Reformation Sermon 3

HOUSING CLEANING IN THE CHURCH
St. John 2:13-22

+Jesu Juva+ Pless

REFORMATION SUNDAY
25 October l998

When the Lord Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem, He treated it as if was His house. So it was, for the temple was built to be a house for the Lord's name, the place where He would be present to hear the prayers of His people and forgive them their sins. The Lord Jesus walked into a temple which had become commercialized and corrupted by those who came not to seek God's presence and pray, but to buy and sell. In righteous indignation, the Lord made himself a whip and drove out the merchandisers with their livestock, overturning their money tables. The temple had become so cluttered with the things of men that it was hardly recognizable as the holy house of God.

Some sixteen centuries later, Martin Luther came to a church that had likewise been corrupted by the hands of men. The message which we heard in today's epistle - that sinful human beings are justified by grace through faith apart from the deeds of the law - had been muted. Instead, people were taught that salvation came by a combination of God's grace and human works. No one could be sure and certain of salvation, for no one could ever know if he had done enough to merit God's acceptance. So, as a young monk, Luther lived in terror, fearful that his righteousness would not be sufficient before the judgment seat of Christ. Then the words of Romans 3 broke through Luther's anguish: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."

Set free and given peace with God through the Gospel, Luther did not keep silent. He did not keep the good news of salvation by grace through faith for the sake of Jesus Christ to himself. He preached, taught, and wrote of what God does to save sinners. And in doing so, Martin Luther found himself up against a church that had commercialized the Gospel.

The Reformation was a rediscovery that the Gospel offers and bestows salvation without cost. That is, without cost to us. Heaven is not something that we buy or earn. It is costly. Salvation is not cheap. The price of salvation is far too expensive for anyone of us to purchase or earn. There is one alone who could pay the price which our sins demanded and the justice of God required. That one man is Christ Jesus. He is true God without sin and He is true man with flesh and blood capable of suffering and death. He alone is able to be our substitute who can pay the price of our redemption. And that is what he did on the cross. So Luther comes to confess in the explanation of the Second Article of the Creed in the Small Catechism: "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true."

It is the truth of this Gospel by which we live. Luther knew that if the church did not have the truth of the Gospel, sinners would be left in their sins and left without the peace of God. So the Reformation was nothing less than a struggle for the very truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We stand in need of that same Reformation today for in these closing years of the twentieth century, the truth of the Gospel remains under attack. In fact, the concept of truth itself is under attack. Truth is said to be subjective. We are told, "what's true for you might not be true for me." With this mindset it is not surprising that the category of "preference" or "choice" replaces the category of truth when it comes to matters of religion. Look at the way many people approach the question of church membership. Instead of asking "Does this church teach the truth of the Holy Scriptures?" they tend to judge a church in terms of personal preferences, likes or dislikes.

And we have churches that accommodate themselves to this mindset. They are the "You've got a need, we've got a creed" kind of church. These are the churches that have determined not to offend anyone. These are the churches that seek to entertain rather than edify with the Word of Christ. Some of these churches have gone so far as to remove even the cross from the architecture of the building because some might find this symbol offensive. Instead of teaching biblical doctrine, there are classes on time management, personal finances, and self-esteem. No wonder that so many even within the churches are ignorant of the Gospel.

Just this week, I received a copy of a survey done by Lutheran Brotherhood, the insurance company. Their survey, conducted among lay members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, yielded the following results:

• 48% said, "People can only be justified before God by loving others."
• 60% agreed with the statement that "The main purpose of the gospel is God's rules for right living."
• 67% said yes to the statement, "Although there are many religions in the world, most of them lead to the same God."
• 44% would not say yes to the statement, "Property (house, automobile, etc.) belongs to God and we only hold it in trust for God.
• 41% disagreed with the notion that children enter the world as sinners.
• 28% couldn't say yes to the statement, "God is one divine essence but three persons."

These are shocking statistics. But they reveal that it is possible for a church to become busy with many activities and yet miss that which is essential - the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the sacraments. Martin Luther called the church of his day back to the foundation. Back to Jesus Christ who alone justifies sinners and bestows the fruits of His justifying work in Holy Baptism, the preaching of His Holy Word, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper of His body and blood. That Reformation must continue in our own day as well. As we come together on this Reformation Sunday, we do not simply glory in something that God did back there in 16th century Germany, as grateful as we are for the gifts which He has bestowed on us through Martin Luther. Instead, we pray that God would keep us faithful in our own day to the Gospel which Luther preached, and so we pray:

God's Word is our great heritage
      And shall be ours forever,
To spread its light from age to age
      Shall be our chief endeavor
Through life it guides our way,
      In death it is our stay.
Lord, grant, while worlds endure,
      We keep its teachings pure
Throughout all generations. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.