Acting Dead

The last Sunday in October has been dubbed "Reformation Sunday" in the Presbyterian Church. It is an opportunity to remember that the Church is always being reformed by the Spirit. In order to put reformation more vividly in historical context for our congregation, I have twice preached in the persona of a historical reformer. In 2007 I preached a sermon as Augustine of Hippo (AD 5th century); this year I preached as John Calvin (Geneva, 16th century). I took the text of one of his sermons, donned a robe and Genevan beret as he would have worn (thanks to Barbara and Courtney), and put on my best French accent.

This form of preaching has been well-received the past two times I did it. And I enjoyed the challenge of having to alter my ego a little bit. The most difficult part for me--which I did not expect as I decided on and began this project--was with some of the content of John Calvin's sermons. As a medieval, John Calvin put full stock in a legal and punitive concept of atonement for sin. This is only one of the many threads of atonement theory in the scriptures, and not one that jives with my personal experience of faith. So preaching the gospel using only this type of atonement was a challenge. I had to recognize and commit to a different understanding of how God solves the problem of sin than I'm used to. However, many of my brothers and sisters still cling solely to this view of atonement--so it's not as if it's irrelevant today or stuck in the 16th century. It's just different for me.

So I stayed true to Calvin, and I think people were blessed by it.

One of the not-so-hard parts of imitating Calvin is his enjoyment of learning and the presence of children. Here's Jean Cauvin learning from Hayden how to operate a punching skeleton toy:

~emrys