"Looking Back, Looking Forward" - Sermon for Reformation Sunday

Looking Back, Looking Forward
Reformation Sunday, Narrative Lectionary 4
October 29, 2017
Grace, Mankato, MN
1Kings 5.1-5; 8.1-13 & John 2.13-22

 “If you build it, they will come,” is a well-known line from the 1989 film, Field of Dreams. The film stars Kevin Costner as an “Iowa corn farmer, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields; he does, and the 1919 Chicago White Sox come.” (IMDB) Thus appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. It was an event that caused great angst among White Sox fans everywhere. There’s much more to the story, but that ball field built in an Iowa cornfield for the movie is still drawing crowds from all over the country and the world. “If you build it, they will come.”

Buildings and building play a prominent role in our readings and themes of the day. Solomon, King David’s son, ascends the throne after some nifty palace intrigue with his mother, Bathsheba. Solomon isn’t David’s first born, but takes the throne anyway. (Where has that happened before in the Old Testament?) It turns out that Solomon is an administrative genius, uniting the tribes into a formidable empire. He further consolidates his power by building a temple at Jerusalem, the new capital city, something his father was prevented from doing.

Five hundred years ago, the Reformation was largely sparked in resistance to the sale of indulgences that were being sold to unknowing German peasants to fund the St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome. Indulgences were an ecclesiastical “get out of purgatory free card” that claimed to buy favor with God. It’s the sale of God’s grace that enflamed Luther.

And as you well know, we are in the midst of a building renovation program here at Grace. But today we are focusing on building the next generation as we lift up the first of our Stewardship initiatives, “Raising up Future Leaders.” Through this initiative we hope to support our ministry partners Crossroads Lutheran Campus Ministry, Gustavus Adolphus College, and the ELCA’s Fund for Leaders in Mission, which has helped Vicar John attend seminary.

There is a curious mixture of looking back and looking forward today as there is in Field of Dreams. In 1 Kings we remember God’s presence among the people of Israel, bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land, giving them rest from their enemies and providing a place to meet them in worship. Regarding the Reformation, we remember how God’s Spirit blew through people such as Luther to revitalize the church, and how we trust that same Spirit to continue to blow through the church today. Furthermore, our stewardship initiative of “Raising up Future Leaders” reminds us that we do so looking toward God’s promised future.

Yet, lest we get too caught up in the grandeur and celebration, today also provides cautionary tales. You see, the building of the temple came at great cost, with Solomon using conscripted forced labor that is reminiscent of the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt. Solomon’ son, Rehoboam, will take some bad advice and make the peoples’ burden even greater. Because of that decision the empire would split into civil war and suffer successive corrupt kings. Today will be the highpoint of the Jewish people.

As we know all too well, the work of Luther and other reformers has not guaranteed a faithful church. It is not hard to find brokenness and corruption, not to mention divisiveness and a large assortment of sinfulness. One of the hardest things for my family when I entered full-time ministry has been to see the dark underside of the church.

Even so, we don’t stop building, either structures or for the future. Why not? We build for the future because of Jesus Christ. As our reading from John indicates, we have shifted from focusing on a place to centering our life on a person. Because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we are set free from sin, death and the evil powers that threaten to overwhelm us. We make places to gather and we invest in raising up future leaders because of Jesus’ promise that we have a future. We dare to dream and plan for the future because Jesus promises that he will come and be with us. It’s because of Jesus and what I see him doing in, with and through you, God’s people, that I have hope for this place, for the church and for our world. Amen.