bless the children in 85% of Maine schools participating in farm-to-school programs, and those that till edible gardens.

Guide our own beloved United Methodist Church through the disturbing and sacred changes that rock our boats.  From the cowardice that dares not face new truth, from the laziness that is contented with half truth, from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, God Lord, deliver us, AMEN     (UMH 597, Kenya)

 

 

 

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