“If the Son makes you
free, you are free indeed.”
Today, we celebrate Reformation Sunday, that day when we
celebrate the entire Reformation, from Martin Luther nailing his 95 these on
the door of the church in Wittenberg, to the lives of all those who continue in
his footsteps today. That’s right: the Reformation has not stopped. It
continues in the lives of all who receive God’s grace and recognize it for what
it is: pure grace, and who stand up in the face of the world saying, “no, you
must have to earn it,” and say again, “no, it is pure grace.”
The theme of the ELCA’s most recent churchwide assembly was,
“Always Being Made New,” a theme that reminds us that, though we are a people
of tradition and culture and history, we are a people who trust in God the
Creator, who are indeed a part of a continually created creation. When we speak
of God the creator, we are speaking of the God who constantly creates: creation
is not a single event that happened once, but one that happens every day, every
moment, in all our lives. It is the same with baptism, which is also not really
a singular event that happens to us once and then is done. We are continually
baptized people, as we are continually created people, who are constantly
experiencing the benefits and rewards of the water having touched our heads,
and the Word of the triune God being proclaimed over us. It is why we do not
believe in needing to be baptized by water more than once: once we have been
touched by the water and the Word, that grace and promise is forever.
So, we are people who are always being made new, in creation
and in baptism. And today, we celebrate Reformation Sunday. Yes, it is
celebrated on (or, in this case, near) the anniversary of when Martin Luther
nailed his theses to the door of the church. We celebrate the fact that this
one man had the courage and creativity and attention to the Spirit to stand up
and say, “No, we are not saved by what we do, but saved by our faith. And,
further, faith isn’t even something that we do on our own, but a gift of God
through the Holy Spirit.” It may make sense to us now, but in Luther’s day, to
say that one doesn’t not have to DO anything in order to receive God’s love…
well, this was quite an odd and difficult thing. And so, we celebrate, both
that one event, and how it affects us even still today.
But, what does this really mean for us in our age? Does it
mean that, since God loves us no matter what, we shouldn’t do anything? Should
we, as Paul asks in his letter to the Romans, “Sin the more, that grace may
abound?” Well, again quoting Paul, “By no means!” Instead, we respond to God’s
love with more love. The Son has indeed made us free: free from sin, free from
fear, free from punishment, free from danger to our souls. And so, being free,
we are free indeed: free to love all God’s people, free to work for justice in
all the world, free to serve our neighbors, free to love our enemies, free to
give all we have to the One who is continually creating us, free to reach out
to those who are sick or hurting, free to stand up, like Luther, for those who
have no voice that is heard by the ears of those in power. WE have been made
free, and so we act in that freedom: not in order to earn God’s love or to get
a step closer to heaven, but because we are already loved, and love is the only
response we have to give.
There is nothing that we can do to
earn God’s love: we already have it. There is nothing we can do that would make
God stop loving us. There is no “if… then…” in our relationships with God.
There is no “if you do this, then God will love you.” There is no
“if you don’t…,” or “you have to…,” or “once you have…” in our relationships
with God. God already loves us through Christ by the gift of faith which comes
from the Holy Spirit.
Now, we don’t believe it. We want to
have the power ourselves to control our relationships with God, but it isn’t
possible. God is constantly creating us, constantly forgiving us, constantly
washing us in the waters of baptism, constantly prepared to feed us at this
table, constantly loving us. There’s nothing we can do. Well, nothing but
return love for love.
Thanks be to God.
Amen
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