08 Reformation Sunday Romans 3.19-28
My friends, I greet you today in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our dare to dream series continues with the dare to dream of Grace. You don’t have to be Lutheran for very long to figure out that Reformation Sunday can become a lot like Christmas and Easter. That is not a bad thing, but the danger that is there is that it becomes too common or familiar. When I was on my vicarage, on my internship, I was given the task of planning the services for reformation Sunday.
My poor vicarage congregation. When time for the sermon came I announced, “Since the Reformation is often marked by Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, I decided that on this reformation day celebration in place of a sermon I would read all 95 of the 95 theses.” Now you should have seen their faces. Because I read that first one really slow. I mean it was agonizing. This was followed by a nice pause and then the second one was just as painful as the first, and you could see in their eyes, “Oh crud, he is really going to go through with this.” Then, half-way through the third one, one of the members stood up and said, “Hold it. What are you doing?” Now the fact that he had a microphone one, gave away, that he and I had worked this out before, but I don’t think I have ever seen relief, like I did that day. I don’t know if I instilled in them a new appreciation for the Reformation. But, I learned my lesson. So now I would like to read all 95 of the 95 theses.” … Gotcha.
The reading that we have from Romans chapter three is one of the key texts of the Reformation. Wanna know what we believe? Here it is. All people are guilty of sin. But God gives forgiveness of those sins through Jesus Christ. Therefore we are made right with God, through faith in Jesus. Or as Paul puts it, “we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” So what does this mean? It means that salvation comes only through Jesus. It is not enough to believe in a god or in a higher power. James tells us that even the demons believe that God is one and shudders. It is not enough to be a “good person.” Because as good as “good” is. “Good” is not good enough. One of the things the law does is to shown us where we miss the mark, where we fall short, in what God requires. It shows us our sin. But the good news here is that God has not left us in this state, but he has sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins and to reconcile us to God.
Is this true? You better believe it is true. So then, in keeping with our theme, how do we dream of grace, when grace is something that we already have? I believe that it goes a something like this.
God gives his grace to us. We have it, truly, completely 100% it is not in doubt. We have it for the sake of Jesus. It is sure, and certain. You can count on it. God gives his grace to us, and it fills us up. But God’s grace does not stop flowing when we are filled up. For he continues to pour it out into our lives so that we are overflowing with his grace.
God gives his grace to us, so that his grace will then flow through us. So then we are blessed so that we can be a blessing. It is in talking about God’s grace being for us and given to us, so that his grace may flow through us that we can begin to dare to dream about Grace. So let’s take some moments to dream of what that might look like in our lives, in our homes, in our congregation and in our community.
Some questions for your consideration to help guide us in what a dream of grace looks like; what does it mean to have God’s grace in the midst of comfort and plenty? What does it mean to have God’s grace in the face of the standards, expectations, and judgments of others? What does it mean to have God’s grace in a place where independence and self-reliance are virtues? What does it mean to have God’s grace in the midst of death and destruction? Each one of these could be a sermon in and of themselves, but I believe that they help us to begin seeing what dreams of God’s grace look like in our world and in our lives.
What does it mean to have God’s grace in the midst of comfort and plenty? Any thoughts or ideas on that one? Now this does not mean that it is bad to have what we have, but what do we do with it? Do we use it to make our own lives better and in service of ourselves, or do we use it to make the world a better place? Do we use it to help us to be a blessing to others? Dreaming of Grace is a dream where being comfortable and having plenty does not stump our spiritual growth, and does not seduce us into serving ourselves and focusing on what we want. But instead this dream is where we don’t play the game to have the most toys, but where you play the game and use our toys to help us to live out our lives as God’s people. Do we want technology in this congregation for the sake of having technology? No, but having it here will help us to better communicate and interact with our community.
What does it mean to have God’s grace in the face of standards, expectations, and judgments of others? How does our dream of grace play into this one? Have you ever had thoughts of concern that stem from what others think or expect? Have you ever experienced guilt because you might not have lived up to what someone else expected of you? It is a terrible horrible feeling, and if we are not careful it can be something that will consume our lives. The fact of the matter is this, we will never ever live up to all of the expectations that are out there. So why do we allow ourselves to be driven by this? The dream of grace tells us that only God’s expectations are what matter in our lives. That only what God thinks of us is what matters. It is from him that we find our identity and our self worth, not in what we do or what we have or how well we do what we do.
Dreaming of grace here says that we treat ourselves with grace and to understand that we are not perfect. The converse of that then is that it says that we treat others with the same grace. What message would be given about what we believe if people were to see us interact with one another from a perspective of grace? That means no more gossip, that means when there is a problem we have with someone we talk to them about it. That means when we are talking to the person about the problem we are willing to forgive, because we know that we have been forgiven. It means we start from grace, and always put the best construction on everything. This is not a failure to call sin a sin. That would be cheap grace and that is unacceptable. But it means that when we do deal with sin, we do it gracefully, lovingly and respectfully.
What does it mean to have God’s grace in a place where self-reliance and independence are seen as virtues? Now don’t get me wrong here, self-reliance and independence are not bad on a national level. But not so much on an individual level. We are not meant to be self-reliant and independent, because not only do we need one another in our lives, but we need to be reliant and dependent upon God. Dream with me about what this community would look like as together we learn to be reliant and dependent on one another. Together we live and work and minister and care. We grow in our relationships with God and with one another. And all of this is made possible by the grace that is given to us and through us.
Becoming a community in this way bears witness to who are God is and what it means to be his people. There is no question about the stereotypes of Christians are in this world of ours. And for the most part, I’m sad to say, they are not undeserved. But we have the opportunity to change that and to dream of grace where that grace shows in true community and relationship with one another.
What does it mean to have God’s grace in the face of death and destruction? Though this is the last question for today it is not because it is the least, especially in the face of all of the destruction that has been done by fire in California. How many of us have family and friends affected by this? So what does the dream of grace do in this situation? It calls us as a community to be ready, willing and able to help out in times when are help is needed, not just with our prayers or with our money, but with our arms legs and muscles. We will not be able to take away death and destruction in our world, but we can affect how we chose to respond to it and as we do respond, God’s grace flows through us.
This is what a dream of grace looks like. A congregation a community of people right before God because of faith in Christ. A people who grow in their relationship with God and one another. A people who because God’s grace flows into their lives, have that same grace flow through them so that through them and the ways that they interact and live and a care for one another God’s love and grace and mercy and reconciliation are made known to the world around them, even in the face of plenty, expectations, self-reliance and death.
May God grant that in our midst the dream of grace would become the reality that we live in, and may he be glorified as this happens. Amen.