Year B
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

The Protestant Reformation is said to have begun when German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31, 1517…  and the sound of that hammering has echoed down the hallways of Lutheran history more than it has through Anglican corridors…  we Episcopalians don’t have quite so clear a person…  an icon…  to point to for the beginnings of our branch of the Jesus Movement…  some would say it was Henry VIII…  but Henry didn’t want to start the Church of England any more than Martin wanted to start Lutheranism…  or for that matter…  any more than Jesus wanted to start a new religion…  Henry just wanted a divorce…  Martin wanted to Roman church to reform…  he saw his dispute as a scholarly objection to church practices –– like the sale of indulgences for example…  and Jesus just wanted unity with God and justice for everyone…  the problem is…  when we look back at so much history…  the things that actually happened get obscured by the lens through which we look…  and we may not get an accurate picture…

And one thing that contributed to Martin’s actions…  is that between 1378 and 1418…  there were three Popes…  one in Rome…  one in Avignon…  and one in Pisa…  all claiming to be specifically chosen by God to be the final arbitrator not just in religious matters…  but in political ones as well…  and these multiple sees –– as they’re called –– all claiming final authority…  caused people to think about authority…  and ask questions about where authority comes from…  and whose it is to grant and exercise…  this gave rise to questions about biblical authority…  and about how God…  church…  and humanity work together to bring forth God’s kingdom here on earth… 

And as those in every generation have wrestled with the same kinds of questions…  and as we do in our time…  we are formed…  we’re formed when we struggle with those ethical medical issues which have no black or white answers but only shades of gray…  like who’s been vaccinated or not…  and why…  and how the consequences of those decisions affect others…  we’re formed when an issue like homelessness goes from being a distant concept to one with a face…  when a friend or relative loses their job and then loses their home…  we’re formed when we become aware that we’re doing the exact same thing we criticize others for doing…  we’re formed when we realize just how much pain…  love can bear…

But our formation begins early on…  and the theme of formation is referred to many times in scripture…  in Jeremiah 1:4 God said through Jeremiah…  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…  and in Jeremiah 18…  God tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house where God will impart God’s words…  and Jeremiah found the potter at his wheel…  and if the pot he was making became spoiled…  he would simply take that same clay and rework it into another vessel…  and God says to Jeremiah…  Can’t I deal with you like the potter does with his clay…  so are you in my hands…  even Job said to God…  remember that you fashioned me like clay…  and will you turn me again to dust… 

In today’s reading from Jeremiah…  God says that God will make a new covenant… in our Christian context…   this finds meaning in the New Testament…  and new testament means new covenant…  in the Jewish context…  it refers to the restoration of Israel after the Babylonian Exile and the rebuilding of the Temple…

But God says that God will also put this new covenant into our inmost being and inscribe it on our hearts –– the Prophets speak several times about having this kind of internal reference point…  instead of an external one –– and when God’s teaching…  when God’s Law is woven into the fabric of our being…  and when we all just intuitively know…  at this deep level…  God says…  I will forgive your iniquities and remember your sins no more… 

And there are some examples of this kind of knowing in nature…  honey bees just know where the best flowers are…  ants just know how to get from outside your home to the honeypot on your kitchen counter…  and they leave little chemical markers to tell their friends how to get there too…  and birds know all the best annual migration routes by heart…  but some might say…  hey…  that’s different…  these are insects and animals…  they function on instinct… 

But the dawning of self-awareness…  the acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil…  means that we’ve gained a moral compass…  which means freedom to choose…  and that creates humanity…  and this means that the beasts are still left behind in Eden…  where there is no knowledge of good and evil…  no anxiety…  and no decision making… 

And free will seemed great…  until we realized that we’d have to contend long and hard with all the difficult issues and decisions in life…  like how to welcome the stranger… whether to erect walls or build bridges…  how to maintain our freedoms but stop the bullies who torment kids in schoolyards…  how it is that some people have health care and some have none…  and whether together…  we choose to allow just a few to have wretched excess while far too many don’t have enough to even survive…  you see…  we’re still dealing with the same questions as Martin Luther did at the beginning of The Protestant Reformation…  about authority and accountability… 

Today’s Psalm contains my favorite Psalm verse…  Be still, and know that I am God…  this is like the stillness of walking a labyrinth…  of centering prayer or meditation…  it’s  choosing to favor what God is saying to us inside…  instead of allowing our actions to be driven by the cacophony voices from culture and society…  and this is part of our formation too…

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him…  If you continue in my word…  you are truly my disciples…  and you will know the truth…  and the truth will make you free…  and the Jews who had believed in him took offense…  and answered…  We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone…  but in truth…  when our actions are determined by those forces which work against love and care of neighbor…  we are slaves to sin… 

But as God’s Law is woven into our inmost being…  and is inscribed on our hearts…  we die to our old selves over and over again as we’re formed…  and as we shed those things which limit us… those hard yokes and heavy burdens that keep our heads bowed down and our vision on ourselves…  the divine spark within us grows brighter as we rekindle the kind of relationship with God for which we were created…

And it’s difficult for us to see it now… but this formation brings us full-circle…  we’ve gone from creatures who function on instinct alone…  to beings with free will and self-awareness still quite capable of sin…  but this freedom also allows us to choose to let God write God’s Law on our inmost being so that it becomes our new instinct…  without the loss of our free-will and self-awareness…  the choices we can make then –– to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind; and to love our neighbors as ourselves –– will themselves become seamless, and effortless, and instinctive… it is the potential for which we were created…

And while we may commemorate Martin Luther as the progenitor of The Protestant Reformation…  we can also celebrate that he was one who supported the idea that we are Always Being Made New…  and we can ask ourselves what thinking…  actions…  and laws…  we need to reform…  so that we continue in God’s Word…  and continue to do God’s work… and are set free…