95 Theses

 

Service of Worship

Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

October 31, 2021

Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor

 

Prelude

 

Greeting and Announcements

 

Mission Statement: We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

Call to Worship

We are people of God, created to love
We will love the Lord our God with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We are people of God, determined to love.
We will love our neighbors and treat them as we would be treated.

We love neither from a sense of obligation nor to gain popularity of favor.
We choose to love both the lovely and the unlovable because love imitates God’s nature.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”

 

Hymn 110: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

 

Prayer of Confession:

Good and great God, we come to you through Jesus Christ who intercedes for us sinners. We confess our sins, seeking forgiveness not only that we may be at peace with you, but also that we may pray for others. We are ashamed that our prayers are often as self-centered as our lives. Excuse our disordered priorities as we seek to change and reorder our lives according to the teaching and spirit of Jesus Christ you Son, our Lord. Amen.

 

Assurance

 

Pastor: Friends, hear the good news! God has chosen you to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit.
People: We are saved by the Spirit through belief in the truth in Christ.
Pastor: Friends, believe the good news!
People: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

 

Anthem

 

Baptism of Calder Nadaeu

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ:
Through the Sacrament of Baptism
we are initiated into Christ's holy Church.
We are incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation
and given new birth through water and the Spirit.
All this is God's gift, offered to us without price.

 

On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you:
Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world,
and repent of your sin?

I do.

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you
to resist evil, injustice, and oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves?

I do.

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior,
put your whole trust in his grace,
and promise to serve him as your Lord,

in union with the Church which Christ has opened
to people of all ages, nations, and races?

I do.

5 The pastor addresses the congregation

Will you nurture Calder
in Christ's holy Church,
that by your teaching and example he may be guided
to accept God's grace for himself,
to profess his openly,
and to lead a Christian life?

We will.

 

Calder, I baptize you in the name of the Creator, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Members of the household of God,
I commend Calder to your love and care.
Do all in your power to increase his faith,
confirm his hope, and perfect him in love.

 

With God’s help, we will so order our lives after the example of Christ, that Calder, surrounded by steadfast love, may be established in the faith, and confirmed and strengthened in the way that leads to life eternal.

 

 

Mark 12: 28-34

The First Commandment

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³ and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

 

Front Porch Rockers

 

A Message

“95 Theses”

 

Friends, this last Sunday in October is one that I look forward to every year. For a lot of people it’s nothing, or maybe it’s Halloween. But for a history nerd like me, this last Sunday in October is Reformation Sunday, a day we spend lifting up the bravery of our foremothers and forefathers in the faith who fought and advocated to create change in the Church, often at the expense of their belongingness in their own Church, and even at the expense of their life. There are a lot of names worthy of lifting up today, but the most famous one, and the one for whom we have this day right at the end of October, is a man by the name of Martin Luther.

 

Born on November 10, 1483 in what was then called the Holy Roman Empire, but specifically in territory that now belongs to Germany, Luther was raised in a middle -class family—not noble by any means, but well off enough to afford him a rich education that propelled his entire life’s work. From his early years on, it became clear that Luther’s sharp tongue and bold personality would be a force to be reckoned with; he had critical words for every institution he ever belonged to, and described one of the early schools he attended as a living purgatory, and the next school he attended as a brewery.

 

Despite being an outspoken smart-aleck, Luther excelled academically. Still, he struggled with where he belonged in the world. Following his father’s desires for him he enrolled in law school, but dropped out after a single day of class. He then went on to study philosophy, and greatly enjoyed how that discipline encouraged him to question everything. This began to open up deeper spiritual questions in Luther’s life—he could deduce so much in the world by reason, but not God. He came to the belief that the only way to know more about God was by reading scripture. But, only a very educated person in Luther’s time could do that. Bibles were expensive and seldom reproduced before the invention of the printing press, and they were only printed in Latin, a language that no one spoke in their daily life. And someone less privileged than Luther, who couldn’t afford his education, wouldn’t be able to read at all. The Church in his day also maintained that only clergy were fit to interpret scripture.

In a manner eerily similar to Paul, Luther experienced a powerful conversion experience at the age of 22. He was riding on his horse during a thunderstorm and was struck by lightening. He was terrified he would die, and yelled out “Help, St. Anna! I will become a monk!” Luther was so moved by this experience, as well as by the deaths of two very close friends, that he kept a promise he had screamed out in duress, quit school, and joined a monastery. Not for the last time in his life, Luther’s actions enraged the authority figures around him—in this case, his dad, who was very angry that Luther was putting aside his rich education to go into a profession that didn’t require that level of formal schooling. Still, as it turns out, Luther’s education was in no way wasted, and Luther’s love of scholarship continued to grow.

 

Luther became depressed in his early monastic years, so much so that his mentor encouraged him to further his education and pursue a calling to a teaching ministry in order to balance his soul’s calling to God with his mind’s calling to learning. During this time he earned a bachelor’s degree, and then a doctoral degree, and began teaching theology courses at the University of Wittenburg.

 

This brings us to the “main action” of Luther’s life story, so to speak—the actions that made him infamous and for which we learn about him in Western Civ. And though some of you who remember learning about Luther in school may have an idea of where I’m going with this and may be well-versed in the specific theological words that are going to come up, I think we need to take a big step back, because ultimately what stirred Luther’s dissatisfaction with the Church was something we see in a church like this one once every few years—a building renovation.

 

The building itself was St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It was in disrepair and needed significant structural work. Peeling paint, a leaking roof, rusty windows—y’all, there’s nothing new under the sun, our churches have struggled with the same problems since the dawn of time. But Luther wasn’t mad that St. Peter’s Basilica needed a new roof, nor was he super perturbed that the Pope Leo X sought donations from the common people throughout the Empire. What got his blood up to the point that he could no longer just sit and watch was a practice called the sale of indulgences. If you haven’t heard that word recently, don’t sweat it, it means you have way more fun in your free time than I do. The sale of indulgences meant that clergy were preying on the vulnerability and fear that they could evoke in their parishioners. Remember, common people in Luther’s day were not encouraged to read and interpret scripture to develop a personal relationship with Jesus and draw their own conclusions about what the Divine has in store for them; ordinary people depended on their priest to tell them what the Bible says, to speak for God in their life, and to tell them whether they were worthy of heaven. With the sale of indulgences, unscrupulous priests began telling their parishioners, “Nah, you’ve done some shady stuff there, Mrs. Smith. You haven’t spent enough quality time with your kids, your thoughts are less than pure, and I hear the other day you shouted a phrase that began with ‘God—' and did not end with ‘save the queen.’ But you know, I’ve got an in with the Big Guy, and I think I could get God to overlook all that if you could give me some cash for the Church. How much? Well, I guess that depends. $5 dollars? I don’t know, ma’am, I hear it gets kinda toasty in hell. $100 dollars? Yeah, maybe we can work something out.”

 

Luther never meant to begin a Reformation. He never even meant to leave the Roman Catholic Church. I doubt he could ever imagine a world where “Lutheran churches” exist. He wanted to be a good monk. So he drafted a letter to his bishop where he explained the grievances he had with Church practices, most notably the sale of indulgences and the exploitation of the poor. This letter became popularly known as the “95 Theses”, and Luther delivered it on October 31, 1517. Contrary to the legend that has followed him, it’s not likely he actually nailed his letter to the front door of the cathedral in Wittenburg. But since the guy had a major flare for drama, I don’t think it’s unfair for us to keep acting like he really did that. This became a first shot that rang throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

 

Luther’s bishop refused to answer the letter, and was much more focused on continuing to collect indulgences for more building renovation work. He passed the letter on to Rome, where Luther, for the first but not the last time in his life, received the attention of the Pope. Luther was afforded a few years and several opportunities to recant, and he refused each time. And during those years of mounting tension with the Church, Luther continued to develop the theology for which he is best known now. He studied the Bible in great depth and became convinced that people are not saved by anything they do or don’t do, but merely by their faith in Jesus. After the invention of the printing press paved the way, Luther drafted the very first German translation of the Bible and began distributing it. This paved the way for the creation of the very first English translations of the Bible. He became convinced that the hierarchy of the Church was unnecessary and corrupt, and taught that all who have faith in Jesus make up a “priesthood of all believers”. He professed that confessing your sins to a priest was unnecessary, because all Christians are capable of confessing sins and hearing one another confessions, and because a priest cannot absolve you of your sin, Jesus forgives your sin in his mercy. In 1520, the Pope issued a public letter, or “papal bull” to Luther, and ordered him to recant in 60 days or face excommunication. He responded by torching the letter. The Pope was displeased, and excommunicated Luther in January of 1521.

 

Luther faced many hard and dangerous years after making an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church—he was kidnapped, threatened with violence, made an outlaw, and sent into hiding. The Diet or Worms declared it illegal to give food and shelter to Luther, and offered to look the other way if anyone tried to kill him.

 

Ultimately, Luther died an old man, and began laying the framework for a new, post-Catholic Church once he had literally burned the last of his bridges with the Church that was once his home. We owe him a tremendous debt, and, in one way or another, every one of us is here now because of the work he did. He blazed a trail for a Church where normal people could voice their own theology, their own faith, and criticize the institution. He planted the seeds for a faith that allows you to read, pray, study, confess, explore, and worship on your own terms. He empowered the laity.

 

Obviously, I admire him a bunch, but he was by no means perfect, and we need to acknowledge that. Luther had strong theology, and had a clear understanding of the heaven that awaits you by faith if you were a white Christian man. But the fewer of those boxes you could check, the dimmer that picture of you going to heaven became in Luther’s mind, and if you were Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, or Anabaptist he wasn’t sure you would go to heaven at all, or that you should be allowed to practice your faith. It’s tragically ironic when he was such a champion for common people exploring their faith on their own terms.

 

Today we sit here, in a church we chose for ourselves, with the way to it paved by people who loved God very much and wanted us to know that love. And we read in today’s lectionary-appointed Gospel passage that Jesus lifted up two things as the most important commandments: love God, and love your neighbor. The scribe that Jesus was talking to, a man perhaps not unlike Luther, thought very carefully about what Jesus told him and agreed that our love for God and one another is surely much stronger than anything we can do to try to prove our loyalty or worth to the Divine. We have nothing to prove at all. Jesus tells him “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

 

We are not far from the Kingdom. It’s just our love for God and one another that gets us there. But on a Sunday like this one, we get called to task on our love, and how clearly we’re showing it. Have we put up roadblocks between our love and God, our between us and our neighbor? What are those road blocks made of? And how can we deconstruct them?

 

On a day like this one, I especially wonder something in particular—would I have the boldness to write a letter to a superior in our modern day Church where I voiced my disagreements with problematic church practices? Would you? Would any of us write a modern-day 95 Theses? If you did, what would you write in them? What concerns about the Church would you voice? What changes would you want to see happen? And to whom would you send the letter? Would you make the letter come to life and nail it to the door of a public building? Or in this high-tech world would you post it on Facebook instead?

 

I don’t intend to get myself in hot water by mailing this sermon to the Bishop, but I certainly have concerns about the state of the United Methodist Church today, and this isn’t news to most of you. I long to see a Church that renounces white supremacy and commits to anti-racist work. I long to see a Church where queer couples can get married, where queer people are welcome to openly serve in the clergy, and where no one is disenfranchised or marginalized for being who they are. I long to see our Church reject its colonial past. I long to see our Church transcend merely paying lip service to gender-equality and fight the patriarchy that still lingers around us, keeping women from being heard, respected, and empowered the same as men. I long to see our Church name the sin of hoarding wealth, and fight for housing equality, living wages, and taxing the rich. I long to see our Church fight against healthcare inequality, and keep fighting until people no longer go broke because they got sick. I want our Church to fully reflect Jesus’ compassion. I want our Church to love God and love our neighbors.

 

On this Reformation Sunday, I don’t expect us to sit and count 95 things we don’t like about the Church. But let’s not sit and get comfortable in Jesus’ love. His love is the salve for our wounds, but also a charge that reminds us that we are not far from the Kingdom of God. Let us not stop building that Kingdom until we’re finally there.

 

Amen.[1]

 

 

Hymn 585: This Little Light of Mine

 

Offering, doxology, and prayer of dedication

 

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

 

Dear Lord,

On this Reformation Sunday, we thank you for those persons you have poured your spirit into that then set about reforming your church. We thank you that you are still at work in the life of the church reforming us reshaping us, and remaking us into your image.

One of the ways we reflect your image Lord is how we care for one another with love, care and prayer. We pray for those who are in the hospitals today. We pray for those at home with illnesses, pains and recovering from treatments and/or surgeries. We pray for those in nursing homes and those who are home bound. We pray for their families during these times. We pray for those who are facing death. We pray for those who have died and for those who are grieving. We pray for their Doctors, nurses, health care workers and care takers. Lord may we reflect your image in our love, care and prayer that we put to action for these your children.

We reflect your image in how we love, care and pray for the world. We pray for those around the world who as Christians face imprisonment and martyrdom. We pray for those who countries torn by civil war. We pray for those living in poverty. We pray for those who live in starvation. We pray for those who are being used in slave labor, child labor and sex labor. We pray for those who have been effected by disasters such as those in Indonesia because of the earthquakes and Tsunamis. We pray for those in disaster areas who face outbreak of diseases such as Haiti with the cholera outbreak. We pray for our country as this Tuesday we vote for new leadership. Lord, may we put into action our love, care and prayers for the world.

Lord, we pray for your church that we be a beacon of hope, grace, love and light in this world. May our open doors reflect your open arms to all. May our arms and hands reaching out to those in need reflect your love for all. May our forgiveness of one another reflect your forgiveness for all.
Amen.[2]

 

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

 

Hymn 115: How Like a Gentle Spirit

 

Benediction

Our God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, will guard our going out and coming in from this time on and forevermore. And as all God’s people we say together, Amen.

 

Postlude

 

All scripture comes from the New Revised Standard Version

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[1] You can read more about the life of Martin Luther here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

[2] Rev. Abi < Rev Abi's Long and Winding Road: Prayer on Reformation Sunday (vicarofwadley.blogspot.com)> 30 October 2021