"The Reformation Celebrated" - 1 John 1:8-2:2
Reformation
Pastor Troy Slater, Our
Grace, mercy, and peace …. "If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that is ultimately what the Reformation was all
about. The truth that by
Jesus - by Jesus and His cross - only by Jesus and His cross - God our heavenly
Father freely and forever forgives sin.
That is ultimately what the Reformation was all about.
Of course
today we gather to celebrate the Reformation.
491 years ago this October 31st, a young Augustinian monk by the name of
Martin Luther nailed 95 theses - 95 points for debate - on the door of the
Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Seems that this young monk had a few concerns about the activities
of a man by the name of John Tetzel. For this Tetzel was
sent to
Of course purgatory was something
that the church had to make up for its works-righteous system of the time. I mean, what do you tell the families of
those deceased who died after living a less that "saintly" life? Well you tell them that they have another
chance - they are now in purgatory to "work off" the punishment for
those sins that they failed to "work off" while living on this
earth. And so you can now help dear ol' Grandma Schmidt who's suffering in purgatory right
now. "Purchase an indulgence!"
Tetzel would say.
"And as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from
purgatory springs." Dangerous and
sad to say the least, I think we would all say.
And of
course that's what this Augustinian monk - Martin Luther - was beginning to say. Through studying God's Holy Word, through an
intense meditation on the depths of his own sin and upon the sacrifice of
Christ on the cross, Martin Luther was coming to that glorious, freeing, and
Biblical understanding that Jesus died upon the cross to pay the punishment for
all the sin of all the world - for you, for me, for Luther, for dear Grandma
Schmidt, for all. Luther was coming to
the realization that when Christ on the cross said, "It is finished", he meant it - the sacrifice for sin had
been made, the punishment for sin had been met, the payment for sin had been
paid. "It is finished." Jesus said. "By grace we have been saved, through faith," Holy
Scripture says. "The righteous shall
live, by faith." Luther read in God's Word. "God made Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of
God." "Jesus came not to call
the righteous, but sinners."
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And "Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our
sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world," as
we just heard in our reading.
That's what a young Luther was
beginning to realize and today, that is what we celebrate. We gather to hear and to rejoice in the good
news that in Jesus - by His blood, at His command - our sin is gone. "If
we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
"As far as the east is from
the west so far has God removed our transgressions from us."
Of course we started our service this
morning hearing just that. We confessed
before God and before one another that we are by nature, sinful and
unclean. We have sinned against our holy
and just Creator in thought, word and dead, doing what we shouldn't, not doing
what we should. We justly deserve God
our heavenly Father's present and eternal punishment. We confessed our sin - we confessed that we
have nothing, absolutely nothing to offer a holy and just God - nothing that
could possibly ever match the sacrifice of the Son of God shedding His blood
upon the cross. As poor, miserable
sinners we said Jesus and His cross is our only hope.
And so what was it that was then
declared to us - to you - in response to this confession? Was it, "Okay, now purchase an indulgence
to make up for Jesus' 'incomplete' sacrifice."? Was it, "Okay, now go do this or that to
prove your sincerity."? No. No, it wasn't. For "if we confess our sins,
God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
"I forgive you all your sins" was the response, wasn't
it? "I forgive you in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And all God's people said, "Amen!" For as we just read in our Catechism reading
this morning, "I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal
with us by His divine command … this is just as valid and certain, even in
heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself." Yes "if
we confess our sins, God - GOD - is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
And so you know what? We, you, I, by God's grace, through faith in
Christ our Savior, as repentant sinners we now stand before God as His saints -
not by the declaration of some pope, not by virtue of some indulgence - a piece
of paper - but solely by Jesus and His cross.
That's what we celebrate on this glorious day. By God's grace, that's what we celebrate. …
Although when you think about it,
that's really what we celebrate everyday as God's people.
The truth of Jesus and His cross, the truth which the
Lord restored to His people through the work of the Reformation and through
countless saints before then and since then. The church's reformation is not just
something that we remember once a year for an hour or two at the end of October,
it's everyday.
The Reformation is something we
celebrate everyday that we come here as we hear our Lord's Word of forgiveness
upon our lives and to kneel around His table where He gives us His body and
blood.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate every time we bring our children and grandchildren to the baptismal
font where the Lord makes them to be His saints.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate everyday, every time that we kneel at our bedside or sit at our desk
and cry to our Lord for forgiveness for letting our Old Adam get the best of us
yet again.
The Reformation is something we
celebrate every time we lay to rest a loved one who goes before us in the faith,
trusting in and looking forward to the day of the resurrection.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate as we share the stories of God's saints of old with our children and
grandchildren.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate as we live our lives in the joy of sin forgiven.
The Reformation is something that we celebrate
as we love our neighbor as ourself, as we forgive our
brother as we have first been forgiven by our God.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate as we live out those responsibilities that the Lord gives us as
fathers, as mothers, husbands, wives, students, workers, and neighbors.
The Reformation is something that we
celebrate everyday, every time God's pure Word of His grace in Jesus directs
our life, emboldens our life, forgives the sin of our
life.
For the Reformation indeed it was all
about Jesus - clinging to Jesus, living in Jesus, and yes, even dying in Jesus. That's what it was about; that's what we
celebrate today and every day.
And so may the Lord by His grace, by
His Holy Spirit, may He keep us in Jesus.
May He ever keep us holding on to that good news of the Reformation.
And may the peace of God which passes
all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.