Reformation Day (Year A)
Sunday, October 30, 2011
• (Repeat after me)
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• The theme for this year’s Gurnee Days was Medieval Knights—that was back in those warm days of August
• So our Gurnee Days chair Matt Messmer assembled a team of people who brainstormed and came up with the theme for our float: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”
• It worked perfectly—the image of a castle fitting in with the medieval/middle ages theme of the parade
• the image of a castle tying in with Luther’s hymn inspired by Psalm 46,
• Luther’s hymn that talks about God being our refuge and strength, God being our fortress
• In fact, the float worked so well it won first place!
• But I’m still wondering: Can we see things like this as being more than telling people about Bethel Lutheran Church?
• Could we see being in the community as our chance to tell people about GRACE?
• Could we see being in the community as our chance to tell people that God is our strength?
• That God is the strong One, the One who saves us
• Psalm 46 and “A Mighty Fortress” tell us that:
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• Churches—even non-Lutheran churches—sing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” to celebrate Martin Luther
• But may it really be about celebrating God’s grace
• May it be to celebrate that the Church once again recognized God’s grace in the Scriptures
• “A Mighty Fortress” inspired by Psalm 46
• Connects Psalm 46 with Christ, lifts up the grace
• Luther took comfort in Psalm 46 for the way it points to life and salvation in God, life and salvation that come to us by grace—as gift
• Took comfort because tells us that God is our strength
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• Above the Chaos – first verses
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
• (MSG) We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom
Courageous in seastorm and earthquake
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
The tremors that shift mountains.
• Above the Chaos—that’s SALVATION
• because Christ lifts us up, gives us courage, trust in what He has done in the cross and resurrection
• Bring us out of the chaos; that’s GIFT/GRACE
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• Withness
• Refrain: “The LORD Almighty is with us;
• the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
• He is WITH us
• His Withness is so central to what He has revealed about Himself
• He sent His Son to be WITH us—Immanuel
• Withness—LIFE WITH GOD
• Because Jesus is with us—lives in us by His Spirit
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• Desolations of peace
• “Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.”
• Expect scenes of destruction but what do we have?
• He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
• Desolation to our destruction
• Brings an end to our way of doing things
• Desolations of peace—LIFE
• Because Jesus brings peace through His forgiveness
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• Bob Lenz has spoken to hundreds of thousands students, including National Youth Gatherings
• Spoke to our Northern Illinois District pastors
• Bob’s not Lutheran but has a great way of emphasizing that we are saved by grace through faith
• A tremendous set of stories that show our strength, our salvation, our hope, our comfort, our refuge in God
• At the pastors’ conference, Bob encouraged us, almost pleaded with us Lutherans to SHARE THE GRACE
• Share the message we have
• Share this hope we have that we’re saved by what Jesus does and not by what we do
• Not by our own strength; saved by the strength of God
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace
• That’s what we have to share with the world
• That’s what Bob Lenz was urging us pastors to share
• This thing called GRACE; salvation as GIFT
• The power of salvation is in what God does;
• The power is in what God does in Christ
• Above the chaos
• God is with us
• God brings peace