We've Always Done It That Way

Reformation Sunday

October 25, 2015

John 8:31-36

Last January, I had the privilege of visiting Wittenberg, Germany, “birthplace” of the Lutheran Reformation.   It was fascinating to see the City Church, where Martin Luther preached, and the Castle Church upon whose door it is said he posted the 95 Thesis which touched off the Reformation.  I was struck by the fact that you can walk from one to the other in less than ten minutes.  That got me thinking.  I can imagine what happened the first Sunday Dr. Luther announced at the City Church that, on the next Sunday, the congregation would begin worshipping in German.   In my mind’s eye, I can see a couple, probably toward the back, leaning over to one another and whispering, “Humph!  If that’s what he’s going to do…  then…  next week, we’re going to the Castle Church!  After all, if Latin was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us!”*

Of course, the above story is completely fanciful.  But, I think there is a lot of truth in it.  Embracing change, especially significant change, can be difficult, even for a church that celebrates the “Reformation” (i.e. “Change”) each year.  Anyone who knows me, or reads my musings regularly, knows that I believe that change in the church is both inevitable and absolutely necessary if we are to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ effectively in our contemporary world.   The question whether the church should change or not is, in my opinion, a nonsensical question.  Change happens.   The only real question for the church is this:  “do we passively accept the change that leads to decay and death or do we do what we can to foster the change that leads to growth and new life?”

Though I believe strongly that significant change and reformation are absolutely necessary in our churches today if we are to turn around the obvious decay and experience growth and new life, I believe just as strongly that there is a Truth at the center of our faith that does not change (something of a paradox, I know).  The Truth of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the taproot of the Church that bears his name.  It MUST be at the heart of the church, or we stop being the Church.  The story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the “truth that will make us free” to make the necessary changes that will release us to proclaim God’s Reign and serve our neighbors in new and life-giving ways.  Sure, the story has been interpreted and re-interpreted, applied and re-applied in many and different ways down through the centuries, and across the breadth of the church today, but the story itself forms our sacred center. Reconnecting the church to that sacred center in new ways was what Luther’s Reformation was all about.  Whatever change we embrace,  it is what we need to be about too.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

*As far as we know, Jesus actually spoke Aramaic as his first language.