“A Radical Reformation”

Galatians 2:23-29

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

October 26, 2003

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            Welcome to protest central.  All week this has been the place where protests have happened.  In obedience to a higher law and at considerable risk, students, faculty and staff have met at UBC all week to support the striking workers at the U.  Classes have been held in this very room at all hours of the day and night, in fact classes have been held in every available room.  Recognizing the freedom of conscience above, and at times against, worldly powers and principalities is a central piece of our Baptist souls.  We have seen how the community has supported us through the GLBT inclusiveness movement and this is one way that we can give back.  It is consistent with the work that we have done with the Civil Rights movement and the freedom of choice movement.  It’s in our Baptist blood to offer sanctuary to those pushing for justice.

            This is Reformation Sunday in Christendom.  It is the day that we remember how Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral and began in earnest the establishment of the Protestant Church.  The name protestant has its roots in a protest movement.  Luther was protesting what he felt was a church that was more interested in money than it was in faith adherence to the scripture.  Most of his theses were against the selling of indulgences which could supposedly buy your way into heaven.

            Shortly after Luther put nails in doors, a group of Separatists in England were deciding that they didn’t like the way the crown was telling them to live their lives. 

            They read their Bibles and found that there is no baptism always happened after people had made a confession of faith in Jesus.  It was an outward sign of an inward conversion and they found no evidence or reason for infant baptism.  This practice of believer’s baptism gave them the derogatory name of Anabaptists by their adversaries.

They read their Bibles and they believed that no church or any body could or should stand in the way of one’s communion with God. 

They said that no body could have authority over a person’s faith. 

They got rid of creeds. 

They told people not to swear oaths to anyone but God.  

They read their Bibles and saw that Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s, so they refused to pay taxes. 

They read their Bibles and saw how Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God”, so they refused to conscript to the military.

This kind of reformation said that the individual has a right and a responsibility to read scriptures for themselves.  That each individual has the ability to decide on matters of faith and practice, using Scripture read with the Holy Spirit as a guide and the Congregation as the sounding board.  At the time, that was a radical reformation.  It eschewed controlling denominations, at least as they tried to make the lives of people more institutionalized.  They tried to live as true to their interpretation of scripture as possible.

            This radical movement spawned the Puritans on one side, the Quakers, Spiritualists, the Amish and the Mennonites on the other side, and somewhere in the mix we find the roots of our very Baptist identity.  This was seen at that time as the radical reformation.  It was made up of people who were really “out there” when it came to theology and practice.  These groups were the ones who really pushed the boundaries of acceptable religion.  It was a minority movement back then.  The anabaptist churches of the radical reformation were often persecuted for their beliefs, some were even killed as heretics. 

What a difference a few hundred years has made.  What was once radical thoughts about freedom and lack of ecclesiastical authority has now become mainstream.  All of the nondenominational churches come from this idea that no one can tell another congregation what to do.  It’s what Martin Marty calls the baptistification of America.  I like the way James Dunn describes this phenomena:

            “If soul freedom is important,

            If the priesthood of all believers is more than a slogan,

            If you insist on interpreting the Bible for yourself,

            If you defend the right of each person to come to the Bible and believe you are led by the Holy Spirit to seek its truth,

If you believe that you must accept Jesus Christ personally, freely or not really,

            If you assume the church should function as a democracy,

If you believe that in the fellowship of churches each one is autonomous,

If you accept no pope, presbyter, president, or pastor to rule over you,

If you are convinced that religious liberty is the password to public witness and that the separation of church and state is its essential corollary,

If you believe that no mortal has the power to suppress, curtail, rule, or reign over the will of the congregation, then

            You have probably been baptistified.

            These consistent freedom factors form an orderly pattern.  Being Baptist also means maintaining respect, affirmation, and honest honoring of differences.  After all, if people are free, they may not agree with us.  They have a right to be wrong.”(James Dunn in an essay entitled “Being Baptist” included in a book Baptists in the Balance: The Tension between Freedom and Responsibility edited by Everett Goodwin, 1997: 219,220)

            Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about freedom.  It’s about making sure that we are not subject simply to the laws of Torah, but that we are subject to a higher law, one that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  And this law is not the way of the world.  In fact it stands over and against the world.  We use as our affirmation of faith, words taken from the third chapter of Galatians.  It is a baptismal affirmation.  It says that believers who have been baptized into this faith, which means have taken it on and committed their lives to living as Jesus taught us, we march to a different drummer than the rest of the world.  In the world there are divisions and distinctions.  In God’s economy, there is no slave or free, there is no Jew or Greek, there is no male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.  Those are radical words. 

It means that there ought to be no distinctions among us. 

It means that we should welcome and affirm all people. 

It means that we are not to be defined by the barriers that we are so good at creating in this world—that within the congregation, all are welcome, all are equal and all have a place at the table in God’s economy. 

We are children of the radical reformation, but what happens when the reformers come to power?  Unfortunately, they create institutions to make sure that people stay in line.  They set up rules to keep people in and out. They become what they protested against.  We have seen this in the religious right, many of whom are Baptists, but who have forgotten their Baptist roots. 

As they try to dictate interpretation of scripture as it applies to homosexuality, for instance. 

Or they try to say that God ordains war. 

Or that God has taken the Israeli side in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  Or that public funds ought to be used to support parochial schools or sectarian programs.

Baptists were central in getting freedom of religion into the US constitution because it was important that no governing authority should ever have control over one’s conscience and therefore one’s religious beliefs.  This was radical thinking back then.  Each colony had a state religion and now the new United States declared that no state could or nation could determine one’s religious allegiance.  I saw an editorial this past week in which the writer suggested that we substitute “under God” in the pledge of allegiance with “under Allah”.  Then we would understand the religious liberty issues around our tacit god-language in the public sector.  That state-mandated shallow compulsory religion is what Baptists of old fought against. 

Maybe it’s time for another radical reformation.

I would be happy to see Baptists remember who they are and respect local church autonomy, separation of church and state, soul freedom and the right to interpret scripture with the Holy Spirit as the guide and the community as a sounding board.

            We are here at the anniversary of the deaths of the Wellstones.  We are amidst a strike and I believe Paul and Sheila would be on the picket line if they were here today.  Paul would probably be able to negotiate a settlement, too.

            This is the beginning of Ramadan, the time when Muslims focus on repentance.

            Maybe there has been a radical reformation, only this one is a reformation of Christendom in the face of the far right.  Maybe we need a new reformation: A new radicalism.

            Think about what that might look like:

            Let’s start by taking Galatians 3:28 seriously:  “There is neither Jew nor Greek”—this means that in the Israeli/Palestinian struggle, both are entitled to the lands they feel as holy.  Back at home, we could say, there is no native American/immigrant American.  This means that we all have equal value.  This includes Mexicans and Somalis.  What would our world look like if we truly lived those radical words out?

            There is neither slave nor free.  This means that it is not right to have one own another.  It could also mean that no one ought to economically control another.  That’s getting really radical.  One of the things Kim and I have indulged ourselves with has been Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.  After the kids are in bed, we get into bed with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and two spoons.  Talk about heaven on earth.  One of the practices of the Ben & Jerry’s company, aside from making great ice cream is their commitment to economic justice.  They give a portion of their earnings to all sorts of environmental causes, but they also have a policy that the highest paid employee can make no more than six times the salary of the lowest paid employee.  They realize that they are all in this together and that this business is a partnership.  It makes the ice cream that much sweeter.

There should be no slaves or free in God’s economy.  For we are all one.

            Finally, there is neither male nor female.  This has been the hardest for Christians to wrap their brains around, even though it is so plain in the scripture.  There need not be simply male leadership.  We men do a lot wrong and we need women to show us another aspect of God and life.  I’m outnumbered at my house three to one.  And I think that’s a good thing.  We need to continue to support women in ministry and women in leadership.  They show us a different way of looking at the world.  Think about how this world would be different if women had the same amount of leadership positions as men.  The clerical workers Union is 87% women at the U and they are showing us what it means to use a force more powerful when advocating for their rights. 

Starting next week, we’ll spend a month looking at the Hebrew Bible Story of Ruth and how she and her sisters set the world on end and allowed cross-cultural marriage happen, even though it was against the laws of Torah.

We are called to follow a higher law. 

Maybe the most radical thing we can do is to remember who we are.

Remember what brought us here.

Remember that God is the one in charge of our lives.

Remember that we were put here to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

Remember that we don’t have all of the answers, but we can commit together to seek those answers out.

Remember that while we are not alone, we are called to leave no one else alone.

Remember that we are to minister to and with the outcasts until all have a place at the table.

Remember that from time to time we will have to remind ourselves of who we are and who we seek to be.

Remember that we are children of an outcast movement because we follow an outcast artisan named Jesus who was executed by ruling authorities because he had the audacity and the jutspah to say, “this ain’t right.”

This same Jesus taught us to be radical and to never settle for business as usual as long as some of our sisters and brothers are being abused.

So let us joyfully recommit ourselves to be a radical reformation movement.

Let us recommit ourselves to trying to see the world through God’s eyes.

Let us set ourselves apart from the world, so that we can redeem the world.

Let us close by standing and saying the words of our affirmation:

            “Through faith we are all children of God.  For as many has were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek.  There is neither slave nor free.  There is neither male nor female.  For we all one in Christ Jesus.”