Devotion - Thursday, October 31

We observed Reformation Sunday this past week; today is Reformation Day.  Reformation is not an opportunity to gloat, as members of the church which bear the name of Martin Luther.  Rather, it is an opportunity to return to the mood and spirit which moved Luther to ask his questions and to seek reform of the institution charged with sharing the good news.

Luther wrote of "two kingdoms."  One is visible and known; the other is known only to God.  The visible kingdom is the one we are charged to keep in good order.  The visible kingdom does the good in the world that God would have us do.  When she visited us last month, Pastor Aebischer repeated the poem of Teresa of Avila, which reminds us that "God had no body but our body..."  In this visible kingdom we strive to do all we can to form the world into the kind of world in which God would delight.

That kind of a kingdom does exists.  But it is the kingdom known only to God and seen only by him.  It isn't that God desires to keep this other Kingdom hidden from us; rather we are unable to see it because of our deep immersion in the kingdom(s) in which we do have some level of input.  Our deep commitment to making LCM-C and University Lutheran the kind of place in which God's favor is shown limits our ability to lift our eyes and see what God is doing down the street or across the river.

Luther wanted to reform the kingdom(s) of his day which had become so focused on what was immediately before them that they had lost the ability to see that which was larger than themselves.  But he maintained a tremendous appreciation for the kingdom which God has established and will continue to establish.

We spend our days working on the projects which are close at hand; but we remember that the kingdom we strive to build must be lost in the larger kingdom which God is calling forth.