Reformation Sunday

You know you are a Lutheran when…

· You hear something really funny during the sermon and you smile as loudly as you can.

· You’re watching a “Star Wars movie and when they say, “May the force be with you,” you respond, “And also with you.”

· You know all the word to the first verse of “Silent Night” in German but can’t speak a word of it.

· You have the uncontrollable urge to sit in the back of ANY room.

· You actually understand those folks from Lake Wobegon, MN.

We can poke fun at ourselves but we can also rejoice today, Reformation Sunday. We celebrate our rich heritage of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Paul says in Romans “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Romans 3:28 NIV) And we should be proud to be Lutherans, even in a day and age where many would have us deny our heritage. We thank God that Martin Luther over 500 years ago brought back into clarity the message of Jesus’ all atoning sacrifice for us, once and for all.

This month we are also focusing on Stewardship and how fitting it is to speak of this subject on Reformation Sunday. You see we are stewards of God’s Word. It was important to Luther and the founding fathers of our church that we continue to find our source of strength and understanding from the Word. What does it mean to be a steward? Well first of all it means that we recognize that we are not owners. In Luther’s time the church had viewed itself as owners of God’s Word and could do with it as they pleased. It wasn’t available to the common man because only the church could rightly give the world. And this control became corrupted even to the point that the church was selling forgiveness. Luther struggled with this and after having his eyes open through the Word recognized that the Bible was to be accessible to all people. To this end Luther used his God-given gift of translation and brought the Bible into the common German language. That is being a steward of the word.

Two verses stuck out in my mind as verses for us to meditate upon today as we think about being stewards of God’s word. The first is from the Gospel of John. John was closing his Gospel but telling his readers what the purpose of his book was: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31, ESV) God’s Word brings life. And it is more than mere words. John says in the beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the very Word of God. So we are stewards of Jesus. We are to use out time, treasures and talents to bring Jesus to the world. We are entrusted with proclaiming Jesus in our words and deeds.

The other verse that helps us today is from Isaiah. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.” (Isaiah 52:7a ESV) We are called to have beautiful feet as we bring the good news of Jesus to the world. Each of us has the joyous task of proclaiming Jesus, of being good stewards of the Word. God uses us in our daily activities to help proclaim this message. And often it is in the ordinary daily tasks of life that we proclaim Jesus. Luther called this the “mask of God.” What he meant by that is in our daily tasks God fulfills His promises to the world and in those tasks we become a conduit of God’s grace and mercy. In the Basics of the Faith class that I teach we are using the book The Spirituality of the Cross by Dr. Veith and in it he describes the masks of God in this way:

“In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask that God give us our daily bread, which he does. He does so, not directly as with the manna to the Israelites, but through the work of farmers, truck drivers, bakers, retailers, and many more. In fact, He gives us our daily bread through the functioning of the whole accompanying economic system – employers and employees, banks and investors, the transportation infrastructure and technological means of production – each part of which is interdependent and necessary, if we are going to eat. Each part of this economic food chain is a vocation, through which God works to distribute His gifts.

God heals the sick. While He can and sometimes does do so directly, in a spectacular unmediated miracle, in the normal course of things Go heals through the work of doctors, nurses, and other medical vocations. God protects us from evil. This He does by means of the vocation of police officers, attorneys, judges – also through the military vocations. God teaches through teachers, orders society through governments, proclaims the Gospel through pastors.”[1]

It is not about attaining high status in the church. It isn’t even about how much you know about God’s Word. It is about being a steward of all that God has give to you, your talent, treasures, and time, to be used to proclaim Jesus. We are a conduit of God’s grace. God provides for the world through your vocation. God heals the world through your caring. God protects the world through your actions. God uses you to accomplish His mission. He could work in unmediated, miraculous ways that would bypass us, but He doesn’t. He uses you and me, in our daily and often ordinary ways to accomplish His mission – to proclaim Jesus. One of the most vivid ways I see this in the lives of Christians is in the simple acts of caring. The very presence of a caring Christina in the life of someone who is hurting gives hope that if this one person cares then surly God cares as well. We are a “mask of God”; we are a conduit of His grace.

Here is a better list then the one I began with this morning. You know you’re a Lutheran if…

· You confess you are a sinner

· You know that Jesus died for you and forgave all your sins.

· You believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the central doctrine of Scripture.

· You know you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

· You rejoice daily that you are a baptized child of God.

· You yearn to study God’s Word.

· You believe Scripture is your only source of doctrine.

· You enjoy telling others about Jesus.

· You desire to receive God’s gift of Holy Communion at every opportunity.

· You know you will be in heaven forever because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

· And, yes, you love the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

We are called to be stewards of God’s Word, which is Jesus’ saving grace for us. May be we use all that we are and have to be good stewards and proclaim Jesus – for this is where we stand as Lutherans, as redeemed children of God! Amen.

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[1] Veith, Gene Edward, Jr. The Spirituality of the Cross – The Way of the First Evangelicals. CPH : St. Louis, MO. 1999; p. 73-74