(Today's sermon from our 12 th anniversary as an Affirming Ministry) In addition to today being our twelfth Affirmiversary, it is also Reformation Sunday. It was late October in 1517 when German priest Martin Luther nailed his “95 theses” to the church door in Wittenburg in opposition to Catholic positions of the day. This sounds more inflammatory than it really was – they didn’t have social media, so literally tacking stuff up on church doors was the first type of “posting.”
It ended up being inflammatory anyway, with Luther getting excommunicated after refusing to recant his positions on things like papal authority and plenary indulgences (the idea of paying cash for atonement for yourself or others). The founder of Protestantism had other religious leaders calling for him to be burned as a heretic, and this schism was the first major change in the broader Christian church – but far from the last!
At the end of the day, God is perfect and eternal, a bulwark never failing as we heard. Humans are anything but perfect, which might explain why there are so, so many differing perspectives, even within Christian denominations.
There is a saying in Latin: ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est - “the church reformed is the church always reforming.” And it’s true!
Prior to 1977 there were no ordained women ministers in any mainline denomination.
The United Church of Canada ordained its first gay minister in 1992.
Before either of these things happened, even the Catholic church held Vatican II, its second ecumenical council in the early ‘60s, which Pope John XXIII called aggiornamento, or bringing up to date. And he was no young reformer; he was three months into his mandate and 76 years old when he announced it.
As a guy who turns 60 next year, it is encouraging to see examples proving we are never too old to change.
I haven’t actually run the numbers, but I am still probably a relative newcomer to St. Albert United Church, having only attended services here for about a quarter-century. Median attendee tenure at best! But think of all the change we have been a part of here in just that time, especially through the lens of our Affirmiversary:
- When we hosted deliberative dialogue around the sanctification of same sex marriages
- When we voted strongly in favour of sanctifying those marriages, despite having some of our friends decide that was too much change for them
- When we called a male minister who was married to a man
- When we voted overwhelmingly in favour of becoming an openly Affirming Ministry in 2014
- When a family with same-sex parents openly worshipped with us
- When a transitioning woman and her partner walked through our doors and felt welcome enough to stay
As tough as it can be for an institution to change, or a congregation, it can be just as hard for us to change as individuals. Which, to be honest, is not good.
Being a Christian has always required a high degree of reflection and self-evaluation, and re-evaluation.
Change is hard. I struggle with it personally and have described myself as change-averse in some contexts. But I try.
I try because of the necessity of it, something that is easier to recognize as I get older even while some of my own attitudes calcify and crystallize. But the other thing that change is besides necessary is constant. Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est - the church reformed is the church always reforming - but also Homines mutati semper mutantur - changed people are always changing.
We have to constantly re-assess: what is true? What is good? What aligns most with the way God wants us to live and the teachings of Jesus?
We have tools to help us, thank goodness. We have the scriptures themselves, like what we heard from Jeremiah, reminding us that God’s law is not just written there, but written in our hearts.
We have this faith community, a place and time to come together and hear the word and reflect on what it means to us, each of us, collectively and individually. In an increasingly divided and antagonistic world, I think we understate the value of such a place. It may not look like it, but St. Albert United Church is a bulwark. It is a mighty fortress, not because it is supremely defensible – way too many corners and blind spots, to be honest – but because our ideals can be defended here. We have a space dedicated to making praise and asking questions and making room for people to join us and creating opportunities to share perspectives; a space where everyone has room to grow. And there is no growth without change!
It is important to be welcoming, because the world is not always that way. It is important to be radically inclusive because more and more the world seeks to exclude, to divide, to set us against one another.
What’s a good example of this? Oh, I dunno – has anyone heard anything about a troubling and unnecessary referendum that has pitted provincial residents against each other, as well as against the immigrants that two years ago our government begged to come to our province?
Or while our public schools struggle with having their funding diverted to private and charter schools, often with exclusionary recruitment criteria as well as agendas, that same government has made it a priority to make sure that treaty flags have strict limitations on when they can be flown (on treaty land, no less!) and pride flags can’t be flown at all?
A symbol meant to let some of society’s most vulnerable kids know they are safe and respected apparently has no place in our halls of learning.
Let me give you another example that I will try to keep intentionally vague: earlier this year, here in the capital region, a discernibly marginalized individual went to an event held in what professed to be an inclusive space. Maybe they sported a jersey from the visiting team or a hat from a political affiliation, maybe their skin colour stood out, maybe they held hands with a person of the same gender expression, maybe they wore symbols from a less-familiar faith, whatever. Another attendee at this event talked to this person in an ignorant and disrespectful way. This person found themself belittled and mischaracterized in a way that made them and the person they attended with feel increasingly uncomfortable and unwelcome. The two of them did their best to ignore the jabs, but it was tough, because it was hurtful, even though that was very likely not the intention of the person addressing them.
It’s like if I am not paying attention and am holding a cup of water when someone asks me the time, and I end up inverting my glass. Regardless of my intention, the water is not staying in that glass. The floor is getting wet. The damage is done. And I am grateful to the people in this story showing such tremendous grace when they shared it with me, their care that the other individual not be maligned unnecessarily. But the sad truth is this: this hostility they felt, this exclusion they experienced, was nothing unfamiliar or new to either of them, just unexpected in that context.
And the real kicker? This interaction did not take place in Churchill Square or Tim Hortons or Lions Park or Commonwealth Stadium or the legislature - it took place here.
In this building.
In this room.
...
Let me be absolutely clear: I am not sharing this example to shame anyone. It is not meant to make the people who maybe recognize themselves in it or perhaps witnessed it feel bad. I honestly and truly do not want to embarrass or guilt anyone who perhaps didn’t realize it was happening or feels somehow that they should have, even if they couldn’t.
I am presenting it as an opportunity; a chance to pause and reflect. In the written psalms you will often see a Hebrew word meaning exactly this: Selah.
And if you do see yourself reflected in this story, or it reminds you of a different time or interaction where you wish you had done better, where you might have inadvertently enabled oppression or accidentally let injustice pass without being called out, hear this good news: “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”
We always have the choice to change, to become better. To more accurately reflect our faith in Christ and his teachings in the way we live our lives.
What does this look like? It can look like a lot of things, but much of it stems from what Paul teaches us in Corinthians – “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”
Be kind. Support good causes both financially and verbally. Food banks, books for schools, supporting refugees, your faith community.
Show up. Speak up. If necessary, act up.
Look after those who have difficulty looking after themselves.
Give everyone the opportunity to live in respect and dignity.
Call it out when people minimize or joke about sexual assault.
Acknowledge the harm governments do when they pass abhorrent anti-trans and anti-gay legislation that further marginalizes at-risk populations.
Be radically inclusive and welcoming! It is not enough to simply leave the door open. Recognize that many people you encounter have been taught to think of themselves as outsiders, and they need you to explicitly invite them in!
Rid yourself of “all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.”
When people make mistakes, and they will, because they are human, try to find it in your heart to forgive them.
And when it is you who has made the mistake, ask God to forgive you, and when you realize that They do, do the hardest part – find a way to forgive yourself.
In the end, Jesus’s new covenant makes it clear: we need to love one another. “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Upon reflection, we can all change. We can find what is right, because like we heard in Jeremiah, God has written it in our hearts. Selah.
We have come a long way, sure, but have so much further we can go.
Can you imagine a world running on love instead of hatred or jealousy? A world built on inclusivity not exclusivity? On community instead of division? Make no mistake, the world is likely to call us deranged, with these crazed notions that every individual has value and that love can conquer hate, but we are not irrational, we are trans-rational – we have a different rubric for what is important.
And we aren’t alone, either! Right here in St. Albert, a former Christian Reformed Church denomination has disaffiliated from their denomination and changed their name to Gardens Community Church. Part of the reason for this was the CRC’s Human Sexuality Report that came out in 2020, which opposes same-sex marriage and classifies homosexuality and transgender identities as “contrary to scripture.” They also made these positions binding beliefs, making change or even discussion virtually impossible. So these folks are breaking away to start their own community, and I wish them God’s blessings and all the luck in the world.
God calls us to community. ALL OF US. White, black, brown, red, yellow, puce, green whatever. Rich, poor, capitalist, socialist, gay, straight, trans, bi, queer, other, introvert, extrovert, innies, outies, briefs, boxers, Mac, PC, Coke, Pepsi, Marvel, DC, every one of us.
Let us continue to worship together here, loved and protected by God, thanking Them for both the abundances and challenges in our lives, learning the lessons Jesus has laid out for us, and looking for the Holy Spirit to embolden us when we are called to action, as we were 12 years ago, when became an Affirming Ministry.
Amen!
(embedded video jumps to sermon at 40:46 (15 min))
SCRIPTURES
Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should quake,
and the mountains fall into the depth of the sea,
Though the waters of the sea rage and foam,
and the mountains tremble at the tumult.
Reprise: A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.
There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God,
sanctifying the dwelling of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help at the break of day
The nations are in tumult, empires are shaken;
For God speaks and the earth melts away.
[Reprise]
Come and see what God has done,;
the wonders wrought upon the earth.
God makes wars to cease in all the world;
God breaks the bow and snaps the spear;
and burns the shields in the fire.
Be still and know that I am God,
exalted among the nations, exalted in the earth.
The God of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
[Reprise]
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
Colossians 3: 8-14
But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
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