Sermon - 2014-10-26

Today is Reformation Sunday, the day in which we as a Lutheran Church gathers together to give thanks for Martin Luther who reminded us of the importance of the Gospel.   Luther helped bring the scripture to us in our own language.  Now we can read and discern God’s Word, God’s love, and our relationship with God.  This brings me to something I would like to remind all of us about today.  This is the difference between my faith, our faith, and God’s faith.

Now when I talk about “my faith”, I mean the things that we can do to strengthen our relationship with God.  Things like: prayer, singing songs, reading the Bible, and going to help others. Each of these is important and can have a huge impact upon our life and our relationship with God.  Prayer keeps us talking to God and sharing our life with our creator.   Prayer reminds us that God is always with us.  Songs and singing have a way of making the things we believe stay with us and they remind us of so much within our faith.  A songs can echo in our hearts, words to which our soul can cling.  Reading the Bible allows us to see and hear how God has been connected with God’s creation in the past, how God is callings us in the future, and how we are able to invite others to encounter God with us.  Even when we go and help someone, whether family or friends, this can have a profound impact upon our faith God has given us.  It has a way of lifting our spirits and reminding us that we are bringing forth the Kingdom of God into this broken world.  We are God’s instruments.

Now when I talk about “our faith”, I think about the ways in which we gather together for worship as community, share the journey with others in life, and our faith with one another.  But wait, what more could I add that was not mentioned earlier about the term “our faith”?  We gather together to pray, sing hymns, read the Bible, and organize to go and help others.  But there is one very profound thing about the term “our faith” that is different.  YOU!  You make all the difference here.  When we gather together, we are reminded of the vast and different places from which God is calling us together.  We are reminded that God calls so many people to do the work of the kingdom of God and sharing the love of God with others.  When we gather here, YOU remind others that they are not alone on this journey of life and faith.  Whether there is joys or sorrows in our life,  we comfort, we support, and we challenge each other to be closer to God by sharing our faith with others.  This is the work of this community of faith, the church.  As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:4, “we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”

Yet, what about God’s faith in us?  Throughout the Bible, we read stories and experiences in which God is coming to us.  God reminds us who we are and whose we are.  That we are created in this world to love and care for one another, and the world around us.   We are made in the image of God so that all that we are, all that we do, and all that hope to be would be done through sharing the love of God and the Kingdom of God with others.  God continually comes to us in our daily life.

Yet, it is here within the church, we are reminded that God is faithful to each and every one of us.  May you go forth, being part of the Church on Earth, and know that God is with you every single day.