Reformation Sunday
Romans 3:19-28
"Saved by Grace through faith"
"There once was a boy named Roy, who wanted love and attention from his parents, but really didn’t know how to receive it. So, Roy got into a lot of trouble. He got plenty of attention for all the trouble he caused, which is close enough to love for a 10 year old boy.
After each time he got into trouble, his parents would question him long and hard, trying to find out the reasons for his bad behavior. "Why did you do it, Roy? What’s wrong?" Roy would just stare at the floor, not answering, not looking at his parents.
"You know we will have to punish you for this," they would say. He knew this and was expecting it. He was familiar with punishment and knew how to cope with it. There would be no TV, no dessert after supper, he would have to stay at home after school for weeks at a time. Roy never seemed to mind the punishment; he never seemed sorry for what he did; and he always went to trouble-making. His parents didn’t know what to do.
One nigh Roy’s parents received a phone call. It was from the police. The phone call said that Roy and some other boys had vandalized a school; they had been caught in the act of trying to set a fire. The parents rushed to the police station and talked with the lieutenant in charge. Roy was released into their custody after they agreed to help pay for the damages.
The ride home was silent. Roy sat between his parents in the front seat, waiting, but no one spoke. When they got home, he sat in his room, waiting for their usual lecture and punishment. His mother came in, then his father,"Do have homework to do, Roy?" The question took him by surprise. "What? Uh, yes, I guess no." "Then you’d better do it." The they left the room with Roy staring at his book wondering what was wrong.
At bedtime, they cam in again, "It’s time for bed, Roy. Here is a snack, we’ll be back to say good night in a few minutes. " They leave again. they had never acted like this before, though Roy. He wondered what was going on, no lecture, no punishment, no yelling, no question, nothing.
They came back a while later, tucked Roy into bed and said, "Good night, son; sleep well," turned off the light and left the room. Roy laid there, he couldn’t take it any longer, he jumped out of bed, ran out of the bedroom down the stairs and jumped into his mommy’s lap crying, "I’m sorry; I don’t mean to be so bad; I’m sorry, I’m sorry." They held him and comforted him for a long time. Out poured all the years of hurt, anger, and the need of wanting attention. His parents told him over and over again how much they loved him, loved him in spite of all the bad things he did. Roy felt better being truly sorry for all he did, and he enjoyed the love and forgiveness his parents were showing him."
As you listened to the story, could you find yourself in it?? Who are you? Were you Roy, or were you the parents? Or were you both? Who are you??
As I listened to that story, I found myself relating to both Roy and the parents. Yes, both, because I do sin, I do things wrong, at times not knowing why, or because I do want attention. At the same time, I want to be loving and forgiving to those who hurt me. I want to be loved and forgiven.
These truths concerning our doing wrong, or being a sinner, and being loved and forgiven by God and other are the cornerstone of our celebration of the REFORMATION.
For Luther, every human being is a saint and a sinner at the same time. A saint, meaning one who has been brought into a relationship with God, a believer. A sinner, one who still falls far short of all that God want from those who are his children. A sinner is one who know sins, who feels regrets, who knows he/she has sinned against God and other human beings.
Our lesson from Romans reminds us of this position in which we find ourselves. Paul says: "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.....since through the law comes knowledge of sin."
The law convicts us of our sin. The law meaning the 10 commandments and those civil laws under which we live. When we are honest with ourselves, we know we are not all that God intends for us to be. We sin. We feel guilty. We feel bad. Paul says in Romans 8: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is which I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me." No matter how good we perceive ourselves to be, no matter how arrogantly proud we are of our actions, when we look squarely in the mirror and look honestly at ourselves, we see someone who sins.
We want to pretend we don’t sin, we want to show off to others our piety, but when the chips are down our sin of pride, our sin of looking out for me, myself and I comes out front and center as seen in the following:
"Dostoyeusky tells a story of a woman who found herself in hell and felt she did not belong there. She could not bear the suffering and cried out in agony for the mercy of God. God listened and was moved with pity. "If you can remember one good deed that you did in your lifetime, I will help you," said God. Wracking her brain, she remembered that once she had given a starving neighbor an onion. God produced the onion complete with stem. The woman grabbed the onion, and God began to pull her up and out of hell. But others, damned with her, began to grab hold of the woman’s skirts to be lifted out, too. The stem of the onion held and would have saved them all, but the woman began to kick and scream for them to let go. Thrashing about trying to dislodge her friends was too much for the onion and the stem snapped, plunging them all back into the depths of hell."
It is the irony of self-righteousness that the very good works we thought might get us into heaven often prove to be that which drops us from grace into the fires of hell.
As we are honest with ourselves and experience the guilt of our sinfulness all is not lost. God has come to rescue us through the life and death of His son Jesus Christ. Paul says: "They are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith." Through Christ we have salvation. Through Christ an angry God has been appeased. Through Christ we have been given the gift of heaven through faith, through belief.
This gift is given to all without distinction. Paul says: "This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus." This gift is given freely to all who feel their sinfulness, who acknowledge their position before God.
It is like the gift of blood in the following:" A man lay on the donor’s cot in a Red Cross blood donation center, a pint of life flowing from his arm into the plastic pouch. Out the window he could see the 6 story hospital where someone lay in desperate need of his type of blood. The two of them would never meet. The gift the man was giving was exactly that - something not possible to repay and with inestimable value. Jesus’ death was God’s great gift to us, sealed in his blood, not to be repaid, nor arranged for, not for sale nor to be merited in any way. How great the gift of life!! How great for us who have received it!!
This gift of life through the blood of Christ is bestowed upon us at a very early age. At our baptism, we receive the gift of salvation. In that gift, a process is begun, the road of salvation is stretched out before us. Our journey has begun. For Jonathan that great journey will begin this morning. Christ comes to him with His spirit and leads him on the road of salvation.
But I think many have gotten this notion of Baptism all mixed up. They look at Baptism as not the way of salvation, or the road leading to salvation, or the beginning of a process of experiencing salvation,they see Baptism as salvation. That is not true. Granted, once we are baptized, God will never take back His promise of salvation. But we can go astray. We can go off the road. We can take a detour. We can take another road. We can take the road of ignoring God, ignoring Christ, ignoring the Spirit, ignoring the gift of salvation. As we drift away from the road of salvation, as we go our own way, we fall off of God’s road and unless we repent, unless, we change, unless we acknowledge our sinfulness, our pride; salvation will not be ours.
Baptism is not a magical rite into heaven. Because I have been baptized, does not automatically mean I am saved. In the last issue of the Lutheran Standard there were several articles about baptism and salvation. I would like to quote from them now:
"What worries me, are the Lutherans who seem to think that baptism is all that’s required for salvation. That may sound weird to you, but I know I’m not imagining this problem. Too many people have mentioned the same notion to me for it to be a figment of my imagination. I personally know baptized Lutherans who show no evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and even seem embarrassed to talk about the gift of faith in Jesus Christ--a gift that I consider the greatest ever given." says the author.
In the article on pg. 4-6 where Trygve Skartsen recounts how the husband, who was a baptized Lutheran had no interest at all in talking about the Lord or the church, says: "You don’t think I’m a pagan, do you? I’ve been baptized!!"
What was that man thinking? Is getting baptized like getting a polio shot? Instead of immunizing us against disease, does Baptism immunize us from eternal damnation? Is Baptism suppose to be some magical act that zaps us forever into the arms of a loving God, no matter what we choose to do with our lives? I think not. Skarsten says: "It does no good to tell an unrepentant and unbelieving person ’You have been baptized,’ thereby giving the impression that God’s grace will make everything all right.
That is like giving a sleeping pill to a comatose patient. We need to get rid of the deadly notion that all baptized people are children of God and heirs of eternal life."
I am not making personal judgments here about your faith, your salvation. I leave that up to God. I would like to ask you to think about your relationship with Christ. Do you value it? Or, do you take it for granted? Is it something you can take or leave as you wish? Do you look at Christ’s salvation as something which does not affect your everyday living? Are you living the fruits of the Spirit as described in Galatians? If all baptized people value the gift of salvation; why are our churches so empty? Why don’t people come Sunday after Sunday to praise, worship and thank God for this valuable gift?
Maybe salvation is not as valuable as we think? Maybe we are looking at it as something cheap. Cheap grace as Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes it in his book "The Cost of Discipleship"
" is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
On the other hand:
"Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
Costly grace is the living word, the Word of God. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.
Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
How is it with you?? IS GRACE COSTLY OR CHEAP??
amen
