Reformation Sunday B October 28, 2012
Luther Memorial Lutheran Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Colossians 3: 12-17 Psalm 46
Romans 3: 19-28 Mark 10: 46-52
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Recently I came across a file that contained a real estate assessment of this property that was compiled several years ago when an outside organization wanted to purchase the property in order to use the land. The report began by noting that it was designed to determine the highest and best use of the property. This idea of highest and best use is a real estate concept that states that the highest and best use of a property is that which results in the highest value of the property, regardless of its actual current use. Of course this is a financial term, but on this day when we observe and celebrate the Reformation of the Church, it does invite us to consider what the highest and best use of the Church might be, what helps us come to that determination, and what it means for our lives as disciples together in a community of faith.
To offer a quick re-cap of what it is we are celebrating today: we remember that Martin Luther, who was a Roman Catholic priest, saw that the church he loved and in which he served was promoting some practices that were against all that he understood about God’s grace. The Roman Catholic church was selling indulgences, or to put in in more contemporary language, they were taking money in exchange for promising people they would get into heaven more quickly and easily. There are many things wrong with this, but for Luther, he had been strongly influenced by Paul’s letter to the Romans. We heard this today “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” It is on the carving just outside of these sanctuary doors. We affirm, with Luther, that there is nothing we can DO to earn our salvation….it is by faith we are saved, and that faith in itself is a gift from God.
So back, to our friend Martin Luther. Feeling strongly that the church was in error, he made a list of 95 things that he thought were wrong with the church (he called them the 95 theses), he nailed the list to the door of the church, on the eve of All Saint’s Day, when he knew people would be arriving for worship, as an invitation for conversation about how to reform the church.
This didn’t go over as Luther had imagined it would. Rather than reforming his beloved Roman Catholic Church, Luther was pursued throughout Germany by church officials, threatened with death, and eventually excommunicated from the church. This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, and the Lutheran Church.
I wonder what Luther would have thought of the idea of the highest and best use of the Church? Certainly he did not think that the highest and best use was to sell an easier route to salvation in order to beef up the church coffers. Luther argued vehemently on the side of grace. He understood Scripture to be the word of God revealed to us and Jesus as the Word made flesh.
The reforms that came about because of Luther’s bold stand against the church were important for the church of his day and for the church as it continued into the future. The Church continues to reform. We understand that Scripture is a living word and that it is alive in the world because the Holy Spirit has enlivened it. The church in the world has the opportunity to bear witness by its very existence. To be sure, the nature of the church, the role it plays in society and in our communities is different than it was twenty or thirty years ago. Those were the golden days of church life, some might even argue the days when our buildings reached their highest and best use. Those were the days when the church was full every single Sunday. Those were the days when students did not have athletic events or musical events scheduled on Sunday and no one but essential personnel worked on Sundays. And people who study trends, even people inside the church who study trends, have noted that decline of mainstream denominations continues. Except. Except. Except that maybe we are not defining decline or incline or success or failure correctly. Maybe it’s the same sort of thing as the highest and best use of a property. Who determines what is highest and best or success or failure. What is the purpose of the church, anyway?
Jesus called the disciples and his earliest followers. He taught them by example, by story, and by directly teaching them. And then he sent them out. Go and make disciples, he said. Go. Not stay inside your walls and become just another sort of club. But Go. Worship strengthens us for this service. Study of Scripture prepares us by helping us understand more clearly what we are called to do. Engaging with the culture around us helps us understand more clearly the needs of those around us. And then we go.
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where to begin. Oh, sometimes the needs are obvious. There are hungry people in our neighborhood…right outside our doors? We feed them. There are homeless women with children who need shelter? We provide it. There are people who may never have the chance to grow something in actual dirt or to show their children how a vegetable grows. We loan them our land. But other times we wonder…what are we supposed to do?
Consider the story from Mark’s gospel that we heard this morning. Jesus and his followers came to Jericho. And in the next sentence, they are leaving Jericho. We don’t know why they were there, but we do know that on their way out of town a blind man is sitting by the side of the road.
I think that one of the most important details in this story is found between the lines. Verse 47 “When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to shout out and say, Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me!” When he heard that it was Jesus. In order for this blind man to have heard that it was Jesus, someone had to have said that it was Jesus. In that crowd, someone might have shouted that it was Jesus. In fact, it’s possible, even probable that lots of people shouted, whispered….It’s Jesus….It’s Jesus….It’s Jesus!
This is the job of the church. This is the task of the church as we form and reform. This is the job of the church in every season. To proclaim that Jesus is among us. That Jesus is in the world.
We proclaim it in what we do and in what we say. We proclaim it in our song and in our stories. And our proclamation must continue. It must continue in the face of all of the challenges that face us.
Today, as a part of our Stewardship Emphasis, we give thanks for the Gift of the Church. And we celebrate the way that the church continues to reform. And we continue to proclaim Jesus to a broken world, even out of our own brokenness.
The world will still wonder. As the Hymn of Praise sang today: “Though with a scornful wonder, this world sees her oppressed by schisms rent asunder and heresies distressed. Yet saints there watch are keeping…their cry goes up…”How long?” Yet soon the night of weeping will be the morn of song.”[1]
The report in my file cabinet concludes that the highest and best use of this property is one without this building sitting on it. In light of history and a Church that is always reforming and in light of a Scripture call to proclaim the presence of Christ, I would heartily disagree!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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