Sermon For October 31 2021, Reformation Day: The Gospel According to Shrek
GOSPEL: John 8:31-36
The holy gospel according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.
31Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
34Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
The gospel concludes:
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
On this Reformation Sunday,
I’d like to tell you a story about a man.
To some, he was was well loved.
To others, he was notorious.
Despite his humour,
some considered him an ogre of a man.
He was quick and efficient with insults,
but intelligent and driven.
No, I’m not talking about Martin Luther -
I’d like to share with you a story about someone named,
uh, Shrek.
Shrek is an Ogre, who lived in a place called
“Far, Far away”. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?
Shrek likes to keep to himself,
to eat raw onions & eyeball stew,
bathe in mud,
and scare the odd farmer.
seems reasonable enough -
except, one day,
his swamp is overrun by the fairytale community,
So now Shrek has to set out on a journey,
a quest, with his new Donkey friend
in order to to reclaim his little swamp
in exchange for a princess to marry Lord Farquaad.
Princess Fiona is being held captive
in a giant castle in the highest tower.
She cannot escape her prison.
The door is locked,
and even if she could find a way out of her cell,
she is held captive by a giant fire-breathing dragon,
of course.
Fiona needs a saviour.
Enter Shrek & Donkey
who cleverly capture the fire breathing dragon
and break down Fiona’s prison door
and miraculously escape the castle into freedom.
Dear Church,
you and I are Princess Fiona…
Yes, gentlemen,
I just called you a princess.
We are the ones who, like Princess Fiona, are trapped,
enslaved, held in bondage, held captive -
not in a high tower,
but in a prison cell called sin:
sin that is our decisions that we make
that hurt others and hurt ourselves,
sin that is this condition of evil and rebellion
from God that we live in that we cannot escape.
Sin, that as our pioneer of faith, Martin Luther
called “being curved in on yourself”
or put another way,
sin is spelled with “I” in the middle -
a life and a way of being that is all about
the lesser trinity of me, myself and I.
Like Princess Fiona,
we cannot escape this prison cell alone,
and we need a Saviour -
someone who was kinda like Shrek & Donkey,
someone unexpected to save us.
This Saviour is Jesus Christ,
A Jew, born of an unwed woman
from a backwoods place called Nazareth,
who lived a life of poverty,
who entered triumphantly into Jerusalem
riding a donkey to boot,
only to be killed one week later.
But this Jesus also just happens to be God in the flesh,
the One who was risen from the grave,
whose life and death and resurrection
have set us free from a life of bondage to sin,
and who has made us one with God -
justified, forgiven, at peace.
As an aside -
some of you might not like being called a princess -
but please take it as a compliment.
If Fiona wasn’t a princess,
Shrek wouldn’t have bothered to save her.
If you and I weren’t worth saving -
Jesus would not have saved us!
Remember that! -
you may be captive to sin,
but you are of incredible worth and beauty in God’s eyes -
you are worth saving,
you are worth living for,
you are worth dying for.
Now, back to our story -
we know the story of Princess Fiona
and Shrek & Donkey does not end
with their escape from the castle.
There is more evil awaiting Princess Fiona
— namely the short-fused Lord Farquaad
who waits impatiently to marry the princess.
But it seems that Shrek remembers
the 500th anniversary of the Reformation,
And has already heard
the Lutheran World Federation Reformation themes:
salvation is not for sale,
people are not for sale,
God’s creation is not for sale!
Shrek’s true love cannot be bought!
So Shrek too finds a way to save the princess
from this arranged marriage
that is destined to keep Fiona captive again,
back in that prison cell - they get married!
and Shrek & Fiona live Ugly ever after.
You and I, we are the church today - we are living in that
“ugly ever after” time.
We have been saved by Christ.
The church is the bride of Christ,
forever linked & connected with our Saviour,
And we also still live in that “Saint and Sinner” paradox.
Daily we find ourselves trapped in sin,
and daily we find ourselves forgiven and set free by Christ.
But why are we freed?
We know what we are freed from - namely sin & death, and the devil.
God must have freed us for a reason:
so what are we freed for?
Princess Fiona was freed from her prison cell,
freed from the fire-breathing dragon.
But then what was she freed for?
She was freed to live her life:
she was freed to live in relationship
with her saviour Shrek,
to marry the ogre she loves,
and she was freed to use her skills
and if you remember the scene
with Robin Hood & the merry men,
you know she’s got skills.
God has given you skills
and gifts and abilities and passions -
that you are free to use to love and serve.
Where you see injustice,
where you see needs in the world,
you are free to use your God-given gifts
to make a difference.
You are free to respond to God’s gift of salvation,
you are free to be in relationship with your Saviour.
Another twist in this story of Shrek & Fiona -
you’ll recall that Fiona had an identity struggle.
By day, she is trying to be a flawless princess,
and by night, she is an ogre.
She speaks the curse:
“By night one way, by day another.
This shall be the norm
until you find love's first kiss
and then take love's true form.”
When she shares loves first kiss with Shrek -
she then takes her true form -
as an ogre
who is even more beautiful than a princess
in Shrek’s eyes.
With Shrek’s kiss,
Fiona was freed to be the Ogre that she was created to be.
She doesn’t have to pretend to have it all together,
to pretend to be flawless royalty anymore.
In baptism,
as God’s word & water marks you,
think of it like “love’s first kiss” from God,
and you take your true form
as a beloved child of God.
Christ has set you free to be yourself.
You don’t have to pretend to have it all together,
because God has it all together for you.
In Christ, you are free
to embrace your imperfections and uniqueness,
to look past that prison cell
that you were once captive in,
and to trust and believe that God
will be at work in and through you,
to trust that you are freed for a purpose.
One other thought on the Gospel according to Shrek:
like most fairy tales, we expect the ending to be
“And they lived happily ever after.”
and Shrek’s ending is like that,
except ugly ever after...
When it comes to being people of faith,
followers of Jesus,
we’ve already heard how the story ends.
When we are baptized into Christ Jesus,
we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.
We know that God is in the resurrection business -
that death does not get the last word,
but rather that God is always bringing new life
out of death and brokenness.
It seems that we don’t often see this happening
in our own lives except in hindsight.
God takes what is broken, sinful,
seemingly useless and unwanted -
and redeems it,
uses it for God’s purposes:
“The stone that the builder’s rejected
has become the cornerstone.”
In the gospel according to Shrek,
we find out that this evil dragon is really not so evil -
and the dragon plays a role
in saving the princess
that she had previously enslaved.
Donkey falls in love with the so-called evil Dragon
& in a sequel,
they end up having fire-breathing-donkey children.
Fire-breathing-donkey-children
does NOT sound like good news -
but they are good news!
God makes fire-breathing-donkey-children all the time,
that’s the kind of work that God does.
God’s work in the world is diverse
and justice oriented and life-giving,
even if it might scare us a little sometimes!
God’s work brings order and beauty out of chaos.
Sometimes God uses
what is seemingly evil in the world, and redeems it.
like fire breathing donkey children
Some 504 years ago or so,
God was at work in an ogre of a monk
named Martin Luther,
and other reformers
who brought about significant
and important change in our world.
Something as small and seemingly irrelevant
as posting an academic paper entitled “the 95 theses”
set in motion a reformation
that has changed the face of the
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
around the world.
Keep your eyes open!
Expect God to again use something
small and seemingly irrelevant
in a church that is still in need of reforming.
Today, 504 years later, we are still a reformation people -
we are a people freed to do things a little different.
We are free to take God’s lead
when it comes to being the church today.
You are free to find those places
where the church needs reform and reform them.
You are free to reclaim ancient truths
and to devote yourself to them -
ancient truths like freedom for the oppressed,
good news to the poor,
release to the captive.
We are freed from our theological boxes that we dwell in,
and freed to expect our God to be
outside and beyond the box.
We are free to do evangelism,
not just in the old Lutheran-bedroom way,
as fun and important as that is,
but to get creative
and find new ways to share the good news
of the freedom we have in Christ!
We are free to no longer keep our faith to ourselves,
but to take that leap of faith to share our faith.
We are free to build a church
that is not a place of captivity and boredom,
but a place where we are free to be
the people we have been created to be, together.
In baptism, the Son, Jesus Christ, has set you free,
and you are free indeed!
Thanks be to God! Amen.
