The Festival of the Reformation
Jesu Juva
“The Real Reformation”
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today, we celebrate the Festival
of the Reformation, which, when you think about it, is a festival that
celebrates one man.
A man who was able to accomplish great
things.
A man who didn’t care so much if he was
politically correct or not.
A man who taught unlike the teachers who came
before him.
A man who was single-minded and focused on
his mission.
A man who was arrested for his teaching.
A man who was hated by many, and had even
friends turn on him.
A man whose life still impacts you and me
today.
And that man was Jesus Christ.
Oh, I’m sorry! Did you think I
was talking about Luther?
Don’t get me wrong! I thank God for Luther, and what God was able
to accomplish through him. And he was
certainly a central figure in the Reformation.
But it’s not about him.
What Luther did (as one preacher
put it) was “sweep the cobwebs off the crucifix,” and once again proclaim Christ and Him crucified.
He restored the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church’s proclamation.
Because sometimes, as hard as it is to
believe (!), the Church gets off track.
And we need to get called back to why we’re here, and what we’re to be
about.
Christ and Him crucified.
And so the Reformation is about
an historical event, yes – but not
the one that happened nearly 500 years ago, but the one that happened some
2,000 years ago.
Not at
The nails pounded through the 95
Theses and into the wooden doors of the
But the nails pounded through the
flesh and bone of Jesus and into the wood of the cross, even moreso.
For it is through the cross where
true reformation takes place.
The reformation of the heart, as
the Spirit sent by Jesus turns us sinners into saints, and re-forms us into the
image of Christ.
And just as the people in
Jeremiah’s day, and the people in Jesus’ day, and the people in Luther’s day, we
need re-forming.
Because sin is
constantly de-forming us.
Because we are constantly being con-formed to the ways of the world, and in-formed
by what is not truth.
And so we always need re-forming.
By the Word of
God.
As individuals,
and as a church.
Modernism, secularism, pietism,
rationalism, popularism, institutionalism, and all kinds of other “–isms”
seduce us away from Christ crucified, and to put our trust and our hearts in
something else.
Perhaps even Lutheran-ism, if
we become like the Jews in Jesus’ day, and think: “We are offspring of Luther and
have never been enslaved to anyone . . .”
Now again, don’t get me
wrong! I thank God for Luther, and I am
proud to belong to the confession of faith that is called Lutheran.
But it’s time that we asked a
very Lutheran question about being Lutheran: What does this mean?
Does being Lutheran mean
following Luther?
Does being Lutheran mean not being Roman Catholic?
Sadly, that is what many think.
But rather, I think, to be
Lutheran simply means this: to be sinners
re-formed by Christ crucified.
Not re-formed by me, or what I am
able to do in my life.
Not re-formed by my own reason or
strength. (Explanation of the 3rd
Article of the Apostles Creed)
And not re-formed by what I feel
in my heart.
But re-formed by Christ
crucified.
And so to be Lutheran means that
the cross is not just an historical moment in time, but a present reality.
Re-forming us,
re-forming His Church, even today.
It means that Holy Baptism is not
what we do, but is a washing away of sin because through the water and the
Word, we are joined to Christ crucified.
(Romans 6)
It means that the preaching of
the Gospel is not just information, or instruction, or how to live a better
life, but is the power of God (Romans
It means that Holy Communion is
not just a meal, but is the body and blood of Christ crucified, given to us to eat and to drink, to give us His
forgiveness, life, and salvation.
And if we are joined with Christ
in His crucifixion, then we are also raised with Christ
Re-formed into
His image.
To live a new
life.
That we be no longer de-formed by sin, con-formed to the world, or in-formed
by what is not truth – but re-formed
into Christ.
Christ crucified.
And so to be Lutheran also means
taking Christ crucified into the
world. Wherever God has placed you,
whatever you have been given to do, surrounded by whomever.
To live, as Jesus said, as one
set free by the Son. (John 8)
Perfectly free.
Which means
that we are at one and the same time perfectly
free in faith and so subject to none, and perfectly free in love and so subject
to all. (Luther, On the
Freedom of a Christian)
Using our
freedom not as license, but in love.
Serving,
giving, forgiving.
Laying down our lives, just as
Christ has done for us.
Many do not want such a life, or
such a God.
Preferring a
God who is instead strong and mighty, not weak and crucified. And preferring a life for us the same.
The fiction Satan would have us
believe is that those are opposites. That you cannot be both strong and weak, both mighty and crucified. And so you must choose.
But the truth that Christ
crucified shows us is that these are not opposites!
And that God was no where so
strong as He was on the cross.
That His power is made perfect is
weakness.
That the
Almighty God became the Son of Man, because I am a son of man.
He took flesh because I am flesh.
Born under the
Law because I am under the Law. (Galatians 4)
And bore my sin on the cross.
Dying, that I
might live.
Captive, to set
me free.
To be Lutheran means that I
cannot live without this Christ.
Christ crucified.
I cannot truly live here and now,
and I cannot live eternally.
Life apart from Christ here and
now is but an imitation life.
Earth can never be
But Christ crucified, Christ
arisen, and Christ ascended means that I too have arisen and ascended.
Not in the future, but already
now.
That I am
forgiven, now.
Reconciled to
God, now.
At peace, now.
And no terrorists,
disappointments, unfulfilled dreams, economic ruin, grief, or sickness can take
that away!
Or as Luther put it: “And take they our
life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, Our victory has
been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth.” (LW
#298 v.4)
Have we gotten off message?
Too concerned with sound bites,
popularity, and growth?
As it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be, I guess.
We always need re-forming.
We always need Christ crucified.
Not once, but always.
And so in the end, we are
Lutherans for the same reason we are Christians: by grace through faith in
Christ crucified.
The Reformation is all about one
man.
Thanks be
to God!
In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now
the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.