Reformationing
/By Gary Dollar
A sermon for Reformation Sunday.
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A reflection on this week's sermon.
Gary Dollar, during his sermon last week states that “reformation from the 1500’s is not a historical event from our perspective, it is the ongoing work of God that he does with his people, on and on and on… God is constantly reformationing (made up word) the people of God. It is not a historical event…if we are not participating in the reformationing then we are probably part of the problem.”
According to the dictionaries definition of “reforming”, it is the process of making changes to an institution in order to improve it or the process of changing oneself for the better. Since the church, being an institution, is made up of individuals, then in order to move the church through a reformation process, many times and in numerous ways we need to go through our own personal reformations, similar to what John the Baptist did. Don’t be trapped in your own prison of resisting change only because you are uncomfortable moving away from your “old time religion”. Allow yourself to be used by God, to ask God to help you see things in new ways, allow yourself to be used by God in new maybe uncomfortable ways. I find that in my own life that your own personal reformation begins by stepping out of your comfort zone, that usually starts off the process of “seeing” things/people/theology/doctrine differently, then you did before.
So once again, reflect on Gary's statement, “if you are not participating in the reformation process” (both corporately with the church as well as your own person reformation) “then we are probably part of the problem.”
This week contemplate ways in which you might be hindering your own reformation process or hindering the process of others, how are you might be too attached to old ways of thinking and “seeing”. How are you resisting God’s change? How are you resisting or unconsciously trying to sabotage the trajectory that God put in motion thousands of years ago?
