Reformation Sunday
October 29, 2017
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Clayton Kershaw is widely considered to be the best
active pitcher in Major League Baseball. He’s won three Cy Young Awards, is a
seven time All-Star, has won other awards and recognitions, like the National
League MVP, Gold Glove, and the Roberto Clemente Award. Kershaw’s pitched
no-hitters, he’s led the majors with the lowest ERA for four years straight,
he’s been a strikeout leader and a leader in the number of wins per season. If
you’ve watched postseason baseball the past few years, you’ve seen Kershaw
pitch. You know he’s good. Yet, it was only with starting and winning Game 1 of
the World Series this past week that he was considered to have lived up to the
legacy of past Dodger pitching greats like Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser.[1]
I’m a baseball fan, by the way, in case you haven’t guessed, and I was really
surprised by that commentary. I’m familiar with Kershaw, I’ve seen him pitch in
the postseason and in All-Star games. I know he’s a good pitcher. And I
remember when Orel Hershiser and the 1988 Dodgers won the World Series. I’ve
read about Sandy Koufax, one of the great pitchers of the 1960s. Yet to live up to the legacy of Hershiser and
Koufax, he had to start a World Series game, and I found that really
interesting. All of the previous great Dodger pitchers all won World Series
championships. Kershaw won Game 1, but the pressure is on for him to win it all
in order for him to fully live into the legacy left to him. It doesn’t seem
fair, and yet that’s the history of the team he’s played for his entire career.
You don’t get to choose the legacy that is handed down to you. You do have a
bit more say in the legacy that you
leave behind.
Today finally finishes Moses’ story. We’ve been following
him since before his birth and today we read about his death. Moses finished
his task of leading God’s people to the Promised Land. You may have noticed
that Moses brings them there and gets to see the Promised Land, but does not
get to enter it. He dies and is buried in Moab. That’s because Moses sinned and
that was the consequence for his sin. In all the years of leading God’s people,
there was one time when Moses “…did not trust in [God] enough to honor [God] as
holy in the sight of the Israelites.”[2]
Therefore, Moses did not get to actually lead God’s people into the land, only
to the border. Yet listen to the legacy Moses left behind:
“Since
then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to
face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to
Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever
shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the
sight of all Israel.”[3]
There was never another prophet like Moses, whom the Lord
knew. Never since has there been anything like the signs and wonders that God
sent him to do in Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. “No other
prophet has been able to do the great and terrifying things that Moses did in
the sight of all Israel.”[4]
That is quite a legacy. In fact, it’s a legacy that no one would seem to able
to live up to, no matter what they do. And so, if we were to keep reading, in
the very next verse God calls Joshua to be the next leader. It’s a good thing
we were already told that the Israelites mourned Moses for 30 days, because
when the time of grieving is over, that’s it! God doesn’t pull any punches. He
effectively and directly tells Joshua, “Moses is dead. Now move on!”[5]
Ouch! Yet the truth is that Joshua has a different role to play than Moses did.
Joshua is the next leader, but it’s at a different time in Israel’s history.
They’re no longer slaves in Egypt. They’re no longer wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years. They’re at the edge of the Promised Land. It’s time to
go in. Moses left an amazing legacy, and Joshua isn’t going to follow it
exactly because he’s not Moses and the Israelites are no longer slaves or
nomads. Yet, Joshua still lives into it. Leaving a legacy “is to pass on to
future generations something of great significance.”[6]
Moses did that, and Joshua does not forget it or ignore it while it’s his turn
to lead God’s people. Joshua listens and obeys God just like Moses did. He doesn’t do all the signs and wonders
because that’s not what God called him to do. So, by some standards, no,
Joshua isn’t the prophet that Moses was. Yet Joshua was just as faithful. It’s
just God called him to something different because it was a different time and
a different place. Things were going to look different. That’s why God told
Joshua to move on. God wasn’t saying to forget Moses; God was telling Joshua
“to push forward because there was a lot of work to be done and an unhealthy
focus on the past would not serve His purposes.”[7]
That’s the thing about legacies. They can be great, they can be inspiring, they
can be encouraging, but an unhealthy focus on what’s happened in the past isn’t
going to help us live life today. If all Clayton Kershaw does is watch
videotapes of the ‘80’s Dodgers and the ‘60’s Dodgers, then he’s not going to
get on the mound and practice and actually throw the ball to improve his
pitching.
Now, in light of the historical significance of today,
let’s look at one more legacy before we move on to application. This Tuesday,
October 31, 2017, marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant
Reformation. October 31, 1517 was the day that the Catholic priest and
professor of theology, Martin Luther, nailed to the church door his 95 Theses,
or list of 95 things he found to a major problem in the Catholic Church. He was
not the first one to try to reform Roman Catholicism, there were people who
preceded him. Nor was he trying to start a division in the church, nor did he
want to leave the Catholic Church, though he was eventually excommunicated. Yet
there were many who agreed with his grievances and since the Church as an
institution is slow to change, some started to leave the church and start their
own. The legacy of that today is all the myriad of Protestant denominations,
even within our own Methodist family. However, the legacy of Martin Luther
includes things like worship in our own language instead of in Latin, which
Catholics only switched to with Vatican II in the 1960s. His legacy includes
our singing as a congregation all together, rather than a priest chanting by
himself. Luther even wrote the first hymn we sang today. The word we use
sometimes for worship is ‘liturgy’. Liturgy literally means ‘the work of the
people’ and Martin Luther wanted the people to do their own work, worship God
themselves, pray directly to God themselves, rather than just let the priest do
all the work for them. One of the key phrases you may hear is the “priesthood
of all believers.” It comes from Hebrews in the Bible and basically means that
every believer has a direct link to God; you don’t need another person, even a
pastor, to be an intermediary between you and God. You can talk to God
yourself. Finally, the biggest problem Luther called out was the one on the
back of your sheet this morning, the practice of the Church saying, “If you
give us enough money, then we’ll forgive your sins.” Yeah… that’s not how it
works. There were problems in the Catholic Church, just as there are problems
in the Church today. Luther is simply the most famous of the people who sought
to reform the Church. He didn’t intend to split any more than John Wesley
wanted Methodism to split from the Church of England. Luther and Wesley were
addressing issues within the Church and sought to change it from within. That’s
their legacy, that’s what they leave behind for us. On the 500th
anniversary of the main event of the Reformation, I think it’s important to
remember that. After all, it’s why we’re not all still Catholic today.
Now, let’s talk about our legacy, your legacy. What do
you plan to pass on to future generations that is of great significance? In
particular, what intangibles do you want to pass on? Faithfulness? Generosity?
Gratitude? Love? Forgiveness? When we get to 2018 in a couple months, what do
you want to receive as the legacy of 2017? Hope? Peace? Joy? Kindness? And I’m
asking about intangibles because physical things can come and go. Some of you
remember the building across the road that you had inherited, that is no longer
there, when the church moved to this building. Buildings change. Physical
things wear out. There’s a verse in Isaiah that says, “The grass withers and
the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”[8]
God lasts forever, he is eternal. And the fruit of his Spirit are much more
lasting than anything we can make, and make for a much more enduring legacy. Those
fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.[9]
Against these things there is no law, and there is no wearing out. These things
make for a lasting legacy. For both Moses and Martin Luther, I would pick out
faithfulness. Moses was faithful to what God said and Martin Luther was
faithful to God’s Word, which is also what God said. Are you known for your faithfulness? What is your legacy? What was passed on to
you that’s of great significance, and what will you pass on to others?
October is my favorite month for many reasons, including
my birthday and getting to watch the World Series. Then, a few years ago, my
maternal Grandma died in October. It’s kind of softened the tone of the month a
bit. I inherited from her a diamond solitaire necklace. While I loved my
Grandma dearly, the truth is I inherited big blue eyes from both sides of my
family, and both of my Grandmas left legacies of faithfulness. Both of them had
a deep faith, both of them were active in the church until they were physically
unable to be. Both of them loved Jesus. When I think of legacies left to me, I
think of my Grandmas. When I think of the legacy I am leaving behind for my
kids, it affects what I do. My earliest memories are from around 3, 4, 5 years
old. If my kids are going to remember something from now, I want it to be a
memory of love, of kindness, of faithfulness, of joy. If my kids are going to
remember something from now, then I have to be intentional in what I say and
do. How you live matters. What you pass on matters. No one is going to be
exactly like you. No one is going to take your place. But they can be faithful
like you. They can be giving like you. They can be nurturing like you. What
legacy are you passing on?
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