re-formation

What do we learn about God from the incarnation--the Word made flesh? Might the incarnation, as well as the death and resurrection of Jesus, teach us how to be the church? is there a way of life to which the church is called that both transcends indigenous cultural packagings and is also deeply engaged in it? What did Jesus mean that his disciples were called to be in the world and not of the world? Was it Karl Barth who said the preacher holds the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other? I would go further. The preacher embodies the gospel news by engaging and confronting the world's news with the alternative story. We live an alternative narrative into the world as we pray, worship, give, listen, and love others.
On reformation Sunday I hope to confront the notion that the reformation happened half a millenium ago. If it is not happening, then we celebrate history for history's sake. Church is not an archive or a museum, or a cemetery, although some churches have become these very things. Church is not a celebration of our tribal heritage, of a bygone era, of the good old days. Church is not a dispenser of religious tokens, either. It does not exist to please me or you. Church is the people of God living in holy relationship with GOD and the world through the message of the cross and resurrection as it has been mediated to us through the ministry of the holy spirit who comes when and where she chooses. Church is the flesh and blood of the coming Kingdom of GOD. God rules in the hearts and lives of believers, who live in obedience to God's will as taught by Jesus.
So what is reformation? It is the ongoing, ever-evolving lived ecclesiology of an incarnationally-driven body of believers who preceive the Spirit's calling of them into a particular contextual loci. This church is a reformation church as we cotinually hear the call of the Holy Spirit to listen to God's Word for obedience as Jesus' disciples in this time and place. We are a reformation church as we inite the Spirit and life of Jesus to transform us from sinner to saint, from darkness to light, from death to life. We are a reformation church as we reimagine the use of the pre-schismatic churches spiritual gifts today. The ancient traditions and prayers are significant in calling us to the cross and resurrection life, penultimately uncovered in the eucharistic fellowship.