LEAVE IT.

Charlie, sans frog

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Reformation – 25 October 2015

Texts: Psalm 46 and Romans 3:19-28

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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One of the most helpful commands I have found to teach a dog is this: “LEAVE IT.” As in, “Beloved dog, please ignore that poisonous leaf or piece of poop or fence board with a nail sticking out of it. Just leave it and walk away.” So now, with two new dogs, I am teaching this command again and again on our walks.

The other day, I was walking the two dogs together. We’d had a bit of a frenzied walk – not difficult to imagine with two miniature schnauzers – and so, I was relieved when we turned the corner back into the neighborhood, around the block from home. I was so focused on getting us back home that it took me a second to realize Charlie had picked up something in his mouth and was crunching on it.

I was frustrated. “What IS that?” I asked him as he looked up at me with this thing hanging out of his mouth – which turned out to be a flattened, petrified frog that had been lying in the street for most of the summer. “GROSS,” I said to him and then – I had no choice – he wasn’t leaving it or dropping it, so I pried open his mouth and pulled the frog out. I tossed it on the ground and he went to pick it up again, and with a “LEAVE IT” from me, we walked home.

Our psalm today – believe it or not – has a similar command in it. Psalm 46 builds up to a great clamor: the earth moves, the mountains shake and tremble, the waters rage and foam, and then the nations rage, the kingdoms shake, and the earth melts completely away. And God breaks the bows, shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire – all our weapons of war are destroyed in a deafening commotion and then after all that comes the command from God: LEAVE IT.

Now, the psalm as it’s printed in your bulletin doesn’t say it that way, and your Bible probably doesn’t either. We’ve softened it to a lovely-sounding “Be still” but the tone of God’s command is stronger than that: LEAVE IT, and know that I am God. LEAVE IT – or LET GO – and know that I am God.

Let go of that which is causing you harm, says God. Let go of that which is dangerous. Let go of that which kills and destroys. Know that I am God, and I will be exalted over all of it – I will be exalted over the harm and danger and destruction because I am God.

Each year, we remember the Protestant Reformation at the end of October. We Lutherans remember it yearly because we follow the teachings of Martin Luther, one of the greatest reformers in the Protestant Reformation. And it may seem silly to remember the Reformation each year – maybe it’s ridiculous, even, to remember our particular heritage as Lutherans.

But each year when Reformation comes around, Lutherans around the world are able to stand together and repeat that which Martin Luther repeated so much: that we are saved by grace through faith, or as Romans says today, that we are justified by faith apart from works, which means that

• When we feel separated from God because of our sin, or
• When we feel beaten down by the chaos all around us or inside of us, or
• When we cannot see what the next steps will be…

We are safe.

• God is our refuge and there is nothing that separates us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and
• There is no place we can go to be away from God’s presence, and
• There is no part of our pathway that God does not see.

And so we can and we should and we must let go of everything in us and everything in the world that lies to us and says that God doesn’t love us at all. That lie is what causes us harm. That lie is dangerous. We can and we should and we must let go of that lie because that is the lie that kills and destroys.

LEAVE IT.

Let go. And know that God is God. God has been exalted over all the earth. God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. God was born as one of us, God lived as one of us, God died as one of us, and God was raised to life again. And God in Jesus Christ was exalted over all the earth, exalted over everything that kills and destroys so that we can be victorious over sin and death in Jesus’ name.

God is our refuge and our strength. And when it seems that everything outside of us and inside of us is trying to keep us from the great love of God, remember to let go of the lie that says that God doesn’t love us. LEAVE IT. That lie is strong – God’s love is stronger.

And when we begin to realize how deeply we ourselves are loved by God, we then can begin to realize how deeply loved others are, too, and we can approach others with love and compassion, rather than fear and rancor.

I keep coming back to that mirror we had by the font for a while earlier this fall that said, "God loves you. Go and love."

Let it be so. Amen.

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