Sermon

Sermon    10-26-14                 Psalm 90:1-6, 12-17                Matthew 22:34-46

          Several weeks ago, I took my dog for a walk on the grounds of the Wadsworth Mansion in Middletown.  This is a nicely landscaped property which is owned by the town and is rented out for wedding receptions and parties and has become a favorite place for my dog and me to walk on the weekends.  

          It was a beautiful fall Saturday. 70 degrees, no humidity, no wind, the leaves just beginning to show some color as we walked about the trails surrounding the mansion.  I found myself feeling very peaceful and happy, and moments like those have been at a premium for me in recent months.  And much like the Psalmists of old, my heart was moved to offer praises to God, for the purity of the moment—the peace, the beauty, the wonder.   Quite naturally, I found myself thanking God for this holy time, a reminder of how good life can be, free of stress for a moment, in a beautiful setting.    And in my praise, I said to God, “this is a perfect moment.   I’m not sure life can ever be better than this moment now.”  As spiritually pure and grateful a moment as I can recall for some time.

          Still savoring the experience that inspired me to say, “I don’t think life can ever be better than this,” I walked up the hill toward the nicely landscaped grounds around the mansion.  As I got to the top of the hill, right in front of me, was a red Ferrari, with a very lovely young lady standing next to it.   A moment later, I saw the photographer with a large camera on a tripod and the light reflectors on the sides and realized it was a photographic shoot for some advertisement.

          But I thought to myself, even when I praise God for the moments when life can’t get much better, God is still speaking, with the reminder, “Oh, yes it can” and when God gets the last word, it’s always memorable.

          That story seems appropriate for Reformation Sunday, a day set aside in our church calendar for us to look behind and ahead, and wonder, dream, think together, how can we as the church be better at answering Christ’s call in the living of our days.   Better at worshipping God, better at serving others, better at creating worship, ministry and outreach that more faithfully proclaims the good news of God’s love to us in Jesus Christ in word and deed.

          On Reformation Sunday, we draw inspiration and vision from the reformers of old, who did not want to divide the church, to venture into any form of schism, but who painfully and courageously came to believe that a new way was the only alternative, the only way to faithfully live into answering and heeding the call of God to life and service.

          And it all began with worship.  Worship began to change and continues to change.   From worship as following ritual and living within the Law of the Torah to living into the Great Commandments-You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.   Moving from the laws of the Torah to the Great Commandments made life both simpler and more complex.

          In recent years, our worship has continued to change and deepen.  The priority of welcoming children, and affirming their special place in God’s world and our community, is one way.          

          We have also begun to reclaim pieces of traditional liturgy and reshape them in our efforts at being faithful.   The ritual of the passing of the peace has long been a part of sacramental liturgy in other Christian traditions.   It was established just prior to the sacrament of Communion, to allow people one last chance to reconcile and make peace with others in the congregation, prior to receiving the sacrament.   But in recent years, our efforts to re-form our liturgy has reshaped this action.

          Several years ago, the book Megatrends, first introduced the phrase “high tech, low touch” to describe the world that was coming where technology would minimize human interaction.   I’m reminded of this every morning when I walk my dog and see children lined up waiting for the school bus, all of them on their cell phones.   Always connected, but perhaps not knowing the name of the person they stand next to each morning.

          And so, as the challenges to our efforts to proclaim and model community increase, an effort was made to promote community, to welcome others into our midst, to offer a chance to reconnect, perhaps even to reconcile during worship, and to touch one another.   To physically make contact with each other, even in a time of increased sensitivity to germs and viruses, is a step toward being more faithful to God’s call to us each day.

          Reformation today may likely continue to include our reclamation of worship traditions which can sing to the Lord a new song in this day and age.    Many have found the ritual of walking a labyrinth, an ancient spiritual discipline, helpful in an effort to engage in a sense of the journey.   And reclaiming silence in our lives, downtime, time “off the grid” will likely continue to be a deep seated hunger in our search.  I believe I may have told this before, but I so enjoy the story of a fast paced businessman who chose to spend a weekend at a monastery.   In greeting and welcoming him, the monk noted that it would be important to shut off his computer and phone and leave them packed for the weekend.   Walking through the rituals of the monastery for the next few days, the monk concluded, “if there’s anything you find yourself needing while you’re here, let us know and we’ll show you how to live without it.”

          Our psalm today, Psalm 90, is a reminder once again that our time and God’s time are seldom the same.   “A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night…”while we are reminded to “count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”   Count our days and use them fully to God’s glory, the building up of the sacred community.

          As we grow in life and faith, may our eyes and hearts be open and respond to the wonders of God in our midst.   While at times, it may seem as if we are devolving as a global community, as civilizations seem to grow less civil, and the harmony God calls us to seems more remote than before, let us not give up hope.  For reformation in God’s world is taking place in so many ways.

          In my lifetime, many of you have, along with me, seen three incredible social revolutions in our nation, movements that have transcended borders and inspired those in other nations to follow.  The movement to safeguard and promote civil rights and move toward racial equality has come a long way since the early 60s.   The feminist movement, seeking to open avenues and doors, smash glass ceilings, and allow half the world to know full opportunities in life, has been dramatic.   And our growing understanding and affirmation of gay and lesbian people, men and women, boys and girls, continues to progress in incredible ways. 

          I’m no Pollyanna, and there’s still work to do in all these efforts.  The threats to reverse these social gains are ongoing and not to be ignored or minimized.  But we have come a long way.  When the number of states where same-sex marriage is legal goes from one in 2003 to 32 in 2014, a reformation is indeed taking place.

          In an incredibly violent world, where weaponry is at an all-time high, let us not lose sight of the non-violent revolutions many of us have witnessed in this day and age.   The civil rights struggle in our nation that eventually changed us as a people.   The velvet revolution that tore down the wall dividing Germany, led to a unified Germany, led to a free and independent Poland, and led to the re-sectioning of the former Soviet Union, and the formation of many new nations.   The movement for democracy in Egypt in 2011 and in Hong Kong today, and which continues to percolate, fueled in part by the rise of social media.  Reformation is taking place.

          We are seeing the wonderful quote of Martin Luther King, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” being made manifest in our midst today and the challenge to the church is to continue to find the ways to reform ourselves, inside and out, to respond to God’s call and move in that direction.  And let us not lose hope.   It is a long arc and it will likely not reach its conclusion in our days, but it is headed in the right direction.

          We are blessed in this day and time with some wonderful writers and dreamers, whose works stand before us as a mirror, inviting us to look in and see how we are measuring up to Jesus’ call.   One of these for me is Philip Gulley, a Quaker minister, whose book If the Church were Christian, Rediscovering the Values of Jesus, has been rich reading.   Just the chapter titles of this book, rolled together into a paragraph, describes the church I believe we all long to create and be a part of.   (as noted by Robin Myers, The Underground Church, p. 149)

          Gulley writes: “If the church were Christian, Jesus would be a model for living, rather than an object of our worship; affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness; reconciliation would be more valued than judgment; gracious behavior would be more important than right belief; inviting questions would be valued more than supplying answers; encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity; meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions; peace would be more important than power; we would care more about love and less about sex and this life would be more important than the afterlife.”  (Philip Gulley, If the Church Were Christian, Rediscovering the Values of Jesus)

          That sounds like the kind of church my heart longs for, and I believe one that God is calling us to become.

          The psalmist concludes today with these words, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands, O prosper for us the work of our hands.”   The continuing reformation of the church and the world falls to us, in our day and age.

          On this Reformation Sunday, let us embrace the inspiration of the psalmists, the courage of the reformers of old, and the prophetic words that call and challenge us to create a church that models and proclaims the great commandments of Jesus, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Thanks be to God.   Amen.