The Commemoration of the Reformation – October 31, 2021
Psalm 34; Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28
St.
John 8: 31-36
In
the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
It is very tempting to turn the
Commemoration of the Reformation into a worship of the heroic Luther. It is
good, right, and salutary to learn about the history of our faith. The
Reformation was the most significant event in the western church since the Second
Council of Nicaea, and Martin Luther was the instrument, chosen by God, to
spark that Reformation. Luther was a theological genius. He was a prolific
writer. He knew how to strike out against the proud sinner and console the
suffering conscience.
There were those in the Church who
taught the same doctrines as Luther before him, but none who stood against the
Pope in the same way; none who have endured the test of history; none who have
inspired centuries of Christians to focus on the Word of God alone as the
revelation of their salvation in Christ alone. Thanks be to God that he saw fit
to use the sinful lips of an Augustinian monk to reform Christ’s Church and
return the Bride of Christ to her first love – Jesus Christ.
But
if we allow our minds to focus the history of the Reformation on the person of
Martin Luther, we are no better than the Medieval Roman Catholic Church who
worshiped the saints. If today we sing the praises of Martin Luther as having
worked to reform the Church by his own means, then we may as well pray to St.
Jude that all children who have renounced the faith return home.
“If you abide in my Word, you are my
disciples indeed. And you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you
free.”[1] Our Lord is speaking these words to
the Jews who had believed in him. These are the ones who heard the Word of God
and were amazed. Their intellects were intrigued by the teaching of this one
who taught not as the Pharisees but with authority. They are standing in the
place of the Medieval Church and Christians of all time who hear preaching
which pricks their consciences but do not yet understand.
And yet these Jews could not help
themselves but lie. “We have never been enslaved to anyone.”[2] They make this statement during the
Festival of Booths, that occasion where the people of God recalled the
deliverance from slavery in Egypt by the hand of God. They have not
forgotten their own history. Rather, Christ’s admonition to abide in his word
has pricked their consciences. The Law of God has struck their hearts. They
have not abided in God’s Word. They have not familiarized themselves with the basic
teachings of the Scriptures. They have not treated the Word of God as being
spoken to them by the lips of their heavenly Father.
The immediate reaction of these Jews to such an accusation of the Law is to lie. “We’ve never been enslaved – not in our lifetime, nor our father’s, nor ever since the time of Abraham. We’ve never been enslaved physically, nor spiritually enslaved to the worship of a false God. Why would we need to be set free?”
There is an inherent temptation to
everyone who belongs to a historic, or traditional church. The temptation is
that whatever occurred in the life of the church during the time most
significant to me is the purest form of the Church. For many of us, it might
look like our childhood. The way our childhood church was conducted is the
height of Lutheranism. Perhaps it was during our middle age, when we had a
close group of friends in the church – that was the height of Lutheranism.
Perhaps we are tempted by descriptions of history. The way Luther conducted the
service, THAT was the height of Lutheranism.
All are error and all are sin. They are
sinful because they rely on the actions of humans to determine the height of
the Truth of the Word of God. Christ is calling us to abide in his Word, and
this Word is Truth, and this Truth shall make you free. There is nothing new
under the sun. There were just as many erring pastors in the age of Martin
Luther as there are today. There were just as many sinners in the Church of the
fourth century as there are in the twenty-first. The ideal Church is not found
on earth, it is found in the worship of heaven. It is found in the Word of God.
It is easy on a day celebrating the
Reformation to claim, “We are Lutherans, sons and daughters of Pure Doctrine.
We’ve never been enslaved to anyone!” Especially for those of us raised in the
church. You likely cannot remember a time before your Baptism. You cannot
remember a time when you were a slave to sin who did not know “Jesus Loves Me.”
The memory of man is short and just as likely to lie as remember anything at
all. All men are conceived in iniquity and born in sin. You were born as a
child of wrath.
Jesus gently rebukes these Jews and
tells them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of
sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever.”[3] To sin against the Word of God by
ignoring it or preferring the desires of your own flesh, wraps a chain of
bondage around you. The more you struggle against the Word of God, the more you
give in to your flesh – be it neglecting the Word of God, hating your neighbor,
or lying against your conscience – the tighter the chains become and the easier
it is to sin. Sin becomes your habitus, your way of life.
No matter the “purity” of your church,
no matter the warm feelings your church family may give you, no matter how
Christian you feel – sin makes you a slave. The slave of sin may dwell in the
House of the Lord for a time. He may dwell in the House of the Lord his entire
life on earth. But the slave of sin will not dwell in the House of the Lord for
eternity. The slave of sin will be cast out into hell.
There is, however, an important
distinction to be made. Our Lord says, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”
We are born slaves to sin, and all unbelievers are slaves still. They are
slaves by nature. “But a son abides forever.”[4] The Christian is a son by nature. In
Holy Baptism, you were adopted as a child of the Heavenly Father, an heir of
the Kingdom of God. You are a child of heaven. Children of the Father remain in
the House of the Lord forever!
The Christian is not a slave to sin by
nature but to continue in sin, to commit sin returns you to a life of slavery.
The chains of your bondage have been removed by the cleansing flood of Baptism
and yet to return to sin, as a dog returns to vomit, is to once again pick up
your chains and wrap them around your wrists. It is for this reason we, whose
conscience has been made clean, must flee from sin. We must abhor sin. We must
be disgusted by sin. And when you find the steel links tightening their grip
upon you, hardening your conscience and weighing down your soul, seek relief. Seek
relief in repentance. Seek relief in the Word of God. Seek relief in confessing
your sins. Seek relief in the Words of the Holy Absolution, proclaimed by the
Pastor with his hands upon your head. Then, the chains will release their grip,
climb the arms of your Pastor, sail past his shoulders and onto the shoulders
of Christ.
“If
the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”[5] Jesus Christ, True God and True Man
has set you free by his Blood. He who knew no sin, humbled himself to be bound
with the chains you deserve. He wrapped himself in the chains of your sin and
bore them to the cross. Those chains, your chains, weighed him down such that
the torture of crucifixion, usually lasting hours, if not days, took only three
hours to kill him. The weight of the sin of the world is great and it was born
by Christ.
This same Christ rose from the dead to
make you free. He bore the chains of your sin into the grave so that in his Resurrection,
he could break the chains of your bondage. The Son has made you free in his
death and Resurrection. This freedom was then delivered to you in your Holy
Baptism. You have been made free indeed.
This freedom is not the freedom of this world. Especially as Americans, we think of freedom as freedom of opportunity, if not freedom of outcome. We think of freedom to act as we please and then the freedom to endure the consequences, be they positive or negative. This is not the freedom of God. American freedom is freedom of the flesh and the flesh profits nothing.
The freedom won for you by Christ is
the freedom from sin such that you are free to serve God and neighbor. The
freedom won for you by Christ is the freedom to live as a child of God. You do
not need to obey the Law of God under the threat of losing your salvation. As a
child of God, you have the Law of God to teach you how to live in your freedom.
When you abuse that freedom, when you return to your flesh, then the Law once
again pierces your heart and accuses you of sin. On this side of glory, such
will always be the case.
Yet the New Man wrought within us by
the death of Christ longs to obey the Law, not out of threats, but out of love.
The New Man desires to be the ideal child of God. This is the man who has been
set free by the son and is free indeed. He is free to submit himself to God, to
his Law, and to his Love.
This freedom of Christ is also a
freedom to recognize the work of the Holy Ghost within his saints. It is by
this freedom that we recognize what a miracle was wrought in Martin Luther.
Only by the working of God and the incredible, heroic faith bestowed upon that
lowly friar, was Luther able to accomplish any of what he did. Today, we reap
the benefits of what God did through Martin Luther and we give thanks that the
Lord saw fit to bless us in this way.
In
T Jesus’ name. Amen.
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