Reformation is the Holy Spirit’s Work

Jeremiah 31:31:34; Psalm 46; Mark 12:28-34 - Reformation Sunday, October 31, 2021

Pastor Ritva H Williams

Have you ever wondered why we encourage people to wear red on Reformation Sunday? 

Perhaps we are motivated by the stage musical and movie Les Miserables, rooted in the working class Paris Uprising of 1832 against the oppressive French monarchy. As a revolutionary student group make plans, they sing the song “Red and Black.”  The chorus includes these lines: “Red, the blood of angry men! Black, the dark of ages past! Red, a world about to dawn! Black, the night that ends at last!” For the protagonist, Marius, “red my soul on fire,” black, “my world is she’s not there,” “red the color of desire,” “black the color of despair.” For these characters, red is the color of blood and revolution. Red is the color of a new world about to be born. Red is the color of fire and of the passion that changes everything.

Or more likely we should look to the Middle Ages, when red was the color of sanctuary. Church doors were often painted red as a beacon for the poor and the hunted. Within the walls of the church they would be safe from whatever or whoever was hunting them. Pursuers could not enter, and victims knew that within the red doors the would find sanctuary, refuge, and safety. For medieval Christians, red also represented the sacrificial blood of Christ, our entry into salvation. Painting the doors of a church red was a way of making the sign of the cross over this building and marking it as a safe zone from both spiritual dangers and physical harm. Many historians believe that the church doors in Wittenberg were painted red.

Most importantly for us, red is the color of the Holy Spirit as she appeared on the Day of Pentecost. Rushing in as a loud wind to dance over the heads of the disciples in tongues of flame, taking away their fear, and sending them out to do God’s work of changing the world. We wear red on Reformation Sunday to celebrate the Holy Spirit, who on this day in 1517 inspired a German monk to post the following notice on the red doors of All Saints Church in Wittenburg:

Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer at [the University of] intends to defend the following statements and to dispute them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter.”

What followed was a list of 95 statements, or “theses,” calling out the Pope and the Church for establishing and promoting the sale of indulgences as a means of purchasing forgiveness of sins. 

On one level, Reformation Sunday commemorates how Martin Luther, monk and professor, changed the world with spoken and printed words about the Word of God. But, the reformation of the church was not a one-and-done event in 1517. On a deeper level, Reformation Sunday acknowledges, affirms, celebrates, and anticipates the continuing work of the Holy Spirit as she stirs people to reformation, renewal, reawakening, revival, and recommitment. Reformation is an ongoing process in the hearts of all God’s people, and in all communities committed to following the way of Christ. This morning we ponder how the Holy Spirit is calling us through the Word of God to reformation, renewal, reawakening, revival, and recommitment.

Our first reading is kind of like episode 2 in the gospel according to Jeremiah. Last Sunday in episode 1 we learned of God’s intention to gather together all of God’s people by providing social supports and accommodations for the blind and the lame, pregnant women and newborn babies. Today we hear that God wants to make a new covenant with this community that includes those who have previously been excluded because they are “not normal.” God wants to create new relationships with each person that will lead to new relationships between and among all these people. God will accomplish this by

• putting God’s “law” inside them, writing it on their hearts so that each one will know God, and express in words and deeds the divine that dwells in their hearts.

AND

• forgiving their sins and remembering them no more. In this way, God will empower these people to let go of their mistakes, guilt, shame, trauma, pain, and fear so that they can live into and up to God’s dream for them.

Jeremiah also tells us what motivates God to do these things. Jeremiah’s gospel begins with the declaration, “Thus says the Lord … I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued by faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3). I have loved you with an everlasting love.

In our gospel lesson, Jesus reveals the foundational law that God intends to write on human hearts: 

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all our heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:29-31).

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35). 

God loves us with an everlasting love and wants us to love each other the same way. That’s a tall order.

Scripture teaches us that love is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a fruit of the Spirit nurtured in our hearts and souls. Wm. Paul Young’s book, The Shack, shows us how a deepening relationship with God works itself out Mack’s life following the murder of his youngest daughter. Sarayu, the Holy Spirit invites him to work her in a beautiful, wild, messy garden. She instructs Mack to cut down some purple and yellow flowering bushes, and dig out all their roots in order to make room for something new to grow. She reveals this garden represents his heart and his soul. In the chapters that follow Mack is empowered through further conversations with Papa and Jesus to let go of his anger and pain, his shame and guilt, and to begin healing by forgiving those who have hurt him the most. Mack is reformed, renewed, reawakened, and revived by these interactions and is able to recommit himself to loving God and neighbor. Like Mack, all of us have had bad experiences that have left emotional and spiritual scars, bruises and brokenness.

When we look beyond our personal lives, we can see, as Pastor John van de Laar writes:

“So many of the world’s problems ultimately stem from a lack of love: economic crises as a result of greed and stinginess; war and conflict as a result of hatred and exalting the needs and agendas of the self and one’s own particular group; climate change as a result of failure to love what God has made; relationship breakdown through failure to love one another and even ourselves effectively … [he concludes:] we have simply forgotten the skills of love that hold people together.” (sacredise.com)

On this Reformation Sunday, how is the Holy Spirit is calling each of us to reformation, renewal, reawakening, revival, and recommitment? How is the Holy Spirit calling us as a community of faith to reformation, renewal, reawakening, revival, and recommitment?

Please pray with me this prayer by Kathy Hanrahan of the Iona Community:

Lord of the seasons, there is a time for dying and a time for new birth; a time to speak and a time to keep quiet. Help us discern your will for us now.  Lord of red autumn leaves and warm berries,  help us let go gracefully and to rejoice in the color and fruitfulness of this moment. Wrap us in the shawl of eternity and teach us to await with wonder the new shoots of your love. Amen.