Called to Reform
October 27, 2013 Luke 18:9-14
Rev. Lesley Weir
I bet Martin Luther…and John Calvin….and Ulrich Zwingli and all the reformers, would have loved to have had cell phones. An iPad or two, even a desktop publishing programming would have come in handy. All three of these men, along with a host of others, were movers and shakers in the church back in the sixteenth century. Whenever I think about the influence and affects they had on the church and the world, I am always amazed at what they accomplished without all of our modern technology. They wrote treatises back and forth, arguing out their theological stances like we send emails. They traveled to each other’s towns and cities to defend the faith from their particular understanding the way we hop on and off planes. And yes, Europe is small-scale geographically, but it still astounds my mind. I am also awed by the convergence of all this theologically explosive thinking. What if Martin Luther had lived in 1100, John Calvin in 1492, Zwingli in 1620. What if John Knox hadn’t come along until 1776? For me, there is something very “Holy Spirit in action” about the fact that all these men lived at the same time. That their ideas started to perk and take shape in different parts of Europe at the same time. The Spirit was indeed blowing with force in the first half of the sixteenth century. And because it was a work of the Holy Spirit, cell phones, and texting, and air planes, and iPads, and laptops were not necessary. No, when the Spirit sets its mind to something, you better believe it will come to pass, no matter the circumstances.
Today is Reformation Sunday; that day when we recognize the movements of the Spirit in the church almost 500 years ago. And I am going to suggest that our gospel today is an absolutely fitting text for Reformation Sunday. We have our Pharisee, the pillar of the temple, or the church so to speak. And we have the tax collector; code in Luke for big, bad sinner. In Jesus’ time, you couldn’t get much worse than a tax collector. They were in cahoots with the Romans. But they were also thieves. They exacted an exorbitant amount from the Jews, pocketing much of it after they paid the Roman officials. It was extortion at its best. So we have the good-guy Pharisee and the bad-guy tax collector sinner. And the good guy Pharisee is just convinced of his goodness. He is convinced of his good standing with God. He is convinced that he lives in righteousness, that is in right relationship, with God and with his community. He also seems rather convinced that this is all his own doing. His prayer is a litany of “I” statements, I am not like these other sinners, I fast, I tithe, I, I, I…..all about me and what I do. The tax collector on the other hand, seeks out God. God have mercy on me, he says. He seems to know that he is nothing, can be nothing, without the grace of God.
And in a nutshell, that was Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s, and Martin Bucer’s, and Heinrich Bullinger’s, and a host of others, claim. That we are nothing without the grace of God. Unfortunately, God’s church had become a bit like the Pharisee in today’s parable. Look at us! Look at how holy we are! Look at the amazing buildings we have erected in honor of God! Look at how we control the lands and the people, for God’s business! Look how we even control the people’s afterlife for God; we sell indulgences, we provide security for their safety after death. Yes, unfortunately the church had become full of herself. And full of her supposed mission. And was losing sight, if not completely lost, that we are nothing without the grace of God. That we do not earn our way into salvation, that we do not control how much or how little God loves us by our acts or our deeds. No, God’s grace alone comes to us unearned, undeserved.
The reformers saw clearly that the church had gone off course. That over the last millennium, practices and theologies had crept in that distorted the Gospel, distorted our place in God’s realm. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther was making a statement much like the tax collector. “Have mercy on us oh Lord, we are sinners.” His intent of course was to reform the church, not to desert it. He hoped for honest conversation that would waken hearts and help all to change the course. But the church decided to dig her heals in, much like our Pharisee, and could not see that in her glory, she had become the sinner. The church of course, threw Martin and the others out the door. And the rest as we might say, is history.
The trouble is, it is history in the sense of that adage “history repeats itself.” Because, being tossed out the chancel door by the Roman church seemed to allow the reforms to recast themselves now as the Pharisee. They began to argue amongst themselves about what the faith should really look like. And pretty soon each one of them was acting like they were the righteous, the one that was on the side of God, standing justified with God. They pointed fingers at the others like they were the tax collectors. And in utter disgrace, they followed along with the Roman church’s practice of beheading those they disagreed with.While we no longer behead each other, unfortunately those self-righteous feelings still permeate the church. How often do we hear one denomination chastise another? I am continually stunned by the barbs that continue to be thrown across the Catholic and Protestant fence. And then there are those misunderstood brethren; the Pentecostals whom too many dismiss as simply out of their minds. Indeed, it seems as followers of God, we have a hard time standing with the tax collector for very long. Because as soon as we do, we start to congratulate ourselves that we have gotten it right, and as soon as we do that, bam….we are like the Pharisee again!
Yes, today’s text is a bit deceiving if we look too quickly or not deeply enough. It is a dangerous text in that it seems so obvious, so apparent, so clear, what Jesus is saying. But our big clue that there might be more than what first meets the eye,comes right in the first verse: “He also told this parable”. What we have is a parable, a parable that Jesus calls out as such. And we know from the definition of parable that they are stories meant to rock our world. To challenge our usual way of thinking, to shake things up. They are also stories that are hard to “figure out” so to speak, stories that do not have a straight forward understanding. And that is where this parable can trip us up. Because we think Jesus tells it like it is, we think the message is easy: be humble, admit you are a sinner. But it is then too easy to fall into the Pharisee’s trap; I’ve got it figured out, I’m doing it right, pity the poor rest of the bunch.
So what might be the lesson we really can take from this parable? It seems that Jesus is trying to tell us that we must always be ready and willing to admit our need for God’s grace. The tax collector admits his need. Martin Luther and the reformers that followed quickly on his heels, admitted the church’s need for God’s grace. In so doing, they pointed to Scripture, to the texts that assured us that we are justified by faith alone; meaning by God’s grace. Their work asks us to admit the same thing. To avoid getting caught up in all the ways we show God how wonderful WE are, and instead simply accept our need for God’s grace. The church was called to admit her need for God alone. The church was called to reform. In that reforming work, individuals were called to admit the same; to know that salvation comes only through the work of God. That nothing we do can earn our salvation. The church, individuals, were called to stand in the place of today’s tax collector. The same continues to be true.
It is interesting to note one of the ways that our Reformed tradition understood the call to reform. You may be familiar with our Reformed motto: the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit.What this means is that reform is something that occurs VIA God’s grace, through the Spirit. It does NOT mean that every new thought or innovation should make its way into the church. But it does acknowledge that the Word and the Spirit have something to speak to each generation. It recognizes that times change, and while God stays the same, the way the church and its members are called to interact in the world may change. And so our Reformed tradition believes that we may be called to state anew what our faith means in different times and different circumstances. And that has led to our constitutional document The Book of Confessions. The Book of Confessions is a collection of statements of faith that span the life of the church, beginning with the Nicene Creed written in the fourth century, all the way up through the last century. Some of you may have grown up with the Westminster Confession, as it held such prominence in the denomination for decades if not centuries. But there are other confessions in this book as well, including the Apostle’s Creed which we recite at baptisms. In total there are 11 documents in the current Book of Confessions. This book is a tangible reflection of our Reformed belief that we are constantly being reformed by the work of the Spirit.
In today’s service, we repeated parts of the Belhar Confession, written in the late 20th century to address the church and issues of apartheid in South Africa. The confession is under consideration to be added to our Book of Confessions. All the Presbyteries of the country are voting on whether to include this document as the latest addition to our confessions. Our confessions are our way as Presbyterians of trying to stand with the tax collector, of saying “God have mercy on us.” They are our symbol and constant reminder that we are always being called to reform.
As individuals, we too, like the tax collector, are called to seek God’s mercy, called to reform; constantly. Today is Commitment Sunday here at St. Luke, the Sunday when we present our financial offerings for the coming year. Offerings that will help us meet God’s dreams, missions and ministries for our congregation. Commitment Sunday reflects our understanding that we as individuals are called to reform. We renew our commitment to St. Luke through these financial offerings that will make our life here as the church possible for another year. They are offerings that admit our need for God’s grace, that ask God, like the tax collector, “to have mercy on us.”
But we must also be aware of how easy it might be to then slip into the role of the Pharisee! It is a balancing act indeed. Reform us, reform the church, call us to new places, call us to see the situations that face us today, but never let us become complacent, proud, or too full of ourselves. Yes, we are called to reform; reform our faith, reform our discipleship, reform our church. But always and only through the grace of God, through the guiding power of the Holy Spirit.Then perhaps we will be able to stand in the shoes of the tax collector a bit longer. Amen.