Reformation Sunday

Summary

The movement that came to be know as “The Reformation” caused
borders to shift, kings to fall and rise, queen’s heads to roll and mass emigrations to bring
new ideas to the “new world” of the Americas and beyond.
The fact is that Luther’s preaching and teachings ignited a maelstrom first within
the church and then in broader society.  The question is why?

The church had taught Luther that God did not easily forgive sins.  They taught
that God was a judge who was angry at his people for their sins.  He had sent his Son
Jesus to earth to forgive people, but he was angry at their continued sin.  So, humans
needed to work hard at their prayer, to ask saints for intercession with God, and most of
all they needed to attempt to live a life as close to perfection as possible.  And this is what
Martin was going to do in the monastery.

The problem that he encountered was that though he prayed hours a day and lived
a life devoid of earthly comforts, he still realized that he sinned.  He realized the
impossibility of sanctifying himself.  He became caught in the dual problem of: human
sin, and not believing that God would forgive him of his sins.  Luther just did not feel
worthy.
And then he studied the books of John, Romans and Galatians and his eyes were
opened to the reality of Christ’s relationship with him, with humanity.  Listen again to
what Jesus tells us in John, “…everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no
permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed.”
Free from what, you ask?  Free from the eternal power of sin.  Free from the fear
that comes because we sin and fear God’s judgment.  We are free from the power of the
law telling us that we will never be worthy of God’s love.
And it is not just freedom from, but freedom to be and do.  God’s Son frees us to
be the person God has created us to be.  Jesus frees us up to love, rather than to fear.
Because we cannot believe this, we ask ourselves, how can this be so?  How does
Jesus set us free?
Let’s hear from Romans again, so that we can understand.  Paul writes, “God’s
righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all whom believe…God presented
him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…For we believe that a person
is justified by faith apart from the law.”
So what does this mean for you and me?
It means that God is not expecting us to be able to fulfill the law, nor wanting us
to work our way to heaven, ‘cause we can’t.  We are sinful humans and there is no way
that we can ever be worthy enough to achieve eternal life with God.  That’s a sobering
thought isn’t it?  Thus, like Jesus said in John, “We are slaves to sin.”
We cannot escape sin’s power in our lives.  So, on our own, we’re toast.
But we are not on our own.  We are not left to die.  We are God’s beloved.
God, in the person of Jesus, came to earth to show us God’s love and then to die
as a sacrifice for our sins, in our place.  In other words, God loves us so much that God
has given us what we cannot earn, eternal life with him.  All we need is to have faith in
Jesus, and believe he has done this for us.  Then we are free to live in his forgiveness and
his love…forever.
This is the revolutionary realization that Luther had concerning God.  Martin
finally understood and believed that God loves us, simply because he loves us.  Luther
finally knew in his heart, that God’s forgiveness has nothing to do with our actions but
rather is the result of God’s love for us.  So it is that we are set free by the Son.

When the reality of God’s loving grace breaks through into our reality we are set
free.  Set free in the love of Christ. Free to love, free to forgive and free to give of all of
our many blessings.  And so our only response can be, “Thank you for your love, dear
Jesus.  Blessed be the Lord God.”

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