Re-formation - a Sermon for October 27

Re-formation

October 27/2013 Joel 2:23-32 and Luke 18:9-14

We were driving down the peninsula yesterday morning and Rob made a comment about the tamarack trees, and how he did not really notice them in the bush until this time of year when the leaves on the deciduous trees are almost gone and the needles on the tamarack are starting to turn.   -all of a sudden the tamarack are standing out, in the midst of all the other coniferous trees you can now see a sea of yellow and they are becoming very noticeable.  The changing of the tamarack trees is one of the final signs that winter is approaching, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, the world around us is changing - re-forming- winter is not far off

·         and we know it in the colours of our surroundings,

·         and we know it in the temperature,

·         and we know it in the smell of the outside world

This re-forming of the world is a natural process we call it changing seasons, we expect this re-formation of the world, it is normal and natural.  Every year we anticipate four seasons to come and to go.  It is, however, easy to forget that change is normal and natural, especially when everything around us feels like the same old thing and our days have become routine.  And yet change is constant and the world is reforming all around us minute by minute.  I was made very aware of this fact last week when I spent time with my new granddaughter Stella. What a contrast from Erica- here was this small delicate squishy newborn, and her aunt Erica, only 16 months older, but three times her weight, walking, babbling, strong and firm- so much growth and development in a few short months.  Erica's ongoing development is a continual reminder that not only is the world in constant but human beings are also being re-formed and re-formed on a ongoing basis.  God's creation is in a constant state of re-formation.

Today is reformation Sunday – the day when we recognize that religion re-forms too, and so does faith, and culture and that every once in a while a  shift happens that is so profound the world as we knew it looks completely different.

500 years ago, a shift happened and people and communities and the western world were re-formed.  The central character behind the transformation / reformation was Martin Luther.

Luther held deep questions about God, faith, grace, and salvation.

                -he wrestled constantly with his questions

                -how could God forgive him…a sinner

                -what could he do to earn God’s grace

                -what would happen when he died

It was while Luther was studying Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that some of his questions were answered

You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith writes Paul.  This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed.  It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.

God grace was a gift, it was not something you earned and it was given without strings

                -no conditions

                -no qualifications

                -no hidden “gotch-ya’s”

                -no small print

                -no “if I do this…then God will do that”

               

There was absolutely not one thing Luther could do to earn God’s grace.  It was…and continues to be for us today…a free gift.  This was a radical theology in the world 500 years ago, and this message, which got momentum behind it because the printing press was invented in that time and all of a sudden the word of God became available to anyone who could read and not just the church. The idea that grace was gift, and that scripture was the number one source when it came to God – these radical ideas changed the church.               

That time is known as the reformation, and it is about a re-formation of how God was talked about, of how the bible was interpreted, it was a major shift in theological thinking

                -a major shift in the way church functioned and

                -a major shift in understanding God.

A re-forming of ideas, culture, faith and religious practice.  The world shifted because the people discovered that God was not done with them yet.

The people to whom Joel the prophet is speaking are also living in a time of re-forming.  it is the period of the exile, the people of God have been forced from their home, removed from their land,  removed from their culture, removed from their religious centre, the temple in Jerusalem, it and the world as they knew it has re-formed.  Joel is speaking to them today.  Joel is an obscure prophet, his prophecy takes up only three short chapters in the bible, and most of his words are threats, accusations and general words of despair about the distance the people of God have moved away from God.  And yet, right in the middle of all the doom and gloom the prophet reminds the people of God's restoration, of God's ability to reform the present situation from a place of alienation and a place of disconnection and a place of isolation from God.  Right in the middle of despair and lament and sorrow and grief for the former things comes a promise of hope.

“:26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

2:27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

Hope is returning to the people who live in exile.  Hope is returning because God is not done with them yet – God is going to re-form God's people and you can know that because the young men will see visions and the young woman will  prophesy and the, the elderly will dream dreams, and the world is going to change.  And it did, the exile ended after the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, and under the Persians kings the People of God were allowed to return to Jerusalem, where able to rebuild the city, permitted to rebuild again the temple - the house of God on the mount of the former pillaged temple.  God was not done with them yet - not by a long shot.

For a few hundred years later along come the greatest reformer the world has ever seen.  Jesus is the great re-former.  His life and death changed the world forever.  And the world shifted - Right from the beginning - re-formation as God came to the world like he never had before - and not in fanfare and brass bands but with the announcements of angel messengers.  And God did not come into the world in a royal court with the power of the culture, and the prestige of a worldly king- no - God came in simple-ness and earthiness, and his coming was announced to shepherds and magi from the east, not at all what the people were expecting - but still - God came - and the man Jesus short life here on this earth, re-formed the way that the world understood God - but not by lengthy tombs and brilliant publications of new philosophical thought - no - Jesus changed the world by a lifestyle choice and sharing stories and befriending the prostitutes and tax collectors and seeing beyond the cultural divides.  He healed the sick, made the blinded see and touched the unclean.  He embodied his faith and wore it around his neck like a mantle so that you could not see the difference between the man and his way of life.  And he challenged the very fabric of his cultures understanding of God and who God was and how God wanted people to live in the world.

Take for instance the story we heard this morning, Jesus is with his disciples and they are talking about prayer - talking about how to maintain a relationship with God, and he tells them about another story - this time he uses examples - a Pharisee and a tax collector - a Pharisee is the one who know how to pray - at least according to society - it is their role, they are the ones in their culture who are steeped in scripture, who spend their life interpreting the word of God, and teach others how to live that word of God.  And the tax collector - a parasite in Jesus time, one whose fortune was made on how much they could expropriate from the people - and craftiness and dishonesty was a common character trait for someone to be successful as a tax collector - so - both of these men go to pray - the one that you expect to pray properly, correctly, with reverence and relevance –says "thank you God that I am not like that man - thank you that I am good, and righteous, and live a good life - thank God I am me and not that other man.  And the tax collector says:  have mercy on me - a sinner.  It was very simple prayer - nothing very flowery about it.  And even though both prayers were sincere, and both prayers were honest, or as honest as these men knew to be, but says Jesus, the one who humbled himself - the one who recognized his limitations, the one who needed God more - he is the one who is blest.   Prayer says Jesus is about re-formation - recognizing what is really going on in your life - and witnessing that there are times and places and moments that are not lived as God would have us live, that there are choices that have been made that have moved us away from God instead of closer, that we need mercy because in one way or another we are sinners.  But wait says Jesus - there is more for not only does God understand the choices we have made, and not only does God love us, God also forgives us too!

My family reformed this week - after two and a half years, Michelle was finally legally adopted.  In a way it was quite anticlimactic - we had been anticipating this moment for about a year now - that was when the forms where finalized and sent in to await the courts - a year ago.  And it was a short moment - it took all of about 10 minutes from the time the judge arrived until the time when we left the courtroom - the drive down to Walkerton took so much longer.  And all the judge did after asking a few questions was sign about seven sheets of prepared forms, and then the day carried on like it had before.  So all in all on the surface it seemed as though not much changed, Michelle lives in the same house, has the same clothes, goes to the same school, on the surface it appears to be the same - but it is not...For with the signature of Judge Harrison, Michelle's life changed forever.  The first big change that happened was that her name changed - she has a changed first name, a new middle name and a new last name - and her last name connects her to the family that Rob and I have created together.  My children are now her brothers and her sisters, Rob's sibling are now her aunts and her uncle’s.  She gets grandparents and second cousins, and a whole bunch of people I lovingly refer to as the Craig clan.  With one stroke of the pen her life has been reformed - and that is the way it is with God, one moment things are one way and the next they are another - the world shifts, changes, reforms - because God is not done with us yet.  

Thanks be to God.  Amen.