Reformation
“The Real Reformation”
“The Real Reformation”
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36
October 27-28, 2012
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, we celebrate the Festival of the Reformation,
which, when you think about it, is a festival that celebrates one man.
A man who was able to accomplish great things.
A man who didn’t care so much if he was politically
correct or not.
A man who taught unlike the teachers who came before
him.
A man who was single-minded and focused on his
mission.
A man who was arrested for his teaching.
A man who was hated by many, and had even friends turn
on him.
A man whose life still impacts you and me today.
And that man is Jesus Christ.
Oh, I’m sorry! Did you think I was talking about
Luther?
Don’t get me wrong! I thank God for Luther, and what
God was able to accomplish through him. And he was certainly a central figure
in the Reformation. But it’s not about him.
What Luther did (as one preacher put it) was “sweep
the cobwebs off the crucifix,” and once again proclaim Christ and Him
crucified. He restored the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church’s
proclamation.
Because sometimes, as hard as it is to believe (!),
the Church gets off track. And we need to get called back to why we’re here,
and what we’re to be about. Christ and Him crucified.
The nails pounded through the 95 Theses and into the
wooden doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg were important. But the nails
pounded through the flesh and bone of Jesus and into the wood of the cross,
even more so. For it is through the cross where true reformation takes place. The
reformation of the heart, as the Spirit sent by Jesus turns us sinners into
saints, and re-forms us into the image of Christ.
And just as the people in Jeremiah’s day, and the
people in Jesus’ day, and the people in Luther’s day, we need re-forming.
Because sin is constantly de-forming us. Because we are constantly being
con-formed to the ways of the world, and in-formed by what is not
truth. And so we always need re-forming. By the Word of God. As
individuals, and as a church.
Modernism, individualism, secularism, pietism,
rationalism, popularism, institutionalism, and all kinds of other “–isms”
seduce us away from Christ crucified, and to put our trust and our hearts in
something else. Perhaps even Lutheran-ism, if we become like the Jews in
Jesus’ day, and think: “We are offspring of Luther and have never been
enslaved to anyone . . .”
Now again, don’t get me wrong! I thank God for Luther,
and I am proud to belong to the confession of faith that is called Lutheran.
But it’s time that we asked a very Lutheran question
about being Lutheran: What does this mean?
Does being Lutheran mean following Luther?
Does being Lutheran mean not being Roman
Catholic? Sadly, that is what many think.
But rather, I think, to be Lutheran simply means this:
to be sinners re-formed by Christ crucified. Not re-formed by me, or
what I am able to do in my life. Not re-formed by my own reason or strength.
(Explanation of the 3rd Article of the Apostles Creed) And not
re-formed by what I feel in my heart. But re-formed by Christ crucified.
And so to be Lutheran means that the cross is not just
an historical moment in time, but a present reality. Re-forming us,
re-forming His Church, even today. It means that Holy Baptism is not what we
do, but is a washing away of sin because through the water and the Word, we are
joined to Christ crucified. (Romans 6) It means that the preaching of
the Gospel is not just information, or instruction, or how to live a better
life, but is the power of God (Romans 1:16) because it writes Christ
crucified on our hearts. (OT reading from Jeremiah 31) It means that Holy
Communion is not just a meal, but is the body and blood of Christ crucified,
given to us to eat and to drink, to give us His forgiveness, life, and
salvation.
And if we are joined with Christ in His crucifixion,
then we are also raised with Christ Re-formed into His image. To live a new
life. That we be no longer de-formed by sin, con-formed to the
world, or in-formed by what is not truth – but re-formed into
Christ. Christ crucified.
And so to be Lutheran also means taking Christ
crucified into the world. Wherever God has placed you, whatever you have
been given to do, surrounded by whomever. To live, as Jesus said, as one set
free by the Son. (John 8) Perfectly free. Which means that we are at one and
the same time perfectly free in faith and so subject to none, and perfectly
free in love and so subject to all. (Luther, On the Freedom of a
Christian) Using our freedom not as license, but in love. Serving, giving,
forgiving. Laying down our lives, just as Christ has done for us.
Many do not want such a life, or such a God. Preferring
a God who is instead strong and mighty, not weak and crucified. And preferring
a life for us the same. The fiction Satan would have us believe is that those
are opposites. That you cannot be both strong and weak, both mighty and
crucified. And so you must choose. But the truth that Christ crucified shows us
is that these are not opposites! And that God was never as strong as He was on
the cross. That His power is made perfect is weakness. That the Almighty God
became the Son of Man, because I am a son of man. He took flesh because I am
flesh. Born under the Law because I am under the Law. (Galatians 4) And bore my
sin on the cross. Dying, that I might live. Captive, to set me free.
To be Lutheran means that I cannot live without this
Christ. Christ crucified. I cannot truly live here and now, and I cannot live
eternally. Life apart from Christ here and now is but an imitation life. Earth
can never be Paradise. But Christ crucified, Christ arisen, and Christ ascended
means that I too have arisen and ascended. Not in the future, but already now. That
I am forgiven, now. Reconciled to God, now. At peace, now.
And no terrorists, governments, rulers, disappointments,
unfulfilled dreams, economic ruin, grief, or sickness can take that away! Or as
Luther put it: “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though
these all be gone, Our victory has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth.”
(LW #298 v.4)
Have we gotten off message? Too concerned with sound
bites, popularity, and growth? As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
shall be, I guess. We always need re-forming. We always need Christ crucified. Not
once, but always.
And so in the end, we are Lutherans for the same
reason we are Christians: by grace through faith in Christ crucified. The
Reformation is all about one man. Thanks be to God!
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
