Magyar Egyház, 1967 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1967-06-01 / 6-7. szám
s MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH The Leaven of the Kingdom of God Sermon preached by Bishop István Szamosközi at the anniversary assembly of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, Debrecen, May 19, 1967. "The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” Matthew 13:33 It was four hundred years ago that our silver-haired dear Mother, the Hungarian Reformed Church, took the leaven and hid in three measures of meal, — that is, in the soul of the Hungarian people then rent into three parts, — till the whole was leavened. It seems that this magnificent parable of the Bible points to the source of our thanksgiving, joy, and hope in that it speaks of what God did for our fathers and is ready to do for us also, from generation to generation. Praise be unto His glorious name for his mercy manifested unto us amidst His acts of judgment and visitation in the first half of the XVIth century by preparing the people of His choice for receiving the sacred leaven of His Kingdom! Our people had then been between the upper and the nether millstone of history: the remannt surviving the battle of Mohács had been under the deadly threat of Sólymán I and also of Ferdinand; this is what appears to the eyes of the historian objectively scanning the past, but, if we subject the events of those times to the analysis of Reformed faith, then, above the events, we discern a sign peculiar to God’s mercy; we perceive what Reformed theology calls the prevenient grace of God. There appeared on the scorched earth of the Hungarian Judea the Reformers, with their walking-staffs in their hands, the psalms on their lips, their testimony in their hearts, proclaiming with the unshakable faith of John the Baptist, the good tidings: the Father is offering the leaven, giving access to His Kingdom drawn near in Christ: the leaven which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is sufficient to leaven the three measures of meal. This gracious act of God is beyond human reason; it has a divine motive; it comes to pass by His unmerited grace, sola gratia. The woman predestined to prepare the bread, our Mother, the Holy Church, receives the heavenly leaven with faith. Her woes turn into prayers, her complaints into penitence, her penitence into justification, by grace, through faith, under the cross of Christ. And all this happens by the mysterious leavening power of God, giving rise to the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit in the congregations. This inspires the confessing fathers, this generates life in the first Hungarian Reformed congregations, and, by the time our Reformers adopt and experience the doctrine of the testimonium spiritus sancti, they themselves are already the happy captives of the Holy Spirit: they themselves are theologians of the Holy Spirit. This seems to have been a natural process if we consider the encouraging experience which our fathers had: it was before their very eyes that the whole meal was leavened. The magnificent process begins with the emergence of the only and supreme authority of faith, the revealed Word of God in the canon of the Holy Scrpitures. When the Bridegroom comes to awake with his kiss his Bride from her swoon-like sleep of many centuries, the revived congregations of Christ reach for the Holy Scriptures and begin the proclamation of the Word in their own idiom. The Holy Spirit reveals the meaning and imperative of the Word of God, and thus saving faith cometh by hearing. Yet the heavenly gift which is being continuously bestowed by God alone since the XVIth century upon the Hungarian Reformed Church has some other 'features also. For the metaphor of our text obviously suggests that the particles of meal, while drawn individually to the leaven, get into a close and inseparable connection with one another. As a result of this process, rebellion becomes at once obedience, discord turns into Pentecostal discipline, and the suddenly emerging multitude of individual believers become organized as the Hungarian Reformed Church, a congregational fellowship and the fellowship of the congregations. This, too, is understandable, to a certain extent, only wtih reference to the plenitude of the Holy Trinity, in view of the Son’s promise that He, when lifted up, will draw all men unto Himself. The durability of faith depends on the strength of its trust in grace. And the latter must be unbreakable in the Reformed Christian. It is for this reason, that the confessions of our fathers put such a strong emphasis beside stressing the firm and Scripture-based knowledge of God, on the inner trust of the soul. Faith as the sum of what we believe and faith with which we believe. The latter is also indicated in our text. If you put your finger in leaven, it will stick to your finger; you can hardly shake it off. In the same way. the grace of God, in which they put their full trust, becomes irresistible for the chosen. It appears at times, that a rebellious particle of the meal falls to the ground, yet Christ sees to it, even on the road to Damascus, that this particle be integrated with the fermenting bread. He also gives us a sign of the close bond of grace, putting His seal upon it by the reality of the holy sacraments. Like the process of fermentation in which the millions of microbes effect a transformation of the leavened flour, the Holy Spirit of God performs His mysterious work in the life of the Hungarian Reformed Church. As a result of this process, the invisible spiritual life of the church i-sues in ethical consequences. When our congregations gladly witness to their love of God, they receive one by one, the identical command: Tend, feed my sheep! Thus the human response to God’s love can only issue in obedience to the command: tend, love thy neighbour as thyself! Like the release of electric energy on the closing of the circuit, the power of God’s kingdom is also released in the congregations when they become united by the bond of love, and thus the church begins to serve.
