Reformation Sunday

Summary

Today is Reformation Sunday, the Sunday of the year when we take the time to look back at history, and to get a glimpse of where we have come from as the church, both Protestant and Catholic.  Yet I believe that it is also a time for us to take a look at where God wants to take us in the future, as individual people in our own lives, and as Christ’s body, the church.

This year is special of course, for it was 500 years ago this Tuesday, that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and thus set in motion the events that we now call the Reformation. Luther’s 95 Theses were the starting argument in a public debate, the result of which was the splitting of the Western church into Catholic, and protest, or as we now call them, Protestant churches. It was a re-formation of the church, its dogma and theology, and a re-shuffling of the power structure in Europe, and eventually the world.

To us historians, this was a watershed moment in history, but why does it matter to us as individuals today, 500 years later?

Well, that’s what I want to talk about today. If you’re interested in learning, and seeing more, about the events from 500 years ago, come and join me this coming Saturday, down in Hanson Hall, as we watch, “Luther” the movie. I’ll share a bit of the history and theology beforehand too. But now, back to the task at hand.

You see, the church did not only need to go through a re-formation, but each of us as people goes through a re-formation and the reasons for each particular re-formation are the same, God’s grace given to us in Christ Jesus.

500 years ago Luther struggled mightily with his imperfections.  This man had given himself over to the power of the church in his pursuit of eternal life.  He lived only to try and become righteous enough in God’s eyes so as to be accepted by the Lord and so enter heaven.

Taking the vows as an Augustinian monk he lived in poverty, his days were filled with communal prayers and desperate personal ones.  He worked hard, confessed his sins, pleaded with God for the forgiveness and absolution of his sins and lived in despair of ever being good enough to earn God’s love.  This man’s life was torturous for he constantly lived in fear of God’s anger and wrath, for he could only see God as judge and executioner.  Years were spent pleading for the Lord’s mercy and yet only expecting the Lord’s condemnation.  Martin Luther lived in a terrible fear of God.

That is, until he had the chance to really read and study God’s word, the Bible.  When he was sent to study the word and prepare to teach it, his understanding of the scriptures blossomed and when he began to read the book of Romans his belief in God’s nature radically changed.  No longer did he see God as judge, but rather as gracious Savior.

Martin Luther came to realize that Jesus had come to give new life to humankind, not simply to judge and condemn.  Luther’s world was turned upside down when he came to see that we don’t achieve righteousness, but rather are given salvation through our faith.

Luther was not unlike most of us.  We realize that we aren’t righteous, or holy enough for God, and we react, either attempting to live more righteously so as to earn God’s love and attention, or we decide to give up on God.  We each add our own individual twist to the whole thing, but we’re all pretty similar in our reactions to God.

And that’s why God’s grace continually blows people out of the water, humankind just doesn’t get it.  God’s grace is a hard thing to comprehend.

In our world, there is very little that is given freely.  Either you earn what you get, or it’s given in such a way that you are made to feel as if it’s given for pity’s sake.  And then the receiver practically feels as if the gift did have a price, their personal shame.

But God does things differently, and we see the promise of this in the book of Jeremiah where he prophesies, “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

God wants us to know him, truly know him, not live in utter fear of him as did Luther for so long.  God wants humanity to understand that our best interest is what he truly has at heart.  God has always wanted us to know the love he has for us. And, what better way to show that, other than to forgive our sins and forget them forevermore.

But God knew that we needed even more convincing than that, God understood that as the wary and unbelieving people that we are, we needed to feel God’s love in personal relationship.  We needed to experience, to see and hear how much God loves us, and so Jesus came to dwell amongst us.  Jesus came to touch and open our blind eyes, to speak and clear our deaf ears, to touch and melt our hard hearts, he came to help us feel God’s love.

Early on Luther only understood God as disciplinarian and judge.  Love was not a word that Luther associated with God.  And that was the way of it with most people in his time.  God was to be feared for he could and would very easily send you to the fiery furnaces of hell.  The only way to avert this was to either become righteous enough in God’s eyes, or find a way to buy your way out of hell.  Some attempted the first, most tried for the second.

The problem was, neither way worked and both left people in despair, and practically no one understood that God came so we could experience his love.

That all started to change when Luther read the book of Romans.  Paul’s writings in Romans literally stunned him and changed his life.  Imagine viewing God simply as the one who judges you for your sins and is ready to send you to hell, because you aren’t righteous, and then hearing these verses from Romans, “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”

When Luther read these verses and then read them again, his entire understanding of God was transformed.  God wasn’t out to get us, but rather had given everything so that all we needed to was believe.  Luther realized that Jesus is righteousness in our place.  He achieves what we can’t, and gives us what we need, his love.

This is what so much of the world still doesn’t know.  God isn’t out to get us, but rather is out to love us.  He loves us as the imperfect sinners that we are.

This reminds me of the story of Nicky Cruz.  I read his book, “Run Baby, Run” many times when I was younger.  Nicky was a kid lost to the slums of N.Y. City in the nineteen-fifties.  Kicked out of every home he ever had, because of his anger, he eventually found a “home” in the Mau-Mau street gang.  He was so violent and ruthless that he quickly became their feared leader.

Nicky dealt with everyone out of suspicion and with condemnation, it was the only way he had ever known.  His dad had treated him that way, and every other authority figure in his life had too.  Nicky acted as if he hated the world.

Then David Wilkerson walked into his life, sought him out actually.  Wilkerson had heard of Nicky and wanted Nicky to see that there was someone who loved him, and it wasn’t necessarily David Wilkerson, but Jesus.

This meeting between David and Nicky was the start of the re-formation in Nicky’s life.  Through his relationship with David Wilkerson, Nicky came to see that God wasn’t out to get him like everyone else, but was out to show him that he loved him.  Nicky soon turned his back on the world of violence and learned about genuine relationship built on truth and love.  In his newfound faith in Jesus he was set free from his bondage to sin.  As our last verse from John today reads, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

Now I know we aren’t ruthless gang leaders, and we aren’t necessarily called to go and speak to ruthless gang leaders, but God is asking us to share who he is with others.  As each day we experience the ongoing reformation of our own lives through our relationship with Jesus, so we can, and we must share that same love and experience with others around us.  And as with Nicky and David, entering into relationship, into friendship is the best way to share how God lives in our lives. In friendship, others can see the genuine us, and believe that it is not us, but God’s love at work in us that makes the difference.

Remember, God’s reformation work in each of us, is ongoing throughout our entire lives.  Each day is a new dawning, a new opportunity to speak and listen in your relationship with God.  Capture those moments when you can go before God in prayer, with the reading of scripture and the taking of time to listen.  Then you will be prepared, for your day, for your life and for the sharing of God’s love.

Amen.

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