Reformation Sunday

Twenty-third Sunday a. Pentecost

John 8:31-36

October 27, 2002

“Reformation – God’s Work In Us”

Introduction:  There were many factors that led up to the Protestant Reformation.  First, Islam and the Muslims were invading Europe.  Constantinople, the headquarters of the Greek Church was conquered.  This left only the Roman Catholic Church and it popes as the only authority to determine what Christians were to believe and be taught.  As the Muslims continued to invade Europe, the Roman Catholic Church’s authority, influence and control were undermined in all the countries of Europe.  Another factor leading to the Reformation was the period of the Renaissance (which means rebirth), which followed the Dark Ages.  There was a renewed interest in education and scholarship.  The classic writings of Greek and Roman philosophers were studied.  With the renewed interest in education came a renewed interest in the study of the Bible and particularly the New Testament.  On the eve of the Reformation there was also great economic change.  The feudal system of Lord’s and knights in shining armor, where only a few people shared wealth, collapsed.  The middle class was born in a market system.  Of course the main factor leading to the Reformation was the corruption of the Roman Church.

Martin Luther

It is during these turbulent times that we find our beloved Martin Luther.  His mother and father wanted him to be a lawyer.  That way he would be able to provide for them when they were older.  That was young Luther’s intention.  At least it was until a stormy night when lightning almost struck him.  In a moment of crisis he cried out to St. Anne for help.  With his cry he promise that he would dedicate his life to God and become a monk.  It sound like something we all would do in a crisis doesn’t it?  God if you help me I will go to church, I’ll read my Bible; I’ll be a better person.  Well, Martin survived the storm.  And he survived the storm of disappointment from his father for not becoming a lawyer.  Martin Luther became a monk in the Augustinian order.

             Even before becoming a monk Luther was tormented by the idea of how a sinful person could stand before a righteous God that must punish sin with wrath.  Luther could not understand the mercy of God or His grace.  He found himself enslaved and mastered by sin from which He could not escape.  The law of God that demanded perfection before entering God’s presence enslaved him.  Under this crushing weight Luther did everything the church prescribed in order to receive God’s grace.  It is important to note here that the focus was on everything he did to receive grace.  He became a monk.  He fasted and prayed and worshiped.  He took the sacraments. He confessed his sins, over and over and over again.  The trouble was how could he know when he had done enough?  How could he know when he had confessed all his sins?  How could he be certain that he was sorry enough and done enough to merit even a little of God’s favor?  Worse yet, he knew that he wasn’t sorry enough or could do enough to deserve God’s mercy and pardon.  Luther wrote, “Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience.  I could not believe that He was placated by my satisfactions.  I did not love, yes, I [even] hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience.”  Martin Luther was a slave to sin that mastered him.

            In our Gospel lesson Jesus said, “If you abide in My Word, you are my disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free…most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin…If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

God’s Righteous Demand – The Bondage of Sin

Martin Luther, at the direction of the Roman church, tried to earn God’s favor through his own actions.  He tried to fill God’s righteous demands.  Instead he found himself totally trapped and repulsed by a God he could not satisfy.  This left him miserably uncertain about his own salvation.  When the focus of our religion is on what we do and not on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, we are held captive.  Sin ties us up like prisoners on death row with no way out.  There is nothing that we can do or not do that contributes to or takes away from what God has done to save us.  We cannot pray enough and we cannot pray to little.   We cannot go to church enough to earn God’s favor.  He cannot be turned away by our lack of attendance.  We cannot give enough money or give too little.  None of us are sorry enough for our sins.  Everything we do is like dirty rags on chain gang prisoners.  A person depending on his own actions to merit God’s favor, or fearing his own inactions will damn him, is in need of a reformation – a reformation that God alone can make in a sinners heart.  It is a reformation of faith.

God’s Righteous Decree – The Freedom of Son-ship

Our Lord Jesus said, “if you abide in my word you will know the truth and it will set you free.”  These are reformation words.  They are life-changing words.  Christ says abide in my word.  This is not merely a reverence for the Bible.  Christ invites us to abide in the true Word of God that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the living breathing Word of God in Our Savior Jesus – the Word made flesh that dwelt amongst us.  The Word of God in which we abide is the truth that sin enslaves us and takes us captive to the grave.  The Word of God in which we abide is His promise, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  He has made us free by His bloody sacrifice on the cross where, in our place, He took the wrath of God that we deserved.  And Christ gave us His righteousness.  We have been called to be children of God, chosen to believe in His Son, even before the world was created.  This gift of God, His mercy and grace, is totally unmerited, undeserved and unearned by us.  The word of God and the truth that sets us free is that we receive God’s favor and Christ’s righteousness by faith.  Faith alone gives us the hands to receive this precious treasure.  And faith is a gift from God.  

            As Christians, because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, we are truly free.  We are liberated from everything that threatens us.  Even though we will have troubles in this world.  God will overcome our troubles.  Though we will suffer and die in the body, by faith in Christ, we will live.  In Christ we have the freedom found in God’s promise of the resurrection.  As Christians we have freedom to live without fear, safe and secure in God’s love for us.  As Christians we are free from the wrath of God.  We are free from the consequences of our sin.  We are free from the coercion of the law that demands us to to do what we can not do – please God.  We are free from guilt and God’s condemnation.  “If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

            Martin Luther underwent a reformation of faith.  Through God’s precious Word he understood that it was the work of God in him.  He no longer depended on his own works.  Instead, by His God given faith, trusting in Jesus, he was sure of his salvation.  He understood his new freedom.  Luther wrote, “At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of God’s word, namely, ‘In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.’  There I began to understand the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith.  Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates…I also found in other terms an analogy, as the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God, with which He makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which He makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God and the glory of God.”  Luther found that God had freely given all these to sinners through faith in Christ.  As Luther entered into the gates of paradise and opened the door of the Reformation he carried Christendom with him.

Conclusion:  Reformation Day isn’t just the celebration of a historical break from a corrupt Roman church.  It is a celebration of the gospel.  It is a reminder for all of us that God is acting in our lives.  By His Holy Spirit, through God’s Word and the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, God is reforming our lives.  We celebrate God’s work in us.  It is embodied in Christ’s words, “Abide in my Word…you shall know the truth…and…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”  His words are echoed in the rallying cry of the Reformation where our life in Christ is based on sola scriptura, solo gracia and solo fidei - scripture alone, grace alone, and faith alone.  The glory of the Reformation in our lives and in His Church is God’s glory.