10-29-2023 Reformation Day

 On Being Grace-Full 

  On October 31, 1517, some 500 years ago, Martin Luther posted the 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Little did he know then that his action would be the spark of what we now call the Reformation. The core of Martin Luther's personal transformation was his rediscovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that we are saved entirely by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as this is revealed in Holy Scripture. 

  Martin Luther spearheaded a very necessary and long overdue reform of the church of his day, and we are true children of the Reformation when we see that the church is always in need of reform and always depending on God's grace. 

  This means that with every other sinner i kneel at the foot of the cross. It means that  when it comes to salvation, you're a beggar and I'm a beggar. This is how Luther put it at the very end of his life: "We are beggars- that is true."

  Luther's teachings ultimately led to his excommunication by Pope Leo X in the year 1521.

 Martin Luther did not want to form a church outside the Roman Church; he wanted to reform it from within. Even after the break, the Augsburg Confession was written in 1530 to try to heal the division. It  stressed the many points of unity between Lutheran teachings and Catholic teachings, even as it pointed out that certain teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church of that time did not agree with Holy Scriptures. 

  Today, Lutherans best see themselves not as a breakaway church body, but as a part of the continuation of the universal church built upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles. To be genuinely Lutheran means to live for the healing of divisions within the whole of the Christian church.

  My main point today is that Lutherans at their best are grace-full, full of grace: we are "full of grace" in three ways: one, we receive God's lavish gift of love in Christ Jesus even though we know we are totally unworthy of this gift. 

  One of the things I wrestled with as a teenager was how sinful I was. Turn in your hymnal to page 184. In the bottom left corner is the confession of sins my church had at every communion service. 

  I took to hear the teaching that we are sinful before God and therefore we deserve to be damned. 

 Of course, I was also taught about God's grace, that because of Jesus Christ, God forgave me a poor, miserable sinner. One of the most powerful passages about that is Romans 5:1-2. The Apostle Paul writes: 

    "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God."

 Did you hear the words in this passage? Through Jesus Christ we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. IN CHRIST WE ARE FOREVER STANDING IN A STATE OF GRACE. We are always forgiven! Even when we are sinning we are forgiven because we are in this state of grace! 

  Grace is not an easy thing to understand. Grace is so unlikely in human terms and human experience, it is so free and magnificent, that it seems unreal and is therefore hard to believe. 

 Listen to this quote from Martin Luther: God's love is "of such a magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us, the more He cleanses us, relieving us of all our misery and of the burden of all our sins and placing them upon His own back. 

  "How amazing it is that the Son of God becomes my servant, that He humbles Himself so , that He burdens Himself with my misery and sin, yes with the sin and the de3ath of the entire world." So wrote Martin Luther. 

  So, number one, we are full of grace when we receive God's grace. Number two, we are also full of grace when we teach God's grace in loving ways. 

 Lutherans give central importance to this teaching that sinners like you and me are forgiven by God's grace for the sake of Jesus Christ. We give central place to Jesus Christ as God's appointed way of salvation and as the fulfillment of all Scripture. 

   Jesus is our Savior and Lord; He is true man and true God. By his holy life, by his innocent suffering and death, by his amazing resurrection and ascension, Jesus has paid the penalty of sin, eliminated the guilt of sin, covered the shame of sin, and conquered the power of sin in our lives. It is through Him alone that we have the solid hope of enjoying eternal bliss in God's presence forever. 

  Lutherans at their best believe the Gospel of Jesus is the interpretive key that unlocks the mysteries of the Bible. God revealed himself progressively to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, but God reserved his greatest revelation until Jesus Christ, His own Son come in human flesh. Hebrews 1:1-2: "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son."

 It is only through Jesus Christ that we understand the meaning and message of the Bible. All the books of the Bible, all of the promises of the Bible, all the covenants of the Bible, all the prophecies of the Bible, the entire Bible narrative both Old and New Testaments, can only be understood in the full light of truth revealed in Jesus Christ. 

  Jesus is the fulfillment of Scripture. In fact, Jesus Christ is the New Israel. He is Israel reduced to One person. This is part and parcel of how God saves us. Jesus does all that God had wanted Israel to do, and more. Jesus welcomes the outcast, heals the sick, comforts the broken hearted, preaches the kingdom of God, suffered and died on the cross, and rose again from the dead. One person is the Savior of the entire world. 

 This Christ-centered orientation is what Lutherans means by being grace-gull because Jesus is God's personal agent of dispensing God's grace in personal; ways. Every spiritual blessing comes to us personally by way of Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3. 

 Grace-full: this Christ-centered orientation, I believe, is one of the great blessings that Lutherans have to share with the larger church. But,  grace-full also means that as a  Lutheran I realize that Christians in other churches have gifts to share with Lutherans, things that we have neglected or not given proper emphasis, things about which we have incomplete understanding or limited practice. 

 Over the years I have interacted with and sensed the presence of Christ in people from a wide bvariety of Christian traditions: Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, and charismatic. They have good things to teach me, even as I believe I have good things to share from my tradition. 

 Yes I disagree with some teachings and practices of other Christians, but even in my disagreement, I  can be grace-full. I can avoid arrogance and putting people down. I can treat others with respect and model  kind-hearted conversation. 

 In Ephesians 4: 3-6, the Apostle Paul states: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Soirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and thought all and in all ."

 To be grace-full means to be humble in my faith. Humble here does not mean I don't have convictions, or that I don't hold firmly to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It means that I recognize that I could be wrong about certain things and that I need to be open to correction. I can learn from the piety and faithfulness of other Christians. 

 Being humble in grace means that the Lord places me in a body of believers with whom I can share the love of Christ, believers who can rub the rough edges off my character and disposition, believers who will forgive me when I need it and whom I will forgive when they need it, believers who can pray for me and for whom I can pray. In these ways, God unites us in the love of Christ. 

 So to be grace-full  means: one,  to receive God's grace; two, to teach God's grace. Three, it also means that we live and practice God's Grace. 

 For all the blessings that came out of the Reformation, the church did not then turn into a perfect religious community, The history of the church is this disconcerting blend of the good and many shades of the not so good. 

Why? Because the church is imperfect. We members of the church  are imperfect, sinful people at the very same time we are gloriously forgiven and made righteous in Christ.

 Because we are so forgiven and beloved in Christ, we are to be grace-full in our interactions with others Ephesians 4:32: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." 

 Bottom line: We are to practice the love that Paul talks about in 1Corinthians 13: 4-6 

When you truly love, You are not rude. You are not irritable. You are not resentful. You do not insist on your own way. You don't keep score of wrongs done to you. 

  Then Verse 7: "It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 

  When you love you work for the best in every situation. You put the best construction on others peoples' actions. You don't assume the worst! You keep on loving even when you are tired and it's hard to love. 

  That's love. And love is just the first of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions in  Galatians 5. There's also Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control. Self-control means you are so full of the Holy Spirit that you are able to practice the other fruit when the situation calls for it. Self-control. 

 All of this is fruit of the Spirit not something we can manufacture: it has to be God's doing. it won't happen by our initiative, our resources, our will, and our energy. The Holy Spirit must fill us over and over and over again, day after day, year after year, through His Word, through His Sacraments, and through the prayer and fellowship of God's people. 

For me, being a child of the Reformation means that I am grace-full, full of grace.... 

in what I believe and the way I believe it, in what I teach and the way I teach it, and by how I live and practice the faith, under the power and presence of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

( Not used in manuscript) 

  For years, God had been a huge problem for Luther. God was a problem because of remoteness or silence or by being a kindly old man upstairs, as God is for many today.  Rather God was a problem because of His threatening divine nearness. Luther did not see how he could merit salvation before such a righteous God. He saw God as judging and accusing him, and he suffered the terrors of hell. 

  At the time Luther, in the early 16th century, salvation was widely viewed as something to be earned by good works, which included the observance of a variety of practices such as praying for others and buying indulgences as well as other rules and regulations.

it is obvious that the Roman Catholic Church has done a lot of reforming since the time of Luther. Some of the reforms were made by the Council of Trent in the 16th century and other wide-sweeping reforms were made at the Second Vatican Council held in the 1960's. 

 More than that, I believe God is asking the denominations and branches of Christendom to fostor cooperative alliances so that we may reach out more effectively to this hurting world with the love of Jesus Christ. We have spiritual  unity in Jesus Christ as we worship and serve together even if we do not have formal, structural unity. By our love and unity we can be a more effective witness in our world today. 

Abd those who believe in Him and are joined to Him by baptism and fait are the people of God in continuity with the faithful people of God of the Old Testament, New Testament, and all through church history. 

Sermon By Pastor Jack Flachsbart.