Reformation Day

Today was a celebration of reformation day. About 500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed 95 "thesis" or complaints against the Church to the door of the Cathedral at Wittenburg. On that day, Luther protested (among other things) the practice of selling letters of forgiveness (indulgences) to poor Christians to fund church construction even though forgiveness is supposed to be a free gift. Luther’s action kicked off Lutheranism and pretty much the whole Protestant movement from the Roman Catholic Church.

This evening we decided to make it our own personal reformation day, and had the people write their own complaints against Christianity and our own church in particular. The main theme we came up with was the idea that we are bound up in old traditions that have little relevance to people outside the church. In some way, participating in church is reaching back to something ancient, something bigger than yourself… thousands of years old but still living. On the other hand sometimes we get caught up in the trappings of ceremony or personal piety, and put off those who come with spiritual seeking. Probably the worst thing a Christian can do is to put himself on a holy pedestal. Jesus himself condemned this hypocritical “show faith” in the book of Matthew:

"Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend’. Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do."

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”

People from all branches of the church whether Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist, or Catholic sometimes put tradition and piety before substance. God looks for the humble heart of a servant in all of us… one that puts the needs of our family, friends, and community before our own without an eye toward “looking holy”. I have to admit it is tough actually live that way, but an occasional reformation is good for the church.

Logos

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God." We've decided to give some focus to our bobblehead biblestudy and read John's gospel. We decided on John because it is a dense theology of Jesus.

Dense turns to be a good way to describe it. We spent about 2 hours or maybe longer and I think we got through 16 verses. I'll try to summarize discussion as best as I can.

The beginning of John starts with "In the beginning..." Unlike the other gospels, John makes a point to go back to creation rather than Jesus's human birth to start out Jesus's story. Some say this is because he is trying to fill in what the other gospels miss, others say because this was the first gospel. No matter the reason, it is an intriguing way to start a book.

John calls Jesus the "Logos" a Greek word maeaning "the reason" or "logic." Heraclitus wrote about the logos saying

"This LOGOS holds always but humans always prove unable to understand it, both before hearing it and when they have first heard it."

We contine... "the word was with God, and the word was God.... through him all things were made." This reminded us of Genesis.

"In the beginning... And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light" God spoke, and there was light. The word was with God and the Word was God, through him all things were made. Somehow, this utterance of God through which creation came to be is in fact God.

Now. the part that blows our mind... "And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us." This utterance that was with God through which the universe was made became human. An eternal breath or sound or energy or logic was made human.

Our brains hurt at this point.

Repentance

This past week we meditated on the nature of repentance and God’s gift of forgiveness. In preparing for prayers this week I reflected on my own shortcomings that constantly pull on the grace of God:

I have let people down

I have come up short when my friends depended on me

I have promised to do the right thing and then gone back on my word

I have said words in anger I wish I could take back

I have passed by the stranger in need

I have turned a cold sholder and made others feel unwelcome

I have selfishly put today ahead of tomorrow

I think that Sara and many others sometimes have the same feelings of guilt too. What is forgiveness? God forgives us on the balance sheet up in the sky. What does this mean for us? Should we be without the feeling of guilt?

Sara gave the message this time. We read through the parable of the two brothers, one who said he would do his father’s work in the field but went back on his word, and the second who refused, but later went out to work in the field. Obviously the second brother is the one who did his fathers will.

We read psalm 51, a beautiful expression of repentance and forgiveness written by king David. Reading the works in a couple of different versions with contemplative Taize music in between really set the mood for reflecting on what repentance means for each of us.After the lesson, Sara left silence for people to focus on what they needed to repent of, and announced Jesus’ forgiveness on us all.