Slogans

The Reformation produced quite a few Theological slogans: Law and Gospel, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Word Alone, Two kinds of righteousness. It is my reflection that you start with some complexity. How life actually works creates some cognitive dissonance with our story of how it works. In Luther’s case the story received was infused grace. “Martin, if you just keep on doing your Monk thing, God will continue to give you more grace. And eventually you will have made yourself a saint. And if not a saint, well, you will have done enough.” And it took someone like Martin Luther and his some might say overactive conscience to pursue that for over a decade and think “it is not, it will never be, enough.” And that is the gospel moment. That is the moment the Old Adam died. The Old Adam that was constantly working hoping to pay off the debt. This is the best of the Old Adam. And it would never be enough. So either God is cruel liar sentencing everyone to torment, or it has to be another way. I can’t merit more grace. It has to be grace alone. And it is a pure reception of the grace by faith alone. I have nothing to do with it. Christ alone has given me the victory. The New Man can rise and live.

That complexity and cognitive dissonance eventually resolves itself down to the slogan. The slogan, the simplicity on the far side of complexity – on the far side of the anfechtung, the struggle – captures it. But then as generations pass they have this slogan and often take great pride in the slogan, but often no longer understand the path to it. They have the answer, but they have forgotten the question. They have the technology, but can barely maintain it let alone create it again.

Those Reformation Slogans I think tend to walk together. If you forget one, or elevate one far above the others, things go out of whack. The gospel breakthrough of the Reformation which we eventually receive in the doctrine of Justification is the chief article. The entire church does stand or fall upon the teaching that we receive salvation by faith alone. But if we lose how that came out of Law and Gospel or a recognition of two kinds of righteousness, we slip into a different type of trouble.

“The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law (Romans 3:21).” Notice that this recognition doesn’t say there is no righteousness in the law. It is the righteousness of God that has been manifested apart from the law. The righteousness of God had been clearly manifested in the law in one way – death. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through works of the law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).” The law communicates to us the righteousness of God and that we will never reach it. It tells us all the ways we fall short. But in Christ that righteousness of God has been manifested – revealed, made known, shown – apart from the law. “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:22).” God has put forward his righteousness for all as a gift though the blood of Christ. Sinners, you without righteousness of your own, this is yours.

The righteousness of God in the law only kills us. That drives us towards the gospel for life. But that also doesn’t drain the law of all righteousness. We can’t stand before God on the basis of keeping the law. “What becomes of our boasting? It is excluded (Romans 3:27).” But there is still a civil righteousness. That law remains the law. This is how God intended people to live. And the new man who has entered the Kingdom by faith lives this way. It is the daily struggle of drowning the Old Adam and the daily renewal of the new man to live before God.

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Standing Before God

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Biblical Text: Romans 3: 19-28

I don’t often preach from the epistle texts. A part of that is that the Epistles typically lack a hard narrative. I think we as humans understand narrative – the story of a life. And we understand how God works in our lives through the narrative. The narratives that the apostles had were ancient Isreal’s, Jesus and their own. The Epistles end up being authoritative examples of how one does theology – how you proclaim doctrine from the narrative. In that way they are great at teaching, but at least to me less for preaching.

But today was Reformation Day (Observed). And there is a narrative – the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation – that ties directly into the doctrinal teachings of the Epistle lesson. This Romans passage on the Righteousness of God is what Luther was reading when he had his “tower experience.” That experience was when the gospel was cemented in his brain.

This sermon attempts to weave that narrative, and Paul’s doctrine together with how we might live our lives – how we might tell our own stories. How the righteousness of God comes to us. How it is the sure foundation. And How we might build on that.

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God’s Word is Our Great Heritage (A Reformation Day Reflection)

It’s an internet joke these days that if you identify something you don’t like you can blame it on Luther. The more ridiculous the claim, the better the joke. It’s a little like playing “Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon” that old game of connecting any actor however young, old or foreign to Kevin Bacon with a maximum of seven movies. Which itself was an absurdist take on the sociological observation that we are all within seven degrees of separation from anybody on the planet. Blame it on Luther takes a modern problem and through a Rube Goldberg string of other bad things eventually ends with ‘See Martin Luther started all bad things.” Now the Roman Catholic apologists meant it for evil, but the internet – and maybe God – has turned it into good (Genesis 50:20). As every time someone blames Martin Luther, the Great Reformer’s actual words eventually get quoted. And those Words almost always are firmly established on God’s Word.

Our sending hymn this Sunday is God’s Word is our Great Heritage. It comes from Denmark and was published to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Reformation. It was originally set to the Great Reformation hymn tune of A Mighty Fortress. The tune we sing it to was published in the United states for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation. The text was originally an attempt to extend the work of the Reformation to Danish Pietists. Their heirs in New Ulm, MN thought the text was so important, but in English it would no longer fit A Mighty Fortress, that the choir of St. Paul’s church set it to the current tune. It reflects in itself the idea of a true Heritage. At that 300th anniversary Rationalism – think Thomas Jefferson cutting up his bible to remove the parts that just couldn’t be true – was ravaging the church. Grundtvig the author was originally at odds with his Lutheran pastor father. But in his own studies and work eventually moved closer to Dad. The hymn was a token of that. At the 400th the big question in the US might have been: Can the Gospel withstand the translation from the language of the Old Country to English or would the Heritage be lost? The Choir of St. Paul had an answer. And so we, soon after the 500th anniversary, also have the question that the hymn perfectly presents to us.

The text is worth looking at closer

God’s Word is our great heritage/And shall be ours forever;

To spread its light from age to age/ Shall be our chief endeavor.

Through life it guides our way,/In death it is our stay.

Lord, grant, while worlds endure,/We keep its teachings pure/Throughout all generations.

It starts with a gospel promise. God has given us his word and it will always be ours. Now that is a statement of the objective Gospel. The incarnation of Jesus Christ happened, and Jesus lives, the victory is won. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church with that proclamation. And that proclamation is for you. God has done this for you.

And as with every proclamation of the objective gospel, it subjectively asks us how are we then going to live? Grundtvig’s hymn puts forward three things that are part of our subjective receptance of that gospel. First is the call to evangelism. To Spread its light from age to age. The hymn doesn’t expand on this. But that evangelism can take place in many ways. Something we probably should recover from those pietists, we all need evangelized. The home is a primary location of evangelism. Second, the hymn puts forward the Word of God as our guide in life. The summary of the law is a good place to start. Love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. But lastly the hymn says, “in death it is our stay.” Regardless of your evangelism and walk, the gospel is not ultimately about works. It is about faith. It is about believing that the works of Jesus – God’s Word – are our great heritage. And that nothing shall separate us from the Love of God is Christ. Not even death.

And appropriately it ends with a prayer. Something very like “Thy Will Be Done.” Let us keep its teachings pure, throughout all generations. The will of God is certainly done. Hell will not prevail. The church has been built on the cornerstone of Christ. We pray that this gospel would remain ours. Though 300 years, 400 years, 500 years, throughout all generations. Because this Word is life.

Young and Old Meditation on Re-formation

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:12-19

Reformation Day has been a lot of things through the years. This sermon is a bit of a clip show (a new show that relies on past clips to carry some of the action). In this case I think there are certain sermons that can be preached from the various assigned texts for the day. And they slot into how the preacher or the age wants to think about Luther and the Reformation. Young and Old is a reference to young Luther – skinny, single, revolutionary, and old Luther – heavy, husband and father, re-former. Most of the potential texts, and the choice of Oct 31st itself, prefer young Luther – the great Romantic Hero. You can pick the firebrand of the angel with an eternal gospel from Revelation. You can go with the doctrinal sermon from Romans, the text Luther claimed as his evangelical breakthrough. Or you can be the liberation theologian and take John’s gospel and the “son setting you free.” Me, I like the Matthew 11 gospel reading. It doesn’t let you just choose Romantic Young Luther. You have to contemplate actually re-forming the thing you tear down. It is the experiential text of law and gospel. Not just the doctrine, but what it means to live it. And Luther lived it. He didn’t get lucky and die the great Romantic Hero. He had to be a re-former. This sermon walks through those “clips” and tries to claim something of the Reformation for us.

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Three Things…

There are two things I wanted to write about, three things that this column is for. If you were in our Wednesday morning bible study, you might get the joke about that opening. The two things….three things is the start of a Hebrew wisdom poetry form. You can see examples in Proverbs 6:16-19 and 30:15-16, 18-19. So that would be the first thing. That bible study meets at 10 AM weekly and you are invited. I’ve called it “Necessary Stories”, but what it has been to date is a tour of the Old Testament. The goal was to provide a foundation for personal reading. Both in terms of the stories that always hover in the background and some methods for understanding the variety of genres and books that are in the bible. Don’t worry about “being behind” because each session is meant to be a stand alone. But also, if you are worried, there will be a couple of good jumping in points. The last section of the OT tour which will start Nov 8^th will be on the Prophets. Then sometime after the New Year we will be starting the New Testament tour.

The second thing. If you are a visitor this Sunday, I’d like to welcome you. Mt. Zion is a Lutheran church. What is the Lutheran church? There are different answers, but I’m picking a historical one today. Historically there is a period of time called The Reformation. Roughly 1517 – when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany – to roughly 1563 – the end of the Council of Trent, is the time span called The Reformation. You can back it up before then and it unwinds all the way out until today, but 1517-1563 is the basic time. Coming into that time span you had The Old Western Church roughly defined by the Scriptures, the Apostles Creed and the Bishops. (There had already been a schism with the Eastern Church in 1054 simplistically over which Bishop was more important.) Over those years of the Reformation the various churches that we know today defined their particular doctrines. The Lutheran church in 1530 with the Augsburg Confession. The Anglican Church published their 39 Articles in 1563. The Reformed published the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563 summarizing various prior agreements. And the Roman Catholic in 1563 at the close of the Council of Trent. Alongside those Magisterial Reformation bodies – meaning that monarchs and rulers signed onto those documents – you had the Radical Reformation which is represented today by Amish, Mennonites and Pentecostal groupings. So, what is a Lutheran church? It is a church that kept the Scripture and Creeds as the appropriate norms of our life together, it also kept as much of church life as was in accord with those, while holding that Bishops are a valid man made way to govern ourselves but not the final authority. So how do we argue? Which we are human and sinful, so we argue. We argue over Scripture. The Reformation started with a phrase “Ad Fontes” – to the sources – and as a church body we are concerned with constantly renewing ourselves in those streams of living water.

Third thing. That historical answer and the doctrinal formulations often seem dry. Why should we care about something so far away? Surely there is nothing meaningful for us today? But in an age of chaos and confusion, those simple doctrinal formulations contain a lot of wisdom. What is the foundation? Augsburg Confession 1 (AC1): God. Proverbs would say “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (9:10).” Without God we are just lost in foolishness. What is the problem with the world? AC2, we are sinful beings. Which makes us deny God. What is the solution? AC3, we can’t get to God, so God sent His son Jesus to us. How does that help us? AC4, by faith Christ justifies us. You have been forgiven by the work of Christ. How do we know this? AC5, to obtain this faith the ministry of the Gospel was instituted. That Gospel is proclaimed every Sunday and whenever 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus’ name. The map continues. But if you are lost, and much of our world today is lost, here is a map, and food and drink for the journey. You are invited to journey with us.

The Law and the Gospel

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Biblical Text: Romans 3:19-28 (John 8:31-36)

This is my attempt at a Reformation Day sermon that tries to bring that 500 year old crisis into our day. The core insight of the Reformation is understanding that the Word of God comes to us as a Word of Law and a Word of Gospel. (Gospel has become a churchy word. It simply means good news, but even that feels like a euphemism. I would simply use promise. The Gospel is the promise of God revealed in Jesus Christ.) And I think it might take a bit, but the animating phrase, the phrase that makes it fall into place for me is “do the work.” That’s the modern “woke” phrase and it is so close to the Reformation era phrase “do what you can” or what Luther started with in the 95 theses, “do penance.” The Law demands from us. The law of God is good and wise, human laws less so, but the fact of the Word of the Law is that it always condemns. And our primary strategy is to try and minimize the law. Unleash our internal lawyers to make affirmative cases. Yes, we did it, but it doesn’t matter, because…

The work is never done, except in the cross. That is the gospel. This sermon attempts to make us feel the weight of the law, and to open that bottle of 200 proof grace that Luther stumbled accross.

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A Reformation of the Heart

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Biblical Text: Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36

What exactly is Reformation Day? It has been a lot of things. This sermon mentions a couple of them. But almost of of the alternates are corruptions of what it really was. Which is a recovery of the Apostle Paul. Which is a new birth of freedom in hearing the law and the gospel. It is not just the gospel, although that is the happy best part. It is also the law. The Reformation recovered that 200 proof cask of grace that Paul preached. Christ died for sinners and God’s righteousness is given to you as a gift. You have been made a member of God’s house by God’s choice. And that free gift also frees us to see the law for what it is. It is not a method of saving ourselves. But it is also no longer our writ of condemnation. Yes, we are sinners. But the righteousness of God does not come by the law, but by grace through faith. So we can accept the law as God’s good gift to us for our good. Reformation Day is about the law and the gospel, and how they Reform our hard hearts into hearts of flesh.

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Free Indeed

Biblical Text: John 8:31-36
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It was a full service. Reformation Day, A Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Lots of Red. We did something a little different, the choir got the showpiece – “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. That is a treat left in the recording. I went with reformation Baptismal hymns for the day. LSB 596, All Christians Who Have Been Baptized, is left in the recording.

Reformation Day is primarily about justification. That is the fancy term for what Christ did for us. The bible speaks of this work in many different language domains: New Life (like baptism), sacrifice (the lamb), legal (advocate) and some others that the sermon starts with. The domain of John 8, our text, is deliverance. The Son has made us free. We are often tempted to judge this freedom lightly, or to trade it away for next to nothing. This sermon attempts in the context of Reformation Day to proclaim the magnitude of the freedom on offer.

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The Specific Gospel

Biblical Text: Matt 11:12-19 (Matt 11:1-19)
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It is Reformation Day. The Lectionary gives us an alternative gospel text and I tend to take it. There are a bunch of reasons. The sermon puts forward a couple of reason. But the deepest reason is simply I like it. And I like it because it captures a gritty and real moment. Jesus, John the Baptist, the crowds and a confrontation of a sort. What did you think the Kingdom was? What are you going to do now?

Individuals of every age might have to answer “who do you say that I am,” but not every age gets confronted with a dramatic prophetic call. That is what John the Baptist was. That is what Luther was. Whose works and wisdom do you trust? Your own, or God’s? What this sermon is, is my pathetic attempt at proclaiming what a new Luther or a new Baptist would be saying to this generation. “To what shall I compare this generation?” My simple answer is that we lose that gospel because we dismiss its specific nature. We dismiss the specific law of the people of God defined in the Decalogue. And we glide over the body of Christ, the form of the gospel. We believe that god loves us, but we do so in a generic way such that the god who loves us is not Jesus Christ, at least not the one of scriptures, but one that looks more like ourselves. A recovery of the gospel today would be about its specific-ness and peculiarity – Jesus Christ, friend of sinners. It would be a recognition of the body in Word and Sacrament in our midst.

Worship note: I left in a little more music than normal. I left in stanza one of our opening hymn, Salvation Unto Us has Come (LSB 555). Our choir sounded great this morning in liturgical duty. I didn’t leave their Introit, but you can hear them in the gradual (between the First lesson and the epistle), and in the verse with the Alleluia before the gospel. A Mighty Fortress is Our God, LSB 657, was our closing hymn. We tend to sing the Bach arrangement, but most of the LCMS uses a LSB 656. A Mighty Fortress ends up being “the reformation hymn” but if you asked pastors they would probably give you Salvation Unto Us has Come. It captures the teaching of the Reformation clearly. A Mighty Fortress is a great hymn, but its popularity stems not so much from its teaching but from a later political-theological rallying cry.

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Most in Need of Reform

Biblical Text: Matthew 11:12-19
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Reformation Day has had a number of modes of celebration through the years. This sermon mentions some of them, but maybe surprising for a Lutheran preacher, I’ve just never had much connection with the day. I guess part of that is my general distaste for the common forms of hagiography. If Luther is a hero (and he is) he can only be a hero in one form. Likewise, if he is a heretic who destroyed the church (and he did destroy a form of it), he can only be damned. Neither of those flavors ever appealed to me. We humans are way to complex for that. And it doesn’t give a good report on Luther’s key insight. In this life we are sinners and saints simultaneously.

Jesus uses a great visual image against “this generation” in the text. It was a generation that didn’t dance to the flute or sing to the dirge. Beyond that when the good law was proclaimed it said “he has a demon”; when the joyous gospel revealed it said “a glutton and a drunkard”. It danced to the dirge and sang to the flute, without recognizing the truth in either. For quite a while I’ve been feeling the same thing about Reformation Day.

But this year something happened that made it click. Stripping away the saint-stories and focusing on the story – A group of people confessing, remaining faithful, calling to the face the powerful and refusing to recant. It is a common story in the church. The only place I know of that celebrates those killed for being conventionally stupid. It is so much easier to recognize which side your bread is buttered on. The reformers did and they didn’t. Like Paul speaking to the Apostles wondering if his preaching had been in vain (Galatians 2:2) and confronting Peter to his face. Like the OT prophets sent to the Kings of Israel and Judah. Institutions go off track and sometimes need to be called on it. Separating the schismatics from the prophets isn’t always easy. And there is usually a little of both intermixed, but wisdom is justified by her deeds.

There is one more stripping away though. Institutions are fine and necessary. But as the hymn the choir sings in the recording tells us, God does not dwell in temples made with hands. He dwells in living stones. What is always most in need of reform is not the church or the collective or the other, but our hearts. Hearts that are no longer desiring only the clean story, but that desire God’s story – grace alone, faith alone and Christ alone.

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