Word Alone—Faith Alone—Grace Alone. I can’t get much more Lutheran than that for an opening line to a sermon. The three most defining phrases of the Lutheran faith also stand at the center of the reformation. Word alone—Faith alone—Grace alone. There is not a protestant church in existence and hardly a Christian fellowship that does not want to embrace in some way these three concepts—Word, Faith, and Grace. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” A word that sets free—that is not our experience.
We have become prisoners of words—with cell phones and e-mail—internet and the media we encounter more words every day then many of our ancestors would have encountered in a month. Words—Our world is filled with words—Some of the words make us anxious—Word of another sniper shooting in the DC area—Some of the words bring us relief—Two men have been arrested and the ballistics test of their rifle is a match—Some of the words sadden us—Senator Wellstone’s plane crashed on approach to the runway. And then there is the request for a word—a seeking after a word. Our son Tim calls from Europe to inform us that his wallet was stolen while he was in Munich—what should he do? Which of course really meant—what are you going to do to help me? Tell me how you will fix it.
We would like to believe that all this word technology that fills our lives has given us more freedom to communicate—to know our world—to keep in touch—And certainly in emergencies and times of crisis it brings us closer together and can make us feel safer—But the other day I watched a teenager talk on a hands free headset while typing Instant Message conversations on the computer with six friends all at the same time—I’m not sure that’s called communication—it’s more like juggling. I would like to believe the general silence of cell phones during Sunday morning worship is due to people taking time to be free of distractions to be with God but I suspect the more likely explanation is something called “sleeping in..”
When Jesus told those who had believed in him that the word could make them free they reacted by proudly proclaiming that they were already free—somehow they did not recall their history as slaves in Egypt before Moses freed them or their time as captives of the Babylonians or their immediate circumstances under the Roman occupation. The people had come to accept as normal the presence of other powers in their lives—the freedom they claimed was an illusion created by having no other vision—knowing no other possibility but the power and might of Roman military rule. Our world is no different—expectations and demands in our lives that redefine our priorities become accepted as normal—the way it should be. The overscheduled lives of our young people—the economic and political stresses defined by power plays and self interest become accepted without question or creative reflection—the bottom line traps decisions—we become enslaved to things and activities that fill our moments but leave our futures uncertain and empty. Jesus said, “My Word is freedom”—the Word alone.
It is a familiar story for many of us in this congregation—that moment some 485 years ago on Oct. 31, 1517—the eve of All Saints or All Hallows Eve (Halloween as we know it)—when a young Roman Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, a list of 95 theses or statements, and requested a meeting of the church leaders to discuss and debate the substance of these 95 theses. But the words of those 95 theses did not stay on the Castle Church door—thanks to Guttenberg’s press they were reprinted and circulated among the people. Thus began the Reformation—a call to freedom in the faith alone—by God’s grace alone.
Religion has a tendency to become institutionalized—that means that as time passes people tend to make idols and little gods out of the very things that once helped us know the true God. The word is a classic example of this. God’s laws were given in the Old Testament to guide Israel through the wilderness years—they were intended to help them become a people doing justice and to show them ways to manifest God’s love—But in time the basic laws were amplified and interpreted and ritualized and institutionalized until by the time of Jesus they had become a bondage of 613 laws that defined every aspect of their lives—defining what could be eaten and how far one could travel and even who could be loved and who should be cast out. Jesus came to free the people from the burden of the law—and the early Christian faith set people free to the joy of the Gospel and the power of God’s love—but by the time of Martin Luther the ritualizing and institutionalizing had happened all over again—Among other things the word had become an absolute authority—static and rigid—so guarded and protected that the Bible was only allowed to be shared in the language of Latin which no one outside the church, law office or medical text book spoke. The word was used to control and direct—defining precisely what was to be understood as good and what was bad—what was acceptable and what was to be cast out—who was right and who was wrong. Luther discovered that the word had become an end unto itself—yet as he studied scripture he found that the word of God was not fixed or static but alive in its meanings and value. He realized that the word needed to be among the people actively engaged in our daily lives and not reserved for only a few scholars who would offer the word up to the people in little crumbs from their theological tables. Luther found that the word invited questions and challenged his priorities and world view. In the end Luther translated the Bible into German following the example of several early reformers. Word alone—what else is there?
Actually in our world there are a lot of other words—so many that we don’t have time for God’s word. Word alone—means there is no other authority for our lives—but that means we need to know the word and more important we need to have that word entering our lives. The more fundamentalist and conservative religious communities will tell you there is only one way to understand the Bible—and that is their way. They will make an exclusive truth claim that the children of the reformation know to be a claim that only God’s Word can make. The Reformation brought to our world the Enlightenment—the free inquiry of ideas—the idea that God is not yet finished with creation. If this is true then we are actually invited to discover new truths—freeing truths. Our world today is more free than the one 100 years ago—that’s what the Word does. Slaves? It is not a question of what binds us and ties us up—it is a question of our understanding the power of the Word to fill our lives—to free our lives. Love your neighbor—Feed the hungry—Do Justice—Forgive again and again and again—Peace be with you—Open yourself to the miracle of the Word made flesh—in our midst—shared among us. Word alone—we know this to be true not by reason but by Faith Alone.
Martin Luther was not just a priest—he was a monk who served and worked among the people—he was a professor and doctor of theology who taught—he was a husband and father who lived and felt personally the joys, pains and sorrows of family. In his lectures and sermons on Paul’s letter to the Romans—a portion of our second lesson for today—the importance of faith was made real. Faith not as an act of reason or the product of some effort or will—but faith alone as a gift from God. There are some moments that defy words—moments too deep for words. A husband and wife gaze deeply into each others eyes contemplating a terrible disease and the uncertainty of the future—A bride and groom caught up in the moment of newly wed joy are speechless in love and wonder at what the years may bring. Faith is a matter of the heart—it touches the depths of our being—some have suggested that the Word is rational and touched by logic while faith is emotive and creates its own reason. Faith is believing against all odds. Jesus said that unless we had faith like that of a child we could not enter the kingdom of God—Jesus was not looking for a simple solution or explanation to believing.
My experience is just the opposite—a child’s faith is never based on the past or experience but rather is the freedom of the future possibility. The child’s faith sees a higher reality that will be tested by life and tempered by the things to come. Faith knows no reason that water is not for walking and storms are not for stilling—our experience may place some limits on our faith vision—but that doesn’t mean we can’t be open to the possibility. Faith knows no reason we can’t put an end to world hunger—or stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.—No reason why we can’t raise the funds to meet a growing church budget—No reason not to expect a miracle of healing—No reason they will not someday find true love—Faith makes no distinction between the great and small—the real and the ideal. Faith alone carries us beyond the burden of worry and fear into the embrace of God’s grace—God’s grace alone. Grace alone—that’s the third leg of the reformation stool that supported Luther and the reformers. Grace alone—this is the easiest and most difficult piece of the Reformation story.
As Lutherans there is a temptation to see the reformation as an attempt to fix something that was wrong. Martin Luther would be among the first to declare that he did not intend to create a new church. The goal was to reform—to take what existed but had gone astray and restore it to what it was intended to be. In a world filled with terrible struggles and the uncertainties of disease, want and war—What Luther wanted to reform was a church—an institution—that had become enslaved to words and rituals and laws that were no longer pointing to God or proclaiming the Gospel of Christ but had become ends unto themselves—idols and little gods—What Luther did in the reformation was to remind us of the importance of being open to the power of God’s grace—a gift from God that takes all our best efforts at being good or doing the right thing and says, “Nice try, but it won’t be enough, but that’s alright.” St. Paul said it like this in his letter to the Romans: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Grace—a free gift—nothing we do earns us any points with God—it is a matter of accepting God’s gift of grace.
Of course if we really believe that—it will change the way we live. If you are told you have won the lottery and the prize of 50 million dollars has been placed in your bank account—the odds are you will live life differently. If we are told that we are free from the burden of guilt—that our future is now secure in God—that all eternity is ours to embrace—and that the fullness of God’s love is ours to share—might we not live life differently? Word alone—Faith alone—Grace alone. Justified by grace alone What do I have to do? Believe-- Believe that Jesus died for your sins Believe that what is offered is real--and watch the real response What does God want from each of us? The answer is too simple--our lives Christ takes our lives and gives them back renewed So today is Reformation Sunday --a day full of grace--and truth--and light --here at God’s table of grace is offered a further sign of God’s love --the Word has set us free—and we know that “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” Word alone—Faith alone—Grace alone.
Amen.