Your 95 Theses

 WE GATHER 

PRELUDE 

BRINGING IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST 

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS 

*HYMN A Mighty Fortress Is Our God UMH# 110 

*CALL TO WORSHIP 

L: Magnify the Lord; exalt God’s holy name. 

P: The Lord hears the pleas of the perishing. 

L: Magnify the Lord; exalt God’s holy name. 

P: The Lord restores the fortunes of the righteous. 

L: Magnify the Lord; exalt God’s holy name. 

P: The Lord redeems the lives of God’s servants. 

*OPENING PRAYER (IN UNISON) 

God, our Healer, give us the courage of blind Bartimaeus, to cry out to you when we are in need; give us the confidence of the psalmist, to sing your praises and magnify your name. Grant us the wisdom, O God, to seek from you what is of real value—what will truly make us well, what will truly make us whole, what will truly give us bliss. Amen. 

*HYMN Holy, Holy, Holy UMH# 64 v 1, 2, 4 

WE PROCLAIM GOD'S WORD 

CHILDREN’S CHAT 

OLD TESTAMENT READING 

Psalm 34: 1-8 

Psalm 34

Praise for Deliverance from Trouble

Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.

1 

I will bless the Lord at all times;
    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2 

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
    let the humble hear and be glad.

3 

O magnify the Lord with me,
    and let us exalt his name together.

4 

I sought the Lord, and he answered me
    and delivered me from all my fears.

5 

Look to him, and be radiant,
    so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed.

6 

This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord
    and was saved from every trouble.

7 

The angel of the Lord encamps
    around those who fear him and delivers them.

8 

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
    happy are those who take refuge in him.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE AND OFFERING 

NEW TESTAMENT READING 

Mark 10: 46-52 

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

MESSAGE 

"Your 95 Theses" 

Today, the last Sunday in October, is a church holiday some of you have never heard of, and I’m about to fix that. Welcome to Reformation Sunday! Our most formal Lutheran friends will follow special liturgies for their entire service, and many of my colleagues think little more of this day than many of you do. But I adore nerdy church holidays like this one. 

We observe Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday in October, because it was on October 31st, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed his now infamous 95 Theses to the front door of his church in Wittenberg, Germany, symbolically beginning the Protestant Reformation. This holiday is the intersection of Church history and German history, which is why I think it’s cooler than Christmas.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, Luther was not the first person in his era to challenge the Roman Catholic Church and push for change (or “reformation”, hence the name), but those who preceded him were killed before they could make a huge impact. Luther had just the right amount of public support, enough professional clout, and the recent invention of the printing press on his side, so he was able to make a mark and leave a legacy that all of us sitting here now benefit from.

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, to Hans and Margarethe Luther. He was the eldest son in a big family, and his parents had high aspirations for him. But, a guy who ends up going toe to toe with the Pope doesn’t get there with good manners, and Luther proved his spiciness early. His parents enrolled him in an expensive private school, hoping to get him the best education in Latin, reading, and rhetoric so he could become a lawyer. Luther derided these years as “his own personal purgatory.” He derided college as a glorified brothel, but did well. He graduated, and became the lawyer his parents wanted him to be…and then promptly quit his job. He wasn’t convinced the world would always need lawyers. He also hated being told what to think, and he thrived in environments that encouraged him to soak in knowledge like a sponge and then question all of it. Thus, he found his home in a monastery, where he devoted himself to prayer, fasting, and the study of scripture. After a few years there, he was appointed to teach theology at the University of Wittenberg. His dad grumbled, believing Luther wasted his good education. Even a full 500 years ago, sometimes parents just didn’t understand.

An important shift happened for Luther in the year 1516, when a friar by the name of Johann Tetzel came to Germany to sell indulgences to raise money for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Historians largely believe St. Peter’s Basilica was short on dough in the first place because of the Archbishop’s unethical spending. But nevertheless, Tetzel proved to be so effective at guilting money out of people’s wallets that he got a huge promotion.

If it’s been a minute since you took Western Civ and you forgot what indulgences are, they worked like this. You, a citizen of the Holy Roman Empire, are Roman Catholic by default, and the leader of both your Church and your government is the Pope. A guy like Tetzel would pop in for a casual visit one day. He’d say, “Hey there, champ. How’s it going? Do you feel like donating to our capital campaign over at St. Peter’s? No? Okay, okay, no pressure. It’s just that I’ve been talking to your neighbors, and it’s sounding like you’ve put yourself on God’s Naughty List. You didn’t make it to church last week because you slept in. We saw you do a double take when that pretty lady walked by a second ago. And PS, that’s not your wife. And if I’m not mistaken I heard you yell a phrase that started with “GOD” and did not end with “...save the queen.” But you know I think God would be so happy to see you give us a few bucks for that new roof at St. Peter’s that everything would be forgiven. You’re in? Oh, wonderful. But before you close the velcro on that wallet–have you thought about where you’ll be sitting when you go to heaven? Do you really want to be up in the nosebleed section? Or would you like some court side seats? Because St. Peter’s needs new carpet, too.”

Luther found this practice so unconscionable that he protested, and as a consequence faced excommunication and years of death threats. And, ironically, he never wanted there to be a Lutheran Church. He just wanted to see equity where he already was. He wanted to belong to a Church where the rich weren’t taught they were holier than the poor. He believed faith and grace were available to all for free. He also believed you shouldn’t need your priest to read you the Bible, in Latin, and then tell you what it says, you should have a Bible right at your house, in the language you speak, and you should be able to decide for yourself what it teaches. And, ever distrustful of authority, Luther believed ordinary people were perfectly capable of praying, teaching, and leading. If you believed, you were in the Priesthood already.

This belief system, the kind that empowers the Average Joe to run straight into the arms of Jesus, is what Mark presents to us in this morning’s Gospel passage. In this reading we meet Blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. It’s a big deal that Mark took the time to name not only him but also his dad, because that didn’t always happen, especially for a story about a disabled peasant. This story had special meaning to Mark. In this society, folks didn’t believe a person became disabled by random chance, or because of an illness or injury that was well beyond their control. Jesus’ neighbors believed God blinded a guy like Bartimaeus as punishment because either he or his parents did something terrible. And since it doesn’t look like Bartimaeus had any living family, or at least any willing to take care of him, the folks around him relegated him to the gutter. He was constantly on display, because he was the first person you’d see as you came into town, and the last person you’d see when you left. But he had no place among the people, and no food or water unless someone decided to share with him.

But even though Bartimaeus couldn’t have known what Jesus looked like, he certainly knew his name and his voice. So when he hears Jesus, on his way out of town, walking past his gutter, he calls for him. At first the people around Bartimaeus try to shut him up, but Jesus is endlessly curious about a guy like Bartimaeus, and invites him to come say hi. Two really important things happen for Bartimaeus when Jesus calls to him: he gets out of that gutter and sets foot on the main road with everyone else, and he throws off his cloak. That might not mean anything to you reading this in 2024, you might think Mark meant that Bartimaeus was wearing a bulky winter jacket that he decided to ditch. But that’s not what Mark meant. A “cloak” was an outer garment, a tunic. A wealthier person might have been wearing multiple layers, but a guy like Bartimaeus would only have been wearing that cloak, and that one would be the only one he had to his name. So, Jesus responds, and here comes Bartimaeus running down the street to him in his Birthday Suit. And y’all, he’s blind, he doesn’t even know what his body looks like. But he doesn’t care. If Jesus knows him, nothing else matters. And when Jesus offers to help Bartimaeus, what does he ask for, clothes? Nope. Eyes that see. And once Jesus gives him that, Bartimaeus keeps walking right on that main road, and maybe he’s gonna be streaking for a while but if he has Jesus he’s ashamed of nothing.

This is the Church Luther fought for when he wrote, and then shared, his 95 Theses, one where Bartimaeus could run to Jesus and walk right behind him, with no help but his own faith. What both Bartimaeus and Luther had in common was that their vision was so clear, even though one of them was blind, that they knew exactly what they wanted when asked. They knew what kind of Church they wanted to belong to. Luther was willing to die for it, and Bartimaeus wanted to be in it so bad he was willing to walk to it naked.

What would that Church look like to you? If you were going to write up 95 Theses and nail them to the front door of this church, what would they say?

If I typed up 95 Theses, I’d nail them to the front door of our Conference Center in Syracuse. I’d put a few things on there that simply represent a few church pet peeves of mine:

-Therefore be it resolved, we will henceforth and forevermore ban the use of the phrases “chicken barbecue”, “rummage sale”, and “flood bucket”.

But then I’d put some things on there that my heart is dying for:

-The Church will affirm the sacred equality of people of all gender identities.

-The Church will own all of its bad behavior from eras past, and make amends and reparations.

-The Church will dismantle racism.

-The Church will be a safe haven for our children, especially children like my Daniel.

If any of this feels out of reach to you, remember that 500 years ago it was nearly unthinkable for an average person to own a Bible, and now, because of Luther’s vision for the Church, I have stacks of them in my office to just give away.

On this day, we remember that change is always possible, and even if we have to stand on each other’s shoulders, our goals are within reach. Let’s keep reaching.

Amen.

*HYMN We, Thy People, Praise Thee UMH# 67 

WE RESPOND 

JOYS & CONCERNS 

Behold, Lord,
An empty vessel that needs to be filled.
My Lord, fill it.

I am weak in faith;
Strengthen thou me.

I am cold in love;
Warm me and make me fervent
That my love may go out to my neighbour.

I do not have a strong and firm faith;
At times I doubt and am unable to trust thee altogether.

O Lord, help me.
Strengthen my faith and trust in thee.

In thee I have sealed the treasures of all I have.

I am poor;
Thou art rich and didst come to be merciful to the poor.

I am a sinner;
Thou art upright.

With me there is an abundance of sin;
In thee is the fullness of righteousness.

Therefore, I will remain with thee of who I can receive
But to whom I may not give.

Amen.

PASTORAL PRAYER 

THE LORD’S PRAYER 

Our Father 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 trespass 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 O God, Our Help in Ages Past UMH# 117 v 1, 2, 3 

SENDING FORTH WITH BLESSING 

Der Herr segne dich und behüte dich! Der Herr lasse sein Angesicht leuchten über dir und sei dir gnädig! Der Herr hebe sein Angesicht über dich und gebe dir Frieden. 

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.

POSTLUDE