Rev. George Miller
November 2, 2025
1 Kings 19:1-14
508 years ago in the German town of
Wittenberg was a university filled with students, teachers and a new technology
called “printers” that made books, pamphlets, and posters.
The town had green fields, houses with red
tiled roofs, and the wide Elbe River gently flowing through.
At the center of town was a market square
with the smell of baked bread and fireplace smoke. Folk sold cheese, chickens wandered free, and
you could hear the clop-clop-clop of horses pulling carts of hay and grain.
Standing above it all was Castle Church, with gray stone and an infamous giant
wooden door. Inside, incense and the
sounds of monks chanting in Latin.
In this town of teachers, farmers, and
artisans lived a monk named Martin Luther, with ink-stained fingers. He studied scripture. He taught about God. He wrote, a lot.
Though he had a strong faith, he was
bothered by two things.
He was afraid that he had sinned just a
little too much and lived just a little too wild.
He was also bothered about how the church told
people they could pay to have their sins forgiven and with a few “clinks into
the money chest” buy their way into heaven.
One night, while everything was a hush, he
came across Romans 3:2- “They are now justified by God’s grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This means we were set free not by the
clinking of coins, but through grace that God freely gives.
Those words unearthed something within Luther’s
heart; he began to let go of his shame and fear, finding joy in knowing that he
didn’t have to earn God’s love, all he had to do was to receive it.
This motivated him to use his gifts of Christian
reflection. He wrote “The 95 Theses”
meant to spark ideas and get people to think.
On the morning of October 31, 1517, as the
sun rose over the Elbe river, he made his way from the university to the market
square smelling of baking bread and the sounds of farmers and merchants setting
up their tables.
With a hammer and nail, Luther posted his
observations to the giant wooden door of the Castle Church
Each strike of the hammer, a brave act for
anyone who had been told that forgiveness had to be purchased, for every person
who was told they had no place in heaven, for everyone who was denied mercy or
compassion.
There, on the door of the Castle Church,
in the center of the marketplace, of this busting German university town,
Luther publicly pondered many things.
As the sun continued to rise, a spiritual
revolution arose, as people reading his post began to explore, challenge, and
begin to see Christ and the Christian experience in a brand-new way.
Because of the new printing press, books
and pamphlets would spread his thoughts all over, starting the Protestant
Reformation and forever shaping how we, members of St. Lucas UCC, discuss and
think about God, Jesus, and Eternal Life.
Last week someone (embodying their
inner-Luther) slipped a note into the Offering Tray, reminding me that it was Reformation
Sunday.
It was a simple thing to do, but important. As someone who comes from a more Pentecostal,
Congregational background, the Reformation was not a big part of my faith
formation.
Yet, it is an important part for many
people here, a tradition of identity and faith; one I hope to remember next
year.
And the idea of Reformation fits so well
into today’s reading.
Here we have a story about a prophet, Elijah,
who is in a bit of a crisis. The Queen
of the North is very unhappy with him and wants him dead. So he flees south.
He leaves the lush Jezreel valley, full of
vineyards and olive groves, to the barren desert full of thorn bushes and sand-colored
hills.
He’s scared. He’s tired.
He’s alone. He finds strength in
an angelic serving of bread and drink.
He comes to a place of jagged peaks and
narrow canyons, and finds shelter in a cave.
There the word of the Lord says “Elijah,
what are you doing here? Of all the
places you can be; why here?”
Speaking from a place of understandable
fear, he says “I have been very brave, but they are trying to kill me.”
God says “Go, stand on the mountain, the
Lord is about to pass by.”
Elijah stands on that giant rock. The winds howl, breaking stone. The earth shakes. Flames erupt all around. It is like a big Hollywood Spectacle, something
Will Smith or the Rock would star in.
All noise and light and action.
But God is not there in the woosh or the
boom or the crackling.
Then there is a sound, a whisper, a hush,
of sheer silence. Almost like the audio
version of “the snooze.”
And God is there.
Not in the show, not in the pomp, not in
the circumstance, but in the stillness, in the calm, in the quiet.
God is present to Elijah, and it did not require
coins or indulgences or acts of piety.
God is present to Elijah and in that
presence is the grace. God hearing. God speaking.
God saying “Go- there’s so much more for you to experience.”
In many ways, this is like the posting of
the 95 Theses.
What Martin Luther did was say “It’s not
about the incense, it’s not about the chanting in Latin, it’s not about paying
to get into heaven or Florins for forgiveness.”
It's about grace, the grace that God
freely gives. Grace in the middle of disagreements. Grace found in the courage to just get up and
make it through another day.
God’s mercy that does not have to be wrapped
in spectacle, but in stillness, calmness, “the snooze.”
Think of how much Jesus did that was in
that hush.
Telling Nathanael that he saw him under
the fig tree. (John 1:48)
Meeting Nicodemus under the cover of night
(John 3).
Having conversation with the woman all alone
at the well (John 4).
Washing the disciples’ feet with ordinary water
and an everyday towel (John 13).
All of these as acts of incarnational grace
that Jesus displayed.
The tranquility of the manger on Christmas;
the stillness of the tomb on Easter.
All of these moments are reflected in Romans
3:2 and inspired Martin Luther and to lead a revolution.
There are so many ways in which we get to experience
God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
There is the awe we get to see in acts of
justice, kindness, and mercy.
There is the awe of collective effervescence,
in which we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves.
There is the awe of nature- the vastness
of beauty and power from mountains to oceans to winding rivers and sloping
vineyards.
There is also the awe of the hush, of the
stillness, of the calm that comes when God sees, God hears, God says “Here I
am.”
Be brave.
Move forward.
Share the Word.
Embody my grace.
For that , let us say “Amen.”
