Happy Birthday Lutherans! Never mind that Martin had no intention of starting a church let alone naming it after him. But we’re going to ignore that for today and celebrate anyways. Who has cake?!
John 8:31-36; Romans 3:19-28; Psalm 46; Jeremiah 31:31-34
This gospel lesson could easily be called: “And they missed the point again.” Jesus is talking to some folk, and says something really simple. “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Simple, right? Well the Jewish listeners get feisty. “We’re descendents of Abraham,” they say, “and we’ve never been slaves of anyone. How can you say we’ll be set free?”
I have to pause here for a minute, because these guys are the ones who are supposed to know Scripture, and who are supposed to be aware of their current situation. I can think of 2 instances where ‘descendants of Abraham’ have been slaves, and several more instances when they were quite close to being slaves. First, the enslavement in Egypt. Second, the Exile to Bablyon. And then of course there have been the consecutive conquering by the Greeks under Alexander and the then-current occupation by Rome.
Of course, aside from the literal slavery or near-slavery that was going on, Jesus is referring of course to what Dr. Luther called the “bondage of the will” — the concept that we are all slaves to sin without the Holy Spirit working in us. This of course ties in with the lessons from Jeremiah and Romans, all sharing the idea that we don’t free ourselves from sin, instead we are set free by God.
So what does this have to do with Reformation Sunday. That’s what today is, after all: the day we celebrate Martin Luther’s posting of his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences on the door in Wittenberg. It’s the day we celebrate a return in Christian thinking to the idea that, as Paul says in Romans 3, “righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Though, as we confess, we are all in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, God has declared us in a right relationship with him through Jesus Christ.
This is good news that should make us quite happy of course. As God says in Jeremiah, “The time is coming…when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel… No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me.” Through faith, God’s new covenant with us, we are free in Christ. So now that we’re all in a good mood, let me ruin it.
If you look at what these Jewish listeners to Jesus were saying, they were basing their salvation not on their sins being forgiven, or on their following on Jesus, but on their heritage. Does this sound remotely familiar to anyone? How often do we Christians assume we are saved because we go to church once a week, have been baptized and confirmed, or grew up Christian. Or maybe that we are saved because we’re good people or follow the Ten Commandments. Or maybe we assume we’re saved because we went to Sunday School. Well I hate to break it to y’all, but not a single one of those things mean you are saved.
This is the whole point of the Reformation. It’s not about starting a new church, or because Luther wanted to put one over on the pope. Luther saw people struggling to earn salvation, and saw the hopelessness it brought. He saw them spending their life savings on indulgences. He saw them crawling up steps in Rome on their hands and knees to earn themselves less time in purgatory. And he knew that no amount of our own actions can save us.
That’s exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 3. It doesn’t matter if you’re a baptized, confirmed, born and bred Christian. That doesn’t get you any more than if you were brought up to hate Christianity — it’s all about faith.
As Christians we sometimes get too caught up in the past. That’s not to say we shouldn’t celebrate our Christian heritage, as we’re doing today, but it can’t be the crutch that we stand on. As Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, then you are really my disciples.” It’s about follow Jesus — his actions and teachings — not following Luther or Calvin or Wesley or whoever. That was the whole point of the Reformation, that being a Christian isn’t about being a member of a church, or following certain traditions, but about following a person — Jesus Christ.