Re-forming the church
Commentary
Object:
Was the Christian church ever one? Despite Paul's words of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," many would say not! The Jewish community out of which the early church sprouted was certainly divided between Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, for example. It should not surprise us, therefore, that the followers of Jesus were themselves predisposed to contrariness: the Judaizers and Paulinists over circumcision are a classic example, as reported in the book of Acts and the letters of Paul.
Divisions abounded throughout the early centuries as the followers of Jesus argued over Christology, the Trinity, marks of discipleship, the Canon, the nature of the church, episcopal leadership, and more. Even when some of these matters were seemingly settled, at least for the majority, through councils in the fourth and fifth centuries, there were ongoing cries for correction and change. In whatever situation the church found itself at any given time wherever it was, there was always someone or a group of individuals who saw need for reform -- to re-form the church more to the character of Christ and the witness of scripture, as they perceived it.
As the Christian community matured throughout the centuries, especially in Europe, the call for reform was constant. This can be seen through the monastic movement, which influenced church and state. Benedict's asceticism in the eighth century inspired the Cluny movement of the tenth century, which addressed the issues of simony (the selling and purchase of ecclesial office) and celibacy. In the next century, the Cistercians reformed the rule of Benedict into more strictness to recapture the religious ideal that seemed to have been lost in the Cluny movement. Bernard of Clairvaux became the most noteworthy spokesperson for this.
The church was not always open to the voice of reform, as is evidenced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in how the Waldenses and Cathari were treated. During this same time, the works of Dominic (Dominicans) and Francis (Franciscans) were more amenable to the church and they were able to influence Christian spirituality in a positive, powerful way through mendicancy, preaching, and service to the sick and poor. In the fourteenth century, when Jon Hus raised a strong voice challenging the theology of the church, fire at the stake consumed his passion. But his voice was not stilled. Martin Luther and other reformers in the sixteenth century picked up the banner of reformation that truly led to a re-formation of the church, unfortunately in ways that they would not have wanted. Resistance to the voice for reformation led to the Catholic-Protestant divide, which in succeeding centuries led to further divisions among the Protestants, all the while seeking ways to re-form the church, but in fact de-forming it into a plethora of factious bodies exhibiting little of the "oneness in Christ" of which Paul spoke and for which Jesus prayed.
What can our texts assigned for the celebration of the Reformation tell us that would guide us into future -- and there will be future -- efforts to re-form the church in the new days in which the church finds itself? As the saying goes: Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est. "The reformed church is always reforming."
Jeremiah 31:31-34
The times of Jeremiah are well documented. In the seventh century BCE, the Babylonian empire was in ascendancy, overpowering the Assyrian empire of the previous century. Judah was no match for her. The destruction of the kingdom was thorough. Jerusalem was laid waste and the precious temple was burned at the beginning of the sixth century BCE. It would not be until another seventy years passed before efforts were put in place to rebuild the temple and the people would enter into what has been termed the second temple period (sixth century BCE to the first century CE, during which time they were overrun again by the Greeks and then the Romans).
In prophetic fashion, Jeremiah interpreted these events as God's judgment upon the people due to their waywardness. Typical of the divine diatribe through the voice of Jeremiah are these words: "O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn, with no one to quench it, because of your evil doings. See, I am against you…" (21:12-13a).
However, alongside these fiery words of warning are comforting words of hope -- that the God who is… is still the God of Israel, who will not desert the people with whom promises were made generations before. "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" (31:31). Something new will have to happen in the relationship to restore it. It will have to be re-formed by the very hand of God. God will write the covenant on the hearts of the people, in contrast to the writing of the law on tablets of stone.
One has to be careful here not to misunderstand the Ten Commandments. They were not conditions to be met before God would bestow grace upon the people. They were instead markers of how to respond to the grace of God already bestowed upon the people in the exodus -- redemption from Egypt. The allusion is to the writing of the response for the people on tablets of stone. In the new covenant, the writing will be upon the hearts of the people, indicating a deeper, genuine response of love from within the fiber of one's being in contrast to the physical observance of certain behaviors as a sign of the relationship. The relationship itself is not lost. God will not let that happen. (Compare Jesus' parables in Luke 15.) The relationship simply, yet profoundly, needs to be re-formed in the greatest to the least. The shape of the re-forming will be in the sculpting of forgiveness, again by the hand of God, to reveal God's true heart for the people.
This itself is poetically expressed a few verses later when God sets forth the challenge to measure the heavens as the only condition by which God will "reject all the offspring of Israel" (31:37). These words are reminiscent of the psalmist's words in 103:11-12: "as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us."
Forgiveness is the gift that truly heals a wounded relationship. For Jeremiah, the reformation -- the re-forming -- of the relationship occurs when God speaks and offers forgiveness, overriding words of judgment and consequences with a genuine hope to lead the people into better tomorrows. Jeremiah reiterates this in 33:7-8: "I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me." The future, therefore, is not determined by our actions, but by God's action for us. It is this that will inspire new and more faithful ways to be the people of God.
Romans 3:19-28
In this portion of his letter to the Romans, Paul is taking on the attitude of his fellow Jews that if one simply has the law and follows its commands, then one is in right standing with God. (See 2:17-29 especially.) Paul's conclusion in observing his friends and neighbors and even the strangers around him is this: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one" (3:10). Paul experienced a re-formation of his attitude on the road to Damascus and now he wants to help re-form the attitude of those who think that they can stand before God justified through their own efforts.
As with Jeremiah, Paul sees the hand of God writing a new word on the landscape. For Paul and his fellow Christians, that new word was written in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Once again, God's work provides what human work is not able to accomplish. Paul sums up his point in this way: "… since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (3:23-24). If there is to be right standing before God, which is highly desirable given the alternative of judgment that Paul has already talked about in chapters 1 and 2, then God will have to effect it.
Because the temple was still standing and the sacrificial system of old was still in place, Paul interprets the actions of Jesus in terms of a sacrifice of atonement. The death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood were understood as God's singular action to bring about the forgiveness of sins, which is at the heart of atonement.
One can hearken back to the words in Jeremiah where God says, "I will make a new covenant…." Literally, this reads "I will cut a new covenant." The ritual act of covenanting involved the slaughter of animals and the partners in the covenant then walking between the parts to seal the arrangement. Jesus is described as the lamb of God, who is offered as the sign and seal of the covenant God provides for the people who simply believe in him. Paul writes, "He [God] justifies the one who has faith in Jesus" (3:26). See also 1 Corinthians 5:7; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; and Revelation 5:6, 9 for other references where Jesus is described in these terms.
For Paul, the law was good for convicting one of sin, but not for atoning for that sin. For atonement to take place, another mount had to be climbed. The attention to Sinai turns to Calvary. A new revelation occurs wherein God discloses God's own righteousness in Jesus. Those who catch this vision can set aside their fruitless efforts to justify themselves and rather rest, by faith, in the grace of God manifest in Jesus.
Paul will go on for many more chapters to talk about this in more detail, drawing analogies from Adam and baptism, slavery and marriage, then making practical applications on how the Christian is to live daily as a disciple of Jesus.
It is important to recognize here that Paul is dealing with a misunderstanding of the law that had apparently taken hold in his day. Originally, the law was designed as a response to God's already gracious action in the exodus. The lifestyle outlined by Torah had the character of thanksgiving, defining how God's people would live as a consequence of being chosen by God and of having been given precious promises that led them into their future. In a sense then, Paul is re-forming the current abuse of the covenantal relationship between God and the people of Israel. When he writes elsewhere that "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17), we should not understand this as dismissing the Old Testament, which is filled with grace, and discarding the law, insofar as it is an expression of thanksgiving. Remember, Paul is debating with those who think they can use the law for self-justification.
John 8:31-36
Jeremiah speaks to the people's reliance on the temple as their "security blanket" to protect them from their enemies. Paul speaks to the people's reliance on the law to provide for their right standing before God. In the gospel of John, Jesus speaks to the people's reliance on their Abrahamic genealogy to maintain their status in the world.
It is important to understand this conversation rightly. At first glance, it appears that there is a disconnect between the people saying they have never been slaves and the reality of their historical lives. In a practical sense, they had not been free since the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE (except for the Maccabean revolt that established an independent state from 164 BCE to 63 BCE). First it was the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. Also, are they forgetting the literal slavery that Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob, experienced in Egypt?
It may be, however, that such a bold statement about never having been slaves refers to the character of their self-understanding as the people of God. Leviticus 25:39-46 makes clear that no Jew is to be a slave of another Jew; foreigners may be held as slaves, but not fellow Jews for "they are my servants" (says the Lord). With this mindset, a Jew, even if sold into slavery (as many indeed were throughout the years), would be able to claim spiritual freedom as the chosen of God. This is how Cyril of Jerusalem described Joseph's plight: "Joseph was sold to be a bond slave, yet he was free, all radiant in the nobility of his soul." The Jews at Masada (April 15, 73 CE) were not content with this distinction, however, and chose death by their own hand rather than being subject to Rome.
The freedom about which Jesus speaks is not a political one; rather, it is spiritual. This becomes clear when Jesus connects this discussion about how "the truth will make you free" (8:32) to being "a slave to sin" (8:34). A slave is not free; that much is obvious. If one is a slave to sin, then by definition one is not free in a spiritual sense. The psychological mindset described by Cyril above does not run as deep as the spiritual conviction of sin, which is ground zero when talking about how one comes before God in truth.
The analogy Jesus works with is that of a household. The son of the head of the house is certainly free in terms of slavery and would have the authority through the will of the head of the household to free the slave. In 31:36 and throughout the gospel of John (for example, 1:18; 1:49; 3:17, 11:4; 20:31), Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. He is saying in this conversation that he has the authority to free others who are slaves to sin. Those others who are set free through their relationship with Jesus are called children of God in John's gospel -- not sons or daughters in particular; the specific, familial expression son is reserved for Jesus.
The sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John and the miracle accounts are all designed to point to Jesus as the Son of God, the one with authority to bring about what he is talking about, namely the kingdom (rule) of God. To have "life in his name" (29:31) means that one is free from sin -- the guilt and condemnation we feel so fearfully. As we "continue in [this] word," we will be disciples of Jesus and know the freedom that can only come through the forgiveness of sin (3:14-21). This word re-forms us so that we are not only free from sin, but we are also free for good deeds which are done in God. Jesus will say later in the gospel account that one can now consider oneself free to "go [one's] way and do not sin again" (8:11 -- at least, not in that same way; though the story about the person caught in adultery is contested as to whether it should be in the gospel, it is nonetheless a gospel-filled story).
Application
Reformations of any age are fueled by the desire to be free -- free from the shackles of the past that are no longer serving the needs of the present. Sin affects even the best intentions, as well as the efforts, of the church. Because of this, the Christian community is always in need of reformation, re-forming itself more into the likeness of Christ.
A true reformation prayer that can be found in hymnbooks contains these words in reference to the church: "… where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; … where it is divided, reunite it." Where does one begin to apply the texts for today to such a variety of concerns? Moral turpitude among religious leaders, fraud and financial mismanagement in religious institutions, racism/sexism/ageism in church policies, cultural parochialism in the fiber of local congregations, evangelical witness relevant to the neighborhood in which the congregation gathers: these issues and more could easily occupy the preacher in sermon preparation and delivery. Different localities and different denominations will provide filters for focus. Praying for discernment and the wisdom to make the right connections should be the pastor's first priority.
At the heart of any reformation message must be the essential relationship between the individual and God. This is the springboard for reformation movements. Jesus gets at this in his analogy between the slave and the son. It is the relationship with the Son that determines one's freedom; it is only in freedom that one is then able to be the person God calls one to be and then to do what God calls one to do. Juxtaposing the words from Jeremiah and Paul next to this, we see that the issue of forgiveness is fundamental. The future that Jeremiah envisions is defined by God's forgiveness; Paul clarifies that forgiveness as a gift from God through the work of Jesus. When the believer experiences being free from the guilt and punishment of sin, then attention can be given to what one is free for. In traditional doctrinal terms, sanctification follows justification. Justification is personal; sanctification is not only personal, but also public.
The reformation of the heart, then, becomes the springboard for reformation in the church and the church's relationship to the community. The re-forming, re-shaping work of God is like an earthquake that starts at the epicenter and then sends shockwaves into the world, changing the landscape -- in this case, of church and community. Unlike the disastrous effects of an earthquake, the re-forming work of God through the hands of God's people is designed for the common good to build up church and community.
Worship Application
Here is a Call to Worship for use when the assembly gathers; this can be said at the baptismal font:
We gather for worship today, having lived in too many ruts this week.
We are stuck in old habits that are not always the most godly.
We come before God who calls us forward into new ways to live
Daily re-forming us as the children of God, disciples of Jesus.
Here is a Benediction to use as a sending blessing [based on a quote from Thomas a Kempis]:
Without the Way,
there is no going,
Without the Truth,
there is no knowing,
Without the Life,
there is no living.
May God be with you today and always
to show you the way, the truth, and the life,
re-forming you to imitate Jesus more closely
day after day in all you say and do.
Both these options can be written as litanies to include the assembly:
Call to Worship (Pastor or Leader, depending on who leads this)
Pastor/Leader: Gather together, children of God!
Congregation: We come out of the daily ruts in which we live.
Pastor/Leader: Come to the one who can re-form your life with life.
Congregation: We come to learn new ways to be the disciples Jesus calls us to be.
Benediction (Pastor or Leader, depending on who leads this)
Pastor/Leader: May God re-form your life daily,
Congregation: that we may imitate Christ Jesus more closely.
Pastor/Leader: Without the way,
Congregation: there is no going,
Pastor/Leader: Without the Truth,
Congregation: there is no knowing,
Pastor/Leader: Without the life,
Congregation: there is no living.
Pastor/Leader: May God be with you today and always,
Congregation: showing us the way, the truth, and the life.
Divisions abounded throughout the early centuries as the followers of Jesus argued over Christology, the Trinity, marks of discipleship, the Canon, the nature of the church, episcopal leadership, and more. Even when some of these matters were seemingly settled, at least for the majority, through councils in the fourth and fifth centuries, there were ongoing cries for correction and change. In whatever situation the church found itself at any given time wherever it was, there was always someone or a group of individuals who saw need for reform -- to re-form the church more to the character of Christ and the witness of scripture, as they perceived it.
As the Christian community matured throughout the centuries, especially in Europe, the call for reform was constant. This can be seen through the monastic movement, which influenced church and state. Benedict's asceticism in the eighth century inspired the Cluny movement of the tenth century, which addressed the issues of simony (the selling and purchase of ecclesial office) and celibacy. In the next century, the Cistercians reformed the rule of Benedict into more strictness to recapture the religious ideal that seemed to have been lost in the Cluny movement. Bernard of Clairvaux became the most noteworthy spokesperson for this.
The church was not always open to the voice of reform, as is evidenced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in how the Waldenses and Cathari were treated. During this same time, the works of Dominic (Dominicans) and Francis (Franciscans) were more amenable to the church and they were able to influence Christian spirituality in a positive, powerful way through mendicancy, preaching, and service to the sick and poor. In the fourteenth century, when Jon Hus raised a strong voice challenging the theology of the church, fire at the stake consumed his passion. But his voice was not stilled. Martin Luther and other reformers in the sixteenth century picked up the banner of reformation that truly led to a re-formation of the church, unfortunately in ways that they would not have wanted. Resistance to the voice for reformation led to the Catholic-Protestant divide, which in succeeding centuries led to further divisions among the Protestants, all the while seeking ways to re-form the church, but in fact de-forming it into a plethora of factious bodies exhibiting little of the "oneness in Christ" of which Paul spoke and for which Jesus prayed.
What can our texts assigned for the celebration of the Reformation tell us that would guide us into future -- and there will be future -- efforts to re-form the church in the new days in which the church finds itself? As the saying goes: Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est. "The reformed church is always reforming."
Jeremiah 31:31-34
The times of Jeremiah are well documented. In the seventh century BCE, the Babylonian empire was in ascendancy, overpowering the Assyrian empire of the previous century. Judah was no match for her. The destruction of the kingdom was thorough. Jerusalem was laid waste and the precious temple was burned at the beginning of the sixth century BCE. It would not be until another seventy years passed before efforts were put in place to rebuild the temple and the people would enter into what has been termed the second temple period (sixth century BCE to the first century CE, during which time they were overrun again by the Greeks and then the Romans).
In prophetic fashion, Jeremiah interpreted these events as God's judgment upon the people due to their waywardness. Typical of the divine diatribe through the voice of Jeremiah are these words: "O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn, with no one to quench it, because of your evil doings. See, I am against you…" (21:12-13a).
However, alongside these fiery words of warning are comforting words of hope -- that the God who is… is still the God of Israel, who will not desert the people with whom promises were made generations before. "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" (31:31). Something new will have to happen in the relationship to restore it. It will have to be re-formed by the very hand of God. God will write the covenant on the hearts of the people, in contrast to the writing of the law on tablets of stone.
One has to be careful here not to misunderstand the Ten Commandments. They were not conditions to be met before God would bestow grace upon the people. They were instead markers of how to respond to the grace of God already bestowed upon the people in the exodus -- redemption from Egypt. The allusion is to the writing of the response for the people on tablets of stone. In the new covenant, the writing will be upon the hearts of the people, indicating a deeper, genuine response of love from within the fiber of one's being in contrast to the physical observance of certain behaviors as a sign of the relationship. The relationship itself is not lost. God will not let that happen. (Compare Jesus' parables in Luke 15.) The relationship simply, yet profoundly, needs to be re-formed in the greatest to the least. The shape of the re-forming will be in the sculpting of forgiveness, again by the hand of God, to reveal God's true heart for the people.
This itself is poetically expressed a few verses later when God sets forth the challenge to measure the heavens as the only condition by which God will "reject all the offspring of Israel" (31:37). These words are reminiscent of the psalmist's words in 103:11-12: "as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us."
Forgiveness is the gift that truly heals a wounded relationship. For Jeremiah, the reformation -- the re-forming -- of the relationship occurs when God speaks and offers forgiveness, overriding words of judgment and consequences with a genuine hope to lead the people into better tomorrows. Jeremiah reiterates this in 33:7-8: "I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me." The future, therefore, is not determined by our actions, but by God's action for us. It is this that will inspire new and more faithful ways to be the people of God.
Romans 3:19-28
In this portion of his letter to the Romans, Paul is taking on the attitude of his fellow Jews that if one simply has the law and follows its commands, then one is in right standing with God. (See 2:17-29 especially.) Paul's conclusion in observing his friends and neighbors and even the strangers around him is this: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one" (3:10). Paul experienced a re-formation of his attitude on the road to Damascus and now he wants to help re-form the attitude of those who think that they can stand before God justified through their own efforts.
As with Jeremiah, Paul sees the hand of God writing a new word on the landscape. For Paul and his fellow Christians, that new word was written in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Once again, God's work provides what human work is not able to accomplish. Paul sums up his point in this way: "… since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (3:23-24). If there is to be right standing before God, which is highly desirable given the alternative of judgment that Paul has already talked about in chapters 1 and 2, then God will have to effect it.
Because the temple was still standing and the sacrificial system of old was still in place, Paul interprets the actions of Jesus in terms of a sacrifice of atonement. The death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood were understood as God's singular action to bring about the forgiveness of sins, which is at the heart of atonement.
One can hearken back to the words in Jeremiah where God says, "I will make a new covenant…." Literally, this reads "I will cut a new covenant." The ritual act of covenanting involved the slaughter of animals and the partners in the covenant then walking between the parts to seal the arrangement. Jesus is described as the lamb of God, who is offered as the sign and seal of the covenant God provides for the people who simply believe in him. Paul writes, "He [God] justifies the one who has faith in Jesus" (3:26). See also 1 Corinthians 5:7; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; and Revelation 5:6, 9 for other references where Jesus is described in these terms.
For Paul, the law was good for convicting one of sin, but not for atoning for that sin. For atonement to take place, another mount had to be climbed. The attention to Sinai turns to Calvary. A new revelation occurs wherein God discloses God's own righteousness in Jesus. Those who catch this vision can set aside their fruitless efforts to justify themselves and rather rest, by faith, in the grace of God manifest in Jesus.
Paul will go on for many more chapters to talk about this in more detail, drawing analogies from Adam and baptism, slavery and marriage, then making practical applications on how the Christian is to live daily as a disciple of Jesus.
It is important to recognize here that Paul is dealing with a misunderstanding of the law that had apparently taken hold in his day. Originally, the law was designed as a response to God's already gracious action in the exodus. The lifestyle outlined by Torah had the character of thanksgiving, defining how God's people would live as a consequence of being chosen by God and of having been given precious promises that led them into their future. In a sense then, Paul is re-forming the current abuse of the covenantal relationship between God and the people of Israel. When he writes elsewhere that "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17), we should not understand this as dismissing the Old Testament, which is filled with grace, and discarding the law, insofar as it is an expression of thanksgiving. Remember, Paul is debating with those who think they can use the law for self-justification.
John 8:31-36
Jeremiah speaks to the people's reliance on the temple as their "security blanket" to protect them from their enemies. Paul speaks to the people's reliance on the law to provide for their right standing before God. In the gospel of John, Jesus speaks to the people's reliance on their Abrahamic genealogy to maintain their status in the world.
It is important to understand this conversation rightly. At first glance, it appears that there is a disconnect between the people saying they have never been slaves and the reality of their historical lives. In a practical sense, they had not been free since the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE (except for the Maccabean revolt that established an independent state from 164 BCE to 63 BCE). First it was the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. Also, are they forgetting the literal slavery that Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob, experienced in Egypt?
It may be, however, that such a bold statement about never having been slaves refers to the character of their self-understanding as the people of God. Leviticus 25:39-46 makes clear that no Jew is to be a slave of another Jew; foreigners may be held as slaves, but not fellow Jews for "they are my servants" (says the Lord). With this mindset, a Jew, even if sold into slavery (as many indeed were throughout the years), would be able to claim spiritual freedom as the chosen of God. This is how Cyril of Jerusalem described Joseph's plight: "Joseph was sold to be a bond slave, yet he was free, all radiant in the nobility of his soul." The Jews at Masada (April 15, 73 CE) were not content with this distinction, however, and chose death by their own hand rather than being subject to Rome.
The freedom about which Jesus speaks is not a political one; rather, it is spiritual. This becomes clear when Jesus connects this discussion about how "the truth will make you free" (8:32) to being "a slave to sin" (8:34). A slave is not free; that much is obvious. If one is a slave to sin, then by definition one is not free in a spiritual sense. The psychological mindset described by Cyril above does not run as deep as the spiritual conviction of sin, which is ground zero when talking about how one comes before God in truth.
The analogy Jesus works with is that of a household. The son of the head of the house is certainly free in terms of slavery and would have the authority through the will of the head of the household to free the slave. In 31:36 and throughout the gospel of John (for example, 1:18; 1:49; 3:17, 11:4; 20:31), Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. He is saying in this conversation that he has the authority to free others who are slaves to sin. Those others who are set free through their relationship with Jesus are called children of God in John's gospel -- not sons or daughters in particular; the specific, familial expression son is reserved for Jesus.
The sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John and the miracle accounts are all designed to point to Jesus as the Son of God, the one with authority to bring about what he is talking about, namely the kingdom (rule) of God. To have "life in his name" (29:31) means that one is free from sin -- the guilt and condemnation we feel so fearfully. As we "continue in [this] word," we will be disciples of Jesus and know the freedom that can only come through the forgiveness of sin (3:14-21). This word re-forms us so that we are not only free from sin, but we are also free for good deeds which are done in God. Jesus will say later in the gospel account that one can now consider oneself free to "go [one's] way and do not sin again" (8:11 -- at least, not in that same way; though the story about the person caught in adultery is contested as to whether it should be in the gospel, it is nonetheless a gospel-filled story).
Application
Reformations of any age are fueled by the desire to be free -- free from the shackles of the past that are no longer serving the needs of the present. Sin affects even the best intentions, as well as the efforts, of the church. Because of this, the Christian community is always in need of reformation, re-forming itself more into the likeness of Christ.
A true reformation prayer that can be found in hymnbooks contains these words in reference to the church: "… where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; … where it is divided, reunite it." Where does one begin to apply the texts for today to such a variety of concerns? Moral turpitude among religious leaders, fraud and financial mismanagement in religious institutions, racism/sexism/ageism in church policies, cultural parochialism in the fiber of local congregations, evangelical witness relevant to the neighborhood in which the congregation gathers: these issues and more could easily occupy the preacher in sermon preparation and delivery. Different localities and different denominations will provide filters for focus. Praying for discernment and the wisdom to make the right connections should be the pastor's first priority.
At the heart of any reformation message must be the essential relationship between the individual and God. This is the springboard for reformation movements. Jesus gets at this in his analogy between the slave and the son. It is the relationship with the Son that determines one's freedom; it is only in freedom that one is then able to be the person God calls one to be and then to do what God calls one to do. Juxtaposing the words from Jeremiah and Paul next to this, we see that the issue of forgiveness is fundamental. The future that Jeremiah envisions is defined by God's forgiveness; Paul clarifies that forgiveness as a gift from God through the work of Jesus. When the believer experiences being free from the guilt and punishment of sin, then attention can be given to what one is free for. In traditional doctrinal terms, sanctification follows justification. Justification is personal; sanctification is not only personal, but also public.
The reformation of the heart, then, becomes the springboard for reformation in the church and the church's relationship to the community. The re-forming, re-shaping work of God is like an earthquake that starts at the epicenter and then sends shockwaves into the world, changing the landscape -- in this case, of church and community. Unlike the disastrous effects of an earthquake, the re-forming work of God through the hands of God's people is designed for the common good to build up church and community.
Worship Application
Here is a Call to Worship for use when the assembly gathers; this can be said at the baptismal font:
We gather for worship today, having lived in too many ruts this week.
We are stuck in old habits that are not always the most godly.
We come before God who calls us forward into new ways to live
Daily re-forming us as the children of God, disciples of Jesus.
Here is a Benediction to use as a sending blessing [based on a quote from Thomas a Kempis]:
Without the Way,
there is no going,
Without the Truth,
there is no knowing,
Without the Life,
there is no living.
May God be with you today and always
to show you the way, the truth, and the life,
re-forming you to imitate Jesus more closely
day after day in all you say and do.
Both these options can be written as litanies to include the assembly:
Call to Worship (Pastor or Leader, depending on who leads this)
Pastor/Leader: Gather together, children of God!
Congregation: We come out of the daily ruts in which we live.
Pastor/Leader: Come to the one who can re-form your life with life.
Congregation: We come to learn new ways to be the disciples Jesus calls us to be.
Benediction (Pastor or Leader, depending on who leads this)
Pastor/Leader: May God re-form your life daily,
Congregation: that we may imitate Christ Jesus more closely.
Pastor/Leader: Without the way,
Congregation: there is no going,
Pastor/Leader: Without the Truth,
Congregation: there is no knowing,
Pastor/Leader: Without the life,
Congregation: there is no living.
Pastor/Leader: May God be with you today and always,
Congregation: showing us the way, the truth, and the life.
