Sermon Reformation Sunday 2019.

One of the oldest living things in the world is a clonal colony of quaking aspen in Fish Lake, Utah, called Pando. Estimated to be around 80.000 years old it is among the oldest know living organisms.

You might have seen beautiful pictures of Pando on your wall calendar or on your web calendar, as Pando is one of the favorite entries for wall calendars, as no photographer can resist those stark white trunks and the shimmering golden leaves set against a cloudless blue blue autumn sky.

But Pando is not just a forest, it is also known as the Trembling Giant, as this clonal colony is in fact one individual male quaking aspen that has one massive root system. The giant plant, this trembling giant is in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fish lake National Forest in Utah. Pando occupies 43 hectares and is estimated to weigh collectively 6.000.000 kilo, making it the heaviest organism known.

What looks like a forest is in a sense one single tree. Pando comprises a massive underground root system and each of its forty-seven thousand trees are but stems springing from that system. Pando is thus one enormous genetically identical organism. The trembling Giant.

Think about this for a moment. This giant organism with one massive root system and yet a Forrest of 47.000 trees springing form it. Wonderous isn’t it? A Trembling Giant of common roots and a diversity of trees, branches and leaves.

Then think about the church. Not just this church, but the entire Christian Church body.

One trembling giant too, isn’t it?

At the last count, there were nearly as many denominations in Christianity as there are trees growing from Pando. Each one looks differently, beautiful, blessed, maybe a bit broken and bruised in its own way-, but we all share the same DNA, the same roots.

As we gather today and as we worship together, - we gather as one of these trees on the trembling giant. Today on Reformation Day we remember and celebrate the rich and defining history of the Reformation, that changed history and churches, that formed and gave birth to all the many denominations that we know today. Not only the Lutheran, but all the other denominations that share the same roots as we do: that stem from the origin of Christianity and faith.

Emanuel Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church is a proud part of a worldwide movement of more than 2 billion people reaching every continent and spanning thousands of cultures for almost 2000 years. Oh, we are different, So different in expressions, creeds, teachings, liturgies, culture and tradition. But we still stem from that same root.

These many parts of the church, these many different denominations and expressions, are all called to bear witness about how much God loved the world – that he gave his only son not to condemn the world but to reconcile, make new, save and share the good news.

Rachel Evans writes in “Searching for Sunday: “Jesus said his fathers’ house has many rooms. In this metaphor, I like to imagine the Presbyterians hanging out in the library, the Baptist running the kitchen, the Anglicans setting the table, The Anabaptists washing feet with the hose in the backyard, the Lutherans making liturgy for the laundry, the Methodists stoking the fire in the hearth, the Catholics keeping the family history, the Pentecostals throwing open al the windows and doors to let more people in. “

We are both a forest and yet a single tree – One big trembling giant stirred and moved by the same invisible Spirit.

 

The Lutheran Church, which we hold dear, is so rich of history, teachings, confessions, liturgy and hymns. But we are not only a church of yesterday, we are a church of tomorrow. Or we should be and could be.

This week I was blessed once again to attend the TheOasis, a Professional seminar for pastors from Pacifica and Southwest Synod. This year we had two keynote speakers - not from our own Lutheran tradition but - from other branches.

Bishop Yvette Funder is an American singer and senior pastor of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in Oakland and the Presiding Bishop of the fellowship of Affirming Ministries. She gave a wonderful presentation about being church and how to be church in changing times and in challenging times as ours.

“The church should be a people and a place of radical inclusion,

relentless hospitality and extravagant grace. “

Bishop Yvette reminded us all that Denomination, Tradition and Culture is not God or the Word.

If we relentlessly focus more on survival of our beloved traditions, our inherited culture, our established institutions, we need to reform. Just because our Lutheran church was born out of reformation, doesn’t mean that we have stopped all reformation, renewal and change. The Spirit of God still moves us, stirs us, challenges us, changes us and renews us.

If our Creeds, our liturgy our hymns, our traditions, our buildings overshadow the words of Christ, then we have to remember that Jesus never said “Stay!” He said: “Go, get up and go out and meet people….” Jesus never confined faith and worship to the synagogues or in traditional liturgies, instead he often encourages people to leave the synagogues and go to the hillsides or mountains.

On Reformation day we should remember that our purpose as a Church and as a Christian fellowship is not simply sustaining status quo, but instead constantly to expand, explore, embrace, broaden, renew, reform and get up and go.

We should not just dig our Lutheran Heels in the deep soil and comfort of traditions, confessions, liturgies, Services, nostalgia, fear of change, but instead be boldly embrace this time that is ours, and put a strong Lutheran mark on this time with lifelong education, conversations, gracious respect; mark our time with a strong sense of justice, freedom and responsibility.

 “We are the proud descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves?” We are the proud descendants of Martin Luther, of Grundtvig, of Bonhoeffer, of Strong independent Danish Immigrants, and we have never been slaves of anyone….”

Today’s claim would be that we are the descendants of Modern Age, of Constitutions and Civil Rights, of opinions and elections, of democracy and personal choices, - and we are certainly not slaves to anyone.

Well, one of the curses of modern age, is that we trick ourselves to believe we are free to do whatever we want – when we in fact are slaves of so many things.

We are slaves of money and power; we are slaves of fear and anxiety. We are consuming unbelievable amounts of opioids, drugs, alcohol to feel free or cover that fact that we are indeed slaves of something.

We are slaves of work and time.

We are slaves of the thought that we are indeed in charge of our own happiness.

 We are slaves of Social Media and Constant Information Flow.

We are slaves and obsessed by counting calories, following diets, and manic exercise. We are slaves of the thought of endless youth, beauty and strength and fear most of all to accept our age, to face the decline and embrace death as part of living.

So, we are indeed not free, as the descendants of Abraham were not free.

We are indeed in need of forgiveness and grace in our self-centered life. We are indeed in need of continuity and relations. We need being part of something bigger than our own personal project. We are indeed in need of good Lutheran Sermons (or any good sermon regardless of denomination and creed), that points our focus to the other, our relations, our neighbor, our society, and our God. We are indeed in need of finding holiness in the middle of our lives.

As Lutherans we are shaped by Martin Luther’s insight that all of life is part of our calling from God; the question of theological identity is not only about our faith of heart and mind, nor is it only a description of how we worship within the sacred church walls and institutions, - no it is also and most importantly about the life of faith we live out in the world.

ML sermon 1519: “How do we stand before God, and how do we stand before our neighbor?”

For Lutherans, justification of faith alone is not only freedom from sin and brokenness, but even more freedom to….. a specific purpose. Freedom to act and live, freedom to change and transform, freedom to better and correct, freedom to feed and clothes, freedom to share this life. Freedom means that in Christ we are set free to love and to serve others. The church should and could be a people and a place of radical inclusion, relentless hospitality and extravagant grace.

“Continue in my word.” It says on the Bulletin.

We are the carrier of the word and we are the stewards of the word.

 

Granted there are denominations that I cannot in good conscience support or be part of, because my conscience and my understanding of grace is contradicted with their actions and teachings: banning women from the pulpit, or stigmatizing people because of race, sexuality, gender or color, or claiming that this is God’s Will when it clearly contradicts everything Jesus stood for, preached and served.

 There are reasons for all of us why we belong to different denominations: choice, tradition, culture, convenience. Our differences matter, but in the end, all the boundaries we have built between one another are human made. Bishop Yvette said that “ it is indeed just a cultural thing if we clap on 1 &3 or 2 & 4. It is still the same song.”

As a church, we all are both a single tree and yet part of the one big Trembling Giant that still gives us roots to rely and built on, and the blessing of an invisible spirit constantly moving, inspiring, changing and challenging our branches and leaves. Amen.