You Tube Theology

Tomorrow (10/31/2022) is the 505th anniversary of a little-known monk named Martin Luther in the town of Battenburg and posting a document on the door, monks would post things they wanted to talk about. That discussion started the reformation, and today is Reformation Sunday for all Protestant churches, whether they know it or not. What are we remembering, what are we celebrating? The central ideas of Protestantism are captured in the 5 ideas. 1. Glory to God alone - God who saves, no human being, not the church, God alone deserves glory. God is God, we are not. 2. Christ alone - Christ alone that God appoints as our savior, not our beliefs about him, not our doctrine, not the goodness of the quality of our lives, none of those things. They may be important, but Christ alone saves. 3. We are not dependent on someone in the church to tell us what God means, directly from scripture, we can read it for ourselves and discover God's love for the world, and that reality has transformed life. 4. Grace alone, we are accepted by God only because of the unmerited grace of God. You can't earn it. God loves you and I simply because he loves us. Every person is loved by God. 5. By faith alone, why we might find a set of practices best, they are not necessary for our standing before God. Our sins are forgiven, solely by faith, not by good works. These five ideas have had a profound effect and have liberated hundreds of thousands of people. They are worth remembering and celebrating. At the same time, the church itself has often failed, even the church that is most committed to these ideas, sometimes we attempt to impose itself on the world contrary to the very good news, even turning it into an instrument of oppression and hatred. It's not about our right doctrines. The reformation of the church is not something that's accomplished once and for all, but an ongoing challenge for all of us. The church is always reforming, always asking about our faithfulness, a continued process. How do we do it? How do we reform the church in our time? How do we do that? The text we read gives us the answer--the transfiguration. Greek orthodox places the most importance on this, even more so than resurrection. The presence of Moses and Elijah with Jesus represents the pinnacle of the prophets. But God points to the superiority of Jesus over them, and all before him. He's the last link in the great chain of prophets. The law itself is a wonderful gift from God, God gave Moses the Torah, which was the law, a precious gift. It carries a promise of life. But, it was not the very life of God. It was not the word that became flesh and lived among us. Listen to Jesus, as important as the law and prophets, and as important as the new testament would become, they are writings, but not the word of God in the flesh, the very life and truth in flesh. The Bible doesn't love me. It is a collection of writings. It must never be confused with Jesus Christ himself, we must listen to him above all else. The sad reality in our day is folks cherry pick verses, and come up with ideas to authorize oppression and hatred and use them to stoke bitterness. We have to look to Jesus and his teachings. Sometimes Jesus says things that make us want to question other things in the Bible. We have to listen to Jesus. Baptist comes from 16th century of reading the Bible through Jesus, we're called to listen to him. God is concerned with the poor, marginalized and oppressed, and their liberation should be a priority for human affairs. Everyone of us needs to think about that. What Jesus was committed to liberation of those from those circumstances. None are beyond redemption, no, not one. Distresses me when I see followers of Christian dehumanizing people on the other side that is not faithful to Jesus. Vote, but treat everyone with respect. We must cultivate bold humility. We must be bold because we are entrusted with the gospel. We are sent to live out his message. Our witness must remain humble, we do not know all there is to know about truth, only God knows that. God is God, we are not. Our witness must be humble. The way of Jesus Christ is not the triumph of our way of thinking over others. It is a divine gift to us, as it is a gift to the world. We are called to live this out truth in the way of Jesus. Let us follow him in his way of love demonstrating that we are people who truly listen to him.