A Church in Reformation

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Beloved in Christ in the Rocky Mountain Synod,

As I write today, it’s Reformation Sunday. I’ve just returned from Utah where I participated in the fourth Rocky Mountain Synod Missional Gathering. This afternoon I’ll be at Peace in Christ Episcopal Lutheran Ministry in Elizabeth, Colorado, to celebrate the formal organization of that congregation and to install their new pastor/priest in charge. It’s a good weekend.

As I ponder the meaning of our identity as a church of the Reformation, I find myself thinking about the many times I’ve experienced Reformation Sunday as a celebration of Lutheran heritage rather than as what I believe it should be – a kick in our ecclesiological pants to remind us that we are a church always called into new ways of being and doing. Being a church-in-reformation – a church that’s constantly asking how Christ is reshaping us for the sake of joining in God’s mission today – this should be in our DNA as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America! So why do we so often act like a church that is more tied to the past rather than a church that is open to the Spirit’s future? Instead of being a celebration of the mystery and excitement of the “what next” in our life, Reformation Sunday becomes a Lutheran “Fourth of July” where we put on the national color and sing the anthem with hearts full of pride. Really? 

Reformation Sunday at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Don’t get me wrong. We can’t be a church that’s always being made new without deep roots. Part of our rootedness is a recognition of our history, a claiming of the story that is our unique narrative as a church. But when we dwell on our heritage more than on the call to be a dynamic part of what God is still unfolding in this world, then we completely miss out on the vitality that true reformation can bring.   Reformation must be more than an occasion for Lutheran nostalgia on the last Sunday in October – it must be a daily celebration of a heritage that causes us to simply expect the Spirit’s vital energy to be at work in our midst, making us ready at all times for the venture of faith.

So here’s my suggestion: let’s make Reformation not just a Sunday but a way of life. Let’s claim our identity as a church-in-reformation by making it central to the witness we share as the ELCA with the rest of the Body of Christ and with the world. Let’s commit ourselves to an ongoing discussion of how we are being called into new ways of being church for the sake of mission and witness. 

Wouldn’t it be something if by the time we reach next Reformation Sunday, decked out in our red and singing “A Mighty Fortress” with gusto, we are able to celebrate 95 new ways God has called us into being church together?  Wouldn’t it be something if it simply became second nature to us to ask with bold imagination where the Spirit might be leading us next?

May it be so.

Yours in Faith,
Bishop Jim Gonia

Comments

Hannah said…
As one who was strutting around yesterday, boldly proclaiming Luther and not the Gospel, nor the need for daily Reformation, - and somewhat arrogantly (yet humorously!) throwing it in my Catholic friends' faces - I appreciate this post. Thank you!
8:43 AM
Richard said…
Hear, Hear! We have the foundational base. We do always need to look forward in our calling to be doing God's Work with Our Hands.
12:14 PM
Unknown said…
It’s an affirmation that moving forward and outside the boxes that we are so used to at church (teams instead of committees, the Hub instead of WELCA Board etc.) are good for growing us on the path that the Holy Spirit is leading us. It keeps out minds from growing stagnant and our worship from becoming rote.
1:17 PM
Linda Schlitt said…
God has a sense of humor. I spent reformation Sunday first with a great ELCA congregation in Bellevue, NE that had an enormous glowing banner inviting God's Spirit into our lives. In the afternoon I travelled to Des Moines, Iowa to their beautiful Catholic Basilica to be present at a grand nephew's baptism amongst extended family as I shared the unity in Christ. Both these unfamiliar settings amongst God's people gave rise to reflections about where God was calling me in the days, weeks and month's ahead.
10:04 PM
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