Welcome to this house of God on Reformation Sunday.  Well, friends, now what?  This part of the building phase is over and I sense the possibility of a let-down coming on.  I sense we may be tempted to sit back and do nothing awhile.  When you finally get done with the big trip, maybe it's time for a nap.

          Building a church is much like going on a deer hunt.  You have to make all the plans, get the license, buy the gun and sight it in.  Then there's the hunting place to be selected, food to be bought and prepared, the car to be loaded, friends to be picked up, and that long drive to the hunting site.  When you get there, camp must be set up, plans for the first day of hunt to be made.  And of course, there are stories to be told of other hunts and trying to get some sleep, though perhaps you brought along a little medication to help with that.

          Hunters go through so much preparation to get there, and then the next day they shoot the deer and their hunt is done.  It's all over.  When the big one is bagged, now what do you do?  Will you just sit there and look at the carcass and take pictures and tell more stories and share more medication?  Or will you not realize more work is on the way -- preparing the meat, cutting up the steaks and making the sausage and wrapping it for the freezer?

          As we look around us today, we're at a crossroads.  A big part of our "hunt" is over.  The building is up and now it's time to move on to using it.  Either we use this fine new facility as a place to meet and tell stories of old times and pat each other on the back, or we make it a hunting lodge from where we go out to seek and save the lost and bring them to the Lord.

          But perhaps this has already started.  Last Sunday after worship several of you introduced me to friends and neighbors you'd invited.  Our District President Krause overheard some of this and was amazed.  He saw your enthusiasm and joy at bringing people to the Lord's house and told me over lunch, "This is what it's all about, Bob, to have your people so excited that they bring their friends."  I hope we keep doing this every Sunday, because that's how God's love is shared and our congregation will grow.

          Church Growth people tell us that 80% of visitors come to a church because they were invited by church members.  Only 20% come because of location or special need or curiosity or because the pastor invited them.  And only one half of one percent come because they got a piece of mail inviting them.  There is no substitute for people inviting people to God's house.  Yes, we're located in the right place for growth, but right now those new buildings are all empty.  Some will eventually come to see what we're like, but we need to be inviting people to come now.  It will be our positive attitude that will bring them, and it will be our loving attitude that will keep them coming back.

          So the hunt is over and now it's time for other work.  As we do, let us stop and pray:  Dear Lord, we thank you that we are Americans and live in a free country.  We thank you we're not living in the ignorance of Afghanistan or in the poverty of Sudan or the bondage of Islam.  We try to worship and serve You as best we can, though we have to take off a Sunday now and then for personal reasons.  Help us always be thankful for what you've given us, and please keep terrorists far from our doors.  So, dear Lord, bless us, our families, and our church.  We really thank you we don't live in New York or Washington, DC.  That's all we really need right now, amen.

          Did you get a little uneasy as I read that "prayer"?  I hope so.  You know, it's good and proper to thank God for who we are and what we have, but it's easy to make our Christian life, even our prayers, statements of personal superiority, much like the Pharisee in today's Gospel.  True humility is hard to find these days, also in church.  It reminds me of the Sunday School teacher who did a great job of teaching the story of the Pharisee and the Publican to her class and then concluded, "Now, children, let's give thanks to God that we're not like that proud Pharisee!"

          Today we celebrate Reformation Sunday and with people all over the world we remember with thanksgiving the events of the sixteenth-century Reformation.  But we rightly celebrate Reformation, not by glorying in the events of the past, but rather by praying, "Come Holy Spirit and reform us now from the inside out!"  Christians are always in need of reformation, always in need of dying again to our sins and rising again in Christ, that we might be freed from our slavery to sin.

          The traditional Gospel reading for Reformation Sunday is the well-loved Word of Christ in John 8, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  You and I are glad to have the truth of the Gospel of Jesus, and we do glory in our freedom, but we don't always live like free people.  Without realizing it, we keep the bonds of favorite sins wrapped loosely around us.  We say we are free, but we're really still bound, rather like those Jews who told Jesus, "We're Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.  How can you say that we shall be set free?" (John 8:33)   We deny the bonds that enslave us, but they're still there, nonetheless.  Our pet sins and our pride can always enslave us.

          Jesus told this story of the Pharisee and Publican to show how some look down upon others.  There's a story of a Rabbi and his disciple who were in a synagogue.  In their morning prayers the Rabbi began to feel bad about things he'd done the night before, so he beat his breast and said, "O God, I am nothing, I am nothing, I am nothing!"  His disciple, wanting to be like his master, was moved by this show of humility and also prayed, "O God, I am nothing, I am nothing, I am nothing!"  The synagogue janitor over heard them pray and, realizing what he'd done the night before, also joined in, "O God, I am nothing, I am nothing, I am nothing!"  Hearing the janitor, the Rabbi turned to his disciple and said, "Well, look over there at who thinks he's nothing!"  It's so easy to become smug in our faith, even in our attempts at being humble.

          On this day of remembrance of the Great Reformation, you and I need a reformation of our own, from the inside out.  It's easy to be comfortable with who we are.  Yes, we're heirs of Luther's Reformation.  We do know the Gospel and we rejoice that the Good News of forgiveness in Christ is being spread all over the world.  Even now the Gospel is moving about in new places.  September 11 changed a lot of things, including the acceptability of Christianity.  For now, at least, we don't feel the western world staring at us in distrust.  Even Hollywood has taken up the torch of faith and the ACLU has given us a short reprieve.  Whatever terrorists thought would happen in America, one thing is certain:  their terrible acts have made it acceptable to pray in public again.

          In the aftermath of September 11, we're all struggling to know what to do next, especially how to have some kind of normal, everyday life.  It's even affected how we read our hymns.  I can't sing that verse, "Though hordes of devils fill the land, all eager to devour us," quite like I used to.  We're fearful of the stock market, unsure of airplane travel, and skeptical about opening our mail.  We're asking questions, studying Islam, hoping to find answers, and perhaps a bit fearful our nation's war efforts will be for naught.  Most of all, many of us are searching for God;  even unblievers are coming to church.  These are times of worry and unease.  When we should be joyful, we're more fearful.  Like my realist Dad used to say, "Get rid of one problem and two more will take its place."

          We each need a reformation from the inside out, and our Lord will give it.  There will never come a time in history when we can truly breathe easily.  We will always need to trust God for all that each day brings.  There will never be a time this side of heaven when we won't need Christ and His forgiveness or a reformation from the inside out.  The Pharisee and the Publican had one thing in common -- both were sinful and in need of forgiveness.  But the Publican went home forgiven because his heart was right;  he was sorry for what he'd done.  Both he and the Pharisee needed a reformation, but only he got it right.

          Let's all take care in pointing out the faults of others.  Every time you want to shoot a terrorist, think of what you've done in your own secret places.  Every time you ask why someone can possibly believe that way, think of what you believe.  Jesus Christ is Savior of the world, and He will be honored.  He will one day judge the the living and the dead, but in the meantime you and I need to grow in our knowlege and faith.  God loves all people, including the unbeliever.  He wants everyone to be saved, whether married and single, home or apartment dweller, black or white, Asian or European.  None of us dare get smug about who we are and what we have.  It's all ours by the grace of God.  As we've sung, "And take they our house, goods, honor, child or spouse.  Let these all be gone;  they yet have nothing won.  The kingdom ours remaineth!"

          Jesus Christ has called each of us from our own personal darkness and into His marvelous light.  His death and resurrection make each day good.  His forgiveness makes each day worthwhile, no matter who we are or where we live.  Let's make Epiphany Church a place of refuge for the frightened and unsure.  Let's make this a sanctuary for the lost and fearful.  And let's never forget we are all Publicans and Pharisees, all in need of a reformation from the inside out.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.