A sermon for Calvary UMC right before Reformation Sunday.
Scripture:
Romans 1:16-17,3:21-31 (NRSV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is
righteous will live by faith.”
…
But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has
been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who
believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through
faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was
to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he
justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of
boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by
the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith
apart from works prescribed by the law. Or is God the God of Jews
only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground
of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then
overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we
uphold the law.
Sermon:
Let
us pray:
Patient
teacher, we give you thanks for your wisdom and ask that you move
among us to open our hearts to receive that wisdom. Speak to us this
morning through the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts. Amen.
October
is a wonderful month, and October this
year is very special. It started with a very important birthday of my
own, and it is ending with a very important anniversary--- 500 years
since the Protestant Reformation began. One of those days may be a
bigger deal historically than the other. But anyway, this month we
are celebrating with a sermon series on the important themes of the
reformation that continue to help us reform today. Last week, Pastor
Steve preached on God's sovereignty, a much needed message in the
midst of the chaos that sometimes seems overwhelming. Today we will
talk about another key theme: living by faith.
Faith
is one of those words we use a lot without being too clear on what it
means. Sometimes we use it to mean trust. I have faith in the new
directors that the next Star Wars movie
will be good. Or, perhaps more relevant for us in church today, we
have faith that God is at work in the world. Sometimes we use faith
to mean believing in what we can't see. Hebrews 11:1 is one of the
more famous Biblical definitions: Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen. Belief
in heaven, for example, or the resurrection of Jesus. And faith is
those things. But I think the definition of faith we often forget,
the one that Paul speaks of in our scripture today, is more than
trust, more than belief. Faith is the ability to open ourselves to
receive the gift of grace God has already
offered to us.
Martin
Luther, the German monk who lit the tinder that began the Protestant
Reformation five hundred years ago, became obsessed with the concept
of faith.
Luther was a monk, faith was his job. He was trained in the faith,
immersed in scripture. And still, he doubted. He felt distant from
God, sure his sins could never be forgiven and he would find himself
eternally punished. He sought to discover what good works could
cleanse him. And yet, still he felt distant, and he began to see how
the payment of indulgences that were created to help assuage people
of their guilt and give them a way to atone for their sins prevented
people from truly connecting with God. It wasn't until he discovered
this passage in Romans that we read today, let it sink into his
heart, that he realized he had gotten faith all wrong. In reading how
the righteous will live by faith, he felt the “burden of his soul”
begin to roll away.
He knew he no longer had to earn his salvation. That God has done the
work. He had only to open himself to God and receive the gift of
grace.
Luther
preached this good news of faith his whole life. The Church was
Reformed, and for five hundred years we have experienced the peace
and joy that comes with the assurance that God loves us and forgives
us, right? Well, apparently, this ability to walk by faith is more
difficult than it appears. Though it ought to bring us relief, though
it ought to feel for us like we have strong, comforting arms wrapped
around us in love, too often we want to be in control. Believing we
can earn our own salvation means that we have some control, that we
don't have to rely on God after all. If we check the right things off
a list, or if we pay the right amount of money, we can control our
fate. We can earn God's love.
Only,
have you tried to earn someone's love before? How did it work out for
you? But we still do it all the time. This is not a problem of the
medieval Catholics, my friends. Even today we find it easier to
clench our fists in control than we do to open our hands to receive.
Two
hundred years after Luther nailed 95 theses about how we are made
right with God through our faith not through our works, John Wesley,
one of the founders of Methodism, was also struggling with his faith.
John Wesley was the son of a preacher. He experienced a miracle as a
young child being saved from a fire. He started a club in college
with his brother and other friends that earned them the name
Methodist because their practice of faith was so regulated,
scheduled, methodical. He became a missionary, crossing the Atlantic
to preach to people in Georgia in early 1736. He was on board a ship
bound for the Georgia colony when a ferocious storm shredded the main
sail and flooded the decks. Many of the English passengers aboard
screamed in terror that they would soon be swallowed by the deep. But
a group of Moravian missionaries from Germany calmly sang throughout
the squall. They were unafraid of death, an astounded John Wesley
later recounted in his journal. But it wasn't until two years later
on May 24 that Wesley, back in England, discouraged by the path his
life had taken, and miserable, stumbled into a Moravian society
meeting. He would never have gone if he did not remember the calm
singing on the ship two years before. That evening someone read from
Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans.
About 8:45 p.m., he writes, “while he was describing the change
which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for
salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my
sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Wesley
realized that as much as he tried, he could not control God's love
for him. It is a free gift. The Moravians he saw on that boat
understood that gift. They found peace even when it was difficult
because they were secure in God's love for them. They knew God was
with them through the storm. They didn't have to compete for God's
affections, or try desperately to get God's attention. Their hands
were open, and they trusted God.
I
myself have been try to unclench my hands and open myself to receive
God. As I have mentioned to you before, I might not be the most
organized person in my everyday life, but I have a plan. Graduate
college, graduate seminary, get a job, get married, get ordained,
have kids...only that last piece hasn't worked so well for me. Three
years of trying, two miscarriages, and decreasing hope. Last year, I
lamented to a friend that hope hurts too much. That I don't trust
hope. And so she told me not to focus on hope. She said, focus on
faith. Lean into God in troubled times, stop trying to control
everything, and look for the good things in life. Seek the gifts
instead of just the things you are missing. Around the same time,
someone gave me a simple gift, a candle in a jar with the words,
“Faith does not make things easy--- it makes them possible.” And
for a year, I have lit that candle and prayed. I have tried to lean
into God when I am feeling bitter and hurt and lost. I have given
thanks when I don't really want to because there is always something
to be thankful for. I have tried to let go of all the “shoulds” I
have in my life. This should
have happened. And instead I have tried to see God beside me and
receive not the grace I think I should receive, but the grace I
already have just for being a child of God.
Now,
Wesley still struggled with doubt, and so did Luther, and I certainly
will too. Wesley wondered why he wasn't more joyful sometimes.
Reformation is a constant process, which I hope you will find through
this sermon series. Faith is a journey. It is something we have to
live by.
I
don't know that one day I will wake up and lean into God naturally,
always seeing the beauty and possibility in every day. Luther and
Wesley didn't. But in those moments they did, in those moments I do,
that is what it looks like to live by faith.
So
in what ways do you clench your hands, telling God that you know a
better way of doing things, or simply unable to believe that God
could love you of all people? And what can help you to open your
hands ever wider to receive the gift of grace God offers us? My
prayer for all of us is that we can continue to reform our own
hearts, that we may live by faith.