Monday, November 2, 2009

REFORMATION
November 1/2, 2009
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: 2 Kings 23:1-3

“THE NEED FOR REFORMATION”
1. Man is weak, lazy, selfish, ungrateful,
short-sighted, self-centered, prone to apathy.
2. God’s Word gives life!

2 Kings 23:1-3 (NIV) “Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. 3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.”

Lutherans were known as people of the word, people who knew God’s Word very well and held on to that word. I can remember the farmer I worked for, Wally Ebert, being so upset when his church, my church, St. Mark’s, switched from following a one year series of readings for each Sunday to a three year repeating cycle. Why? He had the one year memorized so if a birthing cow kept him from church he still knew what his congregation was hearing. I can remember when my brother Dave and I would sneak downstairs earlier than allowed to catch some cartoons, having to pull up short, busted, because my mom was already up reading her Bible at the kitchen table. Lutherans, people of the word.
This was not always so. Before they were called Lutherans those who would be called Lutherans didn’t even have the word. Why not? Their church kept it from them. The leaders of the Roman Catholic church said people could not be trusted with the word, should not read the word. The only available Bible was written in Latin which most people could not read. A reformation, a change for the better was needed. God provided what was needed, blessing the work of Martin Luther who stood up with courage to the false teachings and threats of the Pope and provided God’s people with the word written in their own language. Lutherans, those who agreed with grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone became known as people of the word.
But you know as you read the word and study the history of the world you soon discover that there were other times reformations were needed. Our text tells the end result of a reformation. Let me fill in the details. The king who was mentioned is named Josiah. His father was Amon. His grandfather Manasseh and his great-grandfather was Hezekiah. That name you probably know because he was one of the few God fearing kings of Judah. He taught his people to fear and love the Lord, to worship Him and the hear God’s word. They were people of the word. Manasseh was not. When he became king he worshipped idols not God. He neglected the word. His son, Amon, Josiah’s father, was like his daddy, an idolater, a wicked man who neglected God’s word so by the time he handed off the kingdom to Josiah the word was lost. Think about this, in just three generations, a period of about 60 years, God’s word was lost! Reformation was needed. Josiah was 8 years old when he became king. At age 26 a discovery was made in the Temple. Someone found God’s Word. They brought it to King Josiah. He read it. God’s Word. It couldn’t stay lost. His people needed to hear it. Reformation was needed so once again the people of God could be known as people of the word.
And so we are told, “Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. 3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.” A reformation was needed and took place.
Now we flash forward to 2009. Lutherans are in the news. Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the largest Lutheran church body go on record approving the sin of homosexuality in their people and their clergy. I have a question for you. Do you think that the grandpas and grandmas of these people sat down one day and said, “You know, we’d like to have a church that doesn’t follow God’s Word, that is filled with heresy. We’d like our pastors to shake their fists in God’s face and say, “Let me tell you what you should have said.” I don’t think so. What happened? These Lutherans became pseudo-Lutherans, no longer people of the Word.
Now let’s look in the mirror. We’ve talked about Josiah’s Jews, Luther’s Germans, slammed the ELCA. What about Jacobi’s Lutherans? Are we people of the word? Never before in history has the word of God been so easily and readily available to God’s people. Bibles are cheap for reading available in pocketsize to large print. The Bible is on tape, (kids ask your parents what that means) CD, MP3. You can download it to your Blackberry or Kindle device. It’s there for you available every day. When is the last time you read it outside of this building? Look, look at the front of our bulletin. As a quippy mission statement we call ourselves men, women and children who know Christ and desire to make Christ known. Is that really us? Do we know Christ and His word, all the teachings we are to teach them to obey? How can we make Him known if we don’t know Him? Lutherans, people of the word, are ones who at the same time hold on to the word and hold that word out to other who need it just as desperately as we do. But if you don’t know that word, if you don’t hold on to it you will soon find that what you are holding out is nothing, the same kind of loveless love the ELCA has to offer.
Reformation is needed. Why? Man by nature is weak, lazy, selfish, ungrateful, short-sighted, self-centered, prone to apathy. Now if you aren’t regularly hearing, seeing or reading God’s Word, which one of those is your reason? Are you just weak, want to but don’t? Lazy? Selfish wanting your own ease and entertainment rather that what will make you a blessing to others, short-sighted, actually thinking that earthly things are more important than eternal, self-centered being your own god, or just apathetic, I just don’t care. For whatever reason if you cannot be labeled “a person of the word” reformation is needed. It comes in the form of repentance. Please Lord, do not hold our sins against us. Do not take your word from us as we deserve. In your mercy forgive your servants and give us another chance to be people of the word. Hear God’s good news. For every heart crushed by the knowledge of a shabby treatment of God’s Word, lip service to the will of God, He forgives you. Where reformation is needed, where there is repentance God will bless with His life giving word. Before flopping on the couch for football you can flip through the pages of Scripture. Before Facebook time you can go face to face with God in His word.
He’ll bless that. Some of you are already experiencing that. You are a man of the word, a woman of the word, a child of the word and that’s great. Keep it up. It honors God and will be a blessing for you just as Jesus promised. God’s Word gives life. That word which is sharper than a two edged sword will keep you on the straight and narrow path to heaven. It will give you strength and comfort to face whatever challenges God knows are best for you. Here children is where you will find direction and strength to be true to your God, true to yourself and who God made you to be in the confusing years of high school. Here, parents, husbands, wives, you will find mercy and forgiveness when you look at the messes you’ve made in life. Here you will find peace, strength, comfort and encouragement when you face job loss, health issues and the loss of a loved one. Here you will find food for your faith that will last into eternity. Here you will find courage and strength to stand tall as a Christian soldier in the Lord’s army as Satan works in our country to undermine what God has said. Here you find the need for reformation and the solution: the power of the Holy Spirit in the word.
At the time of King Josiah, reformation was needed. The history of the Bible is written. It tells us the people responded and pledged themselves to the word. Again at Luther’s time reformation was needed. The history books are written. They tell us the people responded and ate up the word. Once again reformation is needed. But the history books have not yet been written for the Jacobians. I wonder what they will say. Amen.

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