500 years ago this evening, Martin Luther informed a wayward church where she had blown 95 degrees off course. For the past month, I have contemplated wearing Luther’s mantle this All Hallow’s Eve because the American church despairs for another reformation. (Jesus wouldn’t be confronting money-changers today as much as gospel-changers and truth-changers.) And what I would write would be no more welcome now than Martin’s words were then. As the late Rich Mullins once wrote, “The world can’t stand what it cannot own” and enough world has seeped into the old gospel ship that the same could be said for the institutional church.
My past few months have been an awesome whirlwind. A new ministry several years in the making was charted and launched. “broken” was born on September 12, 2017. It has been refreshing to sail on tides best described by the final Greek phrase in the book of Acts – “unhinderedly.” It has also been daunting and I am grateful for a momentary reprieve to catch my breath.
Somewhere in the midst of that launch, I celebrated a couple of 40-year milestones. The first was the 40th Reunion of the Thompson High School Class of 1977. That was 6 weeks ago and I am just now pausing long enough to reflect on it. It was another wonderful evening spending snippets of chatter with so many lifelong friends when the deeper conversation was desired. I felt like a ball on a roulette wheel. And I treasure every moment of the spin.
The second 40-year mile-marker was passed without fanfare. On the first Sunday of October 1977, I entered a pulpit for the first time to lead a congregation and I never looked back. Apart from a two-year hiatus to rescue something far more substantial than a calling, I have been a paid church staff minister for four decades. Luther’s nail was only 460 years rusted when this needle in a haystack came along. For 40 years, I have gone around in a lot of circles and I have struck a lot of rocks. I have witnessed the power of God set free and I have witnessed the quenching and grieving of the Holy Spirit. I have dined with Pharisees and ragamuffins, rebels and saints, and count my life the richer for it. And I have seen a lot of lives changed by Jesus Christ! He did it all. I just got to be there to watch.
This morning I meditated on Philippians 4:4-7 for the second day in a row. It begins, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” Sometimes it takes two days, maybe even three or four, for a sun shaft as bright as this to penetrate the fog. This morning, a song arose from the fermentation of 48 years of recollections in following Jesus. “Rejoice, rejoice! Rejoice, rejoice! Jesus has risen, our sins are forgiven, rejoice!” That has been my song this Reformation Day.
I am grateful for Martin Luther’s courage. He hung it on a nail and unadulterated the truth that was presented to me 453 years later. And I must continue to do the same every day I encounter those misguided by a religious Jesus, a cultural Jesus, or no Jesus at all. Eventually, I will share my convictions concerning the post-modern church. But for now, let me just exalt the greatest Truth. He hung it on three nails for all to be able to sing, “Rejoice, Rejoice! Our sins are forgiven!”
If you find your life dangling by a thread today, hang it on this nail! It'll hold!