Romans 3:19-28
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. 27Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law
Today is Reformation day, the day that marks when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses, or complaints, onto the door to the church in Wittenberg. He had several issues with how the church was operating, including the powers of the Pope and the selling of indulgences, which were supposed to free loved ones from purgatory or forgive the sins of the living. These indulgences supposed that the Pope had the power of God and chose not to use it lovingly to bring about freedom from suffering and death and that money could buy off God. These actions by the church did not flow from Luther’s understanding of the scriptures, especially considering today’s second reading from Romans, which shows that we are forgiven by God not through our own works and deeds, but rather by the righteousness of God, and so he asked the hard questions. This led to him being excommunicated by the church, called a heretic, and people were told that if they killed him, the church would have no problem with it and it would not be a sin.
Luther’s reaction? He burned the documents excommunicating him and he translated the Bible from Latin, the language of the scholars, to German, so the people could read and hear the Bible in their own language. Thus, the people were able to know what was in the Bible and be able to examine it and ponder it themselves. This is one of the great gifts of the Lutheran church, that the people are given the opportunity, and are expected, to study for themselves and are given the freedom to question those who lead the church.
Luther also created a new liturgy for the church, called the German Mass. Instead of the service being led only by the priest and a select few who did all the chanting and assisting, only the priest getting both the bread and the wine, and the service being done in Latin, once again keeping the people ignorant of what was actually going on in the service, the people got to sing and take an active part worship service and take consume both the bread and the wine. The word liturgy itself translates into “the work of the people” and Luther took this very seriously, which is why the people were given the opportunity to fulfill the various parts of worship and sing the hymns and parts of the liturgy, instead of solely trained professionals being allowed to do so.
Another of Luther’s changes greatly affected my life and sure makes me happier to be a Lutheran minister – He said that pastors were allowed to marry, since he pointed out it was biblical for pastors to marry and it defied God for them to vow to not marry. I know that if I had to make such a vow, I probably would not be standing before you today, so thank God for Luther.
But Luther’s greatest gift to the church and to all Christians is the idea of grace, which he picked up from reading our text from Romans today. Instead of focusing on having to do and say the exact right things all the time and believing that it was the ritual that saved us, as though worship was a sacrifice instead of a joyful giving to God, and instead of focusing on every little error and sin that we commit, which caused Luther quite a few meltdowns and long, boring confessions, Luther pointed out that God loves us all freely and forgives us all our sins and promises eternal life to each of us due to our relationship to God, being God’s children. We all fall short and all of us are sinners, but each of us is saved because of God’s righteousness, not because of our own worthiness. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we are from or anything else. It doesn’t matter if we are white, black, Latino, Asian, or Middle Eastern, rich, poor, or middle class, straight or gay, republican, democrat, green party, or independent, male or female, clergy or laity, or anything else. None of us, absolutely none of us are worthy of getting anything from God, let alone forgiveness and salvation. Yet we are gifted it by our loving God. No matter how badly we screw up or how much we argue with God, we are given a gift because of Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s love for us. And no matter how much we give away, no matter how much we pray or how much we study or anything, none of us is worthy of God’s grace. It is not our work; we do absolutely nothing that earns us salvation or God’s love. All we do is exist. This is why we baptize infants, because they can do absolutely nothing that would earn them anything. Instead, we are gifted the Holy Spirit when the only skill that we have is crying for attention. That is what our faith is, a gift from God, a gift that shows us that no matter how bad life gets, no matter how deep we are in the gutter, God is there loving us and caring for us.
Now, this is not to say that we are free from following the law of God and going around destroying the planet and robbing people to get what we want. While Luther did say “Sin Boldly,” that is not what he meant. While we may be justified by faith apart from our works of the law, the law is a gift from God as well which instructs us on how we are to live in a manner that is not only pleasing to God, but also in a way that allows us to form and maintain right relationships with one another, as well as live in a community together. In fact, Christ makes it a point to not only lift up the Law but also expand upon it in the Sermon on the Mount, so we cannot say that we are to ignore it. No, instead we are called to not only live by the letter of the law, but also to live by the Spirit of the law, and live according to the Spirit that God has placed in us. It is the law that also forces us to recognize that we are sinful people, we are not the perfect embodiment of goodness that we would like to imagine ourselves to be. The law is a mirror that allows us to see us as we truly are. It films us in HD and causes us to see every little pore and ever little defect on our being, each of which is caused by Sin, the times where we thought too highly of ourselves or thought only of ourselves or put an idol ahead of God, whether it be wealth or our nation, or even our families. The law, which can be boiled down to “Love God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” forces us to look upon ourselves and see all that we have done which has tarnished the name of God and the damage that we have done to God’s creation and to all of our fellow children of God. This knowledge makes it all the more powerful when we find that God takes us as we are and scrubs all that grime and filth off of us and makes us brand new, so that we may join Him for all eternity. It is through God, and only through God, that we are able to live life according to that law and truly glorify our creator. We cannot will ourselves into being good, we are simply not strong enough, but with God, and only through the power of God, we are able to achieve amazing things, changing the world around us for the better.
These changes are both very focused in scope, as well as very broad. It is in helping to comfort someone who mourns the loss of a loved one, both those that we know and those that we have never met, such as the families of soldiers who receive letters from our congregation.. It is the giving food to the Way Station, in order that people who otherwise would starve are filled with good food. It is in sharing your story of faith with friends and acquaintances who have a need for grace in their lives, in knowing the love of God that passes all understanding. It is the strength to fight against injustice, no matter how impossible the odds may be. And in all of this, and the many other ways that God acts through us, may we give glory to God and not to ourselves, for there is no room for boasting in God’s kingdom.
So we do not celebrate the man Luther this day, but rather we celebrate the return of the focus being put on grace, on God speaking through a German monk to His people, allowing them to hear once again that we are made perfect by God, not by our own works, and we are free from Sin due to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are now free from fear and are promised that we shall share in Christ’s eternal life, so let us not waste our time with boasting or with ill will towards our fellow brothers and sisters, no matter what denomination or faith, but let us rejoice that we are loved by our eternal, loving King, saved through His Son, and empowered by His Spirit.
Thanks be to God,
Amen
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