Tag: Reformation Sunday

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Reformation Sunday

Readings: Revelation 14:6-7 | Romans 3:19-28 | Matthew 11:12-19

Text: Matthew 11:12-19

Theme: The Reformation is about the natural beauty of hearing the Word of Christ in faith.

They’re on the side of your head, but they don’t often get much attention (unless something is wrong with them). But on this commemoration of the Reformation, let us focus on the human ear.

I. Different human ears:

a. The ear with the kind of piercings that would shock your grandmother. This is the Reformation understood as breaking away from the powers that be. Luther is the epitome of the “little guy” who stands up against the mighty and he triumphs. He is the German national hero who broke the chains of the Roman papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.

The “freedom” of the Reformation means that no one can stand in the way between me and God. This is the way I am, and God better accept me. No one can tell me how I am to worship, with all the anarchy that invites.

b. The ear with ear buds in. This is the freedom of the Reformation, to interpret the Bible on my own terms. You choose what comes in and cancel out any “noise.”  The Bible becomes a private, self-chosen book of belief. One of the sad outcomes was the magisterium was replaced with each individual Christian being his or her own “pope.” 

c. The ear with beautiful, tasteful gold earrings. Consider the impact of the Reformation on art. One can take pleasure in the music, visual arts, and architecture. J.S. Bach, one of the greatest musicians of the baroque period. Beautiful and colorful stained glass that glisten in the sun and fill the sanctuary with rich colors, depicting beautiful scenes. Grand sanctuaries that have beautiful chancels and high altars which fill one with awe. But while these all have pleasing aesthetics, if the focus is on the human achievement, the Gospel is missing.

This persists in our own day when church music is judged on the basis of how it makes you feel, more than what is being prayed or confessed in the words.

II. The ear, unadorned, unobstructed, in the beauty which God gave.

a. Our Lord says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  This is what the ear was made for: to receive the Word of God, and the heart to receive it in faith.

b. John & Elijah are evoked because they were instruments of the Lord directing His people back to the hearing of His Word in obedience and faith. Contrast Ahab and the Pharisee’s response to Elijah/John: “When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’” and “When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.” (1 Kings 18:17; Luke 7:29-30)

c. The Reformation was about this: The beauty of hearing the Word of God in faith. True freedom is given by this, not breaking earthly bonds. True understanding is given by the Holy Spirit on God’s terms, that we may repent and believe in Jesus, clinging to Him through all. True beauty springs from this Gospel, not the other way around.

III. The necessity for ear care.

a. Lest it be clogged with wax. Discernment is good just as ear wax keeps out foreign objects, but an excess can cause hearing loss. Dr. David Scaer: “I hate Lutheranism!”  A few examples:

i. The idolizing of Martin Luther and imitating him and quoting him excessively.

ii. The devotion to all things labelled Lutheran tradition, as in “This is the way we’ve always done it and how dare you question if the tradition is edifying or the interpretation is faithful to Scripture.”

III. Finally, “I learned that once upon a time in Catechism, and now I never need to learn again.”

IV. Lest the ear be neglected and dirty.

a. Magnifying the freedom of the Gospel can lead to trivializing the Word of God and treating the holy as profane. We must watch out for this in an age where all kinds of other traditions are criticized (especially since Christianity is in a villainized category today). Here, we do well to look to our fathers and mothers in the faith, who revered the Word of God as holy, saw the benefit of piety, and handed these rich practices to us in our own fleeting age.

~ The Reformation reminds us how all things depend on the faithful hearing of God’s Word. This is His gift to sinners, that with ears that hear, we may rejoice with tongues that confess, throats that sing, and lives that profess His grace and riches given to us. May the Lord who opens deaf ears, clothes us with pure garments, and renews our hearts so bless us in this true faith. In the Name + of Jesus.

Amen.

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Reformation Sunday (John 8:31-36)

Albrecht Durer - The Crucifixion (1498)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR

Reformation Sunday + October 27, 2019

Text: John 8:31-36

We’re accustomed to evaluating things on the basis of what we can see.  If you go to the dentist, how good or bad your teeth are can be observed.  If you’re buying a house, the home inspector looks for red flags of what could be a serious issue.

But how can you tell if someone is a slave?  You’d look for a master, a contract establishing their right of control, some kind of power relationship of obedience that they’re locked into.  What if you can’t see these things with your eyes or feel them with your heart…or what if you can sense them, but you don’t know what to call it?  That’s the way it is with slavery to sin. There are no signs that are obvious to us, except the one that comes too late to do anything about, which is death.

Jesus speaks to those who believed in Him, but they are still very weak in that faith.  Jesus offers liberty, and they say they’re already free. On what basis do they say that?  Because they don’t have a master to face with threats and whips? Are they free in that they decide where to go and what to do?  What they don’t yet understand is that every person is born a slave with sin and the devil as their masters. How can you know this?  There may be signs here and there—a bad behavior you can’t kick, periods of doubt, various ways you’ve hurt others. But only a holy God can truly expose your slavery, and He does that by His Word.

The Reformation was a glorious event in Church history because, together with the Printing Press, it meant that more people than ever before would be able to read God’s Word for themselves.  Sometimes this is pictured as a great “liberation” from the hierarchy and control of the Roman church. But in fact, it meant greater liberation from sin and the devil’s absolute power over humanity.  Romans 5:14 says, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.” This reign of death was disrupted because God gave Moses the Law, the holy Word which exposes and identifies the marks of sin’s bondage.  Death reigns through the ignorance of God’s Word, and reigns unchallenged, so long as we believe the scientists today who tell us life is no more than chance chemical reactions.

When the whole Word of God was put into the hands of many, it had a liberating effect.  It exposed the ungodliness of paying indulgences for forgiveness, refusing people the Blood of Christ in Communion, praying to the saints, forbidding marriage to priests, requiring penitents to list every sin in confession, and compelling people to fast on certain days. The Reformers studied the Scriptures and found that in fact they preached against putting our trust in man’s works or teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.  “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!”

It’s easier to put your finger on what bondage is once you’re freed from it.  Take, for instance, when the children of Israel were brought through the Red Sea.  They had languished under heavy burdens laid on them by cruel Pharaoh, and now they were freed—The Song of Moses declares, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” (Exodus 15:1)

Yet, three days into their wilderness journey, those same people started complaining: “The people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Ex. 17:24)…[and about a month and a half later:] “The whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” (Ex. 17:2-3) Even though they had been loosed from Pharaoh’s yoke, they still found themselves slaves. Not slaves to a master they could point at and blame, but slaves to their own passions within them.  They truly were slaves to sin.

Likewise, Christians freed from the yoke of the papacy found that they were still slaves.  Certainly, they were free from the fear of purgatory and mandates about fast days and confession. Yet, having the Scriptures in our own hands exposes much sin in each of us.  We justify ourselves against the Law, and sometimes claim that’s just man’s opinion. Now that we’re not compelled by force and guilt-trips to go to Mass, our laziness and neglect of our spiritual wellbeing is evident.  “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”  We were freed from heavy manmade burdens, and found that we were still yoked to Master Sin.  

“But if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” We’ve often heard this in our country: ‘Freedom is not free.’ How much truer this is of freeing slaves to sin.  The Son of God did not set you free by merely speaking a royal decree. He bought your freedom—“The Son of Man came to serve and give His life as a ransom for the many.” (Matt. 20:28)  He is both God’s Passover lamb who shed His blood to buy our release, and the firstborn son who died that sons of Israel might live (Ex. 12:29—13:1).  Yet all this, He did in love toward you, when you were still slaves, still His enemies (Rom. 5:10).

But that freedom is not as the world views and abuses freedom—using it as an excuse to do whatever you want.   The freedom which the Son gives you will cost you your life. Yes, your life: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)  The Son hasn’t just freed you and let you loose; He has freed you from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

In Romans 6, St. Paul writes, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:15-18)

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  This is the freedom of a Christian.  You are not freed to serve yourself, but to serve God and your neighbor.  But if, in this life, we find ourselves still slaves of sin, we should not despair as though this Word of God were not true.  “You will be truly free,” the Lord says.  As with all the words of Christ about us, it’s a statement that is true, and effective through faith.

“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.”  The slave He is talking about here is your sinful flesh, the heart from which proceeds all manner of evil.  It does not remain forever, dear Christian. You are free from its power over you in death. “The son remains forever”—“For if we have been united with him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Rom. 6:5)

But even while you are harassed by our former masters, you have freedom from them.  Your Lord and Master says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  The Word of God definitely had the power to expose slavery, but even more it displays Christ’s glorious saving work.  In that, it has the power to set you free. “Abide in My Word,” your Lord says.  Immerse yourself in it, as David says in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law [instruction] of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Ps. 1:1-2)  If you desire this freedom, hold this word sacred, and gladly hear it and learn it.  It is your very life, for everything else will not remain forever.

Thank God that we live in the wake of the Reformation because the Word of God is in our hands, in plain English.  Avail yourself of it, and by God’s power, pray that you may overcome the slothfulness of your flesh!

We are at the same time son and sinner, saint and sinner.  But we live as those who are free from sin, if not always in fact, certainly in faith.  May the Son, who through His almighty Word freed you from sin, death, and the power of the devil, keep you as His disciples today and to eternity. Amen!

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Reformation Sunday (Matt. 11:12-19)

Bethlehem Lutheran & Bethel Lutheran, Lebanon & Sweet Home, OR

Reformation Sunday + October 28, 2018

Text: Matt. 11:12-19

In the 1730’s, there began a movement in the Colonies that was later called The Great Awakening.  It came with convincing preachers, stirred spirits, changed morals, and huge revival meetings.  It transformed the religious and moral landscape of the soon-to-be American colonies.  Some even consider the religious fervor it ignited as one of the causes of the American Revolution.  It had a huge impact, but the effects eventually wore off.  By 1790, there was a Second Great Awakening, filled with a whole new round of hellfire and brimstone sermons, new converts, and more moral reform.  This too, faded away until there was a Third Great Awakening in the 1850s.

This pattern of revival and indifference is nothing new to the church on earth.  There is a tide that ebbs and flows of reform and unfaithfulness that washes through the generations of the fallen sons of men.  So, on this Reformation Sunday, we will consider the wisdom the Lord Himself teaches about the success of His Word in the hearts of mankind.

The very first big reform for the Church happened in the Exodus.  The descendants of Jacob were suffering under the yoke of slavery in Egypt.  God sent them Moses to deliver them with mighty acts of judgment against Pharaoh and Egypt’s idols.  In the very first Passover, all of Israel carefully obeyed the Lord’s instructions, and they were preserved from the final plague of death of the firstborn [Ex. 12:23].  Moses brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground, and the sons of Israel became a people for God’s treasured possession [Ex. 19:5].  The whole assembly took part in God’s rescue, as St. Paul much later wrote, “Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink”[1]  But that ideal picture of God’s people didn’t last long.  They soon succumbed to grumbling against God, rejecting His called servants [Ex. 16], and even outright pagan worship practices [Ex. 32].

This cycle of faithfulness and apostasy continued, generation after generation.  There were glimpses of a perfect company of God’s people, and then hopes would be dashed.  It even seemed that some final victory had come under the reigns of King David, and his son, Solomon.  But even their reigns came to an end in division among God’s people.[2]

            When John the Baptist finally appeared in the wilderness, a reformation of a different kind erupted.  It wasn’t different because of the participants, because they were just as sinful and stiff-necked.  It was different because of what the Lord Himself was going to do.

“12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Evangelist Matthew tells us earlier, “Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to [John], and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”[3]  Even the Pharisees and Sadducees went out to the big revival at the Jordan.  It appeared that all of Israel was in the process of a final reform.  John really was the Elijah to come, of whom the Prophet Malachi spoke: “5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”[4]

            It seemed even more like that was the case once John announced, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[5]  Great crowds flocked to Jesus and followed Him as He preached and healed, and countless people were forgiven of their sins, healed of their diseases, and cleansed of their leprosy. 

            Yet, even during His ministry, there was the old familiar unbelief.  It may have been that many followed Jesus, but it didn’t continue like that. That happened after the Feeding of the 5,000.  That massive crowd, after listening to Him teach more, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”[6]  To which Jesus added the still more unpalatable word: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”  And at that, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”[7]

            So, what is reformation about, if not numbers and success stories?  If it isn’t about the droves of partially, temporarily cleaned up sinners, then what?  Reformation is about what the Church has always been built on: the pure preaching of God’s Word.  Our Lord says in the Gospel,

“To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,      17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”[8]

Yes, there were great crowds who followed Jesus and believed in Him.  But that isn’t reformation in the Lord’s sight.  The kind of reform which God has always been after is those who listen to His Word, not those whose hearts are far from Him.  The real reformations which cause joy before God’s throne take place every time a sinner repents.[9]  That’s when His Word accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it.[10]

            This kind of reformation is based on faith, and continues by the work of the Holy Spirit, when and where it pleases God (John 3:8).  There may be a huge initial response, and the appearance of the whole world being converted, but those things will pass.  What was visible for a time will become invisible.  Yet, the reformation will continue in those who “have ears to hear” (v. 15).

Surely this is disappointing to witness, especially as we sit in naves (sanctuaries) that are far from filled to capacity.  But this doesn’t mean the purpose of the Lord is not and has not been fulfilled.  When I talk to people who haven’t been at church for a while, they ask me, how’s the attendance at church?  Stupid me, I give them numbers.  As if the attendance numbers really said anything about the Church, the creation of Holy Spirit.

The trouble is, we are so susceptible to thinking of the Church in terms of our work.  After all, the devotion is ours, our hands did the work, and we’re the ones who have spent time in and among this congregation.  I mean, I wrote this sermon.  There’s a certain comfortability with measuring the success or failure of the Church in things that can be observed and quantified.  So, if the attendance is down or the finances aren’t what we expect, it’s so easy to think that we’ve failed.  Why won’t people come to our church?  When it gets really bad, we start pointing fingers and assigning blame.  As the Lord’s servant, it’s my duty to tell you that is a losing game.  Losing not just in the sense that it might become a failed venture, but if that’s the aim of our hearts, then we are likely thinking of it as something besides Christ’s Church, a visible gathering of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Think about it this way: On the Last Day, what is the Lord going to say as He welcomes His own into glory?  “Well done, you made the church grow threefold…you got 3/5 of your grandkids to come to church…”  No, He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt. 25:21)  He calls each of us to faithfulness as servants.  God grant that our labors be done in service to Him, because He will give the increase as He sees fit.  So, for us servants, we need to stop worrying about attendance numbers and quit fretting over sustainability for individual congregations.  Because it’s His Church and His work, it might go in a direction we don’t expect—even down—and that’s fine, so long as we have been faithful servants.

What truly matters is God the Holy Spirit gathering the faithful around their Lord, and He will do that in spite of all earthly obstacles.  He will do that when and where it pleases God.  All of the praise and the success belongs not to us; it belongs to Him!

            Twelve years ago, on Reformation Sunday, a revival and reformation happened in a man who grew up knowing nothing of God and His Son.  Although several times the Word came to him, he was unmoved.  But in God’s timing, that man came to know the Lord and he confessed his faith before Trinity Lutheran Church in Bellingham, Washington.  Again, by God’s continued grace and the powerful working of His Spirit, that man stands before you as your pastor.

            This Reformation Sunday, we are privileged to witness the Word of the Lord at work in the hearts of Jerimiah and Natasha, as they will soon publicly declare their allegiance to Christ their Lord and in His continued grace, pledge their ongoing faithfulness to Him.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

“12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  The Kingdom of heaven will continue to advance in the hearts of those who receive it.  Whether it is visible for a time, or hidden from our sight, God’s will is done in every generation until our hopes are fulfilled when He comes again and makes all things new. Amen.

[1] 1 Cor. 10:1-4, emphasis added

[2] 1 Kings 1 and 12

[3] Matt. 3:5-6

[4] Mal. 4:5-6

[5] John 1:29

[6] John 6:60

[7] John 6:63, 66

[8] v. 16-19

[9] Luke 15:7

[10] Isaiah 55:10-11