Reformation Lament
This Lord's Day brings together two streams of worship that have been formative for Christ Church over the last number of years.
The first is our celebration of Reformation Day. It was All Hallows Eve, 1517, that Martin Luther, a pastor/scholar in the Catholic church, tacked his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel inviting others to discuss some points of faith that he had been wrestling with. Like Mrs. O’Leary’s cow in the great Chicago fire, this act by Luther ignited a firestorm in the church; a firestorm that continues to shape our experience of our life in Christ today. For Luther, capturing the heart of Paul in places like Ephesians, he recognized that it is not the external rites and rituals which determine whether we are Christians, but rather the righteousness that comes from God and is applied to the hearts of the elect. It is the work of God that rescues sinners, invites repentance, and builds his church on earth. We commemorate these truths not from a spirit of pride, that we who stand in the shadow of folks like Luther, Calvin and Knox have somehow gotten things right that others have missed, but rather we remember these truths with hearts filled with humility and thankfulness for what God has brought about. What better place to celebrate these truths but by continuing our look through Ephesians, particularly 2:17-22, and Paul's highlighting of the church that is built through Christ?
The second stream of our life together that we step into this Sunday is our service of Lament. Since 2015, we have been setting aside a 5th Sunday evening in an autumn month to come together for the purpose of Lament. As we have learned, much of the scriptures reflect the form of lament. Through lament we acknowledge the brokenness of the world, give voice to human emotions, honestly reflect confusion that exists in our relationship with God, express our union with Christ, and ultimately surrender to our hope in a sovereign God. This is our opportunity to sit with the Lord and with each other, both to cry and to cry out.
We will be marking our service by reading through portions of the book of Lamentations. Historically, Lamentations is set around 587 B.C. and describes the fall of Jerusalem. It traditionally has been attributed to Jeremiah the prophet. Pastorally, Lamentations is a good place to look as we seek to make sense of life that seems to have moved away from God as the center with increasing rapidity. Author and scholar Christopher Wright says this about the book, “Lamentations is a book for today. In a world where the tide of human suffering threatens to overwhelm whatever dykes we put in place to contain it, is there any book of the bible more relevant than this book that gives voice to the most awful pain imaginable?” (The Message of Lamentations.) As we open up these scriptures and pour out our hearts over broken relationships, broken down bodies, lost loved ones, lost jobs, sin within, sin without, injustice, persecution, etc… our expectation is that God will fill our moments with his presence and our faith will be strengthened.
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