Reformation Sunday<\/b>
\nJeremiah 31:31-34
\nPsalm 46:1-11
\nRomans 3:19-28
\nJohn 8:31-36<\/p>\n
Audio Version Last week pastor spoke about wrestling with faith.\u00a0 We heard the story of Jacob being renamed after wrestling all night with a man who in the end gives another name to Jacob, which is Israel.\u00a0 As we heard, Israel means, one who has striven with God.<\/p>\n Today we remember the reformation, where Martin Luther and others began to question doctrines and other aspects of the Catholic Church.\u00a0 It was in 1515 that Luther wrote his 95 Thesis, where in a scholarly format he questions the practices of the Catholic Church, in search of the truth.\u00a0 The truth here is, we do not know for sure if he really nailed the Thesis to the Church door or not.\u00a0 It may be just one of those \u201cUrban Legends\u201d.\u00a0 What we do know is that Luther was not the first to seek truth and nor will he be the last.\u00a0 For example, the ELCA Lutheran church is continually question and ever reforming and always seeking the truth.\u00a0 In seeking of truth, Luther began to question practices that he believed did not reveal the truth of God.\u00a0 It is in striving with God that Luther questions God and the Church for a truth that reveals the Grace of God.<\/p>\n Many people can say they have a truth but can there really be many truths or can there only be a truth?\u00a0 Another possibility is that there are truths but only a single truth for an individual or a group of like-minded individuals.\u00a0 Truth must lead to life.\u00a0 If what is \u201ctruth\u201d is not life giving, then the truth is in darkness and not the Truth, in the life giving Light of God.\u00a0 God gives us free will, the free will to reject God and God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 It is in God\u2019s nature, being of Truth and Love, that God\u2019s grace is not so much a gift to us as it is God\u2019s own nature of how God chooses to see God\u2019s creation.\u00a0 Lutherans often hang their hat upon grace, even to a fault sometimes.<\/p>\n When Martin was seeking out, questioning what he knew of his faith, he discovered through his questioning, striving for truth, that the very nature of God contains the Grace that humans need.\u00a0 Without this grace, without the truth, humanity is doomed for damnation.\u00a0 We cannot by our works of any sort, merit anything but damnation.\u00a0 It is the laws of God, which reveals just how sinful you, me and all of humanity truly are.\u00a0 Sin is anything that rebels against God.\u00a0 No matter how small or large the rebellion, it is still sin.\u00a0 The problem with sin is that sin leads to more sin and it does not stop and therefore we are enslaved to sin and cannot be freed by our own works of any sort.\u00a0 In other words as N.T. Wright, an English Theologian has put it,<\/p>\n When people rebel against God in whatever way, new fields of force are called into being, a cumulative effect builds up, and individuals and societies alike become enslaved just as surely as if every single one of them wore chains and was hounded to work every day by a strong man with a whip.[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n As Christians we believe in the Triune God, consisting of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 We confess this each Sunday when we recite the Apostles Creed.\u00a0 What is our truth that Luther strived to get in his questions and what is it that we can therefore hold onto? The translation as found in Wright\u2019s book of our Gospel today, I believe lends its self to our ears better than what I read earlier, to hear just what the truth is.<\/p>\n 31\u00a0<\/sup>So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.<\/p>\n \u2018If you remain in my word,\u2019 he said, \u2018you really will be my disciples, 32\u00a0<\/sup>and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.\u2019<\/p>\n 33\u00a0<\/sup>\u2018We are Abraham\u2019s descendants!\u2019 they replied. \u2018We\u2019ve never been anyone\u2019s slaves! How can you say that \u201cYou\u2019ll become free\u201d?\u2019<\/p>\n 34\u00a0<\/sup>\u2018I\u2019m telling you the solemn truth,\u2019 Jesus replied. \u2018Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35\u00a0<\/sup>The slave doesn\u2019t live in the house for ever; the son lives there for ever. 36\u00a0<\/sup>So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.\u2019[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The Jews had put their trust in being the descendants of Abraham, being part of Abraham\u2019s family.\u00a0 Jesus however is telling us that all of humanity is enslaved to sin and only the Son will dwell in the house of God forever, the slaves will not.\u00a0 Unless, and only unless the Son makes you free can you truly be free to dwell with Son in the house forever.\u00a0 This is the truth that comes to all Christians, in faith.\u00a0 God speaks the truth always and comes to us in the Father\u2019s Son, Jesus Christ who lives and dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who is also of God and is also the truth.\u00a0 God gives us a New Covenant, not like the one of the ancestors of the house of Israel and Judah but now one in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 It is God, the Son and the Spirit that is The Truth and it is in The Truth, we are freed from Sin.\u00a0 We being freed from Sin, Jesus is also The Life to us.<\/p>\n Luther points to Christ as the center; Christ\u2019s death and resurrection becomes The Way, The Truth and The Life for us all.\u00a0 As it says in Romans 3, \u201c\u2026all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24\u00a0<\/sup>they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\u2026\u201d [3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> It is not our works that justifies us to give us life.\u00a0 It is our works that reveal our death in slavery to sin and our need for the Gospel.\u00a0 We as Christians must respond to The Way, The Truth and The Life.\u00a0 If we follow The Truth, Jesus, who came to reveal Himself as the Truth, then we will do as commanded not because we merit grace in our works but because of The Truth in grace. We walk a slippery path when we assume that nominal membership of a Christian church means we are automatically in God\u2019s favor.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Being part of the family is not enough.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 What if those that are called to be the light bears of Christ into the world are actually themselves infected with darkness and therefore will not dwell in the house forever?[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Go today, knowing that our life found in freedom, from the slavery of sin is not something of a nominal membership but one of response to The Truth, following the Father, Son and Spirit for the sake of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, The Way, The Truth<\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Tom Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-10<\/i> (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 123.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Tom Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-10<\/i> (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 121.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version<\/i> (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ro 3:23\u201324.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [4]<\/a> Tom Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-10<\/i> (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 124.<\/p>\n
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