Sermon
I don't know many people who celebrate the 504th anniversary of something, but that's what we do at Bethany! October 31st is the day that Martin Luther marched up to the cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany and tacked his 95 theses to the door, because he knew the church would be packed for All Saints Day the next day.
Timing is everything. In the early 16th century the church was out of control. The pope and other church higher ups managed to get lots of money from people through taxes, and people who gave extra gifts were given special attention. The concept of purgatory meant that after a loved one passed away, they might have to spend time in purgatory before moving on to heaven, they hoped. Indulgences were statements the church could make on your behalf to move your loved ones out of purgatory sooner than maybe they otherwise would leave. The money local authorities made was spent quickly on lavish lifestyles of the pope and the people around him. It was the sale of these indulgences that got Martin Luther started writing his 95 theses.
Martin Luther was a monk. He lived for his faith. He wrote the theses to primarily make two points: that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—these were things that he thought the church was doing wrong. At the time, the Church was extremely corrupt and every advantage had a price. You could pay to become a cardinal for example. The pope at the time had a lavish lifestyle was running out of that increasing in power, and getting richer and richer, and they began selling indulgences – favors, including telling people their sins were forgiven, that they were righteous before God if they paid the church money. Martin Luther was furious – so he wrote something in response. And from that, spawned what we know as the reformation. As you can see from the bulletin insert today, Matin Luther was eventually excommunicated and banished. Protected by princes, he spent his time in Wartburg castle, translating the Bible into German, and then using the relatively recent invention of the printing press to spread the word. Martin Luther did not set out to change the church as much as he did. He was a product of the way the world was at the time. In his PBS Special called Luther and the Reformation, Rick Steves describes many simultaneous reformations in the arts and sciences.1
Getting a fuller feel for the world at the time of Luther helps us see how except for the details, we are living in a world that is much the same. Our crises are different, but our voices cry out in the same way against injustices, against unsustainable practices, and for the love of God for everyone.
Over the past 500+ years Luther's protest and the ideals behind it have changed the church and taken the church in many different directions. You and I have landed in the PC(USA) a denomination itself only 38 years old. (Reunification of the Northern (UPCUSA) and Southern (PCUS) branches of the Presbyterian church split by the civil war, came together in 1983.1)
That means that all of us, in our lifetimes, are a part of that same great Reformation that Martin Luther started.
Our denomination is part of a heritage that goes back much farther than even Martin Luther. Our denomination created a Book of Confessions in 1967 in order to make a statement about our ecumenical nature, and to expand upon what we believe. That Book of Confessions was made up of a range of confessions and statements from the ancient as well as more modern religious sources. Choosing to start with the larger historical Church, the book of confessions begins with the only ecumenical creed and responds to the world from there.
Now, that book has 12 confessions, all of which were written in protest about some real life issue that the church saw as crucial. When early Christians said “Jesus is Lord” they were already engaging in the type of protest that we have been called to, since Jesus was on earth. “Jesus is Lord” was an affirmation that Caesar was NOT lord.
1. Nicene Creed – 325BCE – divinity/humanity of Jesus (It is the only ecumenical creed because it is accepted as authoritative by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant churches.)
2. Apostles Creed – came into begin during the development of the 1-8th centuries of the church
Other than these first two ancient creeds, notice that the next confession chosen isn't until another 800 years. The creators of the book of confessions chose statements made after Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door. Martin Luther took advantage of the recent invention of the printing press to circulate his thoughts. That allowed his ideas to permeate throughout much of Europe, leading to many statements relating to what would become known as protestant religion. We can quickly follow the next confessions included in the book and see what real world issues they were written to address.
3-8. The next six confessions in our book all came about in the 17th and 18th centuries in response to church and secular conflicts in Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, England, and finally brought to America in 1729.
9. Declaration of Barmen – 1934, Germany, in reaction to the rise of Hitler and the German Christians movement.
10. The Confession of 1967 – The only American Confession in our book. Written to address the Church's role in the modern world, created the Book of Confessions.
11. The Belhar Confession – 1980 – Africa; response to Apartheid3; adopted by PCUSA in 2016.
12. The Brief Statement of Faith – 1991 – 1983 reunification of North and South, which originally split over the issue of slavery during the civil war.
The Presbyterian church is a confessional church. We confess our faith in Christ throughout history. It is a point of pride to be part of a denomination that encourages study of scripture and encourages us to be open to new things through the Spirit, while at the same time respecting our heritage and where we have come from. When we call ourselves Reformed and always reforming, we are acknowledging that even these last 500 years are just a few steps on the long path of following Christ.
Martin Luther lived 1500 years after Jesus died. In that time humans have been making all kinds of rules about how to follow Jesus correctly. We make statements, we follow beliefs, we make rules and laws about the right way to live. I believe most of us are always looking for a way to do things right, with fairness, with clear eyes, and with heart. With the heart upon which is written the new covenant from God. The law that is within us, not from outside; on our hearts, not on stone tablets as before; “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” We long for Jeremiah's words to be true over and over again. We hope and pray and trust that the days are surely coming.
Paul writes to the Romans that the day for that new covenant has come, with the events of Jesus' life and death. Jesus has brought that day to reality. The law the new covenant is the love of Christ written on our hearts. The divided people of Rome all have reason to believe that they are loved by God more than the other. That they have sinned less than their neighbor. But Paul reminds them that there is no distinction. They have all sinned and are only brought to righteousness by grace from Christ. There will be no boasting because there won't be anyone better than anyone else in God's eyes. The law written on their hearts is the same for everyone. Luther said that faith was God's work in us not the works that we do because we have something called faith. Faith is the work of God. Using that definition of faith, Luther defied those that believed that you could earn your way into God's good graces, or into heaven by doing good things. Luther followed Paul's belief that faith in Jesus was belief in the law that God wrote on our hearts, not the law of rulers. “28For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.”
Faith in the saving power of Jesus, faith in the life-giving force of God in Christ, lived experiences of God's work in our lives – these things all lead us to take a stand when we need to; move in directions that lead to justice for others; ask questions of our faith in order to go deeper and discover our highest purpose; if what we do after that is good works, then all that we do is going to further God's kingdom here on earth.
So let's do it.
Amen.
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1 Rick Steves' Luther and the Reformation
2 Presbyterian Outlook August 11, 2015, Guided by Our Confessions
3 The next three confessions all came into being in the mid 16th century in Scotland, Germany and Switzerland – various statements in question/answer format pertinent to the respective version of beliefs in those countries. [Scots (1560 – Scotland), Heidelberg Catechism (1562 – Germany), and the Second Helvetic Confession (1561 – Switzerland)]
The next one began in England, The Westminster Statements (Confession of Faith and the Shorter and Longer Catechisms) were a product of the mid 17th and early 18th century councils who had over 1,100 meetings to come up with statements about Christian belief said to be central to several denomination – but uproar in the various countries represented led to some of those denominations being excluded from the final statements. These Westminster statements are probably the ones anyone here might be familiar with because they were officially declared the documents for the Presbyterian Synod in the colonies in 1729.
4 The Confession of Belhar was written as a protest against a heretical theological stance by the white Dutch Reformed Church that used the Bible and the Confessions to justify the harsh and unjust system of Apartheid.