Pastor Lisa Horst Clark

October 29, 2017

John 8: 31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the Son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

New Reformation Discovery

It is not often that you get a brand new Reformation discovery, but one was found in a painting that was housed at my seminary, the painting that has been shown throughout the service this morning.  The painting is of Martin Luther, surrounded by Protestant reformers, and I know if you are saying, “My, doesn’t that composition look a little like The Lord’s Supper,” you might have something there.  It mimics Catholic paintings of Jesus at the table with the Disciples, only in the place of the Disciples are the Reformers, and what is in place of the bread and cup:  the Bible and a candle.

One of the huge transformations of the Reformation was about how one experienced the grace of God.  As Protestants moved away from seven sacraments to only two, baptism and communion, what rose in prominence was the reading of experience, of experiencing God’s grace through the written word, God’s word made real.  And so here in the painting it is the book that reveals God’s light for the world.  I know what you’re saying, “Wow, that is a lot of 16th Century white dudes, where’s the mystery?”  Oh, wait.

The painting was removed last year for restoration and cleaning and what did the conservator see underneath the painting under a microscope?  She saw color underneath the cracks.  In the painting’s foreground, right at the center of the table, something that had been present was discovered.  This is an image that zooms in on one of the faces that had been painted over, and here it is in total.  Kathy Hebb began her work, painstakingly removing over layers of paint using surgical scalpels and a microscope and this is what emerged:  at the bottom of the painting, at the bottom of the table, are the heads of a cardinal, a bull, a pope and a monk.  And what are they doing?  They’re all looking upwards trying to blow out the candle.  So these are four images of Catholicism and the papal bull was an official decree that then was made into a very literal format.  A different version of this image has the inscription, “The candle is lighted; we cannot blow it out.”

These figures were painted over sometime around the 18th Century; the scholars aren’t sure exactly why.  It could be it was done not to offend Catholics which, frankly, you could see.  It could be that someone thought the painting might sell more easily.  And partially, this is because this is a powerful image.  The Reformers stripped the spaces of worship of images just because they knew how powerful an image could be in telling a story, at stirring the heart and the mind.  I know I have trouble looking at this painting in all of its restored glory because it does evoke that anti-Catholic sentiment we know has had a long and tortured history.

Whenever talking about the Reformation I feel the need to start over by saying that the Catholic Church today is not the one the Reformers were responding to, that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Pope Francis himself commemorated the Reformation this year and we actually have Catholic Community Services here