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“Semper Reformanda” – Rev. G. Jacob Bolton

Reformation Sunday, 26, 2014

Deuteronomy 34

Today, we are celebrating two things. Yes it is, Sunday, but we are also celebrating the 500th birthday of . There is a catch, though. No one really knows when Knox was born . . . . . Historians say it is somewhere between 1512 and 1515, so we may just do this same thing next year, but it would still be relevant because John Knox is a name we hear a lot when we talk about Scottish Presbyterianism. While the familiar strains of bagpipes, referencing the Book of Order, which Knox helped write, the constant jokes about how Presbyterian pastors only drink scotch — are reminders of the key role Scottish Presbyterianism has played in shaping the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination to whom Huguenot belongs, Rev. Barry Ensign-George, associate for theology in the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s office of Theology and Worship, reminds us that “central to Scottish Presbyterianism is John Knox, the fiery Reformation-era leader of the Protestant church in Scotland.”

Because 2014 marks the 500th anniversary of Knox’s birth-ish, at the General Assembly this past summer, October was designated as the John Knox memorial month, encouraging all PC(USA) congregations to celebrate the faithful witness of John Knox on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 26. Reformation Sunday is traditionally observed on the Sunday before Reformation Day, Oct. 31, when posted his 95 theses. While the major source of our Reformed tradition is found in the Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin, our American Presbyterian tradition is rooted even more so in English and Scottish Presbyterianism in which John Knox was the most important player.

Knox arose from humble beginnings and lived at a time when Reformation was already starting to form on the European Continent. It is important to remember that 2 key historical dramas were taking place while Knox ministered and preached. The first was the entire Henry VIII/Anne Boleyn episode during which England broke away from the church in . This caused a reformation in the church more for political reasons, or reasons of power and marriage convenience, than reasons based on theological understanding. And the second was that the church in Rome was maneuvering through a string of Borgia and Medici family leadership, and of course the drama and intrigue that went along with that, and had just named Michelangelo as the lead architect to finish creating the structure of St Peters basilica, the cathedral church that so many of us know today as the Vatican. Knox’s early Reformation efforts were rewarded with being forced to row as a galley slave in a French ship. You all remember Charlton Heston rowing the oars in Ben Hur? Different era, but kinda like that. It is unclear how he was released, or maybe even escaped, but he eventually served in exile as a chaplain in the Church of England and helped influence the text of the . But when Mary came to the throne and re-instituted the Roman Catholic faith, Knox fled to Geneva where he became a confidant of and then became the pastor of the English-speaking congregation there. Inspired by Calvin’s vision, Knox returned to Scotland and 2

helped to lead the revolution that led to the ousting of Mary of Guise and the reformation of the Church of Scotland.

Knox’s legacy to us has many dimensions:

• a fierce commitment to the reformation of the church; • a deep obligation to the sovereignty of God that doesn’t allow anyone to take up the mantle of God, be they a king or queen or a pastor or bishop; • It is from Knox we maintain our famous and enduring concept of to the parity of ministers and elders; • The practice of fervent prayer as a means to intimacy of God, and of strict self- examination before coming to the Lord’s Table.

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So these are some of the legacy that Knox leaves with us. He wanted the church to reform herself away from a place where money bought salvation, where clergy were worshipped like idols, and where the Bible was not freely accessible to the common folk. But he also instructs us that the church must “semper reformanda”, always and continually be, able to reform. So where have we seen the church reform?

Just in the last 50 years of church life we have seen the church reform herself by including women in the ranks of those who can be ordained to serve as ministers of the word and sacrament. Rev Peggy Howland, a member of our presbytery was indeed the first woman to be ordained in the PCUSA. We have also seen a reformation with ordination no matter how one sexually identifies, as Rev. Mieke Vandersall of the New York City Presbytery, who came and spoke with the Session just two years ago, was the first lesbian to be ordained into the PCUSA denomination. We have seen reforms happen in mission structures, in the awareness raising campaigns against apartheid, and for farm workers’ rights, and we have seen reformation happen as worship across the country is less “pastor driven,” with an emphasis on a connection to the divine and an appreciation for the holy, rather than a mandatory obligation.

However, there are a few places I would like to see the church continue to reform. I have asked you via social media where you would like to see reformation happen and you gave me some great ideas such as:

• “The church must change in order to reach the people of the world as the world expands, yet technology actually shrinks the world. The church must be a 24/7 living organization. • The liturgist gets to ask a question about the scripture lesson. Or if they want, they can inform the pastor giving the sermon a week in advance and add a reading to the list, so they can ask a question on a different topic.

These are wonderful. But I have three areas where I would love to see reformation happen in the church. The first should come as no surprise. It has been eight months, since Steve announced his retirement and the interim search committee has worked tirelessly to call an 3

interim pastor. With over 23 face to face meetings, the reading of 60 some odd resume’s and countless emails, I suggest the church reform the process in which a parish calls an interim pastor. Can I get an Amen! Yes this church has some issues that need to be addressed, every church at the end of a pastorate does. And if we sit down and are honest with ourselves I bet we all could name those issues. This isn’t rocket science! We just need the official person in place to lead us through the steps so we can move on. It is by no fault of our own that we can’t, but solely because of church structure, polity and process. This is indeed a reformation opportunity!

Personally, I would love to see the ordination process reform. It took me 7 years to become ordained. Jim Sterner our preacher the last two weeks it has taken him eleven and he has been “doing ministry” far longer than me. Through no fault of our own, the church encourages far too many people to enter seminary, and thus the ordination process, without then giving them the resources, direction, or the opportunity to then be an ordained pastor at the end of the journey. Though our last two General Assemblies have lessened the rules for ordination, one no longer needs as intense an understanding of Greek and Hebrew as when Steve and Bruce and I were in school, for instance. This too is a reformation opportunity.

And third. Church mission. Most churches throughout our denomination wrestle with their annual budgets. Does this sound familiar? Usually the first few things to be cut when money gets tight are mission and benevolence budgets, the giving. Well I see this as an opportunity. I don’t know the best way to do this but there are financial minds far more developed than mine that can help with this issue. But I have an idea. The PCUSA manages financial accounts which include more than 10 billion dollars. Do you know how much the Vatican Bank manages? 9. 10. 9. If that isn’t a fact to lift up on Reformation Sunday I don’t know what is. Why can’t we help our churches financially with that 10 billion dollars, or provide some sort of financial mechanism to at least allow parishes to feel good about the work they are doing in the world from a dollars and cents perspective instead of a feeling of regret or fear. This sounds to me like making a difference in the world, this to me sounds like a reformation opportunity.

But alas we may never see these we so strongly yearn and hope for. No matter how many committees we join. Even if we get involved at the presbytery or national level. Even if we vote with our feet and write op-eds and pray really, really hard. Some change just isn’t bound to happen in our lifetime, some reformation we just for better or worse, will probably never see.

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Which leads us to Moses. Now, if you’ve been worshipping with us lately or following along with the common lectionary from home, you’ll know that we have been traveling the Exodus journey with Moses for a while. Just a few weeks ago we played a little call and response game here in worship where we were able to remember 9 of the ten plagues. Not too shabby. Bill Hoare knew a handful, Matt McCormick knew some. We have seen the plagues, the commandments, the fire and the smoke, and now Moses is finally at the cusp of bringing his 4

people to the Promised Land, but then he dies, and he doesn’t make it in. Moses dies before seeing his hopes and dreams for the church realized.

Now we have to remember that Moses is according to many historians and Jewish tradition the holiest man in the Bible. And as he grows and leads, and as his relationship with God becomes more mature and developed, he becomes closer to God, but his relationship with his people lessens and becomes weaker. Now I do not think that this is the only model, but it is how it unfolds for Moses. He has repeatedly saved his people from starvation, from thirst, from foreign tribes, from captivity. He has gotten really tired of eating manna. And even Moses, Moses doesn’t get to see the Promised Land. Moses doesn’t get to see the church reform herself to the status and place he so strongly desires, to the place he worked so hard and fervently to witness, to the place he has been leading his people to for generations.

And maybe this is one of those important parts of Biblical wisdom. A truth we don’t like to talk about but, one that resonates within our hearts, echoes against the cavern of our souls. How many of us ever see the world, the work, the possibilities we so strongly yearn for, ever come to fruition? Dr King didn’t. Paul didn’t. Many of us won’t. But Joshua did. He had been there from the beginning, in Egypt, and through the wilderness. Joshua had been, to use some New Testament language, a Moses disciple, and he is who in turn leads the people into the Promised Land. To quote William Sloane Coffin, “Thoreau read Wordsworth; John Muir read Thoreau; Teddy Roosevelt read John Muir; and the results were national parks.” Our call is not to be Jesus, or to be Moses, but to follow, study, learn from these wonderful examples, and then to go out into the world and pass that on. If we find our Moses, and we find our Joshua, isn’t this “semper reformanda?” Isn’t this a life worth living? Think of how many people have read Moses. Have read Calvin. Have read John Knox. Think of the Moses’ and the Joshua’s in your life. If the people of God continue to pray, continue to pass on sacred tradition and history, we may not see it, you and I, but someday, the reformation of the church we want to see, reformation of the church, that God wants to see, will become reality. A reality where interim pastor searches take 2 months. A reality in which benevolence budgets grow exponentially. A reality that far exceeds our wildest visions of peace, love and hope. A reality where Moses is the first to greet us as we enter God’s promised land, and we are the first to welcome home our Joshua. May it be so. Amen.