Sometimes,
when we tell of our Lutheran Faith,
we get a little too in our own heads (or at least I do),
focusing on the Theology in an abstract sort of way
—Simul Justus Et Peccator, Grace, Faith, Word, Cross, Vocation, Kingdom,
Adiaphora, etc.
So, to be a little more concrete about the Lutheran Reformation, which we
commemorate today, I’d like to propose that:
The Lutheran Reformation was a Pastoral Act.
At its essence, the Reformation was answering Pastoral Questions
and giving good pastoral care as concerns arose.
The Lutheran Reformation was a Pastoral Act.
Prayer
The Lutheran Reformation was a
Pastoral Act.
Think
of how it all started:
“Doctor Luther, must I bankrupt
my family buying indulgences, so my mother will get out of purgatory?”
The Pastoral response?
95 Pointed Questions, poking holes in the abuses present in the indulgence
system.
“How
do we find a loving God, then?”
Grace and Faith,
Trust that God acts first, so everything is a gift.
“Pastor,
it seems like there are there two classes of Christian
—those with a calling of God to the priesthood,
and everyone else?
Am I a second-class citizen in the Kingdom of God?”
By no means! (quoting Luther now)
“How is it possible that you are not called? You are always in some sort of
position. You have always been a husband or wife or a son or a daughter or a
servant.”
Luther’s son, Little Hans, asked, “Pappa
Luther, what is the faith? What does this mean?”
And Luther came up with that pocket sized response
—the Small Catechism,
as a compact and simple explanation of the Christian Faith.
“Why is the Pope acting like a
secular ruler? Similarly, why are there powerful nobles manipulating the
Church?”
They’re confusing the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Humanity.
God’s right hand and God’s left.
“Pastor, are you telling me I
was scared nearly to death about indulgences because the Pope owed some
rich people money?”
When you seek the purposes of God,
do not look to the glitter of gold or to pageantry and pomp,
or power, or certainty, or anyone who is pointing to themselves
—God always finds us from the cross!
“Where does religious authority
come from? What, ultimately, is truth?”
To which Luther famously confessed: “Unless I am
convinced by the testimony of Scripture and sound reason (not pope alone or
council alone, for they often err and contradict) my conscience is captive to
the Word of God… Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me!”
--
Yes. The Lutheran Reformation historically
involved answering Pastoral questions,
giving good pastoral care…
and perhaps, for the sake of relevancy and to capture something of the match
strike of the Holy Spirit that lit the powder keg that was Lutheranism 500 some
years ago…
I would like to move us to the present tense
by giving some Lutheran answers to questions you all have had,
all just in the last month or so,
I’ve been consciously storing them up for today.
The Lutheran Reformation is a Pastoral Act.
“Pastor, sometimes, when I’m on Social Media, I feel like
I’m not in control of myself. Why is that?”
The
studies out there about the intentionally manipulative nature of social media algorithms,
tell us that our attention can get hacked and hijacked very easily, especially
when we are younger.
To ignore this aspect of social media would be like saying,
“We’ve never been a slave to anyone,”
even when Captivity (in Egypt and Babylon) is the founding story of your
people…
Consider
the Lutheran reading of the 10 commandments…
Those things we “fear, love, or trust”
—those things that we give our attention to
—are always a hairs breath away from becoming idols…
Social media algorithms hack that oh so human impulse toward idolatry.
Beloved, know that whatever the algorithm pushes you toward,
can not bear the weight of its worship,
down that road is tragedy.
“I can’t stand my neighbor, you won’t believe who they
voted for, don’t you think that they would have to be crazy to vote that way?”
Luther’s
explanation of the 8th commandment is fairly clear:
“we ought to come to our neighbor’s defense, speak well of them, and interpret
everything they do in the best possible light.”
Imagine if you clung to curiosity,
had difficult conversations that cleared the hurdles of talking points
and were able to listen each other into understanding
—not agreement, you must hear,
but at least a place where “the best possible light” is intelligible.
“Pastor, if we’re made in the image of God, why are there
shootings like the one that just happened?”
It’s
awful, isn’t it?
We are simultaneously sinners and justified
—ambiguous creatures who continually sell ourselves out to Sin, Death, and the
Devil…
we too often ignore the high calling upon our life
—bearing the image of God to the world
—and worse still, we tragically mar the image of God in the faces of others
by acts of violence and neglect.
Additionally, we have developed
such hardened skin surrounding mass shootings,
that we fail to insist that our government restrain evil and promote the good.
“Now that the IRS has changed laws governing political
speech, why don’t you endorse someone from the pulpit?”
To
Lutheran and Augustinian ears this,
and all the corollaries of Christian Nationalism implied in such actions,
sound suspiciously like confusing The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven…
like mixing Law and Gospel.
God rules through civil authorities in a Law-like way,
using them to condemn and restrain evil via a wide variety of secular
offices.
And at the same time, God rules through the Church in a Gospel-like way,
proclaiming God’s unending love through the offices of Word, Sacrament, and
Service.
The Lutheran Reformation is a Pastoral Act.
Because
we are freed by Jesus Christ,
he ministers to us,
and we matter to him,
Therefore, the Church in every age answers
real questions,
be they about indulgences or technology,
vocation or violence,
how to love our neighbors, whoever they are,
never forgetting that Christ first loved us. Amen.
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