Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

This is a special musical performance of Blest Are They with a solo by Diane Hill.

This is a special musical performance of Special Music - Allegro from Duetto I by Mozart Amadeus Mozart performed by Sara Heft and Chelsea Thibodeau

This is a special musical performance of Special Music - Allegro from Duetto I by Mozart Amadeus Mozart performed by Sara Heft and Chelsea Thibodeau

I love the gospel of Matthew.  Matthew was written to communicate the Jesus story to early Jewish Christians and, let me tell you, the writer of this gospel really knew how to tell a story!  Beginning with Chapter one, verse one, we hear Jesus called “The Messiah.”  The writer of Matthew begins by setting us up for something amazing, something big, something life changing and something surprising by naming Jesus as the Messiah.  There had been many would-be messiahs popping up around that time in history, as there have been throughout history.  Most of them got the people hyped up about the political scene and Roman oppression.  There had been great expectation among Jewish people that a messiah would soon arrive, a messiah who would use military might and power to free them from Roman oppression.  So, Matthew’s version of the Jesus story begins by latching on to that expectation and announcing Jesus as the long promised, awaited Messiah.  The writer of Matthew continues to build on that expectation by linking Jesus’ genealogy to royalty as King David is named an ancestor of Jesus.  The story even includes royal sages from the East who come to pay homage to this newborn Messiah.  Then, the knowledge of a newborn king is so threatening to the present Jewish king, King Herod, that Herod has all the infants he can locate massacred.  The presence of this newborn king Jesus is so compelling that even powerful Herod fears him. 

If that is not enough, the writer of Matthew then tells us about a mighty prophet who enters the scene, John the Baptist.  John arrives wearing strange clothing, living in the wilderness and eating bugs, while shouting out and calling people to repent.  This wild prophet said, “Turn around – if your life journey is going down the wrong road, turn around and go the other way!”  And, with that he began announcing that One who is even more powerful than he is coming, One who “will be powerful enough to bring justice on the wicked and set things right.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 239.)

Well, the stage has been set and excitement levels have been raised.  We can almost hear the trumpets blaring as they announce the coming of this new powerful leader.  The day has finally come.  This is the day that the new leader people have been hearing about is going to make his first major public appearance and they expect something big.  People’s excitement levels are shooting off the charts as they sit down on the mountainside and strain their ears to hear what this new, powerful leader is going to say. 

So, this new leader climbs up the mountain, just like Moses and David and Elijah, those great leaders from the past.  And then, when he finally speaks, he gives his inaugural address and they are not only surprised, they are astounded.  They are totally taken aback when they do not hear anything about using power to take charge of the situation they are in.  As a matter of fact, what this Messiah is saying has nothing to do with rescuing them from Roman oppression.  As he begins to speak he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  He goes on with a whole series of blessings and then says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…..”

What??  Rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted?  This was definitely not what they had been looking for or hoped for.  No.  Not only are his words something they did not expect, Jesus also begins his message by saying, “Blessed.”  Now, the Jewish people knew their Hebrew scripture and they knew the Psalms.  They knew that the great Law psalm, Psalm 1, begins with exactly the same word, blessed.  You see, Psalm 1 begins like this, “Blessed is the one who walks not in the way of the wicked but in the way of the Lord.”  And, ashar, the Hebrew word for blessed, really means something like “You are on the right road.”  So, what Jesus is actually saying is, “You are on the right road when you are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.  You are on the right road when you mourn, for you will be comforted.” 

Now, do you begin to understand how astonishing and surprising these words of Jesus were to people 2,000 years ago?  This was absolutely NOT what people expected to hear.  And, you want to know something else?  These words are not what we expect to hear either.  You see, we live in a world and culture where the Beatitudes we hear seduce us into believing:

• You are on the right road when you win the game, when you are the one who achieves and succeeds, when you come out on top.
• You are on the right road when power and strength are on your side and you come out winning because then you can claim God is on your side.
• You are on the right road when you buck up and avoid mourning, when you don’t shed those tears because then you can show how strong you are.
• You are on the right road when you pursue the American dream, work for success and really start making lots of money to invest in the Kingdom of Wall Street.
• You are on the right road when you are one of the popular ones and you raise your kids to be the popular ones and become popular leaders.
• You are on the right road when you support policies that limit assistance to the poor and the immigrant population and the asylum seekers because free handouts do not encourage the poor to find work.

Oh yes, the list goes on and on and on…..

Well, today, Jesus gives us life-giving words that do not fit into the you are on the right road boxes we have created!  Today, Jesus is calling his disciples, including each one of us, to walk a very different road.  He is calling us to walk the road that is the way of his will for our lives and for this world.  And, that road looks very different from the road we hear about day in and day out in our culture.  In fact, Jesus is describing a road that is totally countercultural!! 

Jesus is calling us to walk the road he initiates, to walk the road that draws us into the very life of God, the road that leads us into the world that is truly real, the road where we will find the deepest and truest meaning in life, the road where we will find life that truly matters!  Jesus is saying:

• You are on the right road when you are aware of your own poverty and you are at the end of your rope, when you are aware of your own struggle and feel as though you have lost faith. God is naming you among the most faithful.
• You are on the right road when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you begin to know the embrace of God, the One who is really most dear to you.
• You are on the right road when you are content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourself proud owner of everything that cannot be bought.
• You are on the right road when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. Feasting on the life of God is the best meal you will ever eat.
• You are on the right road when you care deeply for others. It is then that you will find yourself cared for.
• You are on the right road when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
• You are on the right road when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and discover your place in God’s family. (Paraphrased from The Message)

Jesus’ words to us today are not just empty platitudes and promises about something that will happen at some point in the future.  No.  As Jesus speaks, his words to the people on the mountain and to each one of us announce a whole NEW world.  His words announce a whole new world that is breaking in upon us, a world that he is inaugurating, and a world he brings to us.  His words are all about the very real world of God, the very real world that becomes flesh and blood through our Lord Jesus Christ.   

Jesus calls and invites us to walk with him on the road he is walking, the road where we will find the deepest, truest meaning in life.  This is the message the writer of Matthew’s gospel wanted to tell, because the truest gospel in this Sermon on the Mount is Jesus, the One who gives the sermon, the inaugural address:  he is the sermon made flesh.  (Feasting on the Word, p. 240)

I love the gospel of Matthew.  Matthew was written to communicate the Jesus story to early Jewish Christians and, let me tell you, the writer of this gospel really knew how to tell a story!  Beginning with Chapter one, verse one, we hear Jesus called “The Messiah.”  The writer of Matthew begins by setting us up for something amazing, something big, something life changing and something surprising by naming Jesus as the Messiah.  There had been many would-be messiahs popping up around that time in history, as there have been throughout history.  Most of them got the people hyped up about the political scene and Roman oppression.  There had been great expectation among Jewish people that a messiah would soon arrive, a messiah who would use military might and power to free them from Roman oppression.  So, Matthew’s version of the Jesus story begins by latching on to that expectation and announcing Jesus as the long promised, awaited Messiah.  The writer of Matthew continues to build on that expectation by linking Jesus’ genealogy to royalty as King David is named an ancestor of Jesus.  The story even includes royal sages from the East who come to pay homage to this newborn Messiah.  Then, the knowledge of a newborn king is so threatening to the present Jewish king, King Herod, that Herod has all the infants he can locate massacred.  The presence of this newborn king Jesus is so compelling that even powerful Herod fears him. 

If that is not enough, the writer of Matthew then tells us about a mighty prophet who enters the scene, John the Baptist.  John arrives wearing strange clothing, living in the wilderness and eating bugs, while shouting out and calling people to repent.  This wild prophet said, “Turn around – if your life journey is going down the wrong road, turn around and go the other way!”  And, with that he began announcing that One who is even more powerful than he is coming, One who “will be powerful enough to bring justice on the wicked and set things right.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 239.)

Well, the stage has been set and excitement levels have been raised.  We can almost hear the trumpets blaring as they announce the coming of this new powerful leader.  The day has finally come.  This is the day that the new leader people have been hearing about is going to make his first major public appearance and they expect something big.  People’s excitement levels are shooting off the charts as they sit down on the mountainside and strain their ears to hear what this new, powerful leader is going to say. 

So, this new leader climbs up the mountain, just like Moses and David and Elijah, those great leaders from the past.  And then, when he finally speaks, he gives his inaugural address and they are not only surprised, they are astounded.  They are totally taken aback when they do not hear anything about using power to take charge of the situation they are in.  As a matter of fact, what this Messiah is saying has nothing to do with rescuing them from Roman oppression.  As he begins to speak he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  He goes on with a whole series of blessings and then says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…..”

What??  Rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted?  This was definitely not what they had been looking for or hoped for.  No.  Not only are his words something they did not expect, Jesus also begins his message by saying, “Blessed.”  Now, the Jewish people knew their Hebrew scripture and they knew the Psalms.  They knew that the great Law psalm, Psalm 1, begins with exactly the same word, blessed.  You see, Psalm 1 begins like this, “Blessed is the one who walks not in the way of the wicked but in the way of the Lord.”  And, ashar, the Hebrew word for blessed, really means something like “You are on the right road.”  So, what Jesus is actually saying is, “You are on the right road when you are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.  You are on the right road when you mourn, for you will be comforted.” 

Now, do you begin to understand how astonishing and surprising these words of Jesus were to people 2,000 years ago?  This was absolutely NOT what people expected to hear.  And, you want to know something else?  These words are not what we expect to hear either.  You see, we live in a world and culture where the Beatitudes we hear seduce us into believing:

• You are on the right road when you win the game, when you are the one who achieves and succeeds, when you come out on top.
• You are on the right road when power and strength are on your side and you come out winning because then you can claim God is on your side.
• You are on the right road when you buck up and avoid mourning, when you don’t shed those tears because then you can show how strong you are.
• You are on the right road when you pursue the American dream, work for success and really start making lots of money to invest in the Kingdom of Wall Street.
• You are on the right road when you are one of the popular ones and you raise your kids to be the popular ones and become popular leaders.
• You are on the right road when you support policies that limit assistance to the poor and the immigrant population and the asylum seekers because free handouts do not encourage the poor to find work.

Oh yes, the list goes on and on and on…..

Well, today, Jesus gives us life-giving words that do not fit into the you are on the right road boxes we have created!  Today, Jesus is calling his disciples, including each one of us, to walk a very different road.  He is calling us to walk the road that is the way of his will for our lives and for this world.  And, that road looks very different from the road we hear about day in and day out in our culture.  In fact, Jesus is describing a road that is totally countercultural!! 

Jesus is calling us to walk the road he initiates, to walk the road that draws us into the very life of God, the road that leads us into the world that is truly real, the road where we will find the deepest and truest meaning in life, the road where we will find life that truly matters!  Jesus is saying:

• You are on the right road when you are aware of your own poverty and you are at the end of your rope, when you are aware of your own struggle and feel as though you have lost faith. God is naming you among the most faithful.
• You are on the right road when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you begin to know the embrace of God, the One who is really most dear to you.
• You are on the right road when you are content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourself proud owner of everything that cannot be bought.
• You are on the right road when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. Feasting on the life of God is the best meal you will ever eat.
• You are on the right road when you care deeply for others. It is then that you will find yourself cared for.
• You are on the right road when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
• You are on the right road when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and discover your place in God’s family. (Paraphrased from The Message)

Jesus’ words to us today are not just empty platitudes and promises about something that will happen at some point in the future.  No.  As Jesus speaks, his words to the people on the mountain and to each one of us announce a whole NEW world.  His words announce a whole new world that is breaking in upon us, a world that he is inaugurating, and a world he brings to us.  His words are all about the very real world of God, the very real world that becomes flesh and blood through our Lord Jesus Christ.   

Jesus calls and invites us to walk with him on the road he is walking, the road where we will find the deepest, truest meaning in life.  This is the message the writer of Matthew’s gospel wanted to tell, because the truest gospel in this Sermon on the Mount is Jesus, the One who gives the sermon, the inaugural address:  he is the sermon made flesh.  (Feasting on the Word, p. 240)

This is a special musical performance of O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir

This is a special musical performance of O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir

I will never forget my first piano recital performance in college.   I loved to perform and really make good music, but I did NOT like performing from memory.  Performing from memory has always been a terrifying experience for me.  Anxiety would rule my entire being as I would try to perfectly remember every note on the page and all the precise fingering while implementing every little nuance to create something that sounded like real music and not just a bunch of notes.  You see, I was a perfectionist, very focused in on myself.  Anyway, there I was on stage in the performance hall playing from memory, performing the first movement of a Mozart sonata.  I will never forget the way my right foot shook as I tried to properly use the pedal the way it should be used for playing Mozart.  My foot shook terribly because fear controlled my performance.  I feared I would have a memory slip, I was fearful of what everyone was thinking, I feared making a mistake and I feared I would fail!  Fear permeated my performance and fear held me in bondage.  And, the truth is, I did have a memory slip and had to fake my way through it until I got back into a place where I remembered the notes.  While only the instructors knew what happened, fear and the desire to be perfect held me captive, preventing me from making the music I so longed to create.  

There is a name for this kind of fear that is so rooted in self achievement, so focused in on self, so focused on how one is looked upon by others, a fear that permeates everything one does including the desire to be perfect.  It is called sin.  

Martin Luther understood sin.  He was plagued by his own sin before he discovered God’s unmerited grace.  After that great discovery, he talked about sin in a different way.  He talked about it in a way that really makes sense.  You see, sin is much bigger than simple immorality or immoral behavior.  Sin is really the way in which we as people focus in upon ourselves.   Sin is when our focus is on the “I” or the ego.  It is when the self becomes all important without a thought for God or neighbor.  Sin is when we put ourselves in the place of God.  And, there are many symptoms of sin.  Symptoms include immoral behavior, alcoholism and various forms of addiction, the multiple ways in which our behavior and actions intentionally hurt and attack others, the hateful things we say to others and about others as words become weapons, the way we consider ourselves superior to others.  The list goes on and on.  And, with sin there is often this sense within us of not measuring up.  So, we need the gift of the Law to reveal to us our sinful nature.  I like what Nadia Bolz Webber says about sin and the Law.  She writes:

Sin is the fact that my ideals and values are never enough to make me always do what I should, feel what I should, think what I should.  And anything that reveals those “shoulds” to me is what we call The Law, the Law being the very thing Paul in his letter to the Romans said reveals sin.  The “shoulds” in our lives are the things that make us see how far off the mark we are.  No matter what we think the “shoulds” are – personal morality and family values and niceness and conservative political convictions or inclusivity and recycling and eating local and progressive political convictions…..there is always always, no matter how hard we try, a gap between our ideal self and our actual self.  (NBW 2012 sermon, Why the Gospel is More Wizard of Oz-y Than the Law, on Patheos)

Martin Luther had experienced the weight of the Law and knew what it was like for the Law to convict him.  Luther was agonizingly aware of the gap in his own life between his ideal self and his actual self.   He was tormented and tortured by his own sin as he found himself unable to measure up to the way he thought he “should” live.  Then he discovered the passage we just heard from the book of Romans and it not only changed his life, it changed the world.  He discovered salvation is all about God’s grace and it has absolutely nothing to do with works.  There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to earn it.  In this passage he discovered the truth about grace and that truth liberated him from the bondage he had been in.  Luther discovered that this truth about God, as Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, is what really makes you free. 

You see, when we try to fulfill all the “shoulds” in life, thinking that is what determines our worth and value, we are in bondage.  The Gospel good news is very different.  Again, listen to what ELCA pastor, Nadia Bolz Webber says about this good news.  She writes:

[The Gospel is] more Wizard of Oz than [the Law and the “shoulds.”]  The Gospel is a because because because because proposition.  Because God is our creator and because we rebel against the idea of being created beings and insist on trying to be God for ourselves and because God will not play by our rules and because in the fullness of time when God had had quite enough of all of that God became human in Jesus Christ to show us who God really is and because when God came to God’s own and we received him not, and because God would not be deterred God went so far as to hang from a cross we built and did not even lift a finger to condemn but said forgive them for they know not what they are doing and because Jesus Christ defeated even death and the grave and rose on the 3rd day and because we all sin and fall short and are forever turned in on ourselves and forget that we belong to God and that none of our success guarantees this and none of our failures exclude this and because God loves God’s creation God refuses for our sin and brokenness and inability to always do the right things to be the last word because God came to save and not to judge and therefore…..therefore you are saved by grace as a gift and not by the works of the law and this truth will set you free like no self-help plan or healthy living or social justice work “should” [or] can ever do.

People, to enter fully into the glorious liberty of the people of God, we really need to spend more time understanding this gift of grace and thinking about the freedom we have been given in Christ.  The greater church needs to spend more time thinking about the gift of freedom we have been given.  The church, by and large, for far too long has had a poor record of encouraging freedom.  The church has focused on “do’s” and “don’ts”.  The church has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that the church, itself, has made us like ill-taught piano students; we play our songs, but we never really hear them, because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in ditch.  “Even the body of the church has been so afraid we will lose sight of the laws of our nature, that the Church often cares more about how we look than about who we are; made us act more like the subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints.”  [Robert Capon in Between Noon and Three. p. 148]   For far too long, the church has focused on “do’s and don’ts” in regard to people’s behavior and not focused on truly understanding the gift of grace we have been given.  You see, when we truly begin to understand grace, we no longer have to justify who we are and what we do, we can then simply respond by living into the fullness of the freedom of God. 

So today, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we give thanks for the Law and for the Gospel.  You see, it is the Law that puts us in the place where we can fully hear the gospel.  And, quite honestly, when truth is spoken without apology or hesitation, it can often be hard to hear and there is a way in which it will crush us.  But, it crushes us so that we can be put back together.  And, it is that Gospel word of grace that truly puts us back together and re-forms us.  This re-forming happened to me when I realized I did not have to be perfect and it was even ok if I failed.  God loves me and accepts me as I am, flaws, failures and all!  This is the re-formation that is always happening in our lives.  This re-formation is how we are called to live and this re-formation is also God’s call to the church.   Live into to the freedom of God’s grace and be re-formed into the people God calls you to be.

I will never forget my first piano recital performance in college.   I loved to perform and really make good music, but I did NOT like performing from memory.  Performing from memory has always been a terrifying experience for me.  Anxiety would rule my entire being as I would try to perfectly remember every note on the page and all the precise fingering while implementing every little nuance to create something that sounded like real music and not just a bunch of notes.  You see, I was a perfectionist, very focused in on myself.  Anyway, there I was on stage in the performance hall playing from memory, performing the first movement of a Mozart sonata.  I will never forget the way my right foot shook as I tried to properly use the pedal the way it should be used for playing Mozart.  My foot shook terribly because fear controlled my performance.  I feared I would have a memory slip, I was fearful of what everyone was thinking, I feared making a mistake and I feared I would fail!  Fear permeated my performance and fear held me in bondage.  And, the truth is, I did have a memory slip and had to fake my way through it until I got back into a place where I remembered the notes.  While only the instructors knew what happened, fear and the desire to be perfect held me captive, preventing me from making the music I so longed to create.  

There is a name for this kind of fear that is so rooted in self achievement, so focused in on self, so focused on how one is looked upon by others, a fear that permeates everything one does including the desire to be perfect.  It is called sin.  

Martin Luther understood sin.  He was plagued by his own sin before he discovered God’s unmerited grace.  After that great discovery, he talked about sin in a different way.  He talked about it in a way that really makes sense.  You see, sin is much bigger than simple immorality or immoral behavior.  Sin is really the way in which we as people focus in upon ourselves.   Sin is when our focus is on the “I” or the ego.  It is when the self becomes all important without a thought for God or neighbor.  Sin is when we put ourselves in the place of God.  And, there are many symptoms of sin.  Symptoms include immoral behavior, alcoholism and various forms of addiction, the multiple ways in which our behavior and actions intentionally hurt and attack others, the hateful things we say to others and about others as words become weapons, the way we consider ourselves superior to others.  The list goes on and on.  And, with sin there is often this sense within us of not measuring up.  So, we need the gift of the Law to reveal to us our sinful nature.  I like what Nadia Bolz Webber says about sin and the Law.  She writes:

Sin is the fact that my ideals and values are never enough to make me always do what I should, feel what I should, think what I should.  And anything that reveals those “shoulds” to me is what we call The Law, the Law being the very thing Paul in his letter to the Romans said reveals sin.  The “shoulds” in our lives are the things that make us see how far off the mark we are.  No matter what we think the “shoulds” are – personal morality and family values and niceness and conservative political convictions or inclusivity and recycling and eating local and progressive political convictions…..there is always always, no matter how hard we try, a gap between our ideal self and our actual self.  (NBW 2012 sermon, Why the Gospel is More Wizard of Oz-y Than the Law, on Patheos)

Martin Luther had experienced the weight of the Law and knew what it was like for the Law to convict him.  Luther was agonizingly aware of the gap in his own life between his ideal self and his actual self.   He was tormented and tortured by his own sin as he found himself unable to measure up to the way he thought he “should” live.  Then he discovered the passage we just heard from the book of Romans and it not only changed his life, it changed the world.  He discovered salvation is all about God’s grace and it has absolutely nothing to do with works.  There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to earn it.  In this passage he discovered the truth about grace and that truth liberated him from the bondage he had been in.  Luther discovered that this truth about God, as Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, is what really makes you free. 

You see, when we try to fulfill all the “shoulds” in life, thinking that is what determines our worth and value, we are in bondage.  The Gospel good news is very different.  Again, listen to what ELCA pastor, Nadia Bolz Webber says about this good news.  She writes:

[The Gospel is] more Wizard of Oz than [the Law and the “shoulds.”]  The Gospel is a because because because because proposition.  Because God is our creator and because we rebel against the idea of being created beings and insist on trying to be God for ourselves and because God will not play by our rules and because in the fullness of time when God had had quite enough of all of that God became human in Jesus Christ to show us who God really is and because when God came to God’s own and we received him not, and because God would not be deterred God went so far as to hang from a cross we built and did not even lift a finger to condemn but said forgive them for they know not what they are doing and because Jesus Christ defeated even death and the grave and rose on the 3rd day and because we all sin and fall short and are forever turned in on ourselves and forget that we belong to God and that none of our success guarantees this and none of our failures exclude this and because God loves God’s creation God refuses for our sin and brokenness and inability to always do the right things to be the last word because God came to save and not to judge and therefore…..therefore you are saved by grace as a gift and not by the works of the law and this truth will set you free like no self-help plan or healthy living or social justice work “should” [or] can ever do.

People, to enter fully into the glorious liberty of the people of God, we really need to spend more time understanding this gift of grace and thinking about the freedom we have been given in Christ.  The greater church needs to spend more time thinking about the gift of freedom we have been given.  The church, by and large, for far too long has had a poor record of encouraging freedom.  The church has focused on “do’s” and “don’ts”.  The church has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that the church, itself, has made us like ill-taught piano students; we play our songs, but we never really hear them, because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in ditch.  “Even the body of the church has been so afraid we will lose sight of the laws of our nature, that the Church often cares more about how we look than about who we are; made us act more like the subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints.”  [Robert Capon in Between Noon and Three. p. 148]   For far too long, the church has focused on “do’s and don’ts” in regard to people’s behavior and not focused on truly understanding the gift of grace we have been given.  You see, when we truly begin to understand grace, we no longer have to justify who we are and what we do, we can then simply respond by living into the fullness of the freedom of God. 

So today, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we give thanks for the Law and for the Gospel.  You see, it is the Law that puts us in the place where we can fully hear the gospel.  And, quite honestly, when truth is spoken without apology or hesitation, it can often be hard to hear and there is a way in which it will crush us.  But, it crushes us so that we can be put back together.  And, it is that Gospel word of grace that truly puts us back together and re-forms us.  This re-forming happened to me when I realized I did not have to be perfect and it was even ok if I failed.  God loves me and accepts me as I am, flaws, failures and all!  This is the re-formation that is always happening in our lives.  This re-formation is how we are called to live and this re-formation is also God’s call to the church.   Live into to the freedom of God’s grace and be re-formed into the people God calls you to be.

This is a special musical performance of Guide My Feet by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo performance by Chris Lewis.