Thoughts going in, Sun Oct 31

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Actually, the Gospel passage for this Sunday is John 8:31-36, but as far as I’m concerned the fascinating part is in the first three verses. Fascinating, though confusing. There’s an old rule of thumb in John’s gospel about not being able to read more than ten verses in a row without getting confused, and John chapter 8 is no exception. Verse 31 begins by mentioning the “Jews who had believed in him,” proceeds toward a mistaken remark on their part “we’ve never been slaves of anyone” (what about that little 400yr stretch in Egypt?), and culminates with verse 37 where Jesus says “I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.” Hmmmmmmmm. And these are the ones who BELIEVE in him? As the old saying goes, with friends like that… I’m not going to attempt to reconcile John 8:31 with John 8:37, I merely point it out as evidence for how confusing this Gospel can be.
But this Sunday we have more fish to fry than just the confusing text of John’s Gospel. It’s Reformation Sunday; THE SUNDAY of the church year that we set aside to commemorate the day (All Saints Eve, Oct 31, 1517) that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg chapel, inadvertently beginning the Reformation. In other words, there’s more going on with John 8 than simply John 8. It has been chosen specifically as a reading worthy of—and in keeping with—the idea of celebrating the Reformation.
This fact makes it necessary for me to pause and say a couple of things about the Reformation, and indeed, whether or not there is anything “worthy” of celebration about the irreparable fracture of the Western Church. Of course I say “Western Church,” as “the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” had already been long-fractured. In 451AD there was a major split in the church regarding the nature/humanity/divinity of Christ. This little-known wing of the church has been known collectively as “Oriental Orthodoxy” ever since. Then in 1054AD the so-called “Great Schism” occurred when the remaining Eastern churches and Rome split. I guess what I’m saying is that while I (and many others) lament at a certain level the fracture of the visible church, I also have to admit that “unity” is something that has largely eluded the Church since the Ascension of Christ.
Of course the biggest ‘problem’ with Reformation Sunday, especially among Lutherans, has been the triumphalistic myth that this was something “we won.” Not by a longshot…regardless of how you look at it. There are millions of Lutherans in the world, but there are billions of catholics. The stated goal of the reformers was to reform the church. That didn’t happen; Rome is still Rome. Perhaps the biggest sign of ‘defeat’ when it comes to the Reformation was the failure to achieve a UNIFIED PROTESTANTISM. In other words, the very fact that there could be **other protestants who disagreed with **us seemed to be something that Luther and the 1st generation reformers hadn’t counted on.
Well, as they say, all of that is water under the bridge. Here we are today in 2010 getting ready to ‘celebrate’ another Reformation Sunday. What is there that’s worth celebrating? Well, the one thing that I **can resonate with (and interestingly enough it ties back into John 8) is that the Reformation at its core was a quest for TRUTH. The Reformation began with the idea that “Popes and Councils can err.” It began with the idea that an un-checked human authority in the Church **can** be corrupted; **can** lose sight of the truth in favor of its own self-interests; **can** get to the point where it is in **need** of reform. And when that happens, where are we to turn? We’re to turn to the only thing that transcends human wisdom and authority, the Word of God itself. In other words, the beauty of the Reformation has nothing to do with old-time Lutheran Church triumphalistic myths, and everything to do with the triumph of the Word of God. And YES, this HAS led to more division in the visible church, but at least it is division seeking truth through God’s word, as opposed to a forced and contrived unity under a single head with no dissension and no dialog allowed.
Back to John 8 and “The truth will set you free.” It struck me that this isn’t always true. Not ALL truth is ‘freeing.’ The person who hates his job and literally has to drag himself to it every day; who’d like nothing better than to quit; who’d like to walk away and never look back, ….upon *truthful analysis of the situation may come to the realization that given this economy; given where he’s at in life; given his financial commitments, THE TRUTH is that he’s trapped.
Not all truth is freeing. The person who has just received the test results confirming that that pain they’ve been dealing with for some time now is no ordinary pain, but is the result of a cancerous tumor, has just received THE TRUTH…but that truth is hardly freeing. The young student who just wants to graduate with a degree in his/her chosen field is hit with the fact that he or she is required to take general classes in areas they could care less about has received THE TRUTH, but it hardly seems ‘freeing.’ NOT ALL TRUTH IS FREEING. It is perhaps even ‘true’ to say that most truth ISN’T FREEING.
Interestingly enough, this even applies to God’s Word. One of the truly great Lutheran contributions to Christianity is the idea that **most (not all, but most) of God’s Word is experienced by us either as “law” or “gospel.” Law is God’s demand: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.” Gospel is God’s gift, in spite of our inability to fully comply with His Law: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Yet, for all of that, *WHEN we hear God’s Word in the Law….even though true….this too is OFTEN experienced as anything but freeing. Do this; don’t do that, etc. etc. etc.
Clearly, what we need is MORE than just truth. We need THE TRUTH. Jesus said: “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life.” We need to be in relationship with THE TRUTH. We need to have our lives permeated with THE TRUTH. Other truths are often painful; other truths often remind us of our own (perhaps immanent) mortality; other truths are enslaving. Only THE TRUTH offers us the freedom of God’s unconditional love and acceptance. Only THE TRUTH can legitimately tell us that when it’s ALL OVER, it’ll be ok.

Cheers,

TM