Reformed and freed

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This is my manuscript for the Reformation Sunday services. The actual sermon was pretty much like this.

 

Today we commemorate the Reformation of the church. We remember it’s beginning from October 31, 1517, when Father Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, nailed his 95 Thesis to the front door of the Wittenberg Castle Cathedral. Copies of those theses have been included in your bulletins, as well as attached to the doors of our church. I didn’t think it was a good idea to put them on the doors at St. Mary’s.

If you read through Luther’s 95 Thesis, you will see that they have to do with the forgiveness of sins, and abuses he believed the priests in Germany were taking in requiring penance and selling indulgences, granting forgiveness for sins that you had not yet committed or purchasing the forgiveness of sins of those who have died. Luther was concerned that the act of forgiving sins was focused too much on the priest granting people forgiveness, and what the person did to earn that forgiveness, whether through acts of contrition, penance or contribution.

In the lesson from the Gospel of John that is appointed for Reformation Sunday, Jesus tells the Jews who believe in him, those who are following him, that they follow his teachings, staying true to “his word,” then they “will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” [John 8.31, 32] He tells them that, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” [John 8.34] As slaves, we do not have a place in the household. As sinners, we do not have a place in heaven. A slave cannot free him or herself. A slave can only be freed by someone else.

That is part of the Gospel message that we don’t like. We don’t want to be told we cannot do something. We don’t want to hear that we are not self-reliant. We want to be able to do as we want. If we get ourselves into a problem, we want to get ourselves out of it.

OK, I have sinned against God. So if I do enough good things, I can earn God’s grace. Or if I am TRULY sorry, I can get God to forgive me. Or maybe, if I donate enough, if I give of myself enough, God will be merciful to me. While the stewardship and finance committees may prefer that I don’t rule out that third option, those don’t work.

Jesus tells those who believe in him (that includes us) that it is the Son who can free us from our slavery to sin. “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8.36] That is also what Paul writes to the church in Rome in his letter. He tells them that the law, the expectations that God has for God’s people, based upon the various covenants calls for us all to be accountable. The  Law confronts our behavior; it tells us what is expected of us by God. The Law also holds a mirror up to our behavior, and shows us who we truly and really are. The Law shows us how sinful we are. It reveals that we cannot be justified in what we have done, not on our own. But the Law also points us toward the Gospel, the good news that is Jesus Christ.

The Gospel proclaims that it is the Son of God who sets us free. It is the Son of God who gives us the gift of grace. We receive this gift not because of anything that we could or have done, but “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood.” [Romans 3.24-25] The Son has made us free, but at the cost of his blood, his life. Christ’s faithfulness to God sets us free, forgives us of our sins. It is not our faith, or our works that does so.

Outside of the Holy City of Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, the Son of God was nailed to a cross in an act of faithfulness to God. Because he was righteous, those who believe in him will be found righteous. Because he was sinless, those who believe in him shall be found sinless. Because he was raised from the dead, those who believe in him will be raised in a day that is surely coming.

On the doors of a church in Germany almost 500 years ago, a priest nailed a list of complaints in an act of hoping to call the church to turn from its errant ways. He wanted the church to stop relying on human actions, those of the priest and the penitent, to have sins forgiven. He wanted the church to remember that the sins were already forgiven. Not by works, but by faith. By the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

Luther wanted people to be free from focusing on trying to earn their forgiveness through penance and the purchase of indulgences. Luther wanted people to be freed from trying to live up to the Law to earn God’s love. He wanted people to realize we are freed BY God’s love, and that living up to the Law is our reaction to that freeing love, not an attempt to earn it.