Oct. 30, 2022, Reformation Sunday

John 8:31-36 (The Message)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

    33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

    34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The Reformation is about change.  We don’t like change.  We even use the Bible to keep us from change.  God wants to make a new covenant with us.  We don’t want it.  We want the old covenant where we know what to expect and are more in charge.

God’s Word is an instrument of change and will, if we let it, change the way we look at things. It “is the source of all that is creative in the life of the Church.”  (Luther)  It sets us free to be new and different people.  People who put love at the center of life and let nothing keep it from doing its thing.

Today the Reformation calls us to dare be different.  To dare risk letting go of the way it was and seek to make a difference in the way it is.  To confess that we didn’t do everything right, nor did we know with certainty what God’s will was for us. To change the way we look at the world, and everyone in it.

Listen carefully to these words from Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and theologian of the 20th century.  They call us to make the Reformation real for our day.

   

"You are Christian only...so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, ...so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.  You are Christian only when you believe you have a
role to play in the realization of this new Kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled."

Henri Nouwen, "Circles of Love”