Our Heart IS Change
A Reflection on Reformation Sunday
Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10
I hope you’ll excuse me for playing a little bit of dress-up today. It is Halloween, after all… or more appropriately “All Hallows’ Eve” –the night before All Saints Day. In superstitious mediaeval times, it was believed that on the evening before All Saints Day, that the dead literally walked amongst the living. So everybody got dressed up, and showed hospitality to anyone who came to their door, whether they were living or dead. Today, it has very much evolved into the big yearly candy-grab, and I can tell you that at least in our household, there is one person who would get up there and push the sun down to the horizon if it means she could get out there faster.
But today, within the walls of this church, on All Hallows’ Eve, we remember the act of a solitary German monk, who on this day four hundred ninety three years ago, challenged the great monolithic church about its practices. Some accounts have him hammering his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church, others have him merely sending a letter… but either way, while he had set about to debate the church about its practices, it opened the door to what we now call the Protestant Reformation.
The costume that Kelta helped me with today was more in keeping with what John Calvin or John Knox might have worn in their day. These two were the great Reformers to whom we owe a historical debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for them, we would not exist today as a church community. Yet as both Knox and Calvin would tell you, it wasn’t about them, it was about reforming the church to be what God was calling her to be. The Reformation of the church was the goal… not one person or one leader up on a pedestal. If anything, that’s exactly what the Reformers railed against. In fact, so convinced of this was John Calvin, that he requested that he be buried in an unmarked grave, so that people would not be tempted to turn it into a shrine.
We would make a critical mistake if we think that the Reformation came and went, the changes were made, and now we don’t need to change again. Hardly. Calvin and Knox fully understood that the church is a human organization with all of its attendant flaws. It is a Christian’s responsibility to constantly discern and follow God’s leading through scripture. If we find our practices aren’t in sync with what Jesus is teaching, then we must, by definition, reform and change ourselves.
ecclesia semper reformans, semper reformanda
The church is always reformed, always reforming. This is the vision of the reformation, and a vision that perhaps we have all too often forgotten. Perhaps we have also forgotten that so much of the Bible is about personal, transformational change that looks forward, rather than looking back. If it was all about going back to the way things were, we might well still be in Egypt!
Some of you might remember the story of Zacchaeus, we heard it this morning, of course, but I remember hearing this one a lot before I was ten years old. I think during the 70’s in particular it was a story that was told quite often to children. Maybe it was because Zacchaeus was particularly short, and couldn’t see over the crowd, as a child, I could relate to this… so he climbed up a sycamore tree… I also have vague recollections of a song… but I have long since forgotten the melody.
Yet into my youth, and through most of my adult life, I had long forgotten about this story. It’s still there, it’s still part of Luke’s gospel, but as I got taller, perhaps it didn’t resonate with me as much. Yet this story was not about how short Zacchaeus was. This was all about Zacchaeus feeling a gap and a hole in his life, feeling a need to be transformed… and looking and needing that direction. He finds it, when he takes a risk, and literally goes out on a limb to see Jesus… and when he does, Jesus invites himself to dinner… and in that encounter, Zacchaeus is transformed. He makes amends for things that he has done wrong in the past, and he pledges half of his own personal resources to help the poor. Zacchaeus reforms and transforms himself.
Whether it’s Habakkuk, whether it’s Zacchaeus, whether it is the church or ourselves, the healthiest of all possible relationships with God is one that continually seeks to improve, to grow, to reform. The moment that we think we have it all figured out, and it is only other people that need to change, is the moment when we need reforming ourselves!
When I served as Presbyterian Chaplain at the University of Western Ontario, you might have been surprised to learn that my Roman Catholic Colleague… Father Mike, who is just a few weeks older than I am, suggested that we have some sort of Reformation Day celebration. My Lutheran colleague looked at him dumbfounded, not quite sure what to say… to which Mike noted that if it was not for the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church would not have had the opportunity to reform itself. The Counter-Reformation came a generation after John Calvin and other Reformers… and saw some substantial changes in what people saw as a great monolithic institution. So it made a great deal of sense that Reformation Day should be recognized by all Christians as a reminder to us that no person, no institution is above the need of reform and change.
The church is reformed and reforming... the core of who we are is about reformation… our heart IS change. It is unfortunate that the word “Presbyterian” has come to mean staid, inflexible, old, humourless… because at it’s heart and core, we are part of a tradition whose core beliefs are rooted in this sense of Reformation.
So maybe today we can remember a bit of our history, but remember that our story is about change. We are constantly in need of reforming ourselves, reformulating our faith, and coming to new understandings of how we can be faithful to Christ. It is absolutely necessary as as both the church and as people living in a world that has so vastly changed since John Calvin wrote his institutes! Maybe we can be a bit like Zacchaeus, and go out on a limb to encounter Jesus in our lives in a way that inspires us to transform who we are, and discover that new life that Zacchaeus experienced himself.
Amen.
Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10
I hope you’ll excuse me for playing a little bit of dress-up today. It is Halloween, after all… or more appropriately “All Hallows’ Eve” –the night before All Saints Day. In superstitious mediaeval times, it was believed that on the evening before All Saints Day, that the dead literally walked amongst the living. So everybody got dressed up, and showed hospitality to anyone who came to their door, whether they were living or dead. Today, it has very much evolved into the big yearly candy-grab, and I can tell you that at least in our household, there is one person who would get up there and push the sun down to the horizon if it means she could get out there faster.
But today, within the walls of this church, on All Hallows’ Eve, we remember the act of a solitary German monk, who on this day four hundred ninety three years ago, challenged the great monolithic church about its practices. Some accounts have him hammering his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church, others have him merely sending a letter… but either way, while he had set about to debate the church about its practices, it opened the door to what we now call the Protestant Reformation.
The costume that Kelta helped me with today was more in keeping with what John Calvin or John Knox might have worn in their day. These two were the great Reformers to whom we owe a historical debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for them, we would not exist today as a church community. Yet as both Knox and Calvin would tell you, it wasn’t about them, it was about reforming the church to be what God was calling her to be. The Reformation of the church was the goal… not one person or one leader up on a pedestal. If anything, that’s exactly what the Reformers railed against. In fact, so convinced of this was John Calvin, that he requested that he be buried in an unmarked grave, so that people would not be tempted to turn it into a shrine.
We would make a critical mistake if we think that the Reformation came and went, the changes were made, and now we don’t need to change again. Hardly. Calvin and Knox fully understood that the church is a human organization with all of its attendant flaws. It is a Christian’s responsibility to constantly discern and follow God’s leading through scripture. If we find our practices aren’t in sync with what Jesus is teaching, then we must, by definition, reform and change ourselves.
ecclesia semper reformans, semper reformanda
The church is always reformed, always reforming. This is the vision of the reformation, and a vision that perhaps we have all too often forgotten. Perhaps we have also forgotten that so much of the Bible is about personal, transformational change that looks forward, rather than looking back. If it was all about going back to the way things were, we might well still be in Egypt!
Some of you might remember the story of Zacchaeus, we heard it this morning, of course, but I remember hearing this one a lot before I was ten years old. I think during the 70’s in particular it was a story that was told quite often to children. Maybe it was because Zacchaeus was particularly short, and couldn’t see over the crowd, as a child, I could relate to this… so he climbed up a sycamore tree… I also have vague recollections of a song… but I have long since forgotten the melody.
Yet into my youth, and through most of my adult life, I had long forgotten about this story. It’s still there, it’s still part of Luke’s gospel, but as I got taller, perhaps it didn’t resonate with me as much. Yet this story was not about how short Zacchaeus was. This was all about Zacchaeus feeling a gap and a hole in his life, feeling a need to be transformed… and looking and needing that direction. He finds it, when he takes a risk, and literally goes out on a limb to see Jesus… and when he does, Jesus invites himself to dinner… and in that encounter, Zacchaeus is transformed. He makes amends for things that he has done wrong in the past, and he pledges half of his own personal resources to help the poor. Zacchaeus reforms and transforms himself.
Whether it’s Habakkuk, whether it’s Zacchaeus, whether it is the church or ourselves, the healthiest of all possible relationships with God is one that continually seeks to improve, to grow, to reform. The moment that we think we have it all figured out, and it is only other people that need to change, is the moment when we need reforming ourselves!
When I served as Presbyterian Chaplain at the University of Western Ontario, you might have been surprised to learn that my Roman Catholic Colleague… Father Mike, who is just a few weeks older than I am, suggested that we have some sort of Reformation Day celebration. My Lutheran colleague looked at him dumbfounded, not quite sure what to say… to which Mike noted that if it was not for the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church would not have had the opportunity to reform itself. The Counter-Reformation came a generation after John Calvin and other Reformers… and saw some substantial changes in what people saw as a great monolithic institution. So it made a great deal of sense that Reformation Day should be recognized by all Christians as a reminder to us that no person, no institution is above the need of reform and change.
The church is reformed and reforming... the core of who we are is about reformation… our heart IS change. It is unfortunate that the word “Presbyterian” has come to mean staid, inflexible, old, humourless… because at it’s heart and core, we are part of a tradition whose core beliefs are rooted in this sense of Reformation.
So maybe today we can remember a bit of our history, but remember that our story is about change. We are constantly in need of reforming ourselves, reformulating our faith, and coming to new understandings of how we can be faithful to Christ. It is absolutely necessary as as both the church and as people living in a world that has so vastly changed since John Calvin wrote his institutes! Maybe we can be a bit like Zacchaeus, and go out on a limb to encounter Jesus in our lives in a way that inspires us to transform who we are, and discover that new life that Zacchaeus experienced himself.
Amen.
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