Re-formation Sunday

 

Reformation Sunday        John 15:1-17

 The Reformation was centered on re-capturing a love for and adherence to God’s Word as the authority of the body of Christ Jesus.  The corruptions experienced in that time and place under the Holy Roman Empire added to the zeal for getting back to living the Good News of Jesus as the way of being the church in the world.  Jesus’ Good News came in a similar context under empire centuries before.  For me, it is reminiscent of Josiah’s reform before that, at a time when the Torah had been walled up and disregarded for a long time by the leaders of the people.  When we get away from the Word, we get away from the Will of God and therefore faithfulness to God.

 I believe that as we have sunk evermore deeply into empire as a nation over the past forty-two years (since the desolating sacrilege of Reagan and Falwell), we have set up similar circumstances around the Gospel of Jesus for followers today.  The church has been corrupted by false teachings that undergird the agenda of empire in our nation and in the world.   As one preacher recently put it in a revival for clergy, “You are either a chaplain for empire or a prophet of the resistance.”  Jesus was all about resisting empire.  Those who follow Jesus must be all about resisting empire in order to be following Jesus.

 I chose this text because it is a call to arms for Jesus’ disciples, as witnessed in the Gospel of John.  We are connected to Jesus, our lifeline.  We are called to bear good fruit in the world, having been cleansed by the Word that Jesus gave us.  We cannot bear that good fruit if we do not abide in Jesus.  We must live, breath and move within Jesus in order to bear fruit and change the world.  If we abide in Jesus, we abide in Jesus’ Word, the Good News of agaph that is to transform the world.  Being Jesus’ disciples means that we glorify God because of the good that we DO in the world.  In order to be faithful to Jesus, we must keep HIS commandments of living agaph for God and Neighbor as self, which fulfill all the Law and Prophets.  THAT is our faithfulness.  It gives Jesus great joy when we do that, and fills us with joy – the joy of faithfulness.  We must love one another as Jesus has loved us.  That is deeply personal.  We have been chosen to follow Jesus, and appointed therefore to put good fruit out in the world around us.  Jesus’ commandment is to love one another. (agaph- committed action on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable among us.)

 Is the church that bears Jesus’ name heeding this call to arms?  Are we putting this love out in the world of empire to resist its way and offer a sustainable alternative for the children of God?  Are we faithful to the Gospel of Jesus as our authority on how to live faithfully with God and Neighbor?  If so, then we are transforming the world and the fruits of that transformation are evident.  If not, then we need to be pruned, cleansed by the Word, re-formed to be the movement of followers of Jesus again, instead of institutions that represent empire in the world.  The leaders of the church are either prophets of the resistance to empire and its evil and destructive ways who are faithful to the Gospel of Jesus, or chaplains of empire who are promoting the false teachings that prop up the destruction of lives under it.

 Reformation Sunday.  Reformation Sunday.  Reformation Sunday.  It’s been 505 years since it was started.  Where has it gone?