Sermon for October 25, 2020 Reformation Sunday House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Matthew 22:34-46; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

A Time of Reformation

Today we celebrate Reformation Sunday, marking the day when Martin Luther proposed his “95 Theses on the Sale of Indulgences”--and setting into motion what we know as the Protestant Reformation. It’s important to keep in mind that as these events unfolded 500 years ago, Luther didn’t wake up on October 31, 1517 and think to himself, “today’s the day I begin the Reformation”. What he thought he was doing was starting a debate among church officials in order to purify some corrupt practices that were causing spiritual harm to ordinary Christians. This was not so unusual--it was the kind of thing that was in the job description for a university professor such as himself.

So it can be easy for us today--especially as Lutherans--to forget that the time of the Reformation was a time of many great unknowns. People didn’t know how everything was going to turn out ahead of time. We often just take it as a given: Of course Luther started the Reformation; of course he succeeded. How could it have been otherwise? Yet when Luther started unpacking the St. Paul’s teaching of “justification by grace through faith”, he didn’t just need to teach it--he had to live it! Because had no idea how things would turn out, or even if he would live to see the results. He had no choice but to live by faith in Christ and find grace from a God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

So if Luther didn’t set out trying to start “The Reformation” 500 years ago, how did it happen? A very important factor can be summed up in one word: Technology. Or more specifically, two words: the Printing Press. The printing press had recently been invented. Before that, books had to be printed by hand. Can you imagine how long it would take to produce one copy of the Bible when it had to be entirely written by hand? Can you imagine how expensive it would be? Can you imagine how few people could ever hope to have their own copy of the Bible, or even learn how to read it themselves?

We know how the printing press changed all of that, so the Bible, or any book, pamphlet, or piece of paper could be quickly reproduced and easily distributed to lots and lots of people--which is exactly what happened with the 95 Theses. And this led to lots of people coming to understand the teachings of the Bible in new ways and to sharing the Word of God in new ways--as Luther and the other Reformers took a message that had always been in the scriptures and uncovered it in a way that made sense to people of the time.

It kind of reminds me of another time we are familiar with--our own! 500 years after Martin Luther and the printing press, new technologies that we are learning how to use today are making it possible to find new ways to share the Word of God, and faith in Christ and a loving God of grace. As much hardship as the pandemic has created, as much as we are tired of dealing with it and want it to end, it has also forced us to discover how to use these new inventions that 20 years ago would never have occurred to us, let alone seemed possible. It’s like Star Trek is coming to life. Of course, we don’t like the present circumstances--but maybe learning to use these new technologies can give us a feeling for what our ancestors in faith might have felt like 500 years ago, as they lived through the invention of the printing press and dealing with many great unknowns during the Protestant Reformation.

Even today, though, it’s not that these new technologies can permanently take the place of gathering in person. Our Christian faith is still faith in an incarnate God; it’s faith in Jesus, who is “the Word made flesh and lived among us”. The new technologies of today are a supplement in this time of great unknowns and difficulties; it’s not a substitute for gathering together in Christian community. Just like 500 years ago, being able to print the Bible quickly on the printing press and easily put it in the hands of common people--that didn’t take the place of gathering together in Christian community, either. Yet when the people in Reformation times were dealing with the Bubonic Plague and couldn’t gather in person for worship until their own pandemic had passed, each household could still open up their own Bible (which was made possible by the new technology of the printing press), and worship God in their home.

A big reason the Bible itself became available for the common person was because the disruptions of his era had made Martin Luther a wanted man; so for nearly a year he had to stay hidden from other people, confined in a room at the Wartburg Castle where he used his time to translate the Bible into German. But can you even imagine a world where every Christian doesn’t have easy access to a printed Bible, like it was in the centuries before the printing press? Generations from now, Christians probably won’t be able to imagine not using the inventions that the new technologies are making possible for us now, to share the Word of God and to stay connected to one another and to God during this pandemic.

Well, this brings me to our gospel reading for today. Once again, like last week, we see how the Pharisees are trying to set a verbal trap for Jesus. “Teacher,” they ask “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” If Jesus answers “Loving God,” then they’ll make themselves look good because they can say, “well, that’s what we’ve been saying all along.” And if Jesus gives a different answer, they can accuse him of sacrilege and maybe make him a wanted man. But again, like last week, Jesus doesn’t get stuck in the “either/or” mindset of the Pharisees. He opens the door to a broader way of seeing the world through the perspective of God’s kingdom. Jesus answers first by quoting Deuteronomy [6:5]: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” Then he continues by quoting Leviticus [19:18], saying “And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In last week’s gospel, Jesus taught using a coin as his prop. Now with his latest answer he’s basically saying: in our faith there are two sides to the coin. On one side we see the need to “love God above all else.” On the other side we see the need to “love your neighbor as yourself.” But you need both sides. You can’t have one without the other. The way we love God is by recognizing that the image of God is already imprinted upon each person we meet, and then by doing everything we can to love that person. That’s how our faith comes alive.

It’s the fulfillment of the prophet Jeremiah, who promises that when we put our faith in God, God will put his law of love “within us” and “write it on our hearts”. It’s like the Holy Spirit was a printing press before the printing press was even invented--that God will write his law of love on our hearts! It’s the greatest technology of all, and it can’t be duplicated or substituted by anything else--the power of the Holy Spirit to live within us and lead us in the way of Jesus, so we grow in our love for God and our neighbors, and know God as a living and active presence in our lives.

Will we always be good at loving God above all and loving your neighbor as yourself? No. There’s only one person who has ever mastered it--and that was Jesus. So he invites us to put our faith in him. He went to the cross in order to become our refuge and strength. He rose again from the tomb in order to be a very present help in trouble. He promises to walk with us--through the hardships of this pandemic time, through the challenges of learning new technology, through the great unknowns we each face in life--until he leads us to new life on the other side. Amen.