Rev. Dustin ParkerReformation
Concordia Lutheran Church
Reformation Day, October 31, 2010
This Gospel Proclaimed: Past, Present, Future
Romans 3:19-28
In Jesus Name!
May the grace, the mercy and peace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you, as you trust in His work in your life!
Four hundred and ninety three years ago, a great struggle within one man was ending. It seems an odd thing to celebrate – given that we often think of the struggles that began on this day, the last day of October. Reformation Sunday.
If you were to read most histories of Martin Luther, the nailing of an invitation to discuss 95 short statements is the beginning of the Reformation. We think of his excommunication, of the attempt to arrest and kill him, the translating of the New Testament into the language of his people. We should know the debates in the cities of Wurms, and Augsburg and eventually Marburg, where the church’s theology again focused on Christ. There were the reactions like the Roman Catholic Council of Trent that would condemn Luther and those like him. The stories are colorful, the events memorable.
Should we only look at that which occurred on that day, and the days that followed, we would miss the true reformation. It actually started a few years before, as Luther was transformed by the Holy Spirit, as these words from Romans seized him. If we only look from October 31, 1517 on, we miss that which reformed Luther, that which reforms us, which can reform our community.
We are talking about something that God does for us, which reforms us and leaves us as those who trust in His work, in His righteousness, in His faithfulness. Something that is so incredible that our friends and family, our neighbors and co-workers, and even our enemies need to hear. God is at work, reforming us as His children.
That reformation which scripture tells us is God’s masterpiece,
Coloring Book as Life
Here is a parable for you – your life is like your first coloring book!
Were you to hand a coloring book to a professional artist, and commission him to color in the coloring book, the images produced would be amazing. The colors would be stunning, the details perfect, the images crisp and sharp.
Anyone remember what their very first coloring book looked like? Did any of you color inside the lines, and choose the right color in each place? More than likely, it would not be confused with a Monet, Picasso, a Shen Zhou. I would imagine it was probably one or two colors; we wouldn’t even be able to see the lines, or make out what the image was supposed to be.
Without Christ, our lives were quite like that – the lines God had put on the page of our lives were often ignored. His line of to live loving Him first, and loving our neighbors as ourselves were not listened too, any more than the 3 year old listens to his parents and teachers directions to color inside the lines. Indeed, that is not a new problem – such was the way Israel was described 4000 years ago, as the book of Judges records everyone “did what was right in their own eyes”. Coloring outside the lines drawn on our lives by God’s law, is what the Bible calls sin. Literally it is “missing the mark”.
If we were to examine our lives by God’s standard, the feeling would be similar to comparing our coloring book to a masterpiece. There would be no boasting of our living a perfect life, judged by the standard of the 10 commandments. Even harder when we consider that sin, coloring outside God’s law, is not just about actions, but words and thoughts as well. Jesus said adultery is not only wrong, so is lust. Not only is murder wrong, but so is killing people’s spirits by the words we say. Not only is using God’s name wrongly wrong, so is not calling on God’s name in prayer and praise when we ought.
As a young priest, Luther felt the weight of his sin keenly, perhaps more keenly than many of us do. Imagine doing an inventory – how many times were you jealous of someone else’s things, or the relationships, how many times did you gossip about someone else, or lie. Go through a normal day – add them up – times it by 365, and then by your age! Now add in the fact that in Luther’s day, the odd notion came into being that we had to pay for each and every sin we committed. Can you imagine the burden of paying for a quarter of a million sins or more?
He felt that burden, it tormented him, He tried every spiritual discipline he could find to compensate, from fasting, to praying more, to even practices that weren’t in scripture. Being righteous was impossible, and passages that urged the righteous to live by faith tormented him, because how could he go back in the book and make up for all the times he colored outside the lines?
Our Mistake - Canvas- not Artist
His Rigteousness
His Masterpiece will be completed in Us
His Compensation/Propitiation
His Righteousness, without Cost, gifted!
It was our epistle reading this morning, from the book of Romans, which caused the real reformation. Though so many before and after would grasp the power of those words, in Luther’s day, few did. They were caught up either in coloring outside the lines, or looking at the “masterpieces” (said very sarcastically) of their lives. And they would despair, even as Luther did, convinced they were bound for hell.
Yet, scripture has always taught that it is not about us – we are not the artist, as we presume, but instead the canvas. It is that radical of a difference that astonished Luther – it is that which creates the reformation. It is that promise that is what the Old Testament prophesied, and the New Testament reveals as the work of Christ.
In verse 21, Paul writes this very thing, 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
His righteous – instead of our lives being marred by our coloring outside the lines, God has artistically and incredibly painted us as righteous – that is how He sees this, His work, His reforming us! Since He draws the lines, He judges whether it is a masterpiece. He manifests in us, not our sin, but His righteousness. God doesn’t simply ignore the sin. He can sees the masterpiece because He has dealt with the sin.
Verse 24. “24and [you] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Right in the middle of that passage is what I call a big “church word”. Propitiation! It means compensation in the sense of someone being compensated for damage done by someone else. It is also a technical term for the sacrificial system in the Old Covenant – talking about that specific point when, once a year, the blood would be poured out on the mercy seat, and the promise of the sins of all of God’s people would be forgiven, and passed over because the payment, the redemption had been paid. In Christ, that propitiation, that payment is complete – as John writes – for the world. That if we trust in God’s work – we are found righteous.
Paul talks then in verse 26 of God being just – he judges the portrait of our lives fairly, and with full justice, yet He is also the justifier, because He removes the sin, exchanging it for the righteousness of Christ – He pays for the damage and restores all to be like new.
The Holy Spirit then encourages us to live this way – trusting, not in ourselves, but in God’s work, in His incredible work making a masterpiece of our lives. The lines are re-drawn, not to judge us by whether our works are righteous, but whether we trust in His work revealing that He counts as righteous. There is no cost to us – it is the gift of God.
Realizing this re-formed Luther. He was a man who was haunted by the guilt and shame of being a horrible sinner. He was reformed into realize that all who trust in God are counted as saints. It’s not about paying for our sins, it is about walking with the God who makes our lives a masterpiece, who gives us the ability to trust in Him.
That is what this day is about – realizing that God is reforming each one of us, and thereby our community of faith. We are a people – that join all those that have realized we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. It is the entire picture of the church throughout all ages, through all peoples. It is us here.
A reformed, redeemed people who trust in God and realize they live in His presence, not fearing judgment, but living in peace.
Indeed, may our reformed lives show His work to all those we know, who also need to be grasped and completed in Christ when He comes again! AMEN?
Reformation Day, October 31, 2010
This Gospel Proclaimed: Past, Present, Future
Romans 3:19-28
In Jesus Name!
May the grace, the mercy and peace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you, as you trust in His work in your life!
Four hundred and ninety three years ago, a great struggle within one man was ending. It seems an odd thing to celebrate – given that we often think of the struggles that began on this day, the last day of October. Reformation Sunday.
If you were to read most histories of Martin Luther, the nailing of an invitation to discuss 95 short statements is the beginning of the Reformation. We think of his excommunication, of the attempt to arrest and kill him, the translating of the New Testament into the language of his people. We should know the debates in the cities of Wurms, and Augsburg and eventually Marburg, where the church’s theology again focused on Christ. There were the reactions like the Roman Catholic Council of Trent that would condemn Luther and those like him. The stories are colorful, the events memorable.
Should we only look at that which occurred on that day, and the days that followed, we would miss the true reformation. It actually started a few years before, as Luther was transformed by the Holy Spirit, as these words from Romans seized him. If we only look from October 31, 1517 on, we miss that which reformed Luther, that which reforms us, which can reform our community.
We are talking about something that God does for us, which reforms us and leaves us as those who trust in His work, in His righteousness, in His faithfulness. Something that is so incredible that our friends and family, our neighbors and co-workers, and even our enemies need to hear. God is at work, reforming us as His children.
That reformation which scripture tells us is God’s masterpiece,
Coloring Book as Life
Here is a parable for you – your life is like your first coloring book!
Were you to hand a coloring book to a professional artist, and commission him to color in the coloring book, the images produced would be amazing. The colors would be stunning, the details perfect, the images crisp and sharp.
Anyone remember what their very first coloring book looked like? Did any of you color inside the lines, and choose the right color in each place? More than likely, it would not be confused with a Monet, Picasso, a Shen Zhou. I would imagine it was probably one or two colors; we wouldn’t even be able to see the lines, or make out what the image was supposed to be.
Without Christ, our lives were quite like that – the lines God had put on the page of our lives were often ignored. His line of to live loving Him first, and loving our neighbors as ourselves were not listened too, any more than the 3 year old listens to his parents and teachers directions to color inside the lines. Indeed, that is not a new problem – such was the way Israel was described 4000 years ago, as the book of Judges records everyone “did what was right in their own eyes”. Coloring outside the lines drawn on our lives by God’s law, is what the Bible calls sin. Literally it is “missing the mark”.
If we were to examine our lives by God’s standard, the feeling would be similar to comparing our coloring book to a masterpiece. There would be no boasting of our living a perfect life, judged by the standard of the 10 commandments. Even harder when we consider that sin, coloring outside God’s law, is not just about actions, but words and thoughts as well. Jesus said adultery is not only wrong, so is lust. Not only is murder wrong, but so is killing people’s spirits by the words we say. Not only is using God’s name wrongly wrong, so is not calling on God’s name in prayer and praise when we ought.
As a young priest, Luther felt the weight of his sin keenly, perhaps more keenly than many of us do. Imagine doing an inventory – how many times were you jealous of someone else’s things, or the relationships, how many times did you gossip about someone else, or lie. Go through a normal day – add them up – times it by 365, and then by your age! Now add in the fact that in Luther’s day, the odd notion came into being that we had to pay for each and every sin we committed. Can you imagine the burden of paying for a quarter of a million sins or more?
He felt that burden, it tormented him, He tried every spiritual discipline he could find to compensate, from fasting, to praying more, to even practices that weren’t in scripture. Being righteous was impossible, and passages that urged the righteous to live by faith tormented him, because how could he go back in the book and make up for all the times he colored outside the lines?
Our Mistake - Canvas- not Artist
His Rigteousness
His Masterpiece will be completed in Us
His Compensation/Propitiation
His Righteousness, without Cost, gifted!
It was our epistle reading this morning, from the book of Romans, which caused the real reformation. Though so many before and after would grasp the power of those words, in Luther’s day, few did. They were caught up either in coloring outside the lines, or looking at the “masterpieces” (said very sarcastically) of their lives. And they would despair, even as Luther did, convinced they were bound for hell.
Yet, scripture has always taught that it is not about us – we are not the artist, as we presume, but instead the canvas. It is that radical of a difference that astonished Luther – it is that which creates the reformation. It is that promise that is what the Old Testament prophesied, and the New Testament reveals as the work of Christ.
In verse 21, Paul writes this very thing, 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
His righteous – instead of our lives being marred by our coloring outside the lines, God has artistically and incredibly painted us as righteous – that is how He sees this, His work, His reforming us! Since He draws the lines, He judges whether it is a masterpiece. He manifests in us, not our sin, but His righteousness. God doesn’t simply ignore the sin. He can sees the masterpiece because He has dealt with the sin.
Verse 24. “24and [you] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Right in the middle of that passage is what I call a big “church word”. Propitiation! It means compensation in the sense of someone being compensated for damage done by someone else. It is also a technical term for the sacrificial system in the Old Covenant – talking about that specific point when, once a year, the blood would be poured out on the mercy seat, and the promise of the sins of all of God’s people would be forgiven, and passed over because the payment, the redemption had been paid. In Christ, that propitiation, that payment is complete – as John writes – for the world. That if we trust in God’s work – we are found righteous.
Paul talks then in verse 26 of God being just – he judges the portrait of our lives fairly, and with full justice, yet He is also the justifier, because He removes the sin, exchanging it for the righteousness of Christ – He pays for the damage and restores all to be like new.
The Holy Spirit then encourages us to live this way – trusting, not in ourselves, but in God’s work, in His incredible work making a masterpiece of our lives. The lines are re-drawn, not to judge us by whether our works are righteous, but whether we trust in His work revealing that He counts as righteous. There is no cost to us – it is the gift of God.
Realizing this re-formed Luther. He was a man who was haunted by the guilt and shame of being a horrible sinner. He was reformed into realize that all who trust in God are counted as saints. It’s not about paying for our sins, it is about walking with the God who makes our lives a masterpiece, who gives us the ability to trust in Him.
That is what this day is about – realizing that God is reforming each one of us, and thereby our community of faith. We are a people – that join all those that have realized we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. It is the entire picture of the church throughout all ages, through all peoples. It is us here.
A reformed, redeemed people who trust in God and realize they live in His presence, not fearing judgment, but living in peace.
Indeed, may our reformed lives show His work to all those we know, who also need to be grasped and completed in Christ when He comes again! AMEN?
