The Truth Will Set You Free

Today is Reformation Sunday.  It’s actually been 509 years since Martin Luther started to publish his ideas for church reform.  He didn’t intend to start a big split in the Catholic Church.  He only wanted to talk about decisions that the Church leader was making, especially about how the church addressed guilty consciences.  All very well and good to examine ourselves and admit where we have gone wrong, but if that doesn’t lead to changes, and we keep doing the same thing over and over again, we are still enslaved to our hurtful and sometimes habitual bad behaviours.  Luther became convinced that penance after a confession, in the way of buying indulgences, was not the way to a full relationship with God.  Indulgences were Pope Leo’s way of raising money and relieving 15^th century minds of the fear that they were going to Hell.  The practice was wildly popular, and Luther had people tell him they no longer had to obey laws for they had purchased their freedom and could do whatever they liked.

Luther saw this as a spiritual question; can you buy your way to freedom?  Of course, some people do, they buy a ticket from Russia or Somalia and hop on a plane to Canada, and they find they have more freedom, including the freedom to vote in elections and referendums once they’ve become Canadian citizens.  Which is not easy by the way.  Even back in the days of Jesus, if a slave managed to save money, they could buy their freedom, but not all slave owners were willing to let their slaves go.  Jesus didn’t put barriers or price tags on freedom; he saw freedom as a side effect of a relationship with God.  Not something to buy or earn, something that came as an afterthought.  That when we learn to love God first, practice praying to God ourselves like God is a loving parent, freedom follows naturally, something that Luther noticed in Paul’s writings on Grace.  Grace comes not with a price tag but as a gift when we do our best to be honest with ourselves and with God.  When we see God not as a judge and a punisher but as someone who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, and start to relate to God in that way, we experience freedom from all kinds of woes or anxieties that enslave us now.

We still are enslaved to things like anxiety, gambling, and conspiracy theories. We crave being successful, we think that being tough is better than being vulnerable and that asking for help is a sign of weakness.  Nothing could be farther than the truth.  In an RCMP chaplain training session this week, chaplains were reminded that good mental health for RCMP officers is when they accept that vulnerability is actually a strength, and asking for help is a sign of leadership.  Police officers who embrace those truths are more resilient, more emotionally stable, more successful in their careers and able to have better relationships with their partners and their children.  Vulnerability and truth sets even the toughest, most cynical people free from their prisons.

Luther didn’t only want individuals to experience freedom from fear or unethical acts; he wanted the Church to also reflect on its doctrines and practices.  To look at the theology behind things such as indulgences, measure them against the biblical teachings, and ask if the institution needed to repent and change.  And the Catholic Church did eventually rethink the theology of indulgences.  Just as it and the United Church and the Anglican Church rethought the theology around residential schools, and a host of other issues from time to time.

In the United Church, we recognize that the world has changed in the 100 years since we were established as an act of the Canadian Parliament.  We no longer ride horse-drawn wagons to church; we no longer take the gender of leaders in consideration for ordination.  But the culture of many Canadians is vastly different from when we were founded, and it is impacting us.  In 1992, we had 767,055 members, in 2023 we had 321,054. In 2035, if nothing changes, we’ll have 111,000.  The average attendance in 1992 was 324,222, 2023 was 110,877, and in 2035, it’s 8,174.  And in 1992 the number of congregations operating with a deficit was 11%, in 2023 it was 44%, and in 2035 it may be 61%. Interestingly in 1992 there were 2423 charges, in 2023 there were 1976 charges and 2035 is predicted to have 1633.  So we have a big drop in people but not in the number of congregations. 

It may seem a gloom and doom scenario except that when we tell the truth, the truth will set us free.  By admitting that we have a problem, we are taking the first step towards a new reformation.  We are prayerfully and intentionally looking at ways to hear what God is calling us to.  The National Church is planning and invites us to plan too.  We are remembering that asking for help is a sign of wise leadership, and we have growth animators like the Right Rev. Dr. Jordan Cantwell to turn to for advice.  We are asked to shift away from focusing on maintenance into a deep exploration of our mission, our big why.  And to look at ways that we can engage and invite our neighbors into freedom.  Whether its through supporting food pantries or our affirming love and support of people feeling imprisoned by society’s expectations and beliefs or coming up with creative ways to use our picnic tables to engage people in hospitality and outreach, the United Church is asking us to enter into a time of reflection, prayer and listening.

It dreams that “in 2035, resilient, inspired, diverse, contextual United Church communities of disciples, coast to coast to coast, urban and rural, continue the story of Jesus by embodying Christ’s presence in the world.

“In diverse expressions across the country, contextual to their neighbourhoods, inspired communities embody all aspects of the denominational Call—Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, Daring Justice. Resilient communities have sufficient stability and sustainability to prevent them from being just one or two crises away from closure. There is a sense of having and being “enough.” “Being The United Church of Canada means better reflecting the increasing diversity of Canada. “The church has a distinct Indigenous and francophone presence, and includes the presence of all generations, notably children, youth, and young adults.”^[1]

It all starts with prayer, part of that call to deep spirituality that the National Church has been inviting us to.  Because when we commit to the truth that without God, we are slaves to the temptations of the world, we will find ourselves freed by God to build a resilient future, not for this week, this month but even this decade and beyond.  Join me in the prayer the National church has written for us all:

Gracious and loving God You called into being This United Church of Canada, one expression of Jesus’ Beloved community, here in the particularities of our place and our time. For the past 100 years You have guided and sustained and called us back when we have erred. Now, as we look back, we also look forward, daring to believe that even among us, even in this very place, You are doing a new thing. We long to perceive it like a way through a wilderness for the sake of our neighbours for the sake of this world of beautiful and broken things Yearning to be made whole, yearning to be made new, may we perceive and live into it. And may this new Reformation set us free to be your people, and set us free to share the good news to our neighbors that all can know true freedom and grace. Amen.

[1] Toward 2035_congregational conversation