Reformation Still Matters

Pastor Meyer's Sermon

  Sunday, October 30, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace from our Heavenly Father and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus our Christ.

The text on which we base our meditation this morning comes from our Epistle reading from the book of Romans 3, specifically Verse 23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

My dear friends in Christ, does the Reformation still matter? Do we need to have a special service to celebrate Reformation and all that it's about? Oh, I suppose it's hopeful for us to remember that Martin Luther isn't the civil rights activist of the 1960's. No, that was Martin Luther King. No, this Martin Luther lived some 500 years ago in Germany , and he helped reform the church. I guess it's hopeful for Lutherans to know where we come from, a little bit about our history. But does Reformation really matter beyond that classroom exercise of keeping people straight and traditions alive?

It appears the answer is no. You see, the Reformation is not so much about Martin Luther as it is about righteousness and certainty. How do I know that I am right with God? How can I be certain of eternal life? Those are the questions the Reformation wanted answered?

But, in the United States today, we are not asking the same kinds of questions. An article by D. A. Carson in the magazine known as Moody says that most Americans don't really think about heaven or hell. In fact, most Americans don't believe there is a literal place known as hell. Neither do they believe there is a literal, demonic being known as Satan. And as far as the topic of heaven is concerned, not too many people get excited about that. The article says we are not hungry, sick, or persecuted enough to want to look forward to a better life because our life here is pretty good.

So what are the questions we are asking today? Well, a recent novel written by Michael Crighton entitled Timeline has a greedy corporate executive who is practicing a speech he's going to give before possible investors in his time travel business. Now, the novel is fiction but it does give us a snapshot as to some of the questions we are asking today. It reads, “In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved or improved or freed or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not disease or death but of boredom, a sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do, a sense we are not amused.” We just aren't asking the same kinds of questions that Martin Luther did to start the Reformation back in the 1500's.

But, of course, people still believe in a life after death. So you would have needed to at least thought about what will happen to you when you die and most Americans, when asked, will believe they will go to heaven because Americans believe in happy endings. Americans are eternally optimistic. So if everything's going to turn out right in the end, why worry about whether you have certainty of eternal life or whether you are right with God.

I saw what would be an example of this American optimism during the World Trade Center attacks right after there was a person who drew a picture of the building. And you can see here the World Trade Center. You can see the clouds billowing out. You can see what appear to be little people that are going up into heaven and you see there Jesus, taller than the building, with His arms outstretched welcoming all these people in. It's a wonderful picture, but the question is: Did all the people who died in the World Trade Center go to heaven? It seems to say, in this picture, they did go to heaven, that everyone who died in these buildings minus the terrorists went to heaven. What about those who died in the recent hurricane or the recent earthquakes? Did they go to heaven? Does getting killed in a terrorist attack or an earthquake or a hurricane automatically qualify you for heaven? No, not according to Paul in our text for this morning from Romans 3:23 where it says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So stockbroker, pilot, janitor, passenger on the plane, whether it be in the hurricanes and the earthquakes, a mother, a father, a child, a family member, they have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So it doesn't matter how you die, if you are young or old, sick or healthy, whether death comes quickly or after many days, if it's due to the hand of a terrorist or due to natural events or a drunk driver or cancer or old age. All are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God.

So not everyone who died in that attack or in the hurricane or in the earthquake went to heaven. Some did but not all of them, and it's the same for us. For we all have sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. So the question is: Who is welcomed in Jesus' loving embrace? And who is not? And that is where the Reformation still matters. That's why it is so important. How can we be right with God until we are certain we will end up in heaven? American optimism and wishful thinking just won't do. We need to know for sure we will go to heaven, and that's why the Reformation still matters.

What Martin Luther did and those who worked with him were to answer those questions, those eternal questions. And, as they did, they turned to God's Word in the bible. It wasn't something they had just made up to make people feel good. It wasn't the going trend at that time, but it was based solely on God's Word. The Reformation answer was found in God's Word alone. And the Book of Romans was pivotal. We've already heard that we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but there is more to that. That's not the last word. If you read on in our text, you see, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace for the redemption that came by Christ Jesus .” Being right with God is His doing. Grace alone saved us. God reaches down with His wonderful grace into our lives and makes our relationship with Him right and good. Nothing that we can bring but to Jesus and His grace we cling. It is through Jesus alone, Him alone who gives the righteousness we need for eternal life. And that's where that picture of the terrorist attack gets it right. You see, Jesus is taller than the buildings. He's greater. But He also does welcome those who come to heaven because of Jesus and what He has done. I may be seeing more than what's really there, but in His hand, you can see nail marks. And it's because of His hanging on the cross that allows us to be right with Jesus.

Eternal life comes from His death, and certainty comes from His resurrection. Jesus welcomes people with outstretched, loving, open arms because the grave would not hold Him, the grave could not shut Him up. Only Christ, our Savior, can guarantee that life after death will bring a loving Father and not Satan will bring heaven and not hell. Christ alone is the Reformation answer, the bible's answer, God's answer to those questions of righteousness and certainty. And faith alone holds onto that Jesus, onto God's grace in Him. Our faith alone, in scripture alone, by grace alone, because of Jesus alone. And this Reformation certainty about God's righteousness in Jesus still matters today.

I have a friend from seminary. His name is Dave. And before he came to seminary, he owned his own business with his brother. And part of that business was grave digging. And he shared with me a particularly hard day for him. It was the day he had to close the grave of a 7-year-old boy. The boy had died in a creek. He had drowned in a creek behind his home. And the mother wanted to stay while they filled in the grave, and Dave tried to get her to not stay because, as the dirt is being filled into the hole to cover the casket, those words “to dust I came, to dust I return” become very real. But she wouldn't leave. So Dave went ahead and got onto his skid loader, and he began to push the dirt into the hole. And the mother began to shudder. And standing nearby was Dave's brother. Now Dave's brother is a rugged hunter, football, kind of manly man guy. And while this mother started to cry uncontrollably, the brother came over and put his hand and arm around her to comfort her. Dave had finished filling in the hole and he had turned off the skid loader and, when he did so, he heard his brother talking to the mother. And he said, “I know it hurts. It's going to be hard being separated from your son. Was your son baptized?” And she nodded her head. And he said, “Then always know that Jesus Christ died too and He rose again and He's alive and, because He's alive, your son will be alive again in heaven with Jesus.” And Dave told me, “That was Jesus using my rough and tumble brother to bring comfort to a mourning mother.” That's when the Reformation still matters. The Reformation's answers to certainty and righteousness in such a personal, up close moment is Jesus. You see, the young boy didn't go to heaven because he was young or because he died in an accident. He went to heaven because Jesus died for him. And God reached down into his life at baptism and gave him the gift of faith that clings on to Jesus and God brought him home safely to heaven.

So when the questions about death and life get personal, when they get too close to ignore, when American optimism and wishful thinking just won't do, that's when the Reformation still matters.

A little over two weeks ago, my stepmom and my dad went into the hospital. My dad donated a kidney to my stepmom so she would not have to rely on a dialysis machine for the rest of her life. And before the surgery, my dad and I had a chance to talk a couple of times about what was about to happen, and there was a particular comment he told me that really stuck with me. He said, “Pastor came to our house today and gave communion to your mother and me. Now we're ready for whatever will happen.” You see, my dad's pastor came over, walked them through confession and absolution, gave them the bread and the wine, the body and blood of Jesus, in their mouth, prayed the Lord's Prayer with them and then Pastor pronounced the benediction over them and God's grace was there. Jesus was there. That is when the Reformation still matters, for without God's grace, my mom and dad would have no hope before getting into that surgery, no hope that if anything were to happen where they would die, they would have no certainty whatsoever, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But by God's grace alone, Jesus brings righteousness and life to people like my mom and dad, to people who die in terrorist attacks, who die in hurricanes or in earthquakes, and young people who get killed in accidents, and to me and to you.

Martin Luther says it best in this quote, “When I am to die, I must boldly rely on Christ, submit my head to the stroke of death and boldly trust the Word of God. This cannot deceive me.” Yes, the Reformation still matters because righteousness and certainty come from Jesus and Him alone. Amen.

A special thanks to Professor Glenn A. Nielsen for his contributions.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church