The Implications of Being a Christian

The Lutheran tradition of Christianity grew out of Martin Luther’s belief that we are freed from chains of sin and death by the grace of God not by our own works or worthiness. It is easy therefore to forget that how we act, the choices we make, what we do, and what we say or do not say matters. In our reading from Romans today we hear this from Paul, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living int it?”

The Christian tradition that I grew up in focused, almost solely, on the importance of avoiding sin. Hellfire and damnation messages were the bread and butter of my childhood church. So much time was spent telling us what we were and were not supposed to do, that life became a practice of sorting out wrong from right, us versus them. Shame and guilt were a guiding presence in my life. So, you can imagine that when I came across the Lutheran Christian Tradition as an adult the idea of grace was nearly foreign to me, but I was attracted to it like a butterfly to honey water. But grace doesn’t mean that we should behave any way we want to, as if we were still tethered to the sin from which we have been freed. In fact, I think that is exactly what our readings from Romans and Matthew are telling us today. Our readings from Jeremiah and Psalm tell of what following the will of God looked and felt like for two of God’s servants in the Old Testament. And I want to look at what it looks like for us actively embrace being followers of God in Christ today.

But before we get into that I want to share three definitions with you along with some background on the Prophet Jeremiah.

First the definitions.

A disciple is one who follows and learns from another as a pupil. OT prophets had disciples as did John the Baptist and the Pharisees. It is used specifically for those who follow Jesus Christ.

Christian Discipleship is following the way of Jesus Christ by those who are committed with him by faith. It entails a whole of the Christian life, beginning with the denial of self, the willingness to deny oneself, “take up their cross and follow me.” It is the commitment of the self to God in Christ and living fully according to Christ’s will for one’s life.

And our final definition may be the most important and it is this, sin. Theologically, sin is the human condition of separation from God that arises from opposition to God’s purposes. It may be breaking God’s law, failing to do what God wills, or rebellion. It needs forgiveness by God.[1]

Now we’re going to have some story time.

The Prophet Jeremiah came from a long Priestly lineage among the Hebrew people living in Judah. Families with Priestly lineage held great power and influence, so Jeremiah was a major player in the political and religious struggles of Judah. Jeremiah’s time as a prophet of God takes place before and during the time of the Babylonian Exile. At this time the Hebrew people were still living under the Sinai Covenant. They knew that they were God’s chosen people and had come to act as if this was a blank check to do whatever they wanted. They had stopped paying attention to their responsibilities that came with the Sinai Covenant. Some were worshipping idols and relying on other nations. Some were trusting in the the temple instead of God, who gave them the temple. And they were refusing to repent and reengage with the covenant. This was the context in which Jeremiah was called to be a prophet of God. Now Jeremiah knows that by speaking God’s Word to God’s people the Word will become reality. And he often resists this because he doesn’t want to speak because once he speaks it he will set it into motion events that will adversely effect the people. BUT in trying to hold it in the Word of God it burns like a fire in him and he eventually has to speak the Word to the people. This is what we heard in our reading. Jeremiah calls for people to change their ways, urges them to accept God’s punishment, and warns of exile. Because of his steadfastness to God’s will people and unwillingness to “change his tune” he ends up being hated by the people. His own family plots to kill him.

I would like to say that being obedient to the will of God got easier after God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, but we see this type of obedience to God play out again and again throughout history…often with similar hardship. But I don’t think anyone of those disciples of God would regret their obedience.

Let there be no mistake. Yes, declaring His divinity played into Jesus’ crucifixion, but what was more offensive were his radical practices of loving and caring for people, particularly those on the margins, those oppressed by the powerful.

It was never Martin Luther’s intention to separate from the Catholic Church, he only sought to focus on God’s grace and help eliminate the corruption that had found its’ way into the church. For this he spent significant periods of his life in hiding and answering charges from the church, among other hardships.

You may or may not be familiar with this next person, Pastor Paul Schneider. Pastor Schneider was a protestant (or what we would call a Lutheran) pastor in Germany during the time of the Nazi regime. When the Nazis began ridiculing the morality of the Church Schneider protested in writing and in preaching. He received no support from the Church who eventually reassigned him to a remote region of Germany. Knowing that it would put him under additional scrutiny he became a member of the Confessing Church, which was a Protestant organization that opposed Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Regime. He refused to let a Nazi Official debase the Word of God at a funeral and was arrested for a week. Eventually he excommunicated parishioners who engaged in conducted which violated congregational discipline as a result of their allegiance to the Nazi Party. This led to him being sent to Koblenz prison for two months in 1937. Upon his release he was warned not to return to the two congregations he served but defied the order. Because of this he was sent to Buchenwald. There he did everything in his power to protect his fellow inmates and was eventually sentenced to solitary confinement for refusing to remove his beret in honour of Hitler’s birthday or perform the Hitler salute and say “Heil Hitler” which translates to Salvation Hitler, saying that you can only receive salvation from the Lord and not from a human being.” Throughout his time in solitary confinement he climbed on the wood planks that served as his bed to preach from the very small window at the top of his cell. Eventually he was told he could free if he agreed not to return to his congregations. He would not agree, even under severe torture. He was executed on July 18, 1939.

We may celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. now, however life for Dr. King was anything but easy. Yet he consistently reflected Christian discipleship. Even when it would have been easier for he and his family he strove to live according to the will of Christ Jesus. His life was constantly threatened by Whites and there were Black Civil Rights activists who condemned him for being too peaceful, for working with White allies. He faced hardship from within and from without.

There are so many others I could tell you about, many of whom you already know about. But I’ve made my point. There were always be those who follow the will of God faithfully. And I would venture to guess that none of these people would change what they did, because their rewards were great…even in the midst of hardship. Here are some of the rewards they got to experience when they were still alive.

Martin Luther opened up literacy to boys and girls of all economic backgrounds.

Survivors of Buchenwald, of varying and no faiths, who were there when Schneider was credit his faith and pastoral presence with helping them survive. And Schneider knew that he was providing hope to those being held with him.

And, MLK got to witness some of the radical unity courage that resulted from his faithfulness to God’s call in his life.

Now when I think about these faithful Christian disciples their lives can seem intimidating. But they weren’t perfect. While I don’t have specific examples for Schneider Martin Luther King Jr., I can tell you that Martin Luther drank way too much and had a nasty period of anti-semitism in the last third of his life. Some of his anti-semitic writings were even used by the Nazi’s to justify the Holocaust.

But that is the beauty of God’s grace and justification.

Each and every day, each and every one of us gets to die with Christ to our sins, our separation from God and God’s will. And each and every morning, each and every one of us are reborn in the newness of life in Christ Jesus.

As we go out into our week and into our world, we go with the assurance that the Holy Spirit is in and with each of us. And if we don’t know where to start we can rely on the greatest commandments: Love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul, and the second is like the first, love your neighbor as yourselves.

Amen.

[1] McKim, D. K. (2014). The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, p. 294). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.