Reformation Sunday                            Romans 3:19-28                               25 October, 2009

Today is Reformation Sunday.
It is that Sunday in the life of the Lutheran Church where we take time to remember and celebrate our history and some of our idiosyncrasies.
Today is also the day when a handful of our youth will affirm their baptism--that is--they will claim the promises made on their behalf at a time in their lives when they were otherwise unable to do so.

So between Reformation Sunday and Affirmation of Baptism—we have a pretty full agenda—an exciting agenda—but full.
So what should we do?
How might we best meld these two events into one?
One way to weave these two events together is to start by asking the question that I believe bridges these two events in the life of the church.
And the question is: What is a Lutheran?
I ask that question because I believe it will help us gain an understanding of the Reformation and it will provide one more teachable moment for the benefit of those who are going to affirm the faith in which they were baptized.

So, What is a Lutheran?
Is a Lutheran someone who belongs to a Lutheran Church?
Yes and no.
The truth is we have a great many people who attend and belong to this Church who did not necessarily grow up in the Lutheran Church.
There are some who never went through Confirmation classes.
The truth is we have a number of folks who have come from other faith traditions and to some degree they have hung onto some of those traditions.
We have folks who were once Catholics, and Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and a host of others as well.
And while they might currently worship in a Lutheran church, I suspect some of the traditions of their past have hung on, and that's OK.
So maybe part of being a Lutheran is being respectful of other Christian traditions and recognizing that they too bring something to the table and something that we might benefit from.
Kind of like a potluck supper, another Lutheran idiosyncrasy.

Is a Lutheran someone who has a picture of Martin Luther in their wallet or the walls of their homes or office?
Not necessarily.
Have you ever seen a picture of Martin Luther in this church building?
I walked around the other day looking for one and I did not find one.
The closest thing of the sort is the Martin Luther Bobble Head figure in my office.
I'm not sure that counts, at least not in the serious sense.
So what is a Lutheran?
In order to move this thought along I'm going to suggest that Lutherans are people who think a certain way about God and Christ.
And Lutherans are people who are united by core teachings.

Let's look at that first part of the first statement…
Lutherans are people who think a certain way.
The word I want to draw your attention to is the word, THINK.
Throughout history Christian people have worshipped God in a variety of ways.
Some have worshipped with their heart, that is, they did the loving work of God in the world, caring for and serving others.
Some have worshiped God with their soul, finding God in the beauty of music, motion, and art.
And then there is the mind.
The Lutheran Church was born in the midst of an academic setting.
Martin Luther was a professor of the Bible, and the Bible says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind…" as people of faith we are called to use our hearts, our soul and our minds.
When we gather to worship we are invited to use our hearts, our souls and our minds.
Nowhere in scripture does it tell us to check our brains at the door when we gather for worship, nor are we to blindly follow like lost sheep being led to slaughter.
When Martin Luther was trial for some of his writings that offended the church of that day, he made it clear that unless he could be convinced by both Scripture and reason, he would not and could not recant.
And on that sentiment he stood his ground.
It should also be noted that Martin Luther translated the Bible into German for the people in his congregations, so they could read and study scripture for themselves.
He was also instrumental in the establishment of public education back in the 1500's, so that people could learn to read, especially so they could and would read the Bible.
To be Lutheran is to worship God with our heart, with soul and with our minds.

This leads us to those core teachings and I am going to touch on five of them this morning for the sake of brevity.

The first teaching points to the Word—Scripture.
To be Lutheran is to be Bible centered.
To be Lutheran is to read the Bible because it is in the Bible that we learn about the God, who created us, claimed us and who welcomes us at the end of time.
When we read the Bible we learn the good news of Jesus Christ who is at the core of scripture.
To be Lutheran is to read the Bible if not daily, regularly.
It is the primary source for how to live as God's people.

The second core teaching centers on Christ.
Similar to what I just said earlier, Jesus is the Word made flesh and Jesus reveals the heart and mind of God.
Know Jesus and you know God the Father.
To be Lutheran is to be Christo-centric—Christ centered. That's not to say that we don't give attention to God the Father or the Holy Spirit, the other two entities that make up the Trinity.
It means Christ is at the center of that Trinity.
In Christ we know God.
In the Holy Spirit we see this person of the Trinity pointing us to Christ.
I believe this emphasis on Christ is best found when we look to the empty cross that is often at the center of our places of worship.
The cross is empty in order to remind us that Christ is not dead on the cross but living in our midst striving to transform our hearts, our souls and our minds.

The third core teaching draws our attention to this often-misunderstood word—Grace.
To be Lutheran is to believe in grace alone.
Grace, it is more than what you do before you eat a meal, it is more than being smooth and light on your feet.
Grace defines God.
Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we know that our God is gracious.
So what does this word grace mean, in short, it means receiving a gift that that we don't deserve.
Many of us receive gifts at some point in our lives on Christmas and maybe even on our birthdays.
Such gifts are never deserved, but they are given because someone loves us.
The love of God is a gift.
We can't earn God's love; it is a gift, with no strings attached.
What makes grace so hard to understand is that it has to be experienced.
Unfortunately, grace is not something you can learn by reading about it or hearing someone preaching about it until they are blue in the face.
It has to be experienced and that is why there are still so many folks who don't seem to get it and it is for that reason -- it is imperative that as people of faith we are to be grace-filled and compassionate so that others might experience this God given gift of grace.

The fourth core teaching concerns faith.
What is our response to God's gracious love that is so freely given to us?
What does God want from us?
God wants us to trust in Christ.
The key word here is trust.
More than 300 times in the New Testament, we are called to believe in Christ; only four times are we told to be, "born again".
The word, "believe", occurs all the time and the phrase, "born again," only four times.
In other words, to be "born again" is to believe or trust in Christ.
Now this might come as a surprise, but not once does the New Testament tell us to believe in God; not once does the New Testament tell us to believe in the Holy Spirit; but 300 times we are called to believe in Jesus Christ, to put our trust in Christ.
98% of Americans say they believe in God, but the Bible doesn't tell us to believe in the existence of God, but to put our trust in Jesus Christ.
Nor does the New Testament encourage you to make a "decision" for Jesus Christ, but the New Testament repeatedly asks you and me to put our trust in Jesus Christ.
Semantics? Maybe.
To believe in Christ is to trust Jesus with our lives, not part of our lives, all of our lives, not just on Sunday morning, but every other day of the week as well.

So what does this mean?
Well, let me tell you a story, a story some of you have heard before, but it bears repeating.
Once upon a time there was a famous tight ropewalker.
He was famous for doing daring deeds high above the ground on a steel cable.
On one occasion he was providing a demonstration at Niagara Falls where he had cable strung across those mighty waterfalls.
He started his demonstration with the usual antic of walking back and fourth from one side to the other.
Then doing the same thing with a unicycle.
After the unicycle he brought out a wheelbarrow and he asked the crowd, do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow filled with 50 pounds of sand.
And the crowds responded that "Yes" they believed he could do that.
And sure enough he did.
He then asked the crowd, did they believe he could push the wheelbarrow back and forth with 100 pounds of sand and the crowd responded, "Yes, we believe you can".
After he successfully accomplished that task he asked: "Do you believe I can put a human being in the wheelbarrow and push them across and back again?"
And the crowd shouted with great enthusiasm, "Yes we believe that you can".
At that point he turns to one of the folks in the crowd and he said, "Get in the wheelbarrow."
And the crowd got quiet.

Lots of people will tell you they believe in God and do nothing, their lives remain the same, lifeless and lacking purpose.
That is why the he question for the day is not do you believe in God, but do you trust Jesus.
Are you willing to get in Jesus' wheelbarrow?
Faith is getting in the wheelbarrow—trusting Jesus with your life.

The last core teaching concerns the freedom to love as Christ loves.
As Lutheran we don't put a lot of stock in rules and regulations to govern our daily lives.
As a Lutheran pastor I am not going to spend a lot of time telling you what you should do and what you should not do.
I'm not going to tell you who to vote for or how you ought to respond to particular issues.
I am not going to load you down with a bunch of rules and laws and commandments.
Instead, given the choice, I would rather simply give you two—"Love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as your self"(Mt. 22:37-39).

And while these two commandments are still significantly shorter than the Ten Commandments—I would shorten them even more—Love as Christ loves.
Love as Christ loves.
Trust me, follow this and you won't break any of the Ten Commandments.
More importantly—this commandment comes straight from Jesus and it lifts up something you won't find in the Ten Commandments—that being the emphasis on love.
There is not one commandment in the Old Testament that commands us to love; there is not one commandment of the Ten Commandments that command us to love.
For that reason alone they can be put aside as being inadequate because they to not invite us to love with the love of Christ.
To be honest, if you want lots of laws and lots of rules, and lots of folks telling you what you should and should not do—there are lots of other churches that would be happy to give all that and more.
For Lutherans there is only really one rule—love as Christ loves.
When you love as Christ loves -- you will fulfill all the other laws.
Does that mean we throw out the Ten Commandments?
No, I mean they are helpful, but quite simply they will not save you, both Jesus and the Apostle Paul make it clear—the law does not save us.
Only Christ's faithfulness can do that.
Only by the grace of God are we saved.
The Ten Commandment are helpful,—but there is no emphasis on love.
Jesus died on the cross and has set us free from the law not so we can go and make up more rules to follow and more hoops to jump through.
Jesus died on the cross so that we might be free to love as he first loved us.

So, what is a Lutheran—A Lutheran is a Christian who worships God with all his or her heart, soul and mind.
A Lutheran is someone who cherishes and abides by the core teachings of our tradition:
Read the Word, read your Bible.
Christ alone saves us because of his death on the cross.
It is by the Grace of God that we are given life and all that life has to offer both here and in the life to come.
In response to what Christ has done for us we live by Faith, that is, we trust Christ-- we get in the wheelbarrow.
And lastly, we love as Christ has first loved us.

On this Reformation Sunday—these are the themes that will most likely resonate throughout Lutheran churches around the world.
And on this Sunday where ten of our youth will affirm their baptism—it is our hope and prayer that these five core teaching will continue to shape and mold their lives.
It is our hope and prayer that they might continue to grow in their call to discipleship and that they might continue to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind-- and their neighbor as themselves.
And if you remember nothing else from this morning's sermon—love as Christ has loved you. Amen

Pastor Stephen Blenkush
Zion Lutheran
Milaca, MN
www.ZionMilaca.org
Sept. 20, 2009

 

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