How do I find a Gracious God?

*Wow! This was pure joy, preaching the power of the gospel while reflecting on the history of my church tradition after having heard incredibly talented musicians present Bach's 80 Cantata.*

Oratory Sermon

10.16.16

Psalm 46

This is going to be quite a year to be a Lutheran.  In a few weeks we will begin the 500th year since Martin Luther began his critical, painful, passionate struggle with the church.  And for the next year the Twin Cities may be the proudest metro in the country as we celebrate Protestant Pride -- we’ll wave our team colors, chant our team slogans and sing our fight song long and loud,  (A Mighty Fortress is our God…).  And if this is all the church does, if one raucous hymn sing after hymn sing is how we remember and celebrate all year...well, we’d be seriously missing the spirit of the movement we so often label “The Reformation”.

It would be easier, of course, to drown out the intense spiritual struggle that haunted Martin Luther.  The chains of God’s law that bound him, the confines of his own humanity that bound him. What we commemorate in this coming year is the freedom from this bondage, the liberation Luther uncovered through a life of study, hours of daily prayer and painful schisms with the church he vowed to serve.  Luther discovered that the law which he failed miserably to fulfill was not the gospel in itself, but the law led him to the merciful promises of Jesus that brought liberation, redemption and reconciliation all on their own.  Luther discovered not law as gospel, but the law and and the gospel fully present in God’s Word.

Psalm 46 is always the psalm used for the festival day of Reformation.  This psalm is the inspiration Martin Luther used to to compose Ein Feste Burg, or A Mighty Fortress is Our God. The psalm does what we might expect and paints images of God’s strength and ever present help and protection...and there is also an intimacy to this psalm of praise as over and over it speaks to where our Almighty and Holy God can be found.  

Psalm 46 says that though the mountains tremble and waters foam, God is present, very present.

The holy habitation of God is in the streams of a river that flows through the city, moving and nourishing the people of the city though they are subjected to cosmic chaos and perverse political powers.

The Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

God is exalted among nations and in the earth.

Deliverance through destruction, salvation through steadfast presence, God is more than a wall that surrounds and wards off injustice and oppression.  This mighty fortress is also coming near, making glad, inhabiting, in, with, among and in again...God is here working redemption for the injustices and oppression that is at the core of every internal, spiritual battle that would besiege God’s people.

Today’s music is such a gift...we are able to hear Bach’s cantata that sings and illustrates the fullness of promise in a psalm like psalm 46 and also sings the soulful intimacy.  This cantata is one of Bach’s most complex and intricate, we would all need to study and hear it many more times (if ya’ll would be up for that?!?) to even begin to hear the themes of repentance, longing and victory interwoven throughout.  

The full chorales sing of the power of the reforming movement and echo the mighty fortress themes, and arias like that of the soprano’s also gives us the advent pleading for Christ to “come make home in my heart”. We can hear the close relationship between Bach’s lyrics and the text of Psalm 46 which answers the advent plea again and again with the reassurance that our God is a God who comes especially near to the lowly and pleading.  And Luther discovered this sweetness of God through these words. The reforming movement of the church did not begin as a religious power grab or competition over who exactly God’s fortress was surrounding...rather this movement began with one, lowly, tormented heart seeking divine redemption for his soul.

Five years ago Pope Benedict poignantly articulated this balance between powerful, Divine promises and still the inner struggle of a faithful man. Pope Benedict commented,

“What constantly exercised [Luther] was the question of God, the deep passion and driving force of his whole life’s journey. How do I find a gracious God? This question struck him in the heart and lay at the foundation of all his theological searching and inner struggle. For him, theology was no mere academic pursuit, but the struggle for oneself, which in turn was a struggle for and with God.

How do I find a gracious God?”

“How do I find a gracious God?”

After much angst Luther did find the answer to his heart’s question in the treasure of the gospel of Jesus.  And the years that followed were filled with initiatives that would put this treasure in the hands of those who had not heard for themselves. The translating and mass production of scripture and accessible teaching tools like the small catechism, the leadership that told people of faith that their faith ought to be practiced first and foremost at home to raise up children whose would be able to hear the gospel promises right from the start.  The reforming movement of the church moved through violence and mistakes and power struggles and division on every human level imaginable...but it did continue moving.

499 years later and that foundational question of Martin Luther’s heart is still an intimate and soulful question for humanity today, “How do I find a gracious God?”

In our contemporary context this question has nuance, of course.  Schisms are sexy, we hear of political, racial, economic and religious schisms every day...division and disappointment is so commonplace we have come to expect it.

We seek righteousness through accomplishments and glory, we place ourselves in the place where God should be, we define ourselves, we label our neighbors and just like Luther we find ourselves in bondage to laws we will never be able to fulfill.

Spending our lives climbing and commenting, striving and straining -- even the quiet, earnest questions of our faith and existence become drowned out…”How do I find a gracious God?”

In the repentant spirit of Luther I think it is fair to say the legacy of the church has not always been as prolific at helping people answer this question as we are called to be.  Our propensity toward division, proper order and self-righteousness has so often distracted the mission of the church and we forget to turn to the treasure we have been freely given.  Meanwhile, the world around us continues to ask, “How do I find a gracious God?”

In order to continue the honest, critical movement of the reforming spirit, we must not only be comforted by the loud rousing of our team song and waving our team colors and rallying to celebrate the Reformation.  We can go deeper, to a quieter, introspective place of repentance.  These words from the center of the cantata we just heard help us to go there...

Do not let your heart, God's heaven on earth,

become a wasteland!

Repent your guilt with pain,

so that Christ's spirit may firmly bind itself to you!

Come into my heart's house,

Lord Jesus, my desire!

  Drive the world and Satan out

  and let your image, shine forth renewed in me!

Through repentance and the work of the Holy Spirit we find ourselves held tenderly and eternally by our gracious God. This is most certainly true.

My first pastoral call was to Holden Village, a lutheran retreat center that saw a different preacher climb into the pulpit nearly every day.   Each person brought their own gifts and failings, their own agendas and proclamations.  Some were amazing and some were not.  But no matter the gifting of the preacher, they stood in a large wooden pulpit that had these words carved into the front, “We have this treasure.” In four words the truth of the gospel of Jesus was shared and named -- it didn’t matter how long I rambled on, or how ineffective any sermon was, if nothing else could be grasped during the public proclamation there was a constant, sure promise.

“We have this treasure.”  We have the living Word of God made available to us.  And that Word drives us to despair in the law and carries us into the light of Christ.  And that sure and eternal promise is our treasure.  

We have this treasure...this did not suddenly become true 499 years ago. it was true as the spirit moved over the waters of creation, it was true 501 years ago and every year since.  It the promise we hold onto today, on November 8th and on November 9th...for the distractions of our living cannot push away the nearness of our God.  And for the sake of this treasure we have been called to let Christ’s image shine forth renewed in us!.  

For the sake of the world that lashing out and cries out and asks, “How do I find a gracious God?”  We turn to one Lord, one baptism, one body of Christ and together we will say, “We have this treasure.” Amen.