Reformation Sunday
October 28, 2012
Perfectly Positioned NOT to Panic
I am delighted to be with you
all. And very excited about the
possibility of encouraging you as you come together to consider a shared
ministry at Coastal Carolina University.
Campus ministry is a wonderful offering of the Church, and one which has
a profound impact on the lives of so many young adults. I have just come this way from Aiken, were I
spent the weekend with students from across the South Carolina Synod. This is one of two retreats offered each year
for students, regardless of where they attend college. The spring retreat is a theme retreat – this
February addressing contemporary worship and liturgical renewal. The fall retreat is a service retreat. Yesterday 35+ students put a new roof on the
home of an elderly woman, as well as painted a Habitat for Humanity House,
sorted food at the Salvation Army’s food pantry, and cleared the lawn of a
disabled neighbor.
I was on the roofing crew, so if
I seem a bit stiff in my movements, there is a reason.
All of that aside – I am
delighted to be here. Though there were
some in the upstate who wondered whether this gathering might be canceled. The news reports of wind and high tides
associated with “Frankenstorm” made some in my part of the world panic. “Surely you aren’t going to drive down there,
into the midst of all that?” they asked.
But no call came from Pastor Bellah, so I realized that while some might
have been quick to panic – you were not.
Way to go! It is never a good
thing to panic. And those who can face
the future without panic are the ones who are likely to step into a more
glorious future.
Avoiding panic is a good trait
(an excellent trait) to possess as you contemplate a ministry with the Coastal
Carolina community. Those of you with
college age children will be quick to agree, that so many is changing in the
lives of these young adults. It is
dizzying. What becomes frightening is
when we realize that the changes they face are making their way toward us. Moving forward with this idea of a campus
ministry at Coastal will not only change the lives of the students, faculty and
staff, it will make us even more aware of the changes which are coming into our
lives and into the Church we seek to serve.
The key is for us to NOT panic;
for us to remain calm. Remaining calm
during times of tremendous change ought to be easy for us to do. By “us”, I mean those who see ourselves as
members of the reforming movement which began with Martin Luther and continues
to our very own day. “The Reformation”
was a time of tremendous change. And as
those who stand in the tradition of Martin Luther, we are perfectly poised to
assist the church as it moves through these current changes. We are uniquely qualified to offer something
to those who keenly aware of the change and the need for change. Here I am referring to the young adults whose
lives are being changed every day by what they are learning and what they are
experiencing on the University campus.
I wonder if we are even able to
comprehend how differ was the world into which Martin Luther was born, and the
world as it existed when he died. To his
honor, and as a great statement of his humility, Luther never claimed to be the
sole agent of the reforms. Rather, he
speaks of himself as one who gives voice to what the Word of God was saying and
to where the Spirit was leading God’s people.
But much did change in those brief 60 years.
I want to review three ways in which
the Reformation changed the Church and changed the life of those living during
those days. With each, I believe there
is a parallel for change, happening in our own day.
First, is the change in the
language. When Martin Luther went to
church as a young lad, the Mass was in Latin.
He came to understand Latin, but his father did not, nor did his mother,
or his siblings. Few in attendance
understood what was being said. The
language of the Church was old and out of date.
It was inaccessible to the people who came to the Church, seeking hope
and inspiration.
During Luther’s lifetime, the
Church switched from the ancient words and phrases to the sentences which made
sense to those sitting in the pews.
God’s Word did not change, neither did the eternal truths contained in
those words, but the language did. The
Church began to speak in a way which folks could understand.
One of the changes which needs to
be made in the contemporary Church is another updating of language. Sheep and shepherds made sense to those who
lived in rural Israel, but make no sense to folks living among the luscious
greens of the 17th fairway.
In order to speak of Jesus as the Lamb of God, you have to explain the
role of lambs, and the sacrificial language.
And, these are images which will only be found in Church. It is time to change the language,
again. It is time to take into
consideration what we know of the world and what is known about God’s role in
this world.
God’s Word has NOT changed,
neither have the Truths contained in the language which has served the Church
for centuries, but the language to express those truths needs updating. This will cause panic in some – but we are
perfectly prepared to face the challenge.
It is part of our past to be active in bringing such change.
That is one change. Another was the ways in which Luther’s reform
de-centralized the Church. The Church
into which Luther was born was very much a top-down organization. Everything had to have the blessing of the
persons at the top of the chain.
Luther challenged this. He did not accept that the folks in Rome knew
what was needful or helpful to the persons in Saxony. If there were to be presiding Bishops, they
ought be Saxon born, rather than sent to the territory by Rome.
Clearly, we live in a time which
is calling for additional de-centralization.
The ELCA has completed a study process and is in the process of
implementing what is referred to as L.I.F.T.
This is more than a strategy, it is a realization that local communities
need to identify local projects and then find the resources to work on
them. Rather than someone coming from
Chicago or Columbia to tell you how to do this ministry, the contact you will
hear from Columbia or Chicago would be to help you figure it out for yourself.
And all of this sits perfectly
with the mood and mindset of young adults.
They place hardly any stock at all in what is said about a ministry by
those at the top of the chain. They will
respond much better to a panic-free embrace of a local effort to do what is
right and salutary for the folks who make this place their home.
I want to touch on one further
“change” which came during the years that Martin Luther worked to reform the
Church. This has to do with
purpose. The Church in existence when he
was born was very much a hungry animal, in need of being fed. The relationship one had with the Church was
to feed it. Your presence was required;
your devotion was demanded; and if you had any hope of confidence with regard
to salvation you got there as a result of having stayed in good graces of
Mother Church.
Luther did what we might now
refer to as inverting the initiative.
Luther reminded the Church that God came down to earth. Luther pointed out that our God differs from
the gods of other religions in that our God took on our flesh. If Jesus’ prime concern were the hungry and
hopeless, then this was to be the concern of Jesus’ Church. The Church exists to serve, not to be served.
This is precisely the kind of
talk those in their late teens and early twenties are eager to hear. Some of said of the current generation that
they are narcissistic, but this is not the case. They are not self-centered, they are a
generation desperately seeking to find the rootedness which their highly mobile
and seldom at home parents were unable to provide. My generations’ search for a better life has
removed their generation from anything with a long history. Ask this generation where they are from and
they are as likely to tell you where they spent last night as they are to name
a city or village where you can find others with the same last name and lots of
shared family history.
In too many instances,
congregations continue to operate like those of the pre-reformation era. They still come to us, telling us that in
order to be saved this is what we must do to be aligned with the teachings of
the church. They are expected to move
from where they are to where the speaker expects them to be. But this is a generation who has already
moved enough. What they need is
roots. And a Church which is prepared to
say to them, “Stay where you are. God
will meet you there.” is a church which has much to offer and wonderful things
to share.
Luther’s reforms brought a lot of
panic to the folks in Rome who were hell-bent on keeping things the way they
were. But his reform opened the Church
to a bright new future. Our gathering,
on this Reformation Sunday, is the perfect celebration of that tradition of
reform, and it is the best of all possible launching pads for seeing how we can
open up the Word of God and offer it to those who are truly hungering and
thirsting for God’s righteousness.
We are uniquely qualified to
offer something to the students, faculty and staff at Coastal Carolina, and all
the other colleges and universities in our midst. We have a message which is well suited to this
audience. By remaining true to this firm
foundation, our efforts will not falter.
All of that is rather theoretic
and some might even say esoteric. But,
it is essential that we begin with a clear statement of why it is that we would
even bother the students and the administrators with a request to allow us
access. Before I sit down, I want to briefly
touch on one more line of thought.
There is this writer by the name
of Diane Butler Bass. Her most popular
book is “Christianity without Religion.”
She speaks about the need for us to move beyond institutional
preservation. We cannot reach out to
this generation in order to save our church.
That would be treating them as a means to an end – to an end we
desire. If we are going to reach out,
let’s make sure we do it in response to their spiritual quest, not in some
fool-hearted attempt to re-establish our own.
One of the things which make it
highly unlikely that this generation will be pulled into any of our
self-serving schemes is the way in which the Church of Christendom operated and
the way which is the way of current young adults. The church of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries started with a clear statement of what it is that we believe. After setting forth our beliefs, we would
speak of how these beliefs were to direct behavior. When it was certified that you believed the
right things and were able to behave appropriately, then you could belong.
Folks showed up one Sunday
morning for worship. The pastor would call
on them and lay out the theological affirmations of the congregation. While there, the pastor would take a look
around the house to see if there was a Bible on the coffee table, an absence of
alcohol bottles on the counter, and might even make a note of the political
yard-signs out front. If all seemed to
be in good order, the person would then be invited to attend a four or six
session “New Member” class. During the
class, a fuller explanation of the beliefs was set forth. Additional members of the congregation
(posing as an Evangelism Committee) might be called in to get a good look at
these newbies. Finally, at the next
meeting of the Congregational Council, a vote is taken to see if these folks
will be allowed to join.
Well, you can just turn this on
its head when you are thinking of contemporary young adults. For them, the prime question isn’t “What do
you believe?” it is “Do I belong
here?” Their desire for community drives
them to find a home. Their prime concern
is whether this is a place where they feel as if they fit in. Where they will start is whether they are
allowed to feel as if they have a place to belong.
When they feel as if they belong,
they will change their behaviors in order to fit in with what they see around
them. Behaviors are not changed by
coercion, but by the desire to remain at home in the place they have come to
trust.
Then, after a while, they will
begin to wonder about the beliefs which make this a place where they want to
belong. They will come to believe what
is believed by those who allowed them to experience the power of belonging.
All too often, the Church thinks
in terms of Believe – Behave – Belong.
But this generation Belongs – Behaves – then Believes.
This kind of change this is scary
for some. They will slip into panic mode
and wonder how the Church can possibly survive this dramatic paradigm
shift. But not us. Not those of us who stand in the tradition of
Martin Luther. Not those who realize
that the Church in every age must learn new ways to speak the old, old story.
We have a history of reform. We know not to panic. And we have the assurance that out of great
change comes great things. We gather
this evening to acknowledge the reformation which occurred in the 16th
century. We pledge ourselves to the
reforms necessary in the 21st century.
Amen.
