500

Rev. Brian Weinberger

RCL Year A • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

John 8:31–38

Reform

Reformation

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

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Today we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On Tuesday October 31st we recognize the day that Luther made the 95 theses public to the world and thanks to the modern conveniences of his time, like Gutenburg’s printing press, his writings were able spread and not be silenced. In honor of today, I thought it might be good fun to do a little trivia. Please don’t Google the answer and after service is over you can compare with other’s to see how many of the answers you got right.

Earthly vs. heavenly kingdom/rewards/seats of power…same in Jesus time as in Luther’s.

God promises the spiritual not the physical and that is hard for people to hold on to

What year was Martin Luther born?

1506

1501

1483 C

1460

True or false: Martin always wanted to be a monk. (False)

True or false: Luther’s translation of the German Bible was the first non-latin Bible. (false)

True or false: His wife, Katie, was welcome to speak at his famous Table Talks. (True)

Who was NOT a part of the Reformation happening in Europe?

Zwingli

Calvin

Hudinger B

Calvin

Melanchthon

True or false: the Small Catechism was created for children to study (false)

The Luther’s main residence for many years was called? (Two answers are right)

Lutherhaus

Luther Land

The Black Cloister

The Mighty Fortress

Also to commemorate today our wider church has picked this text from John to be our text for today. In the earlier passages from we see Jesus refuse to let people stone a woman to death for her adultery because he wants anyone who has not sinned to throw the first stone. Even the Pharisees realize that they cannot say that they have never sinned and so no one is left to judge her. Jesus chooses not to judge her either and sends her on her way. The next passage Jesus talks about being the light of the world. Then Jesus tells them that he is going to leave them and this world and they didn’t understand exactly what he was saying, but because of his teaching many people believed in him. Probably seeing that so many people were coming to believe in him we get the text that we have for today about being true disciples and how that truth will set them free, but they still don’t understand what he means by it.

In order to prepare for this text this weekend I actually went to Luther’s Works and read his commentary on this passage. What I found most interesting is that Luther spent part of his commentary on this passage talking about his relationship with the Catholic church and how he felt they were unwilling to change for what he considered as the better. I find that interesting because I truly believe the Bible endures so well because it has the ability to relate to so many contexts in our world no matter what century we live in or what part of the world we live in.

One of the parts of this passage that Luther focused on was that he thought that some of these disciples listening may have been there because they thought that Jesus was going to be the earthly messiah they had hoped for that would come and rescue them from the clutches of the Roman Empire. Their idea of Messiah was someone who would rule over them like the days of King David and Solomon. This messiah would rule with justice and prosperity and would being prosperity to the people and continue to give them their promised land, no longer ruled by an outside authority. He says this because the people listening were so focused on talking about being descendants of Abraham and it was Abraham that God made the promise to make a great nation and have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. For them, then, the idea of Jesus was someone who would be able to break them free from Rome and bring them to a place of riches and comfort once again.

Luther compares this to his own time and how being a true disciple meant following the Bible and the word of God. Luther wanted to get away from the practices of tradition and get back to what the Bible said it meant to be a follower of Christ. He cited monks, cardinals, bishops, and even the Pope of the time as people who wanted to be in positions of power and comfort. If you were well educated and followed the traditions of the church, then you could live a wealthy and comfortable life. But for Luther that wasn’t what the Bible called for. The Gospel wasn’t about getting a comfortable life and it wasn’t about being wealthy. Luther also commented about the other countries and rulers who were breaking away from the Catholic church not because they agreed with reform and getting back to the Bible, but because it was politically and monetarily advantageous to them. It wasn’t about faith it was about politics and for Luther that is not what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. For Luther that is still being a slave to sin and not following Jesus for the right reasons. Jesus is not here for political or monetary gain but here for the salvation of our lives and a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one.

Luther and Jesus’ from want us to focus on being a part of the heavenly kingdom not the earthly kingdom.

The other part of the passage that Luther focused on was the part of being a slave to sin. Luther was particularly sensitive to the topic of sin, so I think this passage may have had great meaning to him. Luther struggled with sin his whole life and felt that he was constantly a sinner and not worthy to be a part of the body of Christ at times. As a monk Luther used to flog himself because he knew that he was a sinner and could not free himself to sin. Later in life, however, and maybe even thanks to this passage Luther began to focus on the truth of the gospel and how the gospel has the power to free people from their sins. Luther coined the phrase and the idea that we are both sinner and saint at the same time. There is no way to separate the two from one another, but the power of God is more powerful than our sinful nature. Luther also said this to Philip Melancthon, his friend and partner in the reformation, "If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says [], we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells .... Pray boldly – you too are a mighty sinner." (Luther’s Works vol. 48). What Luther is saying here is that, Jesus is right, we are slaves to sin, but that idea, that possibility of sinning, should never keep us from trying.

We can either sit around and do nothing and hope that we never sin, or we can go out into the world and make mistakes, maybe even big ones, but through our trying we will eventually succeed and we will eventually stray from that sin and find a way to do something that represents grace and righteousness. Jesus warns us to not let our sinful nature overwhelm and overpower us because if we do we do stay a slave. Instead we do our best to overcome that part of us and live out the gospel as best we can. Again, we might fail, but we will also succeed in spreading the gospel and living as God would intend us to live.

Luther eventually came to the understanding that sin originates from our self-centeredness. When we focus on our selves, the things that we want, on the things that make us happy, then we become a slave to those things. We are so focused on our own desires that we no longer care for our neighbor or our community then we are slaves to sin. In Luther’s commentary, that I mentioned earlier, he goes on to say that this is the hardest thing for the Jews who are trying to believe in Jesus and for anyone to believe in Jesus. We are caught up in the earthly things of this world and our own possessions and wellbeing that it becomes hard to follow the gospel that God has given freely to us.

God promises us the gift of grace which is a spiritual quality and not a physical one. There is nothing that we can physically hold in this life that would give us “evidence” that we are saved and we have an everlasting relationship with God. There is no treasure that we can hold onto that shows us that we are disciples of Christ. There is no wealth that comes from it. There is no land or family or a good job that we get when we become a true follower and disciple of Christ. We don’t get a certificate of accomplishment for completing the course. There is no medal that we can wear around our chest to show off. There is nothing physical that we benefit from in this life for being a follower of Christ, and Luther says that is why the Jews in our text and why people in his time and people in our time have such a hard time having faith in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t offer prosperity. In fact, if you look at other passages in the Bible Jesus offers the opposite. He offers strife between you and the rest of your family, he promises persecution and strife. These aren’t exactly the perks of a club that you want to join. Can you imagine walking into a club or organization and everything they tell you about them is how worse off your life will be if you join them? Not the best perks.

Jesus offers to us the spiritual and not the physical and Luther says that is hard for people to hold on to because it isn’t something we can physically hold on to in this life. Jesus offers so much more for us though and that is why we come to Jesus. We come seeking to be a true disciple, knowing that the promises he offers are not of this world, but are for the world to come. We are promised the gift of eternal life, we are promised forgiveness, and acceptance. We are loved and treasured as the most precious gift and treasure in this world. I know I said this recently, but Luther said that everything that he held in his hands in this life he has lost, but everything he put in God’s hands he still has. Luther lost several children early in his life through disease and miscarriage. He watched the world turn upside down, he lost money, and his home, and the church that he loved and wanted to reform for the better. He lost so many physical things in this life that left lasting impressions on him, but he never lost faith in God and when he placed his trust in God, when he placed his salvation in God’s hands, when he placed his life in God’s hands, he received so many blessings in this life and in his new life in heaven.

Today we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We remember our brother in Christ, Martin Luther, and all he did in this life and how his life was dedicated to serving God and serving others. He spent his life doing his best to become a true disciple of Christ, and sinning boldly as best he could. Things have changed a lot in 500 years since the Reformation sparked with Luther, but something that remains the same is God’s great love for all creation and the gift of Jesus Christ sent to us to forgive us all our sins. To forgive us of our self-centeredness, to forgive us of our focus on the earthly and not the spiritual, to show us the way to God and to love us in spite or ourselves. For Martin Luther and more importantly for Jesus Christ, we give thanks this day and always for those servants who have paved the way for us to follow and find the way to the spiritual gifts and promises given to us, by Jesus the one who loved us even before the world knew us.