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Sermon for October 25, 2009
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Reformation Sunday
Texts: Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8: 31-36
Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator who is our refuge and strength.
The Christmas after my Dad died, my brother gave my Mom and me each a puppet. He got one for himself, too. We opened them up, and were completely confused: Why did we get puppets? Then Brent started to explain to us. They were puppets of animals with eyes on the sides of their heads - a parrot, a turtle, a beaver. Because of their eye positions, these animals could see both forwards and backwards at the same time. Now I am sure a zoologist would have all sorts of issues about what I am saying, but for Brent, this was the truth of these animals, with their eyes on the sides of their heads they could see both backward and forward.
We were still a bit confused that Christmas morning, so my brother explained further, “That’s what we are doing now, in these months after Dad died. We are looking both backward and forward. We are looking backward at our life together with Dad and those many blessings, but we are also looking forward, beginning to look at the ways that Dad will bless us into the future.” I paraphrase, of course. My brother would never have said the phrase, “bless us into the future,” but that was the way I remember it.
This is, I believe, what we are about in these days, and especially on this Reformation Day. Reformation Day is a day we celebrate Martin Luther and that glorious day in Wittenberg 500 or so years ago, and to lift up the unique witness we bring to the world as Lutherans, but it is not a day to get stuck with our head turned backwards. The history we celebrate today shapes the way we look at our future. We look at the way the Spirit has blown through the church for centuries before us and we trust that the Spirit will continue to reform and to build the church. It is a day for looking backward and forward, in both directions.
In these final days of our life together here at St. Peter’s we look both backward and forward. We live like those puppet animals with eyes on the side of our heads. We spend a lot of time telling stories, looking backwards on our history together and in this place. We share our memories and reminisce. This is important for us to do. We tell these stories because they give us joy, but also because they give us strength for the future. We tell them not so that we can get stuck in reverie for days long past, but because they call us courageously into the future.
These stories remind us of what God has done for us in the past, and trust that God will continue to do this for us in the future. It’s like that lovely old hymn... “We've come this far by faith...leaning on the Lord... He’s never failed me yet.” We tell these stories because God, our refuge and strength has not failed us yet, and will not fail us in the future. We look to our past and can see the fingerprints of God’s handiwork. With this knowledge we can step into the unknown of the future, with the knowledge that God will work, yet again.
We read scripture, too, with eyes on the sides of our heads. We read and trust and rely on God’s word because it tells the story of what God has done in the lives of God’s people. It may have been centuries ago, but it tells our story today and into the future. We read these ancient words and through them we are pulled into the future.
With eyes on the side of our head we look to the past to give us strength to see that God will continue to love and bless and guide us into the future - providing a continuity of presence and love while the world changes. But also, we look to the past and the things that we wish were different, that we are not proud of. In doing so we let our history shape us into a new future. In the Jeremiah reading today we hear of the ways that God is making a new covenant with God’s people- all of God’s people, even the long fighting communities of Judah and Israel. God has forgotten the sins of God’s people, and is ready to step with a clean slate into the future. It is a promise of complete forgiveness. The old things are forgotten and a whole new beginning is possible.
This is, dear friends, the good news of God’s grace for us. We are a sinful and broken people. We have made mistakes and have failed to live up to God’s expectations of us. Here at St. Peter’s we have known this to be true. This congregation has a history of conflict and struggle. We have not always treated each other well. We have, at times, failed to live up to who we are called to be as followers of Jesus. We have lived with years and layers of distrust and discord. While there has been much healing in the past few years, there are still old distrusts, hurts and broken relationships. As we look back to our history and into the future, it is my fervent prayer that we face honestly our feelings and actions, work toward reconciliation, and let go. If we cling to our old hurts and angers, we can never claim the new future that God is giving to us.
For the sake of our own hearts, and the new communities we join, it is important that we be open hearts to the promise of God’s healing mercy, so that we don’t allow those old burdens, wounds and distrusts to hinder our new beginnings. God is our refuge and strength, forgetting our sins and bringing us into a new future of God’s forgiving and transforming grace. We look back with guilt and brokenness, but with God’s grace and a bit of time, we can step forward as people forgiven and healed, open and ready for the future and new life God is making for us.
In this most amazing psalm, which Luther wrote into “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” the psalmist sings out to God. “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth be changed.” The psalmist sings our song of hope in the midst of change and turmoil. Written years ago, it still describes today, and it gives us hope for tomorrow. God is our refuge and hope, a very present help in times of trouble. This statement of faith is not that everything is going to be perfect and bright and shiny and beautiful, but rather that God is here, in the midst of the trouble, with us and that somehow, sometime, God will make things right.
God is our refuge and strength, this we have known and experienced here at St. Peter’s. Our stories bear witness to this truth. I know that each of you have stories of the ways you have come to know the strength of God’s love and the assurance of God’s refuge through this community. I could, as you probably could, tell countless of these stories. Another gift of this community has been its singing. You sing well - and not just the choir but this whole community. And so - a few glimpses of God’s refuge - making power through song...
The other day Pat Klatt was telling me some of the great stories of when St. Peter’s was hosting the FISH Hospitality Program. Pat tells the story of a group of women were standing outside the Mercer Street door one evening. They started singing hymns. In the midst of the turmoil of homelessness and poverty and real human struggle, those women found refuge and strength in those hymns, and those who heard the strength of their song found refuge, too. This congregation provided not just a physical refuge, but a place to sing out about their God who was their refuge.
Helen Henne tells me about the ways that she - even in the hard days of her caring for her husband - sings “Jesus loves me” to herself over and over again. She finds refuge and strength in those words - and in the love of God of which it speaks.
I, too, have found refuge and strength in the singing of old and new songs in this community. Your beautiful voices, with strength and harmony, provide shelter and courage. These songs, in the coming days, will give me courage as I face the new tomorrow. In the weeks and months to follow, we will sing many of the same songs, in new communities, and with different voices, but those songs will give us courage and fill our hearts with memories and promise as we look both backward and forward. God has been our refuge and strength, and God will continue to be our refuge and strength.
We look to the past and see the ways that God has been our refuge and our strength, our very present help in trouble, and we can trust that God will continue to give us strength and refuge “even as the earth shall change and the mountains shall tumble.” We live these days with eyes on the side of our head, looking back and looking forward. For some things, we look back and give thanks to God, that by God’s grace, we can leave those things behind. These things are wiped clean from the slate and a whole new way of being is offered. The past is the past and the future is a wide open possibility. We have been made right, justified by grace through faith apart from works. The grace of God saves us. Our abilities have not earned it, nor have our failures kept us from it. It is the grace of God that brings us eternal and abundant life. The grace of God in Christ Jesus will bring us a new future.
For other things, as we look backward and forward, we give thanks that God will continue to do the same things God has always done, will continue to be our refuge and strength - a very present help in time of trouble. We look backward and see the ways that God has provided us with all that we have needed to face the struggle and has given us courage to step forward. And this will indeed continue. We have come to know the strength and love of God through this community and through this building. But it is not this church which is our refuge and strength. It is God who is our refuge and strength.
And our God will continue to be our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. God is our refuge and strength, present in the word proclaimed and in the community gathered, in forgiveness experienced and in voices singing. God is our refuge and strength, present in bread and wine which strengthens us for the journey. God is our refuge and strength, present with us, throughout our past and into our futures. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear thought the world should change....”
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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