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.
Happy
Reformation day! Hard to believe that is
has been nearly 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on that door
in Wittenberg. Nearly 500 years since
there was a firestorm in the Christian world, where a person was successful in
leading a large break from the Catholic faith, and managed to live to talk
about it. It was a perfect storm, with
the arrival of the printing press and a ruler who was willing to protect the
reformer. Nearly 500 years since Luther
had the strength to take a stand for what He believed in. And Luther did a great many things and helped
us to return to our scriptural roots and freed the laity to read the Bible for
themselves and to worship in the people’s tongue instead of in Latin.
And
we have inherited from him not only our name, but many of our core beliefs and
we owe Luther a great deal of gratitude.
And yet we are not still in 1500s Germany. Things change, because God is always doing a
new thing, always reforming us. Each
day, even though we fall short, God reforms us into saints, reforms us into His
beloved children instead of the flawed, sinful human beings that we are. Each day we are cleansed by the waters of
Baptism and made new. So often we can
see god as only being in the past, in the creation of the world, in the saving
works of Christ, and in the reformation of Luther. But the reality is that God is active each
and every day of our lives. Every day
God is active with us and calls us to reformation.
And
we are reformed when we have faith, true faith.
For faith is not just some intellectual exercise in saying “Jesus died
on the cross for my sins and therefore I am saved” but instead is an active
part of our lives, for faith is putting our trust into someone or something. And having faith in God is difficult. It is hard to trust, hard to let go of
control, hard to live our lives as God desires instead of our own will. It is hard to be reformed, especially because
we cling onto our pasts so often and want to try to recreate them, instead of
allowing God to do new things with us. We forget our Baptisms and our Communion and
so often see them as empty ritual or a cultural obligation. We forget that God was able to use a simple
German monk to change the world, and instead focus on our perceived
powerlessness. We forget that God has
been active here, that this congregation has served people and the community
for nearly 200 years and that we have the power to serve far more than we can
possibly begin to imagine. And we forget
that the reformation has never truly ended, that God continues to create things
new each and every day, including us.
For
we are not the same congregation that we used to be. We no longer worship in the same building as
our reformed brothers and sisters. We no
longer speak German throughout our worship services. We no longer have to guard our building at
night in fear of our neighbors burning it down.
We no longer have communion only once a week and we no longer use solely
wafers. Each congregation changes as
the people change. And that is not a bad
thing. Instead, to change is to live, to
be static and stagnant is to die. So
instead we grow, we try new things and new ideas, and we seek to find where it
is that God is calling us to. We
continue to be reformed by God. Because
while our beloved, drunk german monk was a genius and was inspired by God, he
was by no means perfect and the world has changed drastically since then, and
God has done wonderful things since then as well.
And
we are called to live in this reality and in this world, that we may be a
benefit to it, that we may help to reform it.
There was another man who was named after Martin Luther, Martin Luther
King Jr. He helped to reform these
United States. Through non-violent
means, he was able to bring an inkling of God’s justice into this world,
creating closer harmony between the God’s children of various races. One man was able to help make this world a
better place because of his faith in Christ, a faith that directed his actions
and brought around peace. Even though he
was unable to see the fruition of his work, one man had the power given to him
by God to reform, to bring justice. And
we are called to the same. We are each
given power to do the will of God and to help people see the kingdom of
God.
This
power is enacted through faith, through trusting our God and living out that
trust. Too often we are stopped by
fear. Fear of rejection, fear of
resources failing us, fear of failure.
Yet when we act out of fear, we become powerless. When we act expecting to fail, we shall
fail. But when we act in faith, when we
act in trust, and when we act in order to boast of God and not ourselves, then
we shall be alive and then we shall succeed.
Now this is not prosperity gospel, that tells us that if we believe
enough and pray enough that good things will happen to us. No, there will be suffering and there will be
pain, and things do not always look like they are the best. After all, Luther had to hide in a castle
while he worked on the translation of the Bible into German and Martin Luther
King Jr. was assassinated, but in both the glorification of God was done. In both people were able to see God breaking
out into the world and bringing hope and love and compassion, instead of
judgment and wrath. And we get to
experience this all the time in our lives as Christians, which is the greatest
gift that God gives us. God gives us
freedom, freedom for fear and freedom from chasing after false idols and
freedom from rejection.
Rejoice
in your Baptism, where you died to Sin and were raised again with Christ and
are daily washed anew and made clean and pure.
Rejoice in the meal that we gather to eat today, which reminds us of
God’s sacrifice and is indeed God present with us and filling us. Rejoice in one another, as you are the body
of Christ. And be reformed, that the
righteousness of God may shine through you and God’s grace and peace may be a
beacon of light to those who cannot find their way and a warming fire to those
who are cold and lost.
Amen.
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