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HEARTLAND - eNews from LCA Bishop John Henderson

30 October 2014

Reformation Day 2014

Many congregations now celebrate Reformation Day on the Sunday before 31 October in order to be able to celebrate All Saints Day on the following Sunday. I hear there are still some places that individually or collectively hold services on the Eve of All Hallows, 31 October, the anniversary of Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Cardinal George Pell once said, when he was Archbishop of Melbourne, that but for the Lutheran Reformation the Catholic Church today would not be Christian. He was referring more to the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the Counter Reformation (the Catholic response lasting until 1648), than he was to the specific rediscovery of the righteousness that comes through faith (Augsburg Confession IV, Romans 3:21-26). It was, however, a very significant comment for a senior Catholic leader to make in the 1990s.

In my days as an ecumenical officer people would ask whether we should commemorate, rather than celebrate, Reformation Day, given that it involves a split in the church catholic. There was certainly a cooling in our enthusiasm for the day, and for some it began to pass by unnoticed. As a celebration of our faith, however, and as an opportunity to focus on the Reformation ‘solas’ of Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, and Christ alone, (some add a fifth ‘to the glory of God alone’), it is certainly a festival to be encouraged and celebrated.

What’s the significance of Reformation for your local congregation? Well, it certainly can’t be, “My church is better than yours.” In that sense, we still grieve the separation from our fellow Christians that began during the struggles of the Reformation years. We do not celebrate that. It’s too easy to be right in our own small circle. If we have a truth to confess, as Luther and his fellow reformers did, we must confess it to the whole church, and to the world. That’s still a challenge for the LCA, where we seem more comfortable debating among ourselves in ever decreasing circles than sharing the faith with the Christian next door, or the agnostic across the street.

The Reformation remains important today as a celebration of the gospel, and of the freedom Christ gives us to share God’s love with the world. Lutherans have a strong contribution to make – the same one we have always had. The gift is not ours, but Christ’s. The love is not ours, but His. Christ died for sinners, and His family the church is “the assembly of all believers among who the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.” (Augsburg Confession VII)

Celebrate and enjoy Reformation Day 2014, and get ready for the Big One (500 years) in 2017!

A parable from my hospital bed


This week I spent a night and a day in a hospital emergency department, attached to a bed by tubes and various kinds of medical paraphernalia. An elderly man was in the bed opposite. I couldn’t see him, but he had a strong, clear voice and gave me plenty to hear.

He routinely abused the nurses, doctors, orderlies, and anyone who came near him. About the only exception was his granddaughter when she visited in the morning. Occasionally, when staff demanded it of him, he apologised. Once he even said ‘thank-you’, but mostly he was on the attack. In the early hours of the morning, a newborn child was crying in the paediatric unit next door. He shouted, “Why doesn’t someone tell that kid to shut up! Bring it here and I’ll stick it in a bucket!”

I didn’t judge him harshly, remembering how in later years the wrong medication had made my normally polite father quite violent and abusive for a short period. He returned to normal when the doctor removed the medications. I wondered if something similar was causing this man’s state of mind.

The fear of many of us as we get older, he had taken a fall in his nursing home. That didn’t stop him trying to get out of bed, shouting at everyone to let him go. Doctors would then come and ask him questions, like, “Do you know where you are?” and “Do you know why you are here?” To that last one, he always came back with the same plaintive answer at the top of his voice, “Because I can’t get what I want!”

Staff sympathy receded a little when he struck one of the doctors while she was examining him for injuries. She wouldn’t go back. Overall, though, the patience, tolerance, and persistence of those medical staff through the long hours impressed me. They did not give back as they received, and they went the extra mile to care for him, unpleasant though it was.

Later on, it struck me that there is a parable here about God and human beings. It centres on the man’s cry, “Because I can’t get what I want.” Childish and petulant, he struck out at the ones who were caring for him. Ungrateful and resentful, he blamed them for his troubles. Unaware of his weakness and vulnerability, he tried to go it alone and do what it was obvious he could not do. Sick, crippled, and having lost control, he responded, whether by drugs or disposition, with vindictive threats, violence and even hatred. Selfish and without sympathy for others, he abused, victimised, and bullied where he could.

Is this a parable of our relationship with God? Unaware of our guilt, we always demand more, blame others, or even the very One who is the source of everything. For those of us in the Church, it is easy to value success over faithfulness, although it is not so easy to achieve it. In denial of our own  weakness and dependence of grace, we think if only we could grow our numbers, surely then we would prove we were right. Sometimes we aren’t slow to point the finger at the declining numbers of others, as though that proves them wrong. Comparisons are always odious. Despite everything our Lord has taught us, particularly in his relentless journey to the cross, we still want to be on the (apparently) winning team. Sometimes we will even sell out on our faith to get it. When we can’t feel the love, we set about manufacturing it as though it were a commodity to be bought and sold.

Whatever God does for us, it never seems to be enough. It’s a truism that we have never had it so good, but you wouldn’t think it to hear us. When He sends us His Son, we reject Him (Mark 12:7). When He provides us with the gifts of grace, we despise them, turning instead to gifts we want more. When He gives us the church, we demand something more successful, more enticing, and more attractive. When he gives us peace and prosperity, we demand success and happiness. We remain dissatisfied with the sinner/saint, divine/human, and law/gospel paradoxes that faith in Christ requires. That seems to be what it is to be human, in the modern world, at least.

Why are we here? Is it because we can’t get what we want? God is tending to us in his emergency department to give us what we need, not what we want! In fact,  it’s even worse. We aren’t just frail and ill, like the man in hospital – we were dead in the gutter (Ephesians 2:5). God’s care for us, and his medicine in Jesus Christ, is more than palliative. It’s new life, as we never have been alive before.

That’s our starting point, and that’s why we can still be the place where love comes to life.

Pastor Ben Mogg

The news has been heard throughout the church of the sudden death of 47 year-old pastor, Ben Mogg. Ben died last Saturday at a beach near Port Lincoln. He had been in the water snorkelling at the time. We are not sure exactly what caused him to die. Ben had never married, but he had a loving, caring family, and Ben himself was known as a gentle and caring man. Many, many people will miss him, including the members of his final parish in Port Lincoln.

We are, however, a people of faith, and the death even of a relatively young man does not fill us with despair. We do grieve, and we experience all the dislocation and emotions associated with death. But we know it for what it is. Scripture encourages us to use every day in the praise of God (Ps 71:8). As those who knew him remember Ben, and as the church remembers his ministry, we give thanks to God for his life, witness, and ministry.

 

 

Bishop John Henderson
Adelaide
Reformation Eve, 2014


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