Historically, Lutherans have taken the last Sunday in October and set it aside as “Reformation Sunday”, where we give thanks to God for the life and work of Martin Luther and other reformers of the church in the 1500’s who brought back to light the truth of the Gospel. It’s a day where it’s very tempting to just look at a past event, and leave it at that. And honestly, that is one of the things we are doing here today. The theme of this service that Pastor Menter chose is a very fitting one for the occasion: “God’s Word is Our Great Heritage”, and indeed, as Lutheran Christians, who have lived by the Reformation principle of “Sola Scriptura” or “Scripture Alone”, God’s Word is a part of our heritage. This year, considering some things that have been happening within the Lutheran Church in the United States, it seemed to me at least that with today being Reformation Sunday, it seems rather fitting that we’re gathered here for this special service as Lutheran Christians under the theme of “God’s Word is Our Great Heritage.”
Our Gospel lesson for this service gives us a wonderful opportunity to gather around our Lord’s Word, and listen to what I have called Jesus’ “Reformation Words”. As we do so, we are going to see how these are Reformation words for the people of Jesus’ day, for the people of Martin Luther’s day, and for you and me, the people of God in the Lutheran Church in our day. So, let’s listen to what our Lord has to say to us on this Reformation Sunday through His Word.
I. Jesus First Speaks “Reformation Words”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is speaking to some Jews who had believed in him. He’s telling them what it truly means to be one of His disciples when He says: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” That means, stay in it. Don’t stray from it. But this doesn’t just mean abide in what Jesus says. In the beginning of John’s Gospel, we learn that: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God .” (John 1:1-2) That Word is Jesus; thus Jesus is the very Word of God, come in human flesh. So that means that the Word that these Jews have been hearing for centuries, in the Law and the Prophets, what we call the Old Testament today, is literally standing right in front of them! Thus, Jesus is essentially telling them to “abide in Him, abide in what He says and does. When you do that, you will know the truth that you cannot on your own win your forgiveness and salvation by your own works or efforts, but that I am going to the cross to do it for you, and that truth will set you free from sin, death and the power of the devil!” You would think that this would be great news to these would be disciples, people who have been waiting for the long promised Messiah, and have heard of Him through His Word.
But, these Jews start to throw in their own objections. You see, they have their own idea of who their Savior will be, and it’s not in alignment with His Word. They’re looking for a political leader who will bring them out of the Roman Empire. Their response to Jesus’ words show this very well when they say: “We are Abraham’s descendents, and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” This objection has problems from the start, and show us the real disbelief these Jews really had for Jesus and His Word. First, they say: “We have never been slaves of anyone.” That’s a false statement. Apparently, they had forgotten about their ancestors being enslaved in Egypt, and that it was God who delivered them out of that slavery. Not only that, but these Jews who are saying to Jesus “we’ve never been slaves to anyone” are forgetting the fact that while they are not formally enslaved, they are living under the rule of the foreign Roman Empire, so in a way, they are enslaved by a foreign occupation in their land.
Let’s also look at the phrase of “we’re Abraham’s descendants.” That’s another problem altogether, and is actually the bigger problem here. Instead of putting their faith and trust in God, and His promise to the Jewish people for a Savior from sin, they are looking for someone else. They’re looking at their lineage, their Jewish heritage, to be their “get out of hell free” card with God. Essentially, they’re saying “But Jesus, we’re Abraham’s spiritual descendants. That means we’re saved! You can’t say we’re wrong in the eyes of God because we’re Jews! That’s what matters with God!” The problem with that was they were looking for a Messiah to solve their earthly problems, and give them a pat of the back for what they were doing, believing that their Jewishness was going to save them, so the only Messiah they were looking for was a political one, who would deliver them from earthly enemies and make them great in the eyes of the world. They were forgetting that the Savior was promised to save from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not foreign armies and things of the world. Jesus was telling them that their slavery isn’t a slavery to foreign governments or worldly slave masters like the Egyptians were to their ancestors, it was a slavery to sin itself; sin which sought to keep them enslaved and dead forever. But, to those who would listen to Jesus’ words, Jesus was saying that He was the true Savior, the only Savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and when He sets us free, we will be free indeed, free to be forgiven children of God for the sake what Christ had done for us on the cross.
With this being Reformation Sunday, I have termed these words as Jesus’ “reformation words”, words that if the Jews abided in, promised to reform the way that the Jews of Jesus’ day thought about the Messiah, about themselves, and their relationship to God, to realize that they could not save themselves by their own thoughts, words, and deeds, but that only Jesus would free them from slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil!
II. Reformation is for Luther’s Day
Now one would think that after hearing this from Jesus, the Church wouldn’t lose sight of that Gospel. Unfortunately, there would be a need for another reformation. The church of Martin Luther’s day had fallen into the same trap as those Jews in our Gospel reading.
By the time Luther was ordained a priest in Erfurt in 1507, the truth of the Gospel had become obscured. It was being taught that one could contribute to their own salvation, in fact, one HAD to. You did it by saying the right prayers enough times, paying enough money for an indulgence, and doing enough good works as commanded by the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope to reduce your time of punishment after you died in a place called Purgatory before you could be admitted to heaven. Not only that, but the people were also being taught by the church that their work of buying an indulgence could release a deceased loved one’s soul from purgatory, for the right price of course. This whole system of works-righteousness tortured Luther to no end. He spent countless nights in his cell, whipping himself, exposing himself to the cold, sleeping on the floor, depriving himself of basic needs food and sleep, among other tortures, in an effort to atone for his sins, but instead of finding comfort and assurance, he only went further into despair, never knowing if he had done enough to appease God. He saw Jesus Christ as an angry judge, waiting for the right moment to condemn him to an eternity in hell.
It wasn’t until Luther returned to the Scriptures themselves and studied them in his role as Professor of Bible did he discover the truth about Jesus. Truth contained in words like Ephesians 2:8-9 which read “It is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your won doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And words from our Epistle reading from Romans 3: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. In these and other passages of God’s Word, Luther discovered the Scriptural truth that salvation wasn’t dependent on our works or efforts, but completely on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s why Luther was never assured of God’s forgiveness when left on his own, because atonement was solely the work of Christ on his behalf. By returning to the Word of Christ, Luther was freed from slavery to sin. But he wasn’t about to keep this message to himself. He preached it from the pulpit, taught it in the University classroom, and started writing about it. In an effort to debate the practice of indulgences with other theologians, Luther wrote 95 thesis, or statements, about the abuses of the practice of Indulgences, nailing them to the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517. Little did Luther know that with that hammer and nail, God would use his effort to bring the Gospel back to light. Thanks to a recent invention called the printing press, printers copied Luther’s thesis and distributed them to the people. Because of this, Luther’s rediscovery of the Gospel spread like wildfire throughout Germany, and even reached places such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which became strong holds of the church that would eventually bear the name Lutheran.
Luther’s original intent of sharing this message was NOT to establish a new church, let alone have it named for him. His original hope was to reform the church of his day. Unfortunately, Pope Leo X wouldn’t hear of it. Instead of a debate, Luther was called before Cardinal Cajetan the following year, and told to recant his position, for questioning the authority of the pope. Luther refused. Instead, he kept writing, kept preaching, and kept teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By 1520, Pope Leo X had enough. He sent Luther a Papal Bull, or edict, giving Luther 60 days to recant, or be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and be branded a heretic. This was no small deal. At the time, it was being taught that there was no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, the Holy Roman Emperor could then brand Luther an outlaw, meaning anyone could kill him at any time. His own life was at stake. But that would not stop Luther. He refused to recant, and as a result, he was excommunicated. Yet, Luther continued to preach, continued to write, and continued to teach the church of his day that the “reformation words” of Jesus were true in his day as well. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” In a day where the objection was “We’re under the Papacy and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you, a little German monk, say that we’re slaves of sin when we have this nice little system to work out our salvation?”, Luther was bold enough to proclaim that it is only through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are saved from our sins and given the assurance of eternal life, and by abiding in the word of Christ, would the church be able to remain steadfast in the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ, crucified, for the sins of the world!
III. Reformation is for Today
That brings us to today, Reformation Sunday, 2009. While we are here in part to indeed give thanks to God for the work of Martin Luther and the other reformers of his day who worked to bring the truth of the Gospel back as the central teaching of the Christian faith, we’re reminded that the Reformation of the church isn’t just a one time deal. Luther himself once said that the Reformation of the church is ongoing. You see, Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading were not just “Reformation Words” for the people of his day, and were not just “Reformation Words” for the people of Luther’s day, they’re “Reformation Words” for you and me, the people of God, pastors and lay people alike, gathered in our congregations in places like Elk Horn, Audubon, Harlan, Kimballton, Jacksonville, Irwin, Shelby, Hamlin, Exira, Brayton, Atlantic, and wherever else you are from. This afternoon, I want you to listen to your Savior speak His reformation words to you again: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!”
The truth. That means everything that we believe, teach, and confess in our churches is to be centered around the message of Jesus Christ, crucified, for the sins of the world. It means that everything we do centers around the truth of God’s Word. And that’s not an easy thing to do; especially in our day and age. Today, nearly 500 years after the pounding of the hammer was heard in Wittenberg, churches and church bodies that bear the great reformer’s name have made it clear that they are no longer listening to the Gospel that Luther rediscovered, and are in great need of a Reformation They have abandoned the message of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation on account of Christ, and traded it in for a gospel of social justice, living your best life in this world right now, promotion of “alternative lifestyles” that were once considered to be sinful according to the Word of God, or inclusiveness, among other things They have perverted it from being all about Christ, to all about our efforts and works and our emotions, or have bowed to the demands of a sinful society that no longer wants to hear God’s word of Law and Gospel. In doing so, they are no longer abiding in the word of Christ. They have traded the freedom of the gospel, for the rags and chains of the prison cell of sin and death that Christ died to set them free from. They may look at the calendar, see today is Reformation Sunday, dust off their Bibles and Catechisms, and sing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” today, but the heart and center of their activity, the unchanging Word of God, has been neglected, or outright disposed of. They, like the Jews in our Gospel reading, are putting their trust not in Christ and His Word, but in their “Lutheran” pedigree, believing that they are a part of the true church because they bear a certain name, when in reality, they have become nothing but slaves of a sinful, fallen world, that will not hear the “Reformation Words” of Jesus, His Words of “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” For them, God’s Word is no longer their great heritage, it is merely a part of their past, and they are now busy writing their own word for their itching ears, words that will save no one, but condemn for all of eternity.
Today more than ever, the “Reformation Words” of our Lord need to be heard and proclaimed from our pulpits! Anytime we substitute Jesus’ blood and righteousness with something of our own, be it our works, emotions, and words, anytime we make salvation a matter of Christ and something else, we’re making the same mistake as those Jews in our Gospel reading, and the church of Luther’s day. We’ve taken the truth of Jesus Christ and thrown it away in order to free ourselves. Now more than ever, we need to continue to heed Jesus “Reformation Words” and remind ourselves that the focus of our Christian faith isn’t about us, it’s about Christ and what He has done for us!
So what are we to do? First, we are to remember that the Reformation didn’t end 500 years ago, it’s ongoing We’re constantly called to a life of reformation, a life of confessing our sins, and freely receiving the forgiveness Christ has won for us on the cross. We are called to stand together and proclaim that message to all who will listen. We are called to not give up that freedom of the Gospel, and allow ourselves to become enslaved to works righteousness, the filthy rags that our Savior died to set us free from. We’re called to put all of our focus as a church on Jesus Christ, not on ourselves, or works, words or emotions, or to try to conform to the latest societal trend. We’re not to put our trust in our pedigree, the fact we’re members of a particular Lutheran church body or association, or that we’ve always been faithful members of our churches, or in any of our own works or labors. We are to put our trust in Christ and His Word, which first points out our sin and calls us to repentance, and then points us to the cross, where we find complete, total forgiveness of all our sins, and the key to eternal life!
Today, on this Reformation Sunday, we give thanks for Jesus’ “Reformation Words” to the Jews of his day, showing them where they went off track and leading them back to the freedom of the Gospel. We give thanks for Martin Luther, who led the church of his day out of the pit of works-righteousness to rediscover Jesus “Reformation Words” that were to be the church’s life and salvation. And we give thanks that God has continued to preserve those “Reformation Words” for us to hear today, and to share with the world. May we always remember who truly is our life and salvation, and center our life as a congregation around the Reformation Words of our Savior, seeking to reform His church now and forever. Amen.
