FIRST READING Revelation 14:6-7
6I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
PSALM Psalm 46
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea; 3Though its waters rage and foam, and though the mountains tremble at its tumult. 4The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. 5There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 6God is in the midst of her; she shall not be overthrown; God shall help her at the break of day. 7The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken; God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away. 8The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. 9Come now and look upon the works of the Lord, what awesome things he has done on earth. 10It is he who makes war to cease in all the world; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire. 11“Be still, then, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” 12The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
SECOND READING Romans 3:19-28
19Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
GOSPEL John 8:31-36
31Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY REFORMATION
Today we celebrate the 501st anniversary of the Reformation. As you might remember from past celebrations, Luther was an outspoken man and it seems had a strong opinion on a variety of subjects. So, on this Reformation Sunday, I thought it might be nice to share just a few of Luther’s more colorful quotes. For example, Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer, is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Or two that Barbara would appreciate, “I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us.” And this one, “Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor.” Robert, and our educators, will appreciate this one, “Teaching is of more importance than urging.”
Here’s one I need to add to one of my morning devotions, “God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” And for those who are married, Luther said, “Let the wife make her husband be glad to be home and him make her sorry to see him leave.” And this one, “If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.” And finally, “Whoever drinks beer is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin goes to heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!
At high noon on October 31, 1517, the eve of All-Saints’ Day, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. It was a typical event of that time, but this occurrence was about to change history. It’s an affair that’s easy to over-dramatize, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that those hammer blows echoed around the world. Unbeknownst to Luther and Melanchthon, the posting of that notice signaled the beginning of the Reformation. But what, we must ask, was Luther really doing when he pinned this list of challenges to the church door?
Existentially, he was listing 95 reasons why he objected to the sale of Indulgences. The church door was, in reality, the university bulletin board where all announcements were affixed. As a professor, Luther was calling for a debate; he was willing to take on all challengers: It is out of love for the faith and the desire to bring it to light, that the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore, he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
Luther gave his paper a title; “Disputation for Clarification of the Power of Indulgences.” His immediate purpose was to debate an urgent issue, namely: Can sin be forgiven by issuance of a papal document? The larger intent, and one Luther probably didn’t see at the time, was to call into question the fundamental position of the church and its life and mission in the world. As Luther saw it, change was desperately needed, and Luther felt like he was the one person who was in the best position to jump start that change. He later described himself in this way: “I have been born to war, and fight with factions and devils; therefore, my books are stormy and warlike.”
He went on: “I must root out the stumps and stocks, cut away the thorns and hedges, fill up the ditches, and am the rough forester to break a path and make ready.” He then spoke of an interesting contrast with his fellow faculty member, Philip Melanchthon, “But Master Philip walks softly and silently, tills and plants, sows and waters with pleasure, as God has gifted him richly.” In truth, there was nothing revolutionary about the way this was done.
Debate was the usual pattern for the academic community – a healthy, logical didactic method which had been employed for centuries. It was the invention of movable type, perhaps in Holland, that permitted wide usage of the printed page. Of course, it was the Chinese that invented printing centuries earlier, but now type could be set quickly and cheaply, and in 1455, Johann Gutenberg had issued his magnificent Bible at Mainz. It was this new medium which permitted Luther’s 95 Theses to be given vast coverage. This also meant that everyone was now talking about Luther.
Wyatt Aiken Smart, late professor at Emory University, told of visiting Hawaii where he climbed a semi-active volcano. For a long time, the professor gazed into the crater, a hot boiling mass. He soon noticed a process continuously repeated. As hot lava came to the surface, cool Pacific winds hit it, causing a hardening effect. The entire surface would be covered by a dull gray, comparatively cool crust. No sooner had the crust formed than tiny red cracks appeared at the center of the mass. Slowly there was crumbling as the entire area became red, hot, and boiling. Yet, even as the boiling was taking place, on the sides the cooler gray crust was again forming. In all institutions this is the eternal process.
In any establishment – a political party, a business, a school, a state, or a church – the birth is in freedom and with a liberal outlook, and the institution is small. I use the word liberal, in this case, because those who give birth to institutions, especially educational institutions, usually regard themselves as liberal in contrast to the establishment. With the passing of time that same, new institution grows cool, fixed, rigid. It becomes organized. Inevitably structure assumes increased importance. Wealth becomes part of the scheme of things, for money is required to maintain the structure. Age usually means reluctance to change. It all becomes conservative, taking on a fixed quality. From a small beginning the institution has grown, massive and formidable, rich and powerful.
In the course of events, there arise the young movers and shakers who protest the rigidity of the institution. They protest and call into question the forms and patterns of the past. Some of these idealists are more vocal, more emotional and violent than others. Some go too far, destroying rather than reforming. The establishment, hoary in attitude, usually resent these dreamers and so it goes: unbending hierarchy vs. zealous idealists. Some would have categorized Luther in this same way, but we must look past the labels and instead question the motives of this outspoken professor of Theology.
Again, what, in reality, was Martin Luther trying to accomplish? Was it change for the sake of change, or was his protest valid in terms of 1517? If so, then we must first recognize that Luther spoke to his time, for his time, and in the language of his time. His action was, in Carlyle’s phrase, “the greatest moment in the modern history of man.” Second, we need to bear in mind that we don’t live in the sixteenth century; we live in the twenty-first century. Therefore, any action we might deem appropriate for today should not be an attempt to relive Luther’s reformation – a venture as foolish as it would be impossible – but rather to ask: What is in need of reform today, in our century?
Luther spoke pointedly, but we must heed a warning: We dare not pretend that methods and voices 500 years old will work miracles today, just because they had power in 1517. However, there is an amazing correlation that can be seen between our day and that of Luther. Consider, if you will, two major areas of contemporary life which need rethinking, revitalization, and reevaluating; the freedom of the Christian and the redemption of the Church. The first major area we need to consider reforming is the freedom of the Christian.
People the world over are crying for freedom: in Cambodia and Poland, in the Middle East and South Africa, in Latin America and Iran, in Newark and Watts, in Atlanta and Moscow. Essentially, this is a call for liberation; the freedom to be a person; a person with dignity. Human beings want to be recognized as individuals, not components of the population explosion. It’s the shriek of the third assistant to the fifth vice president wanting to stand on their desk and scream, “I am a personality, too! I’m not just a corporate stooge. I have a heart, a mind and a contribution to make!
It’s the seventh-grade phys. ed. teacher who blurts out, “Maybe I’m the low man on the totem pole, but I’m still an educator; not some piece of furniture to be moved around. It’s the young waitress who, while fixing salads and drinks, suddenly stops long enough to lean against the wall and sob, “I have a brain and a soul, and I can do more than schlep iced tea and serve burgers. The pathetic truth is, we moderns struggle with a legalism far more binding than any Mosaic code.
We exhaust ourselves trying to get out of legalism – union contracts, deductions for Social Security, sick leave, extra charges if credit cards are used – admitting all the while the letter kills, but thus far the spirit has not given much life. In many ways we’re still enslaved. We wear masks. We’re driven to purchase expensive homes, luxury vehicles, designer clothing – all because society tells us we need these things. We say what people want us to say; we read books that everybody reads; we go to the same movie; we all watch the same, tired television programs. Why? Because we want to? Hardly! Truth be told, many of us are conformists. We seldom reveal our real selves. The good news is, the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks to the contemporary’s situation. In Jesus, we are free. We can possess that innate dignity for which the human spirit cries.
Luther loved the text, “God sent forth his Son … to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5). Luther insisted: ‘We are priests, and thus greater than mere kings, the reason being, that priesthood makes us worthy to stand before God, and to pray for others … Christ redeemed us that we might be able spiritually to act and pray on behalf of one another … But nothing avails to the benefit of a person who doesn’t believe in Christ.
[The unbeliever] is little more than a slave; they’re constantly worried … By contrast, who can fully conceive the honor and the elevation of a Christian? … they exercise authority over all things … Thereby, it becomes clear, that a Christian always enjoys freedom, and is always master.’ As Luther viewed the human situation, “the hope of liberation from the tyranny of the world, and the world’s values, lies in Christ alone.”
In Jesus, we are free indeed. But what about today? Does this freedom in Christ apply to the Twenty-first century? Luther’s response would be that it applied to the sixteenth century, so why not today. Read again our gospel text from John 8:36; it’s all about freedom, about truth, about life. It just might be that here in this passage is the secret to real liberation; a true liberty that must not be keep secret as we move forward in our current century. We must share this freedom with everyone around us. The next major area to consider is the redemption of the Church.
The modern church has become a hot house for nurturing tender plants. Time, thought, and energy of the church are spent, not in going out to save a broken, dying world, but in smoothing ruffled feathers. I talk with other pastors all the time who say their time is spent dealing with those who see themselves as offended: “Please call on the Browns; they’re miffed.” “Do go by and see the Jones; they say their feelings have been hurt.” “You have never called on us.” To this the mystified pastor responds, “I’ve been to your home several times.” “Oh,” comes the reply, “that was just to pick up the kids and take them to Vacation Bible School; we don’t consider that a call.”
These same pastors continue to lament that time must be spent trying to get Christians to come to worship. They say they plead, prod, offer gimmicks, have contests, and to what end? The contemporary disciple must be asked, invited, even begged to come for prayer and praise, for Word and Sacraments. Coming to worship ought to be a joyful part of the Christian’s life – no invitation should be required.
Why should followers of Jesus need to be cajoled to do that which should be a natural part of their discipleship? One pastor in Atlanta remarked, “A pastor today is one who presides over an adult kindergarten.” This kindergarten concept needs to die. As mature Christians, we need to move on to graduate school. Christians today need a diet of meat rather than milk. We need to stop the pampering and begin to minister. Luther put it aptly: “A preacher is like a carpenter. His tool is the Word of God. Because the materials on which he works vary, he ought not always pursue the same course when he preaches. For the sake of the variety, he must sometimes console, sometimes frighten, sometimes scold, sometimes soothe, etc. No longer seeking to save herself, but rather seeking the lost.” This is the need for our church today.
It means we can no longer spend time trying to pander; we must seek to reach out. Rather than buy members, court them and coddle them, we must train them and send them out as God’s people, mature disciples who are responsible. The Priesthood of believers have just as much responsibility to evangelize, minister to the sick, feed the hungry and build the church as ordained clergy. All are called to share the glad tidings that we “having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:18).
When the church is willing to step back, so that Christ may be exalted, we will be free indeed, and we will be empowered to proclaim that same empowerment to an enslaved humanity. When the church is filled “with a Christlike tenderness for the heavy-laden and downtrodden” she may indeed discover the cross anew, and new life as well. For too long, as in Luther’s era, the church has simply been saving her own life, concerned with insuring the life of the institution. It’s time we accept the fact that if we’re engaged in the work of God’s kingdom, God will take care of the institution.
As a youth monk, Luther made a trip to Rome in 1510, and the glories of Renaissance Florence didn’t impress him. He made no mention of the matchless art treasures. What he did remember was “the cleanliness, the efficiency, the courtesy, the intelligence” of the hospital nurses. Godly women were serving. He saw clean sheets on clean beds in bright rooms where loving nuns ministered to sick children. Is this, after all, not the church reborn, at work in the world? When the crushing burden of pain is so heavy in so much of the world, where must we as the church be? What must we be doing? How must we be engaged? As the church today, we need to be sharing God’s love and proclaiming that true salvation comes in Christ. We need to be about the work of God’s kingdom.
St. Paul wrote, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Luther saw the church of his day trying to work its way to heaven. What’s more, Luther himself was trying to do the same. Is this what we find ourselves doing? Are we guilty as well of trying to work our way to God, a “works-righteousness” which ends in frustration and sense of hopelessness. Have we not learned from Paul what Luther came to understand, “The righteous live by faith”? (Rom. 1:17). We know that we’re not saved by our own efforts, goodness, or gifts. Salvation is never earned or deserved. Our salvation, our freedom from the penalty of sin, is obtained by a gracious and merciful God.
Yet we persist in our habits and thinking: we go to church; we give to Disaster Relief; we fast during Lent; all these are good practices. But the question we need to be asking is, what’s our motivation? Why do we do what we do? Do we think that we’re building an account in heaven, against the day of our death? Do we not rationalize that we’ve been so generous with our time and possessions that surely God will not forget? This is exactly what the sale of Indulgences were all about: building a bank account in heaven.
Luther had a terrific battle within himself. He, like Paul, Augustine, and Wesley, attempted to amend for his own sins by fasting until he was faint, by praying for hours on end, by refusing his tired body much-needed rest. It was the kindly, far-sighted John von Staupitz who advised, “Look not on your own imaginary sins, but look at Christ crucified, where your real sins are forgiven,” and he continued, “and hold with deep courage to God.”
We have looked long and wearingly at our sinful condition, and like young Luther thought the answer lay in self-flagellation, hoping this will atone for our misdeeds. Luther admonished: He [the Christian] requires no good works to make him godly or to save him; faith brings everything in abundance to him. If he were so foolish as to think that by good works he would become godly, free, blessed, or a Christian, he would lose both faith and all else.
In preparing the Smaller Catechism for children, Luther outlined the course: The Ten Commandments should be studied as a basis for the awareness of sin. The Apostles’ Creed should be used to illustrate redemption from sin. The Lord’s Prayer was to be memorized as the source of spiritual strength for all believers. The good news in Christ is that in the Cross we see that God suffered for us. Here we are saved.
This is not our doing; it is God’s action. We accept God’s gracious gift through complete surrender. The natural flowering of faith is: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Rather than take our spiritual temperature each morning, trying to determine how sick we are, we need to throw away the thermometer. Our lives are in God’s hands. Whether we live or die is not the point. We belong to God – that’s all that matters. Our life is to be centered on Christ and our life is in Christ. This is Luther’s theme for the believer and this should be our theme for today. So, what is our Reformation, and can a Reformation come?
In reality, these are the wrong questions to ask. The question we need to be asking is when will reformation come? The answer is now. Unless the people of God, the Priesthood of believers, arise to call for a change, the ungodly will gladly do so – and with abandon. We as God’s people must be as well-equipped for their task as Luther was for his, if we’re to lead powerfully, creatively, fearlessly.
On this Reformation Sunday it’s good for us to remember the past, but only if we learn from it. We need to take those lessons from the past and use them to reform our world today. We must accept responsibility for our mission that God is calling us to. We need to boldly Go. Go, not in the sense of Star Trek, where no man has gone before, but Go into all the world, make disciples, teach and baptize for the kingdom and to the glory of God. If we accept this call to go, reformation will come.
Amen
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