Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Luther's Big Idea - October 26, 2008

Luther's Big Idea

Reformation Sunday

John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28

October 26, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

I want to repeat the last line that was just read in the Epistle Lesson: "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

Let me read that again: "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

My guess is that most of you missed that line, or you kind of yawned when you heard it, or you thought, "Huh?"...as in, "Huh? What in the world is THAT all about?" or "Huh? So what?"

But that idea, all by itself, is why you happen to be sitting here this morning. That idea all by itself exploded the Roman Catholic Church and blew to smithereens what was left of the Holy Roman Empire about 500 years ago, led to the most devastating war in Europe to that time, and led to the creation of what we now know as the Lutheran Church. This was the idea that Martin Luther championed in the Middle Ages of Germany which said that the way a person gets into heaven is not by keeping a bunch of rules or accomplishing anything at all, but simply by the grace of God which any person can freely receive simply by believing in Jesus Christ.

That was the idea that sparked what we call The Reformation which is what caused the Roman Catholics to branch off into the Protestant churches. So, you might say that this one little idea is what gave birth to the Lutheran church...though Martin Luther did not want any church named after him.

And by the way, we ARE talking about Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King, Jr.

So this one little idea was a gargantuan idea back then - an explosive idea, even though, as we saw in the Epistle Lesson that was just read, it was the idea that the Apostle Paul himself wrote down fifteen hundred years before Luther was even born! It was not a new idea at all: it was an ancient idea that somehow had become forgotten or twisted or something in the fifteen hundred years of the church - the idea that we do not earn our way into heaven, but that Jesus Christ earned FOR us which anyone can receive if they only trust Him.

Paul had said it from the very beginning. But by the time of Martin Luther it had sort of gotten forgotten...which is why Luther and others said that the church needed to be REformed, formed back into what it had been.

But these days I think that this Reformation idea has just about lost its steam among most of us. I don't think most church goers care all that much about it anymore. Back when Martin Luther was making such a big deal about us getting saved by grace, it WAS major good NEWS to the people because the people in those days were scared to death about burning in hell.

It was like Halloween ALL the time to these poor people who were terrified by images of being snatched into hell and tortured for eternity by the demons. These people were frantic to do ANYTHING to get out of hell...even if it meant buying fake coupons issued by the Pope. They were terrified of going to hell. That is why it was such welcome relief when Luther - a Catholic priest no less - told them that there was nothing they had to do, indeed nothing they COULD do to work their way into heaven.

But today, there are not too many people in our church who are all that concerned about hell at all. I'm really not so sure that most of you even think it is all that real, like Jesus though it was. Or you think, "Well, I'm baptized, so I'M in." Or, even though we cannot earn our way into heaven, you think, "Well, I'm probably as good as anyone else." I doubt that many of you really believe that hell really is a possibility for you.

In the Gospel Lesson that was read as the Bible Focus at the beginning of the service, Jesus told the Pharisees that HIS trough would set them free. Instead of being grateful for the news, what was their response? "WE don't need to be freed because we are not, and we never have been, in bondage to anyone. WE are the descendants of Abraham."

I think that most of us are in the same boat. We are the heirs of the Reformation that proclaims the Gospel that we avoid hell only by the grace of God which we can receive by believing in Jesus. But all that gets a big Ho-Hum, because like the Pharisees whom Jesus spoke to, we think that we are not really in bondage because we have been baptized.