Reformation Day, Cycle A, B, C

This day and these texts, although they are not included in The Revised Common Lectionary, are provided for our consideration here from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006, 58).

For a biblically based reformation emphasis, reflecting over past reformation efforts in the Church during past centuries and reformation efforts needed in our own time, perhaps we should perceive the writers of the four texts listed here to have been reformer figures in four different situations, each writer self-critical within a different religious milieu. Then perhaps we can use these texts as paradigms for our own reformation work within our own religious milieu, for it would be myopic for any of us to think that there is no need for further reformation efforts within the Church in our time and place.

Psalm 46

This familiar psalm of trust in the Lord God is one of the relatively few eschatological, “no-matter-what-may-happen” psalms included in the Psalter. It is a particularly appropriate source of comfort, therefore, in times of great stress such as Martin Luther faced during his struggles as a reformer in the 16th century Western Church.

Even though the earth may be returned to its primal chaos, the city of God (Jerusalem) will be secure, not because of the good behavior of its people, but because God is in its midst. As perceived by the psalmist, the Lord God is the one who brings to Jerusalem both the desolations and the peace that will follow after the desolations are complete. The people of the city are merely to be still and to recognize that the Lord is God. Luther gave this psalm of trust a 16th century application as he paraphrased this psalm in his popular song “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” It is our responsibility to give the psalm an application in our time and in our place. That is our call.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The context of this reading is one of restoration after the destruction that the Lord God will bring upon Jerusalem. The “new covenant” will focus on salvation oriented toward the individual, who will suffer because of that individual’s own sin, or benefit because of that individual’s obedience to the Lord God, not from the sin of that person’s parents or community. This “new covenant” will put into practice the change from the earlier corporate accountability to the newer individual accountability that is explained in much more detail in Ezekiel 18:1-32.

It was not the intention, of course, of those who wrote the words of Jeremiah 31:31-34 to provide a prediction of the Christian New Testament covenant. They anticipated a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not with some Jews who more than five centuries later would become followers of Jesus and not with many non-Jews who would join the new communities of faith that would evolve into Christianity. Nevertheless, followers of Jesus apparently rather quickly applied this text to themselves and to their new relationship with God through Jesus, and the influence of this text on the development of the Eucharistic words in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 and in the Synoptic Gospels can be seen. The new covenant concept can have a 16th century and a 21st century application as well. It is important, however, that we consider the text first of all in its own context, in which many Israelite people developed interest in individual accountability after their nation and holy city had been destroyed and within the Persian empire they were influenced by Zoroastrian ideas of the resurrection of the body and of the judgment of each individual person.

Romans 3:19-28

In these verses the Apostle Paul wrote about the limitations of the written revelation for our salvation. In his opinion, the written Torah and Prophetic Tradition provides documentary evidence of our sins, but that in spite of this evidence of our sins we are declared to be forgiven by the grace of God through faith in what God has accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christian Messiah. According to Paul, salvation is a gift of God for followers of Jesus of both Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds. The gift of salvation is received by the grace of God and accepted for each person through faith in Jesus as the Christ and in what Jesus as the Christ has done and does, not through following the requirements of the Bible as it was known at that time.

Paul’s views regarding life and salvation were and still are considered radical and unacceptable in the Jewish context, but they became normative within Christianity as it developed. Of course, many people within the Christian Church, including many Lutheran Christians, contrary to what Paul wrote, continue to attempt to have assurance of salvation by following the requirements of the Bible as we know it, legalistically, rather than by the grace of God accepted through faith in Jesus as the Christ.

John 8:31-36

This traditional Lutheran Reformation Day Gospel reading is an excerpt from a section of bitter anti-Jewish dialogue in John 8. The Johannine Jesus here claims that truth, freedom, and accessibility to God are possible only through him.

As we read this text, we cannot help but ask some basic questions. Could a group of people such as those who were making this claim, with all of their apparent contentiousness, be characterized as free? Could early followers of Martin Luther engaged in bitter polemic with other leaders in the Western Church and in disagreement with other reformers in the Western Church, some of whom were also followers of Martin Luther, be characterized as free? Can Lutheran Christians today who are engaged in bitter polemic against other Christians, some of whom are also Lutheran Christians, be characterized as free? Are the claims of people in such groups that truth, freedom, and accessibility to God are possible only through them convincing, especially to intelligent, thinking fellow Christians? Obviously, our work of reformation is not complete.

How can we be enthusiastically evangelical and boldly self-critical as reformers in our own religious milieu in a way in which the position and stance of the entire Church as the “Body of Christ” in the world of today will be respected and enhanced? Perhaps we should emphasize each day and each year that the inspired and revealed authority of God that motivates us is not only biblical, but is also ecclesiastical, confessional, and personal, and that we are called by God to be self-critical and actively involved in the reformation of the Church in every area of life.