Reformation A 2023
Joint Sermon: Pastor Sarah Stadler & Judi Wold, Seminary Student
Sarah: Judi, thanks so much for preaching with me today on this Reformation Sunday.
Judi: It’s great to be here on such an important day in the church year.
Sarah: It’s on this day, Reformation Sunday, that we are drawn back to the 16th century, before Germany was even a nation, before the German language was formalized. We are drawn back to a time when the vast majority of German people were peasants, a very slim minority nobility. We are drawn back to a time when peasants were largely uneducated and illiterate.
Judi: We are drawn back to a time when the priests of the Roman Catholic Church preached and led worship in Latin, when the Bible was written only in Latin, when the common people had no idea what was being spoken in worship, when the common people could not read the Bible for themselves. When their understanding of God was shaped by Roman Catholic priests alone.
Sarah: In this precarious situation, John Tetzel traveled Germany declaring that people must purchase indulgences in order to help themselves or their beloved family members escape an eternity in purgatory. Not even a biblical concept, purgatory, he told people, was a scary place between life on earth and afterlife where a person could hang around indefinitely if not sprung from purgatory through the power of indulgences.
Judi: What’s up with that? Purgatory is not in the Bible. It was simply made up by a church that was strapped for cash and looking to raise money. The funds raised through the sale of indulgences paid for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Sarah: Sadly, the Roman Catholic Church of that day was corrupt. They exploited the poverty of the people in order to meet their own needs, the result being a people bowed down by guilt, shame, and fear for the future—as well as even more dire economic circumstances.
Judi: The people of 16th century Germany are not so different from us. We too are a people bowed down by isolation, by fear, by sadness. We see our neighbors who utilize the Kyrene Resource Center, and they are hungry. We hear our neighbors speak of security concerns in our own neighborhoods. We watch what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and we are filled with sadness by the civilians killed, injured, and hungry. Though we might be excited about the future of Esperanza, we are probably also fearful as we move through the call process. We are anxious, but we don’t really know why. We are yearning for good news, for hope, for a vision of a future filled not with violence or emptiness but joy.
Sarah: Today, we celebrate the Reformation, a theological revolution that changed the lives of people in real time. In studying the book of Romans, Martin Luther heard the good news of God’s grace, pure, undeserved, unmerited favor. Meaning, he heard that God loved him—just because God loved him. No strings. No good works necessary. No conditions. Just love. And for perhaps the first time in his life, Luther felt hope for the future. Not a future in purgatory. Not a future of even greater poverty for the common people. A future filled with hope.
Judi: That’s good news! In 2017, while discerning a call to ordained ministry, I married a man I had dated for quite some time, and shortly thereafter we moved for his new job to China. However, within a month, the emotional abuse started. I couldn’t say anything right, if at all. I felt shut down. Whatever I said was wrong. Every month, he would yell and scream “Get out!” and there were times I didn’t know if I should leave our apartment or not, for fear of being locked out. We were in a foreign country, and I knew no one and had no place to go and only spoke English. When I came back from China, I couldn’t talk. I was frightened. I felt I couldn’t do anything right. I even thought my life was in danger. I wondered what my future would hold.
Sarah: Whether or not we have experienced something akin to the abuse you endured, Judi, we are probably all familiar with that feeling of fear and despair. We know what it’s like to feel stuck. Just like the people of 16th century Germany, we know what it’s like to wonder if God really loves us, forgives us, protects us, and if God will get us out of the mess we are in. But despite your fear, you leaned into your faith and discovered the hopeful future God had for you. You realized that what you knew and understood about the future was only a fraction of what God knows and understands about the future. You discovered a future filled with hope.
Judi: Returning from China, I went to pick up Chaser, my golden retriever from a couple I had met at a church meeting just a few weeks before leaving. They asked me where I was going to stay, and to tell you the truth, I had no idea. They opened their home to me for 2 weeks to get back on my feet, which turned into 6 months, giving me time to get a job and figure out who I was again. They gave me Hope, and through them, God poured out compassion and love for me. I am now a different person, confident in myself and God’s call for me. Today, I’m in seminary and my two friends and their pups have become my extended family.
Sarah: When we pass through the inevitable challenges of this life—and we all have challenges—when we pass through them, we get to look back and see the hand of God. Picking us up when we think we couldn’t possibly move forward. Working through others to love and assist us at just the right time. Increasing our capacity for courage and helping us let go of control. We have all gone through difficult times and come out the other side by God’s grace—and by God’s grace, we will again. That is hope. A future filled with hope. A future not controlled by us, but a future we entrust to God’s grace.
Judi: We are people of Esperanza, people of hope. On this Reformation Sunday, along with Martin Luther and all the saints gone before us, we give thanks to God for the hope we know in God’s grace, in God’s pure, undeserved, unmerited favor. No matter what we do or the challenges we encounter, we can’t screw up God’s grace. Because, as Martin Luther discovered, God pours out grace for us just because God is loving. Full stop. No other reason. We are loved just because God is loving. So, no matter what happens in this life, we get to be people of Esperanza, people of hope. For that we can say:
Sarah & Judi: Thanks be to God! Amen.