See VIDEO here
Then
Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his
life even more than in the beginning. Job
42:1-2, 12a(NLT)
They came
to Jericho. As he and his disciples and
a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar,
was sitting by the roadside. When he
heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son
of David, have mercy on me!” Many
sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of
David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood
still and said, “Call him here.” And
they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling
you.” So throwing off his cloak, he
sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus
said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let
me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go;
your faith has made you well.”
Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:46-52(NLT)
Although today is Reformation Sunday, the actual date for the anniversary
of the official Lutheran event is October 31, 1517. It was the day that Martin Luther nailed 95
statements or theses to the chapel door at Wittenberg, Germany.
Luther maintained the church should always be in the process of
reformation (ecclesia semper reformanda est).
Despite the cost in suffering, great faith trusts in God to bring about renewal
in the midst of re-thinking our ways, and relinquishing our stranglehold on
what others should think about God, and how we should serve Him.
Traditions have been known to be off-center occasionally. For the church, Semper Reformanda (always
reforming) is the business of navigational course-corrections!
Other Reformations
While we do celebrate Reformation Sunday, it is not the only reformation in history. There have been many.
·
The oldest book in the Canon of Scripture is
Job. We read Job’s resolution with
God. After losing everything, family,
reputation, children, wealth and health (not to mention the peace and quiet he
used to have when his wife still respected him), Job finally hears a response
of his heart’s crying out to God; heaven responds, and Job’s confession is that
God is good, even if the suffering God allowed is painful. It was a reformation of Job’s attitude.
·
In Mark’s Gospel account we find the blind man,
Bartimaeus, crying out to God for his sight.
In persistent blind trust a sightless man leans his whole trust on
Jesus. His well-placed faith is
rewarded; Jesus performs a “reformation” on the man’s optical ability and
changes the man’s whole outlook.
Bartimaeus also makes a confession, but somewhat different from Job; his
is more of an action – he becomes a disciple and follows Jesus from that
moment.
·
Actions or words, the confession is the same –
God, my Redeemer.
How many reformations can we count?
Starting with the earliest of church history…
Paul had (at least) two reformations to his credit; the first was on the
Damascus Road when Saul the persecutor of the church became the
Christian-loving, Church-planting Paul!
And a second reformation came with the transformation of a blue-blooded
Hebrew scholar (a kind of “uptown preacher”) who couldn’t bear to see the
Gentiles without a witness. He became a
Gentile-loving street preacher – apostle to the heathen.
·
The disciples had to shake dust off their feet
and go on down the road to those who would listen…reformation!
·
Peter had a reformation on a roof top when he
dreamed about a bed sheet full of barbeque…kosher was no longer the order of
the house.
If you fast-forward through church history there are schisms and purging
galore – reformations enough to keep a myriad of history majors recording and
classifying until their laptops burn up.
There were rifts and separations (or reformations) over:
·
The Trinity, the Divinity and Humanity of
Christ.
Reformation has always come on the heels of questions about theology and
doctrine, and the different opinions about the answers.
The framework for the answers is always the condition of the human heart.
· Job humbly confessed that God was in charge.
Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam
agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.
Luther believed in a reformation of the heart. That is different from a crusade. Today we have just as many theological
debates going on as ever (probably more since people discovered Facebook).
The question for our generation is:
Which of the cries for reformation are from the heart, and which are from the flesh?
Let me unpack some of that.
Reformation cries are from the heart when the heart is longing for God in
the same way that Jesus laid out the great commandment (love God with all
you’ve got), and its cousin (love your neighbor as yourself).
Flesh cries are simply expressions of will – unchecked selfishness!
There are, among the theological/ecclesiological debates of this day,
(probably) good arguments to be made for carnality or spirituality, flesh or
heart; it mostly depends upon your own vantage point.
Some of the current debates:·
The Worship Wars (Contemporary, Traditional,
Liturgical, Free style?)
As with Job, there is suffering in these issues. No matter which side we eventually come down
on (hopefully God’s side), these issues represent human beings who are in the
throes of turmoil.
Like Bartimaeus, who came out of blindness to follow Christ, and the
Reformers who were always pushing towards the light, we must come out of our
own haze. A cry from the heart will accomplish
that. God always hears the cries of a
heart longing for reformation.
Reformations are always costly.
An author tells the story, A while back there was a news item about a
number of youths, who, in the days following the September 11 attacks, stormed
into the restaurant of a man they deemed to be the enemy by proxy because of
his Middle Eastern descent. They tore the place apart.
The police caught the young men that same evening, but when asked to press
charges, the restaurant owner declined. He couldn’t see how it would make
things any better.
A few hours later, the young men returned, apologized and spent the night
helping him clean up the damage they had done. The owner clearly acted in a way
that brought the best out in others.
And isn’t that what reformation of the heart is supposed to effect – the
love of God which seeks the best for others?
So, what shall we say about reformers here in this building?
First – shall we be Semper Reformanda – always reforming? Do we dare change anything? And, if so, what shall we entertain in light
of the reformers of history?
·
The Reformation was a time to come out of
blindness…..centuries of moral decay.
Who couldn’t do with a little Bartimaeus-kind of medicine, a little
eye-opening light….right here in Randolph County?
·
The Reformation was a time of suffering. Choosing the path that includes suffering is
never easy, but it comes with the tough choices you know you should make after
your sight clears-up.
·
Job never saw his best work; how God opened up for
us understanding of the meaning of our suffering by allowing us to watch Job’s
suffering through Scripture. Job chose
to honor God in the midst of his suffering!
Luther is a good example. When the
organized religion of his day condemned him as a heretic, Luther was ordered to
appear at an inquisition which was convened as a “kangaroo court” to convict
and get rid of the trouble maker.
Luther was confronted with choices.
He was convicted and ordered to recant, or suffer the punishment of
heretics…death. Through the means of Holy
Scripture God had spoken truth deep into Luther’s soul. But powerful men told Luther he must recant,
deny his faith.
At the moment where faith in God and the judgment of angry men met, Martin
Luther stood up and spoke out what would become the rally cry of the Reformers:
Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason….my
conscience is captive to the Word of God.
I cannot and I will not recant anything; for to go against conscience is
neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.
The Reformation was a time for giants of the faith who followed the call,
even if it led to a pile of wood and a stake.
Should we be people like that?
Should we pick up a piece of wood and follow Jesus? It seems He did say something about carrying a piece of wood. He said, if anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.
We are writing this chapter of history.
Should Christ not return in my lifetime I dearly pray it will be said of
my life that I stood captive to the Word of God.
I urge you to do the same.
Semper Reformanda!
Semper Reformanda!
In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
