Reformation Sunday is for celebrating not just one day memorializing an event 507 years ago. It is a celebration for every day because of our resurrected Jesus who is the truth we still stand on from Scripture alone.
At first, combining both readings for Reformation Sunday may seem like a bit of a stretch. Many may even think preaching on the Old Testament on Reformation Sunday is a reach in and of itself. However, if as I look at Jeremiah in context, I cannot think of a better text to preach on for such an occasion. After all, it has been noted by some, often rather tongue-in-cheek, how Luther himself was an “Old Testament” guy.
In our text for today you have a continuity between God’s people of old, the Reformation times, and even the truth we still stand in today. If you look at the immediate context for our verses, you will see Jeremiah has had significant controversy with false prophets earlier in chapters 26-29. Developing this point for the sermon by investigating or rehearsing these events will set you up nicely for any points you want to make about false teachers plaguing the church of Luther’s day. This point serves to demonstrate the continuous struggle which the Church has against the world, often falling victim to persecution from false believers.
To help illustrate the point, you could also develop a connection with Revelation 17-19 to show this will always be the state of things for the Church until Christ comes again in glory. The Church is always reforming, but our reformation celebration is not about wallowing in the bad feelings of the past. No, this day is a day of victory! Who is our champion? Is it Luther? No, it is Christ and His eternal Word. Here is where you could use the assigned first reading for Reformation Sunday: Revelation 14:6-7. The victory is clearly in Christ who has given us an “eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.”
This was the consolation Jeremiah also had in the four chapters proceeding his controversy with the false prophets of his day. Chapters 30-34 are both poetry, prose, and rich with imagery, analogy, and metaphor, but more importantly, they focus on the consolation we have from God through the pure teaching of His Word. This section of Jeremiah, which our text sits in the middle of:
“Gives expression to hopes for the future rather than judgment which characterizes earlier chapters. Hope was integral to Jeremiah’s preaching. For him, however, judgment was never an end in itself, but the means Yahweh used to bring Israel into a new and lasting relationship with Himself.”[1]
The connection you are going to want to make between Jeremiah through Reformation Sunday to your hearers is the metaphor Jeremiah holds before us in verse 9. “Walking by the water” will serve as the metaphor we develop so our hearers can see God is our help in ages past and even still today. In fact, singing the beloved hymn, “O God, our Help in Ages Past” (Lutheran Service Book 733), might reinforce the metaphor for your preaching. I am thinking of the last two verses (5 and 6) specifically:
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Soon bears us all away;
We fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while life shall last
And our eternal home!
By skillfully weaving Jeremiah’s metaphor of “rivers of water” with Bible passages that contain the same metaphor and putting it together with sacred history from Jeremiah’s context through the reformation story, we will demonstrate to our hearers how they are woven into the tapestry of God’s larger story of His eternal Gospel going out into the world. The metaphor expands your hearers’ vision to see God’s work not just in their lives but also as something that connects them to the past and helps them to see God will keep them in the consolation of Christ for the future. God has sent us salvation, protection, and victory through the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen again by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ shed blood and righteousness made possible through His third day resurrection alone.
God has sent us salvation, protection, and victory through the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen again by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ shed blood and righteousness made possible through His third day resurrection alone.
Some possible Bible passages to highlight the metaphoric domain of the sermon could be the “still waters” of Psalm 23:2 or even the place where we are planted at the source for our Reformation roots from Psalm 1:3. Martin Luther based the great battle hymn of the Reformation, “A Mighty Fortress,” off Psalm 46, which speaks of a “river whose streams make happy the city of God” (Psalm 46:4). The peace of God is like a river in Isaiah 66:12, which can be another touch back to Revelation 22:1-2, where you see the “river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” However, the best verse for Reformation Sunday to land the metaphoric domain Jeremiah gives us is John 7:37-38:
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
This river of life sprang from the wounds of the crucified Jesus as blood and water flowed from His wounds and riven side. We receive it here and now in the waters of baptism and in the cup of His blood given and shed for our salvation even today.
The old spiritual song asks the perfect question: Shall we gather at the river? There is no other place we would rather be. Reformation Sunday is for celebrating not just one day memorializing an event 507 years ago. It is a celebration for every day because of our resurrected Jesus who is the truth we still stand on from Scripture alone.
When developing a metaphor for a sermon you will need to pay attention to the way the metaphor offers your hearer a world much larger than the teaching you are giving them in sermon. This means you will need to identify a “theological confession” in your sermon to anchor the metaphor from the text to the world of the hearer. My suggestion is to focus on the teaching of the consolation we receive from God in His Word, but chiefly in the Word made flesh in Christ.
Usually, when working with a metaphor, the image helps you to see the teaching, but it also invites you to see more than the teaching (Jeremiah’s text alone). It gives you language to redescribe the world. In this case, a river of life flowing from the Word to us from the source which is Christ. The image works to convey the teaching, but it also conveys a way of thinking about God and His work in the world (through history from Jeremiah, through the Reformation, to us today, and on into the future). The key to doing this well in a sermon is to have a very strong opening that establishes the metaphor which will carry them through the rest of the sermon as you continually bring it back to their attention again and again in the sermon. The opening story needs enough depth and complexity to capture the text (where the metaphor came from) so it can land for your hearers.
Three things are key to doing this well in a sermon. First, emphasize the connection to the teaching in the sermon. Make as many connections as possible without exhausting the metaphor or irritating and boring your hearers. Second, test the limits of your metaphor. Metaphors, like analogies, often if not always break down. So, you will want to let them know what you are saying and what you are not saying. Third, be aware of poetic detail. Intentionally choose which details are going to show up in the rest of the sermon. Choose words that lead to the connection to the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Avoid making the tying connections you are developing to the Law. That choice might distract them from the Gospel proclamation you hope to have them walk away with. Many of the connection points could be the Bible verses you selected to make those explicit connections from Jeremiah to Jesus.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Jeremiah 31:7-9.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Jeremiah 31:7-9.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Jeremiah 31:7-9.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast- Prof. Walter A. Maier III of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Jeremiah 31:7-9.
Alternative Reading Resources for the Feast of the Reformation:
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Reformation Sunday .
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach for Reformation Sunday.
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[1] J. A. Thompson. The Book of Jeremiah, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980. 551.
