Reformation Sunday

Psalm 46,etc. - Reformation Sunday - October 30, 2016
The Everlasting Gospel

+

This morning we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation.  The Lutheran Reformation is arguably the most significant historical event since Pentecost.  Both events turned the world upside down. 

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit alighted on the chosen disciples with tongues of fire on their heads, and gave them power to preach the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.  Many believed the gospel and were saved.  Many did not.  Those who believed found God’s favor in the full and free forgiveness of sins which they so dearly needed.  They feared God.  God turned to them a Father’s heart and gave them his Holy Spirit.  By faith they laid hold of the redemption that God freely offered in his Son Jesus Christ who had drowned their sins in the depth of the deepest sea. 

Those who did not believe continued to trust in their own works to earn God’s blessing.  They did not fear God.  They remained in their sin despite the fact that Jesus died and rose to remove them.  Remember how the older brother resented his father for receiving back his prodigal son?  In the same way, those who despised the grace of God also resented the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for receiving sinners to himself. 

So it has been and still is since the day that Cain slew his brother Abel.  Cain murdered Abel because God was pleased with Abel’s faith and not with Cain’s own work.  This has always been the response of the unbelieving world towards those who believe the gospel.  The gospel is an offense to those who want to be justified before God by their own merit.  “He who is not with me is against me.”  So said Jesus.  There is no neutral ground.  Those who reject the gospel cannot help but also actively oppose it – by what they do and say and think.  They persecute the Church.  They persecute those who confess that their only hope for salvation is through the mercy of Christ. 

And though the reason one may have for despising the gospel is that he prefers to indulge in carnal lust and mammon – and though the reason another may have is that he prefers to boast in his own self-restraint and holiness — yet, their reasons are the same.  They both prefer to approach God in fig leaves.  They both prefer to justify themselves apart from the obedience of Jesus – without his fulfillment of the law in their place, without his suffering and death for their sins, without his robe of righteousness that covers their shame through faith in his mercy.  They do not fear God.  They do not blush.  And so they hate the Church of Christ who humbly confesses her sins and modestly bears the name of him who by grace alone presents her to himself as pure and spotless. 

Such is the life of the Church.  She is at war.  It is a defensive war.  The nations rage.  The deepest sees into which our sins have been cast roil over to oppress us and harm us.  God’s holy City is attacked on all sides.  Where peace is proclaimed between God and man for the sake of Christ’s atoning work on the cross, self-righteous men fight mightily against the truth – because the truth condemns them.  They have already twisted the law in order to make themselves look worthy of eternal life.  But then the gospel sounds forth, promising freedom from death and hell – a message of joy only to those who have heard the law thunder and condemn them.  And so to those who refuse to repent, the gospel rings like dreaded judgment upon them – no matter how sweet we think it should strike them.  They do not take lightly to the suggestion that they are slaves of sin and that only Jesus can set them free.  Well, it was more than a suggestion, wasn’t it?  Jesus said it: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” 

What joyous news to us who know our sin!  What joy to us who know the struggle of our flesh – the wicked thoughts, the perennial lusts, the bitterness in our hearts against which we constantly fight because they are constantly trying to enslave us, what peace the gospel is to us who know the things we have done or – what is often much worse and more painful upon later reflection – the things we have left undone.   What wonderful news for us that all our sins are freely forgiven so that we might be free from them, free from God’s judgment, and free from any fear that God would yet reject us when our time comes.  How can he?  The Son has set us free.  The Son whom the eternal Father raised glorious and triumphant from the grave – He has set us free!  He! by whom we ourselves have been made sons of God!  He who has left nothing undone for us, but lived a pure and holy life of love toward God and man!  He, our Lord Jesus, has manifested this love for all to embrace by turning this selfsame love toward us in the preaching of the gospel. 

Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).  Greater works!  Wow!  What can we exalt more greatly than the work of Christ for us?  What is a greater work than what the Son of God has done to free us from bondage?  It is faith, dear Christian.  It is the preaching of the gospel.  Faith that receives God’s pardon, faith that embraces this truth that sets us free, faith that depends on the preaching of grace and mercy despite the storms of denial within and without – this is the greatest work that occurs on the face of the earth, which God made.  This work is greater not by adding to the work of Christ, but because preaching brings it to us and faith receives it.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit among us whom Christ has sent from the right hand of the Father. 

Faith and preaching go together.  Faith comes by hearing.  Faith feeds on what Jesus commanded his servants to preach.  Preaching brings the work of Jesus to you – Jesus himself, in fact, who is the very Word made flesh.  Faith receives it in the heart.  This is the work of God among us and within us.  Faith justifies, not because of how great a work it is.  Faith justifies for the same reason that we call it great.  It receives the work of Jesus, the Son of God.  He “is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”   Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone who did for all the world atone.  He is our one Redeemer.

Jesus sent his disciples out as sheep among wolves.  He did this for the sake of his dear lambs for whom he shed his blood to redeem.  He sent them out to make disciples by baptizing and teaching the gospel.  This was their mission.  This remains the Church’s mission.  Even when the wolves infiltrate the Church and presume to rule it, still the Church’s mission remains: preach the gospel – defend it, confess it. 

The miracle of Pentecost invited the wrath and resentment of scoffers and hypocrites.  And throughout the ages, the Church has spoken valiantly against all attacks on the pure gospel.  Against the Arians of the 3^rd and 4^th centuries who denied that the Son is truly God, against the Pelagians of the 5^th century who denied that man was saved by the grace of God alone, and against all sorts of errors that in some way or another undermined the truth that sets us free. 

But in time, folks no longer defined the Church according to that which made her the Church.  She was no longer identified by the means of grace, that is, the word and sacrament ministry that Christ had instituted.  Instead the Church was identified by the bureaucratic powerhouse that ran the show.  They didn’t preach the gospel.  They persecuted it.  True Christians remained, to be sure.  The gates of hell could not prevail against that Rock on which the Church was built.  But true faith was scarce because the gospel was scarcely preached.  Instead of feeding Christ’s lambs, the Pope and his false prophets were fleecing the sheep and devouring them.  And to make matters even worse yet, this all took place in the name of Jesus.  They were wolves in sheep’s clothing just as our dear Lord warned us. 

What dark days!  Is it not as St. Paul quoted from Psalm 44,

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Romans 8:36). 

As it was in the days of John the Baptist, as it was whenever men were called to repentance, as it is wherever the free grace of God is offered in Jesus’ name, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.  But even if the outward structure of the Church is taken by force and Jerusalem crumbles, yet one thing they must still let remain, as Luther has taught us to sing: the word of God – nor any thanks have for it.  Rather it is thanks to God.  Zion stands!  The Lord God of Sabaoth is in the midst of her.  He is by our side.  Even if the earth falls into chaos and the oceans swallow up the mountains – what trouble can we not face if we have God’s word?  Thank God that he has sent us faithful men to preach it.  Thank God that when his people had been driven deep into papal captivity, he yet afforded in his infinite mercy one angel to proclaim the everlasting gospel which has brought salvation to untold millions in the last 499 years.   

When we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation, we are not simply celebrating a great historical event that changed the world – no more than we celebrate a mere historical event on Pentecost.  No, but what do we celebrate?  Why have we decorated our altar and lectern and pulpit and preacher in red like we do on Pentecost?  We celebrate the preaching of the gospel.  We celebrate the mighty working of the Holy Spirit to cheer our hearts in the midst of earthly sorrow and hellish guilt.  And he does this by bringing Christ to us.  This is why we celebrate the Reformation.  We celebrate the victory of God’s word – the Holy Scripture – over the lies of the devil.  We celebrate the freeing of the captives who had long been in prison.  We celebrate that eternal truth which alone is able to call back the erring who made false confirmation vows or who have been seduced by the world since their youth.  We celebrate that which continues to set us free from sin and despair.  We celebrate both the Bible itself and its chief and highest teaching: the doctrine of justification by faith alone. 

The Reformation was an event of biblical proportions – not because of its immense social and political impact, but because it brought back to the ears and mouths and hearts of God’s people the saving light of truth that rescues sinners from darkness.  As Hezekiah cleansed the temple, casting out what was unclean and restoring what was commanded by God, so Dr. Luther reformed the Church in no other way than by standing firm on the word of God – and teaching it in defiance of both devil and antichrist who would rather have it silenced. 

Dr. Martin Luther was particularly gifted by the Holy Spirit.  It is not hero-worship to say so.  We have not replaced one pope with another.  No, rather we acknowledge where we still find the gospel today.  We find it where God sends men to preach it.  An angel is a messenger.  That’s what Luther was.  In his struggles with guilt and dread, as the hymn we just sang expressed, Luther had nowhere to turn to find a gracious God other than to the Scriptures – the Bible.  There he learned that the gospel was not God’s judgment on man, but God’s free grace toward sinners.  He learned that the righteousness of God that God demanded in the gospel was the righteousness that Jesus offered in obedience to his Father in our place.  It was the righteousness that he fulfilled for us and that he now bestows freely in the forgiveness of sins – in our Baptism, in the body and blood that seals the last and final testament of the Son of God. 

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.  The city of God is the Holy Christian Church.  It is Mount Zion.  It is the New Paradise on Earth to replace the one lost in Eden.  Eden was fed by four rivers.  We are fed by one.  This river is Holy Scripture.  Its streams flow from the pierced side of the incarnate Word who bore the curse of sin in himself – the curse of all creation – in order to lead his lambs safely to the still waters of heavenly mercy and life.  He is our true Shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep.  Now in the midst of our own battle with death and hell, he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. 

“Though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling” – yet God’s holy dwelling rests secure.  The God “who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” is the God who “makes wars cease to the end of the earth.” 

For now, a battle rages.  It is a battle against the truth.  For you who do not notice how the battle rages – for you who have not taken note of how the world despises the gospel that we preach and how false doctrine of every stripe and variety remains a veritable weapon of the devil, then see in yourself the very source of the foaming waves.  It is sin, dear Christian.  It is unbelief.  It is doubt.  This is the great problem of your life.  Whatever other trouble you face, whatever relationships that hurt, or uncertainties you may face as you plan your future – whatever it is that grieves you or worries you, find the cause of it all in that which requires you to humble yourself in repentance.  It is sin.  Fear God.  He is you father.  And so seeing the cause of both persecution from without and from within – from both world and sinful heart – your ever-present God becomes your ever-present help in time of need.  For “where sin abounded grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). 

That which cannot be bound runs its free course to encourage you and lift you high above all trouble and fear.  It is the word of God.  It is the truth that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ, because the love of God does not depend on you — rather it is revealed for you and toward you.  Your sins are forgiven.  Your battle is won.  The valiant One has won your fight.  And yet he does not lay down arms as long as your faith is threatened.  He fights still for you and in you.  He remains with you through it all.  And you lay claim of his victory over sin and death and hell by finding your gladness in the river of life-giving water that bestows upon you the righteousness of Christ your Savior – even as it fills you with the courage to confess this triumph before Satan, before pope or emperor, before bad conscience, and before any other enemy of our Salvation.  Christ is with you. 

Amen.