In Jesus Holy Name October 26, 2008
Text: John 3:7 & Titus 3:7 (GN) Redeemer
“Reformation: Understanding God’s Love”
Earlier this fall our District President was attending the Oakland A’s Baseball game. Before the game Thrivent sponsored their pre game BBQ in the parking lot. All the Lutherans and their guest were present. President Newton was asked to give the prayer before the meal. In his prayer he gave thanks for the event, gave thanks to God our creator who provides for our daily needs. He gave thanks for the weather, family and the meal. He concluded his prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, your son, our Savior who died on the cross that we might have life and salvation, for he is the only way God has provided. Amen
As always, people were chatting and moving through the food line. A gentleman came up to President Newton and made the following comment. “I want to thank you for that fine prayer. I agreed with you all the way until you came to the conclusion and that part about Jesus Christ.”
Pastor Newton asked…”Well what was your concern?” His response: “Well, I thought the prayer should be more inclusive. I believe we are all trying to be with God. Jews, Christians, Muslims, etc. We are all praying to God. We all hope to be in heaven, we are just expressing different ways to God. You see I’m Jewish. I feel that in this culture we should be more tolerant of one another’s views. We are all praying to the same God.”
I thought President Newton’s response was helpful. He said, “In my head I was thinking…I thought this was a Lutheran event.” What is this Jewish guy doing here?” But a little bird in my head told me not to share my thoughts.” This is what he did share.
I hear you saying that there are different religions who have a “ladder” to God but we all have the same objective to be with God. You just feel that Christians are too narrow.” “Yes, that’s right.”
Then Dr. Newton said. “First I want to thank you for the kindness in your voice as you shared your concerns. I appreciate that. Second I want to thank you for sharing your Messiah with me for I am a Gentile dog who is thrilled to have the crumbs that have fallen from your Messiah’s table.”
You have told me the you believe there are various religious ladders as people seek peace with God. Ladders going up to heaven are what people build but they don’t quite get us there. I’m sure you would agree as an Orthodox Jew that your ladder also falls a little short.” “Yes,” Then Pastor Newton said, “Your Messiah, Jesus is the ladder from God to us.” The gentleman had a surprised look on his face and said these classic words. “I’ve never heard that before. That changes everything.”
Today, as Lutheran Christians we are celebrating the Reformation. During the 1500’s people had a false understanding of God. God was a God of wrath and judgment. Human beings could only hope to please God with their good works. Jesus was so holy, you could never approach Him in prayer. So people prayed to saints, they had the priest pray for them. Yet they had the same need as people today.
Does God love me. How can I have peace with God. So the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages offered forgiveness of sins that could be purchased with money, and good works, even on behalf of family members who had already died.
It was a false understanding of God’s love. Today our culture still offers a false understanding to the same ultimate questions of life that confronted Martin Luther.
“How can I, as an individual be assured of forgiveness of sins and thus be at peace with God? How can I be sure that heaven is my eternal destiny?”
These are still the two questions men and women are asking in the American culture. Charles Colson, in his book “The Body” writes: From the beginning, civilized Western thought and civilization have been built on the existence of objective truth. The prevailing intellectual consensus was rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Greco-Roman ideas which explained the universe, humanity and the purpose of life.
Whether we believed in God or not, this consensus gave birth to the form and substance of science, art, music, commerce that assured a positive environment for political and ethical discourse.” Now the Western world is under the influence of Eastern mysticism and secularism where there is no absolute truth. Severed from an absolute truth we are lost in the cosmos, like the Starship Enterprise, we are adrift in time and space.
Pilate asked Jesus: “What is Truth?” Jesus answered, “I Am The Truth.” “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Pilate had ears but he did not hear. He thought, like many in our culture, he would find truth looking in the mirror.
Christianity in America is experiencing the same challenge that faced Martin Luther…. What is the true message of God? Our culture pressures people to accept the false premise that there are no moral absolutes. People demand tolerance. There is an on going attempt to silence Christian values and place the Bible as and “equal ladder” to God, along with other religious theologies. It is a denial of the words of Peter in Acts 4:2 “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Like many others in the 14th and 15th century Martin Luther thought that by becoming a monk he could find a path to please a righteous God and thus have forgiveness of his sins.
The more he prayed, the more he disciplined his body and mind to be pure, the more anxiety and uncertain he became. While Luther was teaching the Book of Romans at the University of Wittenburg, God convicted his heart with the words written by St. Paul.
“……a righteousness from God is revealed in the gospel, the righteous shall live by faith.” “A righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known to which the O.T. law and prophets testify this righteousness from God comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Luther’s burden, his fear of death – all flew out the window and his mind and soul and body were set free.
In the mid 1500’s when Luther was providing guidelines for Lutheran worship and new hymns he expressed his deep despair, his anguish and fear of God’s righteous wrath against sin.
In his hymn “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice” he wrote: Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay;
Death brooded darkly over me
Sin was my torment night and day
In sin my mother bore me,
But daily deeper still I fell.
My life became a living hell
So firmly sin possessed me.
My own good works all came to naught
But God mindful of His mercies
Planned for my salvation.
God said to his beloved son
It’s time to have compassion
Go… bring salvation to all
Set them free from sin and sorrow
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with You forever.”
In Luther’s day the average person heard these words: “As soon as the coin in the coffer clinks, the soul from purgatory springs.” With coins you could purchase forgiveness. Those words meant that the death of Jesus on the cross did not purchase total forgiveness nor righteousness.
Today we hear these words: “we are all on a spiritual journey. There are many pathways to God.” I like the phrase Pastor Newton used… Modern man wants to create his own ladder to God…. Rather than to accept that Jesus is the ladder from God.
In Martin Luther’s day, the truth of justification was tossed out for the sake of coins and a piece of paper called an indulgence. In our day justification by faith in Jesus is tossed out by the demand for tolerance and the loss of absolute truth.
Buddha said, “I am searching for truth.” And he developed an eight fold path to follow.
Mohamand said, “I’m a prophet of the truth. I teach truth.” And the Koran was written.
The Hindu scriptures states: “Truth is elusive.”
Everyone is betting on something. An Atheist is betting there is no God.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the life and the truth. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He did not say, “I am one truth…” or one ladder… He said, “I am truth”.
On the Larry King show a few years ago he asked the Dalli Lama what comforting words he could offer to those who suffered the devastation of hurricane Katrina. He could offer no words of hope or comfort. Why? Because in his theological world view “If something bad happens in your life, its your fault because of something bad you did in your previous life.”
As Christians we posses the message of God’s love for humanity. We have experienced his undeserved forgiveness. We can not, we must not keep his love to ourselves.
In our series of home bible studies entitled 40 Days of Love we are called to imitate Jesus. We are called to demonstrate God’s love to others. Over the next 40 days we have an opportunity to enter into conversations as did President Newton and speak the truth with kindness.
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Corinth. “For God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be righteous, holy, forgiven in God’s sight.” In the world of Psychology this is called “transference.” God transferred to Jesus all our sins and transferred to us all of His righteousness. It is a free gift if we accept it.
Jesus was the visible presence of the invisible God on earth. His mission was to bring salvation, the free gift of forgiveness, the promise of eternal life. It was Jesus, himself, the ultimate reality who answered the first question with which Luther struggled…”How can I be assured of forgiveness of sins and have peace with God?”
It was God himself, who brought back to himself all things on earth or in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. By faith we can stand before the Creator of the Universe, holy and without blemish, freed from accusation if we hold on to our faith in Jesus. (Colossians 1:15-23)
If we claim to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of “The Way”, then we will share his love, his message of peace.
Jesus could only physically love one person at a time as he walked this earth in his human body. He didn’t make a to do list. He simply loved people during the normal traffic patterns of life. If he was in Jerusalem, he demonstrated love with acts of kindness to people on the streets in Jerusalem. When traveling from Judea to Galilee he met people along the way like the woman at the well in Samaria. (Your remember the story) He was just sitting there when she came out for water in the middle of the day. His conversation was flavored with words of acceptance and love.
To follow Jesus is to make a choice to love people as they cross your path.
