This week we begin worship with:
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
When spoken, these words were not readily received. In fact, the whole passage was meant to be divisive, because Jesus was separating and sifting his disciples.
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Today we celebrate the Reformation, which likewise divided the church.
Luther's conversion came late one night reading:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
That night, he came to understand what Christ had so divisively said "the flesh is no help at all". It was the "righteousness of God" that was revealed in the Gospel and never our own. Our righteous acts are never enough and it is by faith we put on the righteousness of Christ.
It is against this sharp edge of the Word of God that the church has been divided.
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