An Unpreached Sermon

For the second time in 2 months, we are without electricity at the church and parsonage, only this time due to a October snowstorm of heavy wet snow which took out many trees that still had their leaves on them. 


Therefore yesterday worship was cancelled, many roads in the morning were impassable not due to the snow (actually that was easily plowed) but due to trees being down across roads and powerlines down as well.  And also it was REALLY cold in the church yesterday morning since without power, the heat does not work.  


Hence why this sermon did not get preached.  Which is sad cause I was really looking forward to it as well.  Yesterday was Reformation Day, when we remember when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg which sparked the Reformation and we celebrate that we are still a reforming and changing church.  So this sermon is about that, but also in response to some of the conversations that I had at bishop's convocation, many of which I should not recount here.  The gospel on Reformation day is always John 8:31-36, Jesus telling those who believe in him that the Son will set them free.  


But as has often been the case for me lately, this sermon is incomplete, mainly cause I was planning on the congregation to fill in some holes.  So here is the outline, the basics of what I was going to preach and I hope you are willing to answer some of the questions and fill in the gaps for me.  


Enjoy!

What is your favorite Halloween tradition?  Can you image Halloween without costumes or candy or trick or treating?  But lets be honest, how many of you are expecting more than 10 trick or treaters?  20? 30?  Trick or treating is a tradition that is changing as our communities change, as less people live in neighborhood or know their neighbors, as more parents become overly worried about walking around in neighborhoods at night out in the cold more and more communities are hosting events like Treat or Treat Street at schools or shopping malls.  Halloween traditions are changing and with that we can often feel pain and sorrow over it. 

And yet tomorrow is also Reformation Day, today being Reformation Sunday, when we remember the day that Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the castle church door at Wittenburg which started the reformation.  And as a result, many traditions changed.  Worships that were once held entirely in Latin were now spoken in the language of the people.  All people (well at least adults) were able to participate in communion, the Lord’s meal, by having both the bread and the wine; the wine was no longer relegated to just the priest.  And speaking of priest, pastors were now allowed to be married and not every worship leader had to be ordained. Luther and many of his fellow theologians realized that the people of the Catholic Church in Germany were slaves to sin and also slaves to tradition.  But when they looked at what God was doing in society, and listen to what God was calling them to do, God was able to free them from many of their traditions in order for them to more fully worship God.

And our church is still reforming.  We are still changing, and God still loves us with such an amazing love that has changed along with the culture.  God is still speaking to us, God is still setting us free from sin and God is setting us free so that we are no longer slaves to traditions.  The Christian church has amazing traditions that we have become part of, but if those traditions were created in one culture that no longer pertains to us, we become slaves to the tradition and if we spend more time trying to understand those traditions than we spend actually worshiping God then those traditions will die and we as a community will die right along with them. 

What are some traditions that have changed in your lifetime? 

Are any of these ones that you truly miss? 

So what are some traditions that we do in this congregation that you do not understand? 

God has set us free from sin so that we do not have to worry about what is the “correct” way to worship.  Worship is not about following one correct format.  It is about opening our hearts and minds to give thanks to God for all that we have been given and all that God has done.  Worship is about lifting up to God our cares and concerns, it is not about worrying that we have the right words or that the table cloth on the altar is straight or that we know the word for what an altar table cloth is called. 

God has set us free from those things.  We are no longer slaves to those things.  We have been given the truth and the truth will set us free to worship with all of our heart, soul and mind.  The truth is God’s words of love, grace and freedom and that is what we really should worship, not tradition.