All Made New

Lately I have been reading about German history. I had not planned to. It happened because I was looking to see if the library had a book I was interested in reading. They do but another title came up in my search, a collection of essays, “Art, Media, and Culture Under the Third Reich,” which sounded much more interesting than the book I was looking for. One of the essays mentioned another book, “Dreams and Delusions”  by Fritz Stern. The library did not have that book so I bought a copy and the journey through German history began. One of the surprising themes in these histories is the Reformation: How it shaped German culture, influenced political thought, and was used by the National Socialists (Nazis) to justify some of their heinous deeds, even after 400 plus years. It is not surprising or unusual that an awakening of new ideas from an old slumber can have such influence. That it could be used for evil as well, while troubling, is not unusual. Luther himself was not innocent of wrong and made mistakes, some quite grave. Luther knew that and reminds us that we are the same. We are, at the same time, sinner and saint. Sometimes we do not know if our actions are God’s will or not. Usually we do, and when we act as we desire, we often delude ourselves into believing we are doing what is right. That is what the Jews were doing when they told Jesus they had not been slaves to anyone (which they had been more than once). It is interesting that the Jews responded in this way thinking only about slavery. Jesus was speaking of freedom from more than servitude. He was talking about freedom from oppression, the burden of the law, fear, sin, and death.

For Luther the Reformation was about returning to an honest look at ourselves and a true understanding of God. Luther was afraid that the church taught obedience to a strict law which did not convey grace. It was as if the church returned to the same issues that Paul had to deal with. Although the church also used their teaching to raise capital with the selling of indulgences. Luther saw that, if you could buy forgiveness, grace was cheapened, and people did not question their lives nor were they concerned about acting as God called them to. That is why, in the definition of the Ten Commandments he begins with, “We should fear, love, and trust God above everything else.” In other words, put our whole life into God’s hand understand the God sent Jesus to die for us and to set us free. 

We are not different than the Jews in our Gospel today. We declare we are free and have never been in bondage to another. In bondage to the bank, to our houses, to our families. None of those are bad, in themselves. In fact most of them are good things – God’s gift. Yet they do bring about worry and anxiety and fear. The neighborhood we live in changes, violence seems to be increasing, families grow up, illness (and pandemics) beset us to name only a few of those things that can bind us to fear. To us and in the midst of life – into the whirlwind of the world – Jesus comes to us and makes us new. 

The reformation is not something we do it is something that God does to us. Each and every day God calls and renews us so that we may face the ever changing world with the assurance that no matter what happens to us or where we find ourselves Jesus is there. So do not worry, do not fret, were the world to “take our house, goods, child, honor or spouse, if life be wrenched away, our troubles cannot win the day, the kingdom is ours forever.” You have been set free in the waters of baptism and renewed at this holy table, live then in the freedom of God’s love knowing that wherever your life takes you you are loved and made new every day so that your every word and deed will be that of Jesus and his salvation.