Sermon for October 28, 2012--Reformation Sunday

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Holy See announced that the Pope has granted a plenary indulgence for the Year of Faith.

The decree announcing the indulgence was signed by the Cardinal Major Penitentiary, and Bishop Regent, of the Apostolic Penitentiary. The penitentiary is the part of the Roman Curia responsible for indulgences and governing the sacrament of confession.

One plenary indulgence per day may be gained by an individual, which they can use for themselves or apply to a soul in purgatory. Since the primary objective is to develop sanctity of life to the highest degree possible on this earth, and thus to attain the most sublime level of pureness of soul, immense benefit may be derived from the great gift of Indulgences which, by virtue of the power conferred upon her by Christ, the Church offers to everyone who, following the due norms, undertakes the special prescripts to obtain them. During the Year of Faith, Plenary Indulgence for the temporal punishment of sins, imparted by the mercy of God and applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful, may be obtained by all faithful who, truly penitent, take Sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and pray in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

During the Year of Faith, there are four means of gaining an indulgence.

"(A) Each time they attend at least three sermons during the Holy Missions, or at least three lessons on the Acts of the Council or the articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in church or any other suitable location.
"(B) Each time they visit, in the course of a pilgrimage, a papal basilica, a Christian catacomb, a cathedral church or a holy site designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith (for example, minor basilicas and shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Apostles or patron saints), and there participate in a sacred celebration, or at least remain for a congruous period of time in prayer and pious meditation, concluding with the recitation of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, depending on the circumstances, to the Holy Apostles and patron saints.
"(C) Each time that, on the days designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith, ... in any sacred place, they participate in a solemn celebration of the Eucharist or the Liturgy of the Hours, adding thereto the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form.
"(D) On any day they chose, during the Year of Faith, if they make a pious visit to the baptistery, or other place in which they received the Sacrament of Baptism, and there renew their baptismal promises in any legitimate form.
"Diocesan or Eastern Christian Church bishops, and those who enjoy the same status in law, on the most appropriate day during that period or on the occasion of the main celebrations, ... may impart the papal blessing with the Plenary Indulgence".

Faithful who, due to illness or other legitimate cause, are unable to leave their place of adobe, may still obtain Plenary Indulgence "if, united in spirit and thought with other faithful, and especially at the times when the words of the Supreme Pontiff are heard, they recite ... the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and other prayers that concord with the objectives of the Year of Faith, offering up the suffering and discomfort of their lives". A plenary indulgence also requires that the individual be in the state of grace, have complete detachment from sin, and pray for the Pope's intentions. The person must also sacramentally confess their sins and receive Communion up to about 20 days before or after completing the other acts.

The Year of Faith is meant to “recall the precious gift of faith” and “its correct interpretation.”

Martin Luther was appalled when, five hundred years ago, the German Dominican monk Johann Tetzel, papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent from the
Vatican to peddle indulgences to the faithful. Luther insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Yet Tetzel’s teachings on indulgences for the living, at least, were in line with Catholic dogma of the time.

You know the rest of the story. Indulgences were being sold, not granted for free; it was actually a fundraising scheme by Pope Leo, the Medici pope, to build St. Peter’s Basilica, the one we know in Vatican City today.

But what you may not know is that the granting of indulgences for both the living or a soul in purgatory that I described during the Year of Faith, was actually an announcement from the Vatican last month, by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. It seems we have not come as far or enjoy as much unity of spirit in the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church as we like to think. Pope Benedict is not asking for money for these indulgences, but there is a requirement of works in order for the indulgence to be granted.

Remember the old saying, brothers and sisters, Those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it. Once again, we have a German Catholic, this time Pope Benedict, offering indulgences for both the living and the dead. It may not be relevant to this subject, but I might mention here that before being elected pope, Benedict was Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, another good old Catholic institution that was instituted late in the 16^th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of committing offences relating to heresy, including Protestantism,sorcery, immorality, blasphemy, Judaizing and witchcraft, as well for censorship of printed literature.

It seems that I’m focusing on what we think of as the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, and that is true to some extent. After all, the Reformation was about Luther reforming the Church, and Catholicism was the only show in town back then. And the essential doctrine of justification by faith alone, the cornerstone of our Lutheran doctrine, is apparently still in direct contrast to a church that still believes and practices the granting of indulgences for the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins.

Luther said, "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification," he wrote, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness." He explained in the Smalcald Articles, “The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood. This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls.”

I can’t elaborate or add to Luther’s words. Justification by faith, the one and firm rock, the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine. Both our Gospel and Epistle lesson today attest to this. There is nothing so important; nothing so urgent. This is who we are.

And this is why we’re here. We are heirs of a great Reformation, a great movement in the church, when, like in the early church, a brave few were willing to oppose the religious and political leaders of the time, and became witnesses to the truth. We have a responsibility to continue that witness, to speak the truth in love to those around us, in this time and in this place, where God has put us.

Amen.

Sermon for October 7, 2012--Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, the last six weeks or so I’ve embarked upon what for me is a huge challenge, a growing edge. My home congregation has started a two day a week mother’s day out program—something, it turns out, that is a very needed service in the community. Being the diaconal person that I am, I felt that this was something in which I should be involved. And after praying about it at length, I said that I would work for the program as the infant room “teacher.” Now the reason that this is such a growing edge for me is that, for years, I have resisted, you might even say fought tooth and nail, being involved with children’s ministry. I spent three years studying in a program that trained one to teach bible studies to adults, and a further three years in formation to become a consecrated deaconess, and I did not think that my training and talent should be wasted on teaching three year old Sunday school . . . or in working in mother’s day out. I have always seen my gifts as lying in a different direction.

I’m not convinced yet that my talents don’t lie in a different direction. I can’t say that this has been a revelation about what I’m supposed to be doing for the kingdom. Five infants, aged four to ten months, in a small room together, can be challenging. However, as is usually the case when one is involved in ministry of any kind, it isn’t about me. It is about the children, about what Jesus said here in Mark 10. Let the little children come to me. I’ve realized that taking care of five infants in mother’s day out isn’t a lot different than being a hospital chaplain. Being a chaplain wasn’t about what I had to offer patients and families and staff, it was about meeting them where they were, about walking sometimes a hard, and sometimes a joyful, path with them.

So how does one do that with infants? One would think that caring for infants would be a snap. They eat, they sleep, they get their diapers changed, they play, and they cry—a lot. To be honest, that’s kind of what I thought when I said I’d do this . . . but I should have read Mark a little bit more closely. Jesus took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them.

It’s been a long time since I was the parent of small children, much less infants. I’d forgotten how important touch is to children.  It took me aback when a five month old was fussing in her swing, waving her little arms around, and I thought maybe she was hungry, so I grabbed her bottle, thinking to quiet her. But what was really going on was that waving her little arms around was her five month old way of lifting her arms to me to be picked up, which, when I did so, quieted her immediately, and won me one of those priceless baby smiles.

And I’m just Jane, a lowly, sort of bumbling, deaconess. I can barely imagine this scene from Mark, when Jesus himself took the children into his arms. The text says that he put his hands on them and blessed them, and we church people I think automatically imagine that Jesus was putting his hands on their heads and pronouncing a blessing on them, something like what might happen during communion, when the presider blesses small children who don’t receive the elements. But I wonder if we’re missing the point, reading too much into it. Could it be that just the act of touching conveys blessing? Harking back to the chaplain experience, people are often calmed when they are touched. Not sit and hold someone’s hand or give them a hearty pat on the back, but just gently, lightly, touch them.  It is amazingly comforting. It offers the gift, the blessing if you will, of presence. We humans need that as infants and we need it still as adults.

In this scene from the gospel, the disciples were preventing people from bringing their children to Jesus, which is another example of the disciples just not getting it. They considered children too immature to need Jesus. But then Jesus says about the children that it is of such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Last Thursday afternoon, I watched a group of toddlers sitting with the pastor in “chapel”—children from 11 months to 18 months. They have learned the sign of the cross. They have learned Jesus Loves Me, and a couple of other gospel songs. When one sees this, one understands that the kingdom of God truly does belong to them. But Jesus also went on to say that anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it. So does that mean that if one doesn’t learn about Jesus and the kingdom at a very young age, there is no hope of entering the kingdom? The other thing that I observed during this “chapel” session was a very young mother of 21, who was volunteering that day, listening. She didn’t make the sign of the cross. She didn’t know the gospel songs. Or if she did, she chose not to participate. Maybe her heart had been hardened by past experience, or maybe this was new information to her. I don’t know, but she was listening, just exactly like the toddlers were listening. What an amazing thing, if this were the first she’d heard of the gospel, offered in a loving, safe environment with no judgment and no expectations.

This, I think, is truly fulfilling the great commission. And as Jesus demonstrates here, the great commission is not just to go and troll for adults. The fact is this gospel that is entrusted to us exists on the edge of extinction. And I’m not talking about our sinful secular culture that’s killing Christianity. No, Christianity, the gospel,  is always, and has always been just one generation away from disappearing from the face of the earth. To kill the message of Jesus, all you have to do is simply not tell it to your children. The disciples, it seems, are momentarily, at least, unaware of this truth. Our primary responsibility as Christians is to testify to the power of Jesus; not to argue about Christian faith, but to simply tell the things that we have seen Christ do in our lives. As if we were talking to a little child, because after all, the kingdom is not something we can earn by our works or our exemplary life. All of us, no matter what our age, receive the kingdom as a gift, a blessing, of God’s grace.

Amen.