Column draft on Reformation sunday

When I was a child, we had a good deal of antipathy between Protestants and Catholics. That is too mild. Religious prejudice and bigotry were practiced frequently. “Mixed” marriages were frowned upon. The nuns in school told me to walk on the other side of the street of Protestant churches. JFK’s faith was such an issue that Rev. Positive Thinking Norman Vincent Peale pronounced the end of the American democracy. Protestant clergy routinely inveighed against the Pope.

Religious prejudice is much less than it once was. We have come such a long way. In some measure it comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 enshrining no discrimination on the basis of creed. Politicians continue to trip over themselves to ask God’s blessings, but they rarely invoke a particular religious option. Since Vatican II the relations are much more sanguine between Catholics and Protestants. My Facebook feed routinely has praise for the Pope among Protestant clergy. The American profusion of religious opinion continues, not only in Christian circles, but in other faiths, or in those who are antagonistic or indifferent to matter religious.

That good will gets threatened on Sunday, called Reformation Sunday, in many Protestant communities. Folks will be treated to a round of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the Protestant (proclaiming) version of the faith. We approach the 500^th anniversary of Luther writing a scholarly disputation against the practice of indulgences from purgatory. (Purgatory, as the name suggestions, is an afterlife station of cleansing or purification before entrance into heaven.) He wanted to debate some doctrine and practice. Luther may have posted his disputation on a church door or wrote them up in a protest letter. This is considered the first action of the conflict that would split the Church in Europe. Pulpit after pulpit will be filled with stereotypes and ill-considered illustrations that we would accept in no other circumstance.

Major doctrinal disputes are long since past on the issue of salvation for both groups. As NT Wright says, we continue to ask 16^th century questions about the Bible. We may fly an occasional banner about the old issues, but they lack any semblance of pertinence.

The gospel reading in many churches that follow a lectionary cycle of readings is telling this week. The passage gives us Jesus at his most basic. We are to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22:34-46). Part of me hangs my head in shame that we proliferate so many different versions of that core message. On the other hand, if such a variety o of the garden of grace gives a place for someone to find their place, so be it. It opens a door; it does not serve as an obstacle to loving God and neighbor. Simple phrases can contain a world of meaning, and I suspect so it is with the Great Commandment. Further, Jesus holds them together as the summary of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. If we try to separate them and pit love of god against love of each other, then we run afoul of our founding principle.

The Reformed tradition of which I am a part has as a basic motto, the church reformed, always being reformed. Notice the passive voice there. God’s spirit is the hidden element providing the energy and direction for the reforming. Change in itself is not reformation. The core of its structure and tenets remain the same, but it is adapting to new circumstances.

We have opportunities to celebrate Christian unity. Reformation Sunday is a way to look at the fragmentation of the Christian message in America with open eyes. It can be a way to look at what divisions are lost in the mist of history. It can also be a call to examine our horizon and see how far we all have to go.