Free at Last!

Each year, when we read these texts on Reformation I always seem to focus on how the Jews in our gospel are able to say that they had never been in bondage. Note these are those who are following Jesus. Could they not see how their own lives did not live up to God’s expectation? Were they so used to the way things were that they had no desire to reform their lives? That is what today is about reforming our lives around God. 

We begin by the promise of Jesus the new covenant. That covenant is an integral part of our lives. It is not an external set of rules we must follow. It is God’s love writ large upon our life. It is God who is our stronghold as the psalmist writes. A very presence in the midst of trouble. Psalm 46 was the inspiration behind Luther’s hymn,  A Mighty Fortress is Our God. It is a favorite of most Lutherans. That may be because we sing it so often, especially on Reformation. To some it has become the “Lutheran” hymn. But Martin Luther did not write it as such (nor did he celebrate the Reformation). Luther wrote this hymn because it is how he saw God – a mighty fortress in the midst of life where tragedy, struggle, and strife try to pull you down. Luther certainly had his struggles. It was out of struggle that he saw the saving grace of God in Jesus. His struggles were both against outside forces that threatened to harm or kill him and inside voices that sowed doubt and fear. No wonder it is from  this psalm that a great hymn was born. 

Luther was not alone in his struggles. In his effort to reform the church he wanted to share how he experienced God in the midst of struggle. Not that there is a sure-fire promise of an easy struggle-free life from God, but that God is our refuge and strength. While we all know that and we all sing the hymn and say the words we sometimes find ourselves lost when trouble appears on our doorstep. Luther did not always see God as a stronghold – a present help in time of trouble. He saw God as a vengeful tyrant who called for a strict lifestyle. This caused Luther to act out of fear. It was reading Romans that he saw God as a fortress who also gives peace. That peace comes because God is always present in our lives. Therefor in all the struggles we find ourselves we are with God. As Luther wrote, “whether they take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse, or life itself, God will prevail.+”That is what we celebrate this day. God’s reformation of the world – the new covenant. A covenant that is not based on fear and requirement, but one that is based on love, hope, and faith. A covenant that has been signed by the blood of Jesus. 

Unfortunately we do not always live by this new covenant. We often times are selfish and look down on those different than us. We drown in our own trouble doubting that God can help having no  hope. We even work against God’s will. Yet God is our stronghold and present help. When chaos and trouble surrounds us like crashing water remember the words of the psalmist, “There is river whose stream makes glad the city of God.” When you are drowning in your troubles and the waters rage and foam about you and you feel as if it will sink beneath its surface, prayerfully look into your life asking God to reform your ways so that you may live by the reforming love of Jesus. You have been washed by the river whose streams make glad the city of God. Live in that gladness as God’s child filled with the peace which surpasses all understanding freed from the bondage of sin and death.