Reformation Day 2024

         Welcome to Reformation Day, Trinity.  In the Lutheran tradition, we celebrate the day that Martin Luther posted the 95 theses on the Wittenberg Church door, challenging the use of indulgences, the big fundraiser of the Roman Catholic Church to build incredible cathedrals at a great cost to ordinary people.  The deal was to pay for an indulgence, and a person could eventually spring their loved one from purgatory into heaven.  People went hungry in their anxiety for their loved ones, giving all their money to the church instead of paying for basics like food and clothes.  Martin Luther was appalled because if people had to pay to get into heaven, what did Jesus die for?

Luther wanted to start a rational conversation, but was excommunicated from the church and found himself with a warrant for his arrest, with a penalty of being burning at the stake.  His challenge disrupted the absolute trust that people were supposed to have in the priests, cardinals, and pope running the church and disrupted the flow of money.  He challenged their power and how they were using it, because he saw and named it was hurting people.  He spoke out against an injustice.

Luther brought reforms to the church.  Clergy could eventually marry, but he didn't want to make it about that.  He translated the Bible into the common language of the people, so they could read for themselves the word of God instead of only being told what the priests wanted them to hear.  People began to worship in their own language.  Luther distinguished his movement from the Roman Catholic church by advocating wearing black academic robes instead of monks or priests robes of brown or white.  Some Lutherans who love the liturgy are surprised to hear that he refused to advocate a particular order of worship because he felt there were infinite ways that people could approach God and express their praise and repentance.

A little over 500 years ago the Reformation of the church began.  Some people might be tempted to think we are done reforming, that we got it right and the closer we adhere to what Martin Luther was doing at that time, the better.  Some of us long for the times when church was central.  Church was what you did on Sundays, no sports, no shopping, no temptations or distractions.  Some of us long for a past golden age when faith was central, however, we are not Lutheran because we got it right, but because we are always reforming.  We always have improvements to make, injustices to speak out against, and a hurting world to respond to.

Even if we could return to that time, we would still see injustices that went unaddressed, like racism and misogyny.  This is the day that the Lord has made, and so we ask what does it mean today that Jesus has come to set us free.  What does that look like?

Jesus has come to set the church free, to reform the church today.  We might say, like those in the Gospel today, "We are Lutherans and we have never been slaves to anyone.  What do you mean when you say, 'You will be set free?'"  When we are only celebrating, remembering the glory days, we might forget that we have wounds, places where we are hurting, ways we are not free.  People hurt each other in faith communities.  We are not free from sin.  People with power silence those who have different opinions, and clergy, pastors and priests are the biggest offenders.  For those of you hurt by the church of any variety and giving it another chance, I honor your courage.  I admire your faith not to let your past experience stop you from expressing your thanks and praise to God.  I apologize to any of you I might have hurt along the way. 

The church must be always reforming, evaluating, reflecting, where are we doing Jesus' mission and where have we not.  We come to God for healing, for being set free, for receiving new life. 

We're not Lutheran because we got it right.  It doesn't make us Lutheran that we sit in rows and children are quiet and we have good order and are presided over by white Jesus at Gethsemane--I have seen that same picture in at least 5 different church, by the way, once in stained glass.  We're not Lutheran because of our order of worship or because we like to eat together. 

We're Lutheran because we are always reforming in order to more closely follow Jesus.  Which means self-examination, evaluation about how we are living out the mission of Jesus, admitting where we miss the mark and correcting course, learning, changing, adapting, confessing.  It means admitting where we are enslaved, where we are hurting, where we are causing hurt.  It means admitting our failures, where we miss the mark, where we tread on those most vulnerable.  It means continuing to reform.  The reformation is ongoing.  

We are always reforming.  We are working to live out our Trinity Land Acknowledgement Statement.  We have been enslaved to our broken relationship to the land and to Indigenous peoples, to using our power to dominate others, to capitalism and the idea of ownership.  Ignoring the land has wounded it and us, lead to extreme heat events that have cost the lives of our neighbors.  We have begun to notice the land and to heal it.  There is much more healing to be done to free us from the slavery of our ideas about dominating God's Creation and put us back into right relationship with the land.

We have been stuck in our relationship to the people who have gone before us in stewarding this land.  The land where this church was built was stolen from someone who loved it and had a responsibility for it.  The tribes that lived here still consider themselves responsible for caring for it since they have a sacred connection.  We benefit from the oppression that happened long ago because we are recipients of stolen land.  So we reform--we evaluate, we learn and read, we invite speakers who challenge us to next steps.  We have found so far, compassion and invitation from Indigenous leaders.  Prairie Rose Seminole invited us to ask why the ELCA disbanded efforts of predecessor church bodies to be in conversation with Native Peoples and support the work with grants and by showing up.  Did we think we had reformed enough?  Did we think the work was done?  What has taken the place of the National Indian Lutheran Board?

We are not Lutheran because we got it right.  We’re Lutheran because we are always reforming.  When you see an injustice in the church or in the world, let’s investigate it, and learn what part we play in it.  Let’s learn to speak up together.  This is what it means to be free.  Let us join with other people doing the work of speaking up and acting up, so that our neighbors might also be free. 

Jesus gave his life because he acted against injustice.  He set us free from guilt and sin.  Since he made such a sacrifice for us, we might as well live as those who have been set free and let him work through us to Reform our neighborhoods and the whole world.