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Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to  obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

The Collect for today reminds us that God is the giver of the gifts we possess. God’s grace makes all we have- and all we are – possible. We can never be good  enough –do enough –or earn enough- to cause God to love us more. God’s love is all that we need. These last few weeks we’ve “feasted on gratitude” by  considering what God has given to us and how that plays out in our life and especially in what we give back to the work of God through the worship and  outreach of St. Andrew’s. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, says it this way: “We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the  word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”

Nevada Barr is a writer of many stories featuring Anna Pigeon, a National Park ranger who is sent from national park to national park – and each time some  event happens that Anna finds herself in the middle of and ultimately an event that she plays a role in solving. Ms. Barr is also the author of Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat.[1] The book is a series of short  meditations on her journey as a skeptic on a path to religion. Through her life journey, she says  that she has “weaseled her way back to life through grace” and that she has come to believe that “despair is one of the greatest sins.”[2] In understanding the  role of grace in our lives, Nevada follows in the footsteps and theology of Martin Luther and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation. “Sola gratia” – only grace.  It is only through God’s grace, not through our merits, that we are restored to right relationship with God. The Lutheran World Federation built upon  sola gratia in a 1999 statement that says grace is the means through which we “are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts  while equipping us and calling us to good works.”[3] Today is “Reformation Sunday” which marks the date on which Martin Luther is said to have posted his  95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg challenging the church authorities of his day. There is debate about whether we should recognize Reformation  Sunday as it traditionally refers to an event rather than theology or Scripture. Scott Allan, the Lutheran Campus Pastor at Iowa State University, urges us to  take a broader view of this day. He says that “one could (and [he] believe[s] should) point out that there have been moments like this throughout the church’s  history, all of which are worthy of being called reformation moments, moments where the church has been re-oriented toward the gospel, moved away from  the many, many roads down which our distracted, narcissistic minds can take us.”[4]

Paul, also, urges us to reorient our lives – our values – to hearing and living God’s Word. Hearing but not living is only part of our call. We must integrate the  hearing into our being which informs our living to be true to God’s Word sent to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. A  life lived in  gratitude for the gift of Christ, God come to earth, enhances us as well as those with whom we come into contact. Nevada Barr writes that she loves 18^th and  19^th century authors in part because “woven throughout the pages is the belief that kindness received from patrons is worthy of being repaid with lifelong  loyalty and devotion.”[5] She continues:

This isn’t the picture I get here at home. Oh sure, we deal with gratitude fairly well on the small stuff. Please pass the salt. Thank you. What a nice tie. Thank  you. But when it comes to the big gifts, an inner struggle ensues. In the unwritten code that dictates how American perceive their place in the social structure,  it must be encoded that accepting a kindness – a handout – demeans the recipient. … Giving and receiving are about power. The giver has it, the receiver  hasn’t. Power corrupts. Therefore, the giver’s motives cannot be pure.”[6]

Through her own struggles with clinical depression and illness, she notes that family and friends took care of her, even when she “was of no practical use to anybody… It was done simply – or more accurately, complexly and miraculously- out of love. They just plain, flat-out loved me. Because of this, [she] lived and eventually got well.”[7] She had her “reformation moment” when the love of family and friends helped her through her dark night of the soul into new life.  Each of us has had – or will have – an experience of the dark night of the soul- that time when all the tangible moorings of our life have come apart. That  time when what we have to hold onto makes the difference in where – and if- and how-we come through the experience. The Word of God given to us through  Jesus Christ tells us that God loves us. God has given us every good gift. This is our anchor. The anchor will be with us to the end of the ages. No matter how  hard we try, God does not walk away from us. Our response – our moment of reformation- determines whether we walk from that darkest of nights into the  light of day. The sunrise when Christ is no longer bound on the cross or laying in the tomb, but rather has risen with the promise of eternal life. Today we have  the opportunity to once again experience re-formation. To re-orient our lives in response to the one who gives us life. To understand, deep within our being, in  the wonderful words of the hymn written by Martin Luther:

A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon;
He helps us free from every need that hath us now overtaken.
The old evil foe now means deadly woe; deep guile and great might
Are his dread arms in fight; on Earth is not his equal.

With might of ours can naught be done, soon were our loss effected;
But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.
Ask ye, who is this? Jesus Christ it is.
Of Sabbath Lord, and there’s none other God;

He holds the field forever. Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us.
We tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not overpower us.
This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will,
He can harm us none, he’s judged; the deed is done;
One little word can fell him. The Word they still shall let remain nor any thanks have for it;
He’s by our side upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit.
And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife,
Let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won;
The kingdom ours remaineth.[8]

Our gratitude for the gift of life and love must have no bounds but rather be at work in us and all that we do. Live a life that witnesses to the light of Christ.  Feast on gratitude that God loved us and loves us still. Amen.