Reformation Sunday --- 27 October 2013

Romans 3:19-28

John 8:31-36

For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift,

• Reformation Day can become the sort of festival where we congratulate ourselves for where the Church is. I can become a day to bask in the glow of the Gospel of freedom and the teachings of the reformers. For some, it is a day to strain our arms in patting ourselves on the back for what the Great Reformation achieved... as if we had anything to do with it.
• The youth bulletin for today contains a comic strip in which two characters are taking about the Reformation. The first asks what Luther was trying to reform to which the second replies that he was trying to reform the Church since it had lost sight of the Gospel. The first remarks that this is still true today. The second character says that the Church is always in need of reform. The other whispers “Do the Lutherans know that?”
• “Do the Lutherans know that?” That is a fair question. Do we hold that the Reformation is over? Do we believe that our Reformation is still going on?
• There were those in Luther's day who felt that he didn't go far enough. After all, he did retain a lot of the things of the Church at the time – the form of the service of Holy Communion, for example. Some of the other reformers and a number of Luther's own students counselled that all those things should be done away with. Comparatively Luther was no radical, despite what the powers of the Church might have said at the time.
• The Reformation that we are heirs to was not simply a reshuffling of the chairs in the sanctuary or a change in the dress of the minister or the addition of congregational singing to the worship service. If that's all it was, then the answer is clear: The Reformation has failed.
• The Reformation is far more than what the pastor wears, what language we use, or what the inside or the outside of the church building looks like. These are not central to the Reformation. They are what Reformation theologians and historians call “Adiaphora”... things that make no difference, things that are "...neither commanded nor forbidden in the Word of God."
• If these outward things, the things that most people see and experience are not the essence of the Reformation, what is?
• Our cartoon character hit the nail on the head: “The Church... had lost sight of the Gospel.” This is a danger we face constantly. This is also why we as a church world-wide, a church nation-wide, and a church as wide as these walls is constantly in need of reformation.
• The heart of the Gospel is what can be lost in the midst of all the trappings of what it means to be a Church – the vestments, the music, the committees, the budgets, the candles, the electric lights. As important as all these things might be, they pale next to the mission of the church, which is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tell that all have sinned and now all are justified by grace “as a gift... effective through faith” as Paul puts it.
• The hard edge of the Gospel is that all of us -all of us without exception- are sinners. We cannot save ourselves and no amount of good works, prayers, penances, indulgences, pilgrimages, pot-lucks, or fund drives will save us. None of us can reach God ourselves. Paul says “'no human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” There is even a part of our theology that states all the attempts we might take to justify and save ourselves are sin themselves.
• That is the blade of the Gospel that puts us to death. The Good News of the Gospel is the word that raises us to new life. “...irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” This is the word that opens our tombs and brings us to the light and life of Jesus Christ. This is the Good News that encourages us and frees us to live our lives, not solely for ourselves but to live as Jesus Christ did – for the good of others and the good of the world.
• It is a strange contrast. We are sinners, unable to save ourselves and we are sinners for whom Christ died and rose. Sinners for whom he died out of love for us. It is vitally important that we remember that, for it is possible that our knowledge of our own sin and failure can overwhelm us, but it cannot overwhelm the love of God. And so we are free. ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’
• This is the heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ. So much of everything else is adiaphora, things neither commanded nor forbidden. It will take work and it will take reminding, but that is why we are the church – so we can support each other, remind each other, and show Jesus Christ to one another and to the world, the world God so loved “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”