Sermon for the Commemoration of the Reformation
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I read from the Second Reading of the day, from Romans 3:22-24:
'This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.'
Let us pray: Lord, sanctify us in the truth: your Word is Truth. Amen.
No Exceptions!
In the English language there is the grammatical rule: "i" before "e" except after "c." But when learning the English language you also have to get to know that there are many exceptions to that rule. For the rule is broken in such words as: neighbour, weigh, feign, height, seize, heifer, weird and there's about 50 more that can be easily found with a simple internet search!
Musician Isaac Stern said, "Everywhere in the world, music enhances a hall, with one exception: Carnegie Hall enhances the music."
Poet John Holmes said, "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
And most humorously, Groucho Marx said, "I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
The words "except" and "exception" are very powerful words. Just think how powerful they are for a minute. With the use of the word "except" you can take away everything else, thus rendering the "everything else" completely irrelevant. With the insertion of the word "exception," you are given the power to exclude, to cut-off, to isolate, millions and billions in favour of a factor of just one, a single item, or a single group!
Listen to the most powerful "exceptional" clauses that I can find in the Bible. There are many more, but here is my top three. Jesus said, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6). If that wasn't exclusive enough then hear this, but now from the apostle St Paul, 'Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law' (Rom 13:8). And thirdly, St Paul said, 'May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world' (Gal 6:14).
Do you hear how powerful that word can be? "Except" is a word that isolates one person or thing over against all others. 'Except' has the greatest of powers to distinguish "this" from "all that."
The Reformation and its ongoing legacy over the past 500+ years has taught the world and the church many things. Amongst others, the Reformation taught us that, when it comes to our salvation, that we are saved by the grace of God alone, received through faith alone, taught to us by the Word alone, secured for us by the merits of Christ alone. Grace alone! Faith alone! Scripture alone! Christ alone!
The Reformation, which, by the way, is not the sole possession of Lutherans, for it includes other Reformers besides Martin Luther, can also be remembered for the explosion of hymnody that fills our hymnals. It can be remembered for the explosion of Bible translation work into the vernacular, so that ordinary people could hear and understand the Scriptures in their own language. Luther translated into German, but let's not forget the work of Wycliffe, Tyndale and Coverdale. This, coupled with the explosion of printed texts through Guttenberg's invention of the printing press, empowered the people with the same knowledge and desire for reform as was seen necessary by the lead Reformers themselves.
The Reformation also exposed the fact of how corrupt Western Christendom can get, and how ignorant of the person and work of Christ that the church on earth can become. The Sale of Indulgences, the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the forced celibacy of priests, the Mass as man's work rather than as Divine Service, the prevention of the reception of Christ's blood in the Lord's Supper, Monastic Vows, and the Worship of the Saints would be some of the most well-known deviations from the Scriptures, and therefore from Christ himself, in the life of the church. But there were so many more corruptions of the truth of God's Word and its faithful practice as well.
The prophets and the apostles had taught that Adam's sin was utterly sinful, that is, sinful to the core, and that all people inherit this Original Sin. But in the decades leading up to the Reformation, the church was teaching that Original Sin is not that sinful after all. But this rejection of how utterly sinful sin is, led to the teaching that you can contribute, at least something, be that great or small, to your salvation. But the Scriptures alone teach that every act you would wish to contribute to your salvation goes towards robbing yourself of that very salvation! Your vain attempts to justify yourself, to in any way work for, or add to your salvation, will take it away from you! Knowing the very depths of our sinfulness, and quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus said, 'They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men' (Mtt 15:9). The perversion of the Scriptural teaching on Original Sin led to so many others that the Symbolical Writings of the Book of Concord address as they walk the narrow path that leads to eternal life in Christ.
Above all, what began and maintained the Reformation was the revelation that there are no exceptions to the rule of how you are saved from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and therefore how eternal life is granted as a free and unmerited gift. The rule that cannot be broken was encapsulated in the dictum: Grace alone! Faith alone! Scripture alone! Christ alone!
In our text from Romans 3:22-24 we come across the word "all" three times. The word "all" is just as powerful as the word "except." Now think about the word "all" for a minute. What does the word "all" encompass? Think about it! Nothing at all stands outside of the word "all." "All" is all-encompassing! "All" is everything: no exceptions!
Listen to the power of the Word alone: 'This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.' (Rom 3:22-24).
There are just no exceptions! None! Zero! Zip! Zilch! According to the Word of God, no-one breaks this rule! But we know that "rules were meant to be broken." "i" before "e" except after "c," yeah, right! As if! That rule is hardly ever kept! That's what we believe about rules! Rules are meant to be broken! That's how we excuse our sins! That's how we try to play dodge-ball with the Ten-Commandments, ducking and weaving so that we are no hit hard by the truth and depth of our sin. That's how we try to justify ourselves! "Rules were meant to be broken." That's what we believe. Adam and Eve fell for that lie of Satan in the Garden of Eden. We fall into temptation every day because of that same lie! Lies like this become so much a part of us that we still make allowances in our life to keep believing it to be true. We make allowances to believe that even though God makes the rules that it is permissible to break them. Maybe then we can prove God wrong? Maybe then we can prove him a liar? An author named James Thurber said that, "There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception." It's a clever use of words, no doubt! But is akin to the clever use of words of Satan when he asked Eve, "Did God really say...?" It's the kind of lie that's ever more increasingly being taught to your children and your grandchildren out in the world, and even within the church. Adam certainly knew better, but the lie of Satan is powerful when compared to our weak flesh. Hence the call for us to be the ever-Reforming Church and receiving renewal from the Holy Spirit alone!
My friends in Christ: There are no exceptions to the rule that, '...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:23-24). Adam was not an exception to the rule. Enoch was not an exception to the rule. Noah was not an exception. Abraham was not an exception. Joseph wasn't. Job wasn't. Nor Moses or any of the patriarchs, or kings, or prophets. Not even King David proved himself the exception. In fact the Scriptures say this of King David - 'For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord's commands all the days of his life - except in the case of Uriah the Hittite' (1 Kings 15:5). This "exception clause" that in this case, offered David no exemption, is the Biblical shorthand for his adultery with Bathsheba and his complicity in the murder of her husband Uriah on the battlefield front-line. Through the prophet Nathan, David learnt that even he was no exception to the rule. Coming to realise that he was not even exempt, David was brought to repentance and faith. He confessed,
'For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place' (Psalm 51:3-6).
If, 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:23-24), then it is also true for all of us. We are no exception to the rule! The Lutheran Church is no exception to the rule! If we wish to be the ever-Reforming church, renewed by the Spirit of God, then let us consider these words from St Paul - 'The death [Christ Jesus] died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God' (Rom 6:10). 'And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again' (2 Cor 5:15).
Now thank we all our God that, 'all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:24). Yes, all and sundry, that is, everyone, is ' justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:24). There are simply no exceptions! The invitation made personally to you, and all people through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is to believe in the righteousness of Christ (Rom 3:22) transferred to you - in baptism, in Holy Communion, in the absolution, in your ears as you receive and believe the Word of God. The Scriptures are consistent. 'What does Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'' (Rom 4:3). The truth that sets us free to be the people of God, is that as many who have fallen short of the glory of God are justified freely by the grace of God and only by his grace. Grace alone! Faith apprehends this eternal and universal truth. Faith alone! And because of the depth of our sin, no-one, without exception, would know that this is true without it being proclaimed. Therefore, God was so gracious as to reveal this rule to us and have it written down for posterity - 'built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone' (Eph 2:20). Scripture alone! And all this made possible in Christ alone!
Friends in Christ: There are no exceptions amongst us here. In the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, there has never been one, and there never will be any exceptions to what I have said. No-one comes through those church doors as an exception. No-one who is baptised is an exception. When you soon come to the altar-rail to receive forgiveness for the magnitude and depth of your sins, remember that you are no exception. The Scriptures alone teach us that, 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:23-24).
On this special day to Commemorate the posting of the 95 Theses on the Castle Church Door in Wittenberg 507 years ago, we can joyfully remember the fact that, 'This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus' (Rom 3:22-24).
There are no exceptions - no, not even one!
And the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.