John 8:31-36
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Reformation Sunday!!!
I do Confirmation on this Sunday.
Unlike some of you, I don’t have the kids preach the sermon at their Confirmation service.
I do this because:
1. I’m afraid of what they’d say, and how it would reflect on the fact that their Confirmation instruction was supbar.
2. I don’t want to give up the center stage attention.
3. I don’t want to have to sit through whatever lame thing they’d prepare.
4. All of the above.
Here’s some stuff, based off what I blogged a couple 3 years ago for this text.
Sometimes I will read stuff by this or that guy (almost always a guy) and he will be saying something about how “the Church NEEDS to go through another reformation!”
There are often 2 things that attend that call for reformation
1. They have a specific idea of exactly how that reformation needs to take place - and the attendant wrong-ness of the Church as is.
2. They irritate the crap out of me.
I suspect that - as often as not - it is the certitude (and often self righteousness) that goes with this that annoys me.
But is there not also a part of me that wants to respond...
“We are heirs of Martin Luther! Heirs of THE Reformation! Reformation is our middle name. I don’t need a new anything, (unless it is a new pair of shoes)”
or some variation.
I’m not sure what any of that means but there ya go
One more thing. Why do a good many of the folks who talk about Christian freedom give me the willies? (not to use anyone's name in vain!)
Sort of interesting, considering our parable for last week, isn't it?
Sort of interesting, considering our parable for last week, isn't it?
1 comment:
A couple of Quotes
Self righteousness always excludes. Arndt Halvorson, in a lecture
On earth, one's powers are to be spent in service to others, an unlovely prospect from which the devil would turn us away, but in heaven it is made evident that the poor neighbor whom we served was Christ the King. Wingren, Luther on Vocation, p. 143
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