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NORTH MAIN SERMON NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Reformation Sunday..
Romans 1:16–17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Romans 5:1–2
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
2 Timothy 3:14–17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work
2 Corinthians 5:18–21
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
…………THE WORD OF GOD..
Reformation Sunday goes way back to Moses time in theory. Joshua, Nun’s son, was filled with wisdom because Moses had placed his hands on him.”Joshua was chosen to be a leader after Moses. He led the Israelites and told them what God wanted them to do. Generations after Joshua, there are still special people in history who stand up for what they believe in and help make the church stronger. We call them reformers.
One reformer is Martin Luther. He was a monk from Germany. He saw some things in the church that he thought were not right, so he started something called the Protestant Reformation. Today is recognized as Reformation Sunday because it was a time when big changes happened in how people lived out their faith journey. Reformers have some special qualities. They were faithful, courageous and wise.
We have talked many times about The sermon on God’s greatest Commandment.. An expert in the Old Testament law, who probably had his own carefully constructed thesis, challenged Jesus to state "the greatest commandment." Jesus provides the bottom line of our spiritual life: "Love the Lord your God ... love your neighbor as yourself. And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. It is as true for today’s service as for every time we have ever heard it.. Our Reformation Sunday story begins in the 16th century –October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic Augustinian brother, Brother Martin, nailed 95 Theses, that is 95 statements, to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenburg. This was a common practice by which one announced that they wanted to be in conversation about the items listed. It could be compared to a post on Facebook where other folks can chime in. Lucky for us that someone eventually dared to ask a question that led to Reformation Sunday. What follows is a very simplified explanation of complex theological, political, and economic events that all coincided. Across Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was engaged in one of the greatest fundraisers in all of history. If a person – out of contrition for their sins and as a sign of repentance – made s explanations of this practice at the time. But, basically it amounted to people paying to be forgiven. November 1st was an important day for the selling and buying of these indulgences, known as All Saints Day on the church’s calendar.
The day before a German Monk named Martin Luther posted a list of 95 Theses – 95 reasons that he objected to this practice of selling indulgences. Along with other writings by Martin Luther, those 95 Reasons went viral. Luther insisted that we are not forgiven because of anything we do – including the buying of Indulgences or doing enough good work. Instead, we are forgiven because of who God is. We are loved and forgiven because God is full of grace and mercy. His teachings and writings got Martin Luther kicked out of the church. But he didn’t go alone. Every Protestant church traces their roots back to this moment in history. As our congregation sings Martin Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in worship today, we are not alone. Many Protestant churches mark the last Sunday in October as Reformation Sunday. A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31, 1517. Brother Martin, a monk and a scholar, had struggled for years with his church, the church in Rome. He had been greatly disturbed by an unprecedented indulgence sale. Luther felt that the sale of indulgences was a perversion of the gospel. The move took guts. Luther took a bold and dangerous step as he nailed a paper to the door of a Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany on which he had written 95 complaints against the only Christian community of his day. The story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. There is the young bishop—Albert of Mainz. Not only was he bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional one .. a financial gift to help with the building Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, then the church would furnish that person with a certificate acknowledging that gift and promising that they or their loved ones would be freed from a portion of the misery expected in the afterlife. In short, the church at that time taught that even those bound for heaven had to be cleansed of their earthly sins. The certificates offered by the church (called “Indulgences”) promised to lessen this time of cleansing for oneself or others who have already died. There were variouover Mainz. This was against church laws. So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X. When Albert of Mainz appealed for a papal dispensation, Leo X was ready to deal. Albert, with the papal blessing, would sell indulgences for past, present, and future sins. All of this sickened the monk, Martin Luther. Can we buy our way into heaven? Luther had to speak out.
But why this day? November 1 held a special place in the church calendar and then it was All Saints’ Day. On November 1, 1517, a massive exhibit of newly acquired relics would be on display at Wittenberg, Luther’s home city. Pilgrims would come from all over, genuflect before the relics. Luther’s soul grew even more upset. None of this seemed right. Martin Luther, a scholar, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church. The 95 Theses sparked far more than a debate. The 95 Theses also revealed the church was far beyond rehabilitation. It needed a reformation. The church, and the world, would never be the same. Can we today imagine what it would be like to not be able to read the bible or sing a hymn. Tradition holds that on October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a copy of 95 theses (propositions for debate) challenging medieval church teaching and papal authority to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. . Luther would likely have had no use for Reformation Sunday as an end in itself. He never intended to break with the Roman Catholic Church. It was Western Europe’s only church in his day, and he served it as a monk, priest, and professor of theology. One of Luther’s 95 Theses simply declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That alone is the meaning of Reformation Day. The church had lost sight of the gospel because it had long ago papered over the pages of God’s Word with layer upon layer of tradition. Tradition always brings about systems of works, of earning your way back to God. It was true of the Pharisees, and it was true of medieval Roman Catholicism. Didn’t Christ Himself say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light?” Reformation Day celebrates the joyful beauty of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. From 1513–16, as Luther studied and lectured on the Psalms and the Book of Romans, he experienced great anxiety about his salvation. He truly wanted to understand one phases .. the righteousness of God is revealed in it’ he hated that phase. . which he had been taught to understand as the righteousness by which God is righteous, and punishes unrighteous sinners. Even tho he had lived a blameless life as a monk, He felt that he was a sinner . . . [and] could not believe that he had pleased [God] with his works..
In the past few weeks, We have been talking about the things like how we can serve others and who is ultimately greater than anyone else, who is actually qualified to serve….Imagine that you were back in 1517 and could not read the bible, sing the hymns or know the Apostle’s Creed.. This was all in Latin and only for the priests to know. Luther ultimately experienced a breakthrough. No longer did he believe sinful human beings must perform works or buy indulgences in order to earn God’s forgiveness. Instead, he became convinced, , “that God provides everything necessary for justification,” including the gifts of repentance and faith, “so that all the sinner needs to do is receive it. God offers and gives; men and women the gift of foregivensss and repentance and are saved, by grace through faith.
Luther’s new understanding of Scripture’s teaching on salvation fueled his criticism of Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel. Tetzel sold “indulgences” to raise funds for the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica. He claimed to be selling relief from sufferings in purgatory not only for sinners still living but also for those who had died..”
Many of Tetzel’s contemporaries criticized him for misrepresenting church doctrine, but Luther’s critique wielded the greatest influence. His 95 theses about indulgences stressed the supremacy of God’s grace over any credentials granted by the Pope: “Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits of Christ and the Church, for God has granted him these, even without letters of indulgence. . . In 1521, Luther appeared before an official assembly of the Holy Roman Empire in Worms, Germany. Faced with the threat of excommunication and given a final chance to recant his theses, Luther declared his conscience captive to God’s Word. He is said to have proclaimed, “I cannot choose but adhere to the Word of God, which has possession of my conscience; nor can I possibly, nor will I even make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience! Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen.”. It was the accepted norm of the day that the Bible, written in Latin, was only read by the priest . The people hadn’t even been taught the basics. They didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer, or the Apostles’ Creed, let alone the Ten Commandments. The people were dependent upon priests, many of whom were very poorly trained, to teach them the Bible. At the same time, the church accumulated huge amounts of wealth, power, and prestige. They didn’t know what it meant to be Christians. They only knew what the priests chose to tell them;. Likewise, he believed that church music was for everyone to sing. With that inspiration, he composed the hymn, "a mighty fortress is our God. Along with all of this, luckily, the technology of the printing press helped Luther’s theses find a wide audience, as they were immediately translated and distributed across Germany in a matter of weeks. Luther followed the theses with sermons and other pamphlets calling for reform.
One of the most obvious results of the Reformation was the emergence of many new Christian churches, each professing to preserve the ancient, true faith. Luther’s translation of the Bible into German also proved momentous. Firmly believing Scripture to be the only authoritative source of doctrine and practice, he also believed that individual, ordinary Christians were entitled to read and wrestle with the biblical text for themselves, as he had done. The fact that the Bible has now been translated into over 2,000 different languages is a direct result of the Reformation. Some regard today as the most positive movement in world history . . . that led to the opening of the minds of ordinary people and set them free from the forces of medieval darkness. .
What is Reformation Day? It is the day the light of the Gospel broke forth out of darkness. It was the day that began the Protestant Reformation. It was a day that led to Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and may other Reformers helping the church find its way back to God’s Word as the only authority for faith and life and leading the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It kindled the fires of missionary endeavors, it led to hymn writing and congregational singing, and it led to the centrality of the sermon and preaching for the people of God. It is the celebration of a theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural transformation.
So we celebrate Reformation Day. This day reminds us to be thankful for our past and to the Monk turned Reformer. What’s more, this day reminds us of our duty, our obligation, to keep the light of the gospel at the center of all we do., we can all learn that living in the light is far better than living in darkness. If we mark Reformation Sunday in the humble confession and joyful conviction that God, with amazing grace, is not done reforming the church and the world, then maybe all of reformation Day can be justified. This is pertinent for Reformation: the church that feels it has nothing to change is the corrupted church; the one outside looking in, pledging fresh commitment and passion, is the living church.
Officially, Reformation Day has been commemorated since 1567. Exact dates for the holiday varied until after the two hundredth celebration in 1717 when October 31 became the official date of celebration in Germany and later expanded internationally. There’s a curious connection between Halloween and Reformation Day, and it’s more than just proximity on the calendar. Why did Martin Luther nail his famous 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517? He was confronting two religious observances that promoted false saintliness and exploited people’s fear of judgment and purgatory.
The impact of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation has been enormous on global Christianity. Luther called the Church back to the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
Luther believed the Word of God was the supreme authority for the Christian faith, rather than tradition or papal decrees. In the process of bringing the Scriptures to the common person, Luther translated the Bible into German, published numerous books and sermons of biblical teachings, and composed numerous hymns based on biblical themes. Many of his hymns are still sung today.
This year, Protestants — including United Methodists — will celebrate the 507th anniversary of the Reformation, which kicked off on Oct. 31, 1517 with Luther’s very public challenge to Catholic leadership over the sale of indulgences.. It went down in history as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The protests that were written that day for the public to see began the most dramatic reform within Christianity.. He firmly believed that "all people must be able to read God's word for themselves." " It is a bold affirmation of our powerful and loving God: So today for being able to read the bible and sing our hymns, we can be thankful for Reformation Sunday and Martin Luther who had the guts to question the laws of that time. Like Brother Martin, we use old ways and new ways. We use the old ways of telephone calls with one another, maybe a greeting card and we also use the new ways for us just as the printing press was new for Brother Martin. These new ways are available to us because of technology. Remember that at the time of the printing press, the everyday church member could take advantage of this written material only after they learned to read which they were not allowed to do. Reformation Day that we observe today is but one step in God’s continual work in the Church to bear the love of Christ into the world that needs this so.
Next Sunday is All Saints Day.. In the last couple of weeks we have been focusing on the year end reports and the Conference and ultimately on the operating budget for 2025. This will be another venture for us as a Church. Are you willing to take a step of faith like Martin Luther. God calls us to step out in faith. The old proverb goes: “We carry from the ashes of the past the fire, not the ashes.” In the midst of all that has happened and is happening, God is with us every day leading us to new and changing things just as he did 507 years ago.
Let us pray, On Reformation Sunday we remember the complex legacy of our church. Grant us the internal space to view the ancestors of our faith. Remind us of the gift of reading Scripture that was given to us. “Lord, pour out your spirit on us? Let us be conduits of your grace. Let us be vessels of your love. Work through us, do something, even in spite of us, that will be redemptive in the context in which we find. On the authority of the Word of God. He says: “My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in your weakness ” We are in for a terrific ride into the future. I dare to believe God has wonderful things planned for this congregation. May it be so. Amen