Holden Village
Reformation Day
JOHN
8:31-34
“And
you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
In
just over a week our government agencies will go to work tallying
votes, counting ballots and calculating results until we have new or
re-elected leaders on county, state and a national level. And I hope
that you were able to go through the extra effort of voting either at
home or while you are here at Holden – that you mailed in,
downloaded, notarized and checked off all the little boxes of your
local ballot and I hope that you felt some pride, some accomplishment
and that satisfying feeling of raising your voice through your vote
and being heard by your governmental leaders. Even though the rest
of the country is currently in the throws of political drama, we here
at Holden are mostly sheltered from the constant barrage of debate
and rhetoric surround this election – and still
there is confusion.
I
have also heard some say that the ballots are terribly confusing, and
I hear another villager say she had diligently read the informational
pamphlets and asked for explanation and still never got to a place of
feeling confidant in really having a handle on the issues at hand. I
myself voted in Minnesota, but because I have been gone so long I
have to admit some ignorance in my local choices and found myself
checking off boxes by faith and not by sight – which is a grand
theological move, but not one I like to employ in my voting.
And
then, in a matter of just a few more days the winners will rise to
the top, the losers will bow out with political grace and our nation,
states and counties we will march forward. The only thing we will
know is that there is so much we will not
know, the certain thing about our political leaders is the
uncertainty. Soon after the election there will be national or
international events that will sway our elected leaders, political
complications and scandal will emerge (they always do) and then the
psalm we heard for today will become disturbingly relevant – it is
if the nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter and we hang on
tight trying to find our way in so much that is unknown to us.
When
I consider the vast political spectrum and recognize that I do not
know enough, understand enough, agree enough, fight enough,
participate enough – well, its enough to make me feel like a
foreigner, like I do not have ownership here, I do not have a home
here in my own nation and maybe, Canada is looking good this time of
year!
It
is a far cry from knowing
the truth and knowing
that the truth will set us free.
….
495
years ago a German monk in the Catholic church grew tired of the
unknown. A monk, Martin Luther spent time reading the Bible and came
to realization that this God who gave us this Word desires to be
known, deeply known, by the people of the earth. Luther was so
personally afflicted with a deep awareness of his sins and
shortcomings and so enslaved by a self-perception of unworthiness
that Luther, was a prisoner standing before an unrelenting God. And
this is not so surprising seeing how the church Luther was committed
to was operating more with a Wizard of
Oz-do-not-look-behind-the-curtain type of mentality then a “Come
and see” invitation. Luther,a monk in the Catholic church was
preparing to become a prominent leader to perform the sacrament of
communion, to read the Bible in Latin, to save the common people who
the church had labeled as so unworthy they were not to take communion
or even hear the stories of God in their language. The people who
came to church were to observe from a safe distance and forced to pay
heavy fees if they hoped to draw any closer. The people were treated
as foreigners in their own churches and were kept distant from their
God.
“And
you
will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Thank
God Luther did not stay content in the unknowns, but he pushed
forward for his own freedom and the freedom of all people. I imagine
when Luther read the psalms like our psalm 46 for today he did not
stop at the heavy uncertainty – he did not stop reading with
nations in an uproar and kingdoms tottering, rather Luther also heard
that “God is our refuge and strength a very present
help in trouble...God is in the midst of the city, it shall not be
moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.” And
the Scriptures came alive to Luther and a God that was loving and
accepting drew near and Luther made these realizations that we know
God by the Word alone...we are saved by faith through grace alone.
As John said we are children of God, not slaves! All this the Word,
the faith, the grace, the love, the acceptance of an almighty and
all-loving God is gift, it is grace, it is free, it is undeserved.
And
so through religious protest, through relationship building, through
reading the Word and then scandalously sharing
the Word Luther began a movement and movement that tore down that
Wizard-of-Oz curtain and any other barrier that stood between any
human being and God. Luther challenged the unknowns that did not need
to be in place and shared the promise that God will be known fully,
the promises of God are to be heard – shouted in church and
whispered in private conversations, the places of promise like
baptism and communion, are to be felt and touched and experienced in
the most intimate of ways...water covering our heads like grace and
Jesus' body and blood; broken, given, tasted and known through our
entire beings.
Only
by the grace of God did Luther help to move the church closer to
experiencing the truth and truth setting us free.
Perhaps
there are some here tonight who grow weary of the unknowns. While
nations continually remain in a terrifying state of the unknown
caused by civil wars and daily bloodshed and kingdoms totter in this
state of unknown because of political division and fighting over
freedoms. Are you also weary of these unknowns?
Or
perhaps you struggle, like Luther, with churches who were birthed out
of the Reformation movement and yet struggle to commit to share the
gospel message of Word alone, faith alone, by grace, grace, grace
alone. Or even more, perhaps the unknowns that weigh heaviest are
those that come from within – the painful doubt that resides in
your minds or the questions of life, faith, God and each other that
dwell in your hearts. Are you weary of these unknowns?
Perhaps
you did something crazy like leave a major part of your life behind
and move to a remote village in the mountains and the questions
surrounding your life before and after the village leave you burdened
and confused. Maybe you are leading this village through a mine
remediation and the immediate and distant future appears hazy at
best. Are you weary of these unknowns?
There
is a promise here for you. The promise cannot come from political
leaders (although they make a lot of them!), the promise cannot come
from Holden Village, the promise did not come because of the
reformation we remember today. The promise that is here for you
comes from the Word of God, from the almighty and all-loving God we
know through Jesus.
And
you will know the truth, you will know your God and God will set you
free – to live into political turmoil, to engage politically to
protect and serve the least. And you will be set free to serve and
die and rise with the church that relies on grace alone and remains
centered on the Word of God above all else and you will be set free
to do crazy things like uproot your life for the sake of another and
volunteer to help a village survive and answer that call that God
puts on you...because you are worthy of being known and being loved
by this God and through love we all are set free... free to love,
free to raise your voice, free to live in Christ forever. Amen!
