A, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-32, 34-36 "Get the Message Right, Get the Message Out"

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…34 I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31-32, 34-36)

Get the message right; get the message out. 

There’s a mindset occurring in the church today that threatens the very life of the whole church.  This philosophy is one that says, ‘we’re all Christians, it doesn’t matter what we believe; we’re all going to the same place’.   And although there is an element of truth to the statement; at the core, stands the same ideals and beliefs that led to the building of the Tower of Babel.  Did God bless that project?  No!  We must ask ourselves why? 

God gives us the message and the message is one a small child can get right.  The message we’re talking about is the gospel of our salvation, the message of redemption in the Word of God. 

To the believing Jews, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) 

The first half of this verse can be translated in a number of ways: If you remain in my word; if you abide by my word; if you dwell in my word – you are truly my learners; or, you are my disciples indeed.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  Get the message right!  Why is it so difficult for us to keep that message right?

The fundamental difference between the unity language cheaply tossed around in the church today and the unity that Christ calls us into is this: Christ’s way is centred on him, rather than focusing on the acceptance of other people’s ideas and words in a bid not to offend them.  Unity in Christ listens to Christ alone and not to the ideas of people.  So, in the text we hear that if we look to Jesus and abide by what he teaches us we are his disciples.  And having held onto his Word as the truth, it makes us holy, and it sets us free.

The sad fact today is that most people in the churches are all too willing to accept what someone else believes because they don’t really know what they themselves believe.  Christ is no longer at the centre and the message is no longer right.  They neither examine nor become learners of what their own church believes nor what the other churches teach. 

Most of us don’t even know the subtle differences which we, as Christ centred Lutherans, should reject in other church’s teaching, nor do we know the strengths that these other denominations might offer us and the greater church.

Most denominations are Christ centred, but their doctrines are being rejected in favour of a shallow, pop, pleasure cultured, me-centred theology; where “god” is the person seeking, “Lord just” prayers are the way to coerce Jesus Christ with our self-righteousness yearnings, and our ‘thou art God speak’ just makes us sound churchy.

Unfortunately, the message of the Gospel gets turned back into Law.  All the things that Christ gives us and has called us to hold at the fore – don’t get rejected outright, but have the importance taken off them in favour of things that appeal to the sinful heart.   The things that Christ has set in place and have been proven over time in the church are misplaced in favour of self-righteous feel-good things.

Such as: Corporate belief and understanding of God’s Word, or a church’s doctrine and theology, are replaced in favour of the life one must live.  The means of Grace or the things Jesus personally put in place for us to receive him and the Holy Spirit, are replaced by a public declaration of personal faith, most often expressing itself in the statement, ‘I made a decision for Jesus Christ, my personal Lord and Saviour’. 

‘Lord’ is turned from Redeemer or saviour into someone I must fearfully obey to be good enough to gain eternal life.

‘Grace’ is not God’s death on the cross in our place, but rather grace is reduced to a template for moral living, and salvation is only obtained if we live as Christ did. 

Ironically, nobody could live as Jesus did when he was here!  He walked to the cross alone!  So, what makes anyone think they can do it now? 

The  preaching of the Gospel, commanded by Christ, and passed on by the Apostles, Jesus’ first disciples or learners, is put aside in favour of group sharing sessions usually fuelled by worldly ignorance of God’s word. 

Liturgy is deserted in favour of free unscripted prayer; the Lord’s own prayer is rejected as dead in favour of the prayers that come from the heart.  If Christ and his prayer are rejected from the heart, one must ask, “In what condition is the heart to pray a free prayer anyway?” 

In fact, ritual is seen as bad, even though every one of us needs ritual.  Why do you think babies become unsettled if they don’t have a regular pattern of living?  All humans need ritual for stability and reassurance; it’s the same in the church for Christians!  

And finally, the church or the assembly of the saints, the gathering of all who confess and believe in the Triune God is moved to one side, sacrificing things such as repentance and forgiveness, through confession and absolution.  In its place conversion experience becomes more important than God’s justification.

Don’t hear me wrong.  As good as these might seem, when they are put first before God, they become destructive in our reception of the One True God and the holiness he chooses to give through his way — his chosen means of grace.

The Reformation was all about placing Jesus back at the centre; remaining in his word; getting the message right!  The church of Luther’s day had turned from Christ and his means to other means of coming before God.  So, the church of the day had taken what was given to them as right and got it wrong. 

Jesus Christ coming down in love, was pushed out, in favour of a gospel of love climbing up to God, doing the greater good, which is no gospel at all.

Later on, others came along and rejected all things catholic (that is gathered by the Holy Spirit, according to Christ), but Luther and others who followed him stood against them.  Luther and his supporters fought against extremists reforming the church too far in the other direction which also led to Christ still being pushed out of the centre. 

As much as Luther stood against the Roman church of the day, he still recognised that through Christ-centred-catholicity (cath-o-liss-ity), God proclaimed the Holy Gospel and gave himself through the means of Holy Baptism, Holy  Communion, and the forgiveness of sins.  

Getting the message right must come first, it must come before getting it out.  If you are not focused on Christ, if you are not a learner of his, how then can you get the right message out? 

Luther reminds us in his Large Catechism in the Third Article that where Christ isn’t preached, there’s no Holy Spirit to create, call, and assemble the Christian Church, outside of which nobody can come to the Lord Christ.  Ask yourself, “When I get the message out, to where does it lead?” Jesus Christ, or something else!

Get the message right; get the message out!  When we as Lutherans place ourselves under the confessions of the church, we place ourselves under Christ and become his disciples, learning what the truth is and what freedom from the Law actually is. 

If we call ourselves Lutheran just for the sake of being Lutheran, we then lose sight of the Gospel and take what is right and get it wrong.  The great joy of being a Lutheran is that we have a confession that trusts Jesus at his Word and calls us to submission under what he did and continues to do through the Holy Spirit.  This is the truth, and it sets us free!

So, in having the right message, now we are called to get it out.  Why?  Why do we need to get the message out? 

Our Lutheran confessions are a strength to the greater church.  They rightly show us who we are as people: sinners who do sinful things, brought about by our own sinful natures.  But they also rightly show who we are once we allow Christ to rid us of the curse of eternal death, and allow the Holy Spirit to place trust, or faith, in our hearts; leading us to say, “God you are right, I am wrong, take me, do it your way and set me free”. 

Having received such grace and faith, we can trust in these things to be enough, so we can confidently say, “Yes, I am going to heaven, I have been forgiven and saved, I will be saved!”

Knowing that you have been set free from the bondage of sin, and, ‘what I have to do to get to heaven’, you can rest in the freedom of the Gospel, being blessed completely by the obedience of Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross. 

The passion of Christ’s death and resurrection for your salvation lived by Christ and the Holy Spirit in you,  put you right!  Then surely this message which put you right, will be the message you might passionately want others to have as well.  This should make getting the message out a joy, not a task!

God gets the message right, and he gives it to us as a free gift and it saves us.  Let the Holy Spirit lead you in getting this right message out, so others might live in the freedom of the Gospel too. 

Amen.  

C, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-36 "Unhidden Truth"

John 8:31–36 (ESV)  Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practises sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus speaks to the Jews who believed him.  Beforehand when he spoke, he sought to convince those who did not believe him.

We hear in John chapter seven, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”.  (John 7:37–39 ESV)

For the moment, I want you to hear him refer to “living waters”, but also note Jesus’ reference to the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.  I will speak more about the Holy Spirit later, in relation to the Reformation and Martin Luther.

With Jesus’ promise of “living water” flowing out of those who believe in him, he also says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12 ESV)

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ, “living water” will flow out of them, and whoever follows Jesus Christ will have the “light of life.”  Living light and living waters!  Life-giving waters, life-giving light!

The Pharisees did not want to believe and said to Jesus, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true”.  (John 8:13 ESV)

Jesus then addresses the hearers concerning his and God’s truth.  To those Jews who believed, he concludes his monologue, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  (John 8:31–32 ESV)

I invite you to revisit John 8:12-36 and notice the word “truth or true”, how many times it occurs and how Jesus refocuses truth on his knowledge.  In fact, a thematic thread concerning truth, flows throughout John’s Gospel. 

Fifty-five references focus the hearer of John’s Gospel on truth or what is true.  Some will be quite familiar to you.  “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6), “Sanctify them in the truth your word is truth” (John 17:17), and Jesus’ and Pilate’s exchange, “[Jesus answered…] I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth…”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37b–38a ESV)

So as Pilate asks, we can ask, “What is truth?” How does “truth” connect with the freedom Jesus proclaims to us?  Plus, how has this truth and freedom come to us through the Reformation and writings of Martin Luther as well as others of the Reformation?  

Let’s return to the passage before us today.  “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:31 ESV)

Three times “true or truth” is mentioned in this verse.  In the New Testament there are two words used for truth.  One of these words is borrowed from the Hebrew, and is often doubled for emphasis, in the same way as we use adverbs.  This is the word “Amen”.  We hear it said, “Truly, truly, or verily, verily, or amen, amen, depending on your bible’s translation.  It means, “Yes!  It is so!”

The other, which occurs fifty-five times in John is the Greek word, alethes (al-ay-thace), which is two words, the first being the negative, “not”, and lanthano meaning “to lie or hide”.

This makes Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?”, shine with all the double-speak and sarcasm of politicians throughout the ages.  “What is not a lie or what is not hidden?  Everything is hidden and a lie of sorts!”

But it also sheds light on the purity of Jesus’ word too.  If you abide in Jesus’ word, you are his unhidden disciples, and you will know what is unhidden, you will know what is not a lie, and these words that unhide, that are not a lie, will set you free!  Jesus’ word unhides, it exposes and reveals, and in doing so it gives freedom. 

This is the opposite of what one would expect.  A full disclosure or confession is what Adam and Eve feared most leading them to hide from God.  But now Jesus’ word unhides so we can be covered with his robes of justification and righteousness.

The question also must be asked, “What needs to be unhidden?  What has kept us from the freedom to which Jesus points us?”

Jesus makes it quite clear that we lose our freedom through sin.  He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin”.  (John 8:34 ESV)

Amen, Amen, yes, yes, sin keeps us from freedom, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, adult or child, pastor, or parishioner!  All, but Jesus, are enslaved to sin!  All, but Jesus, hide and lie!  What is truth?  What is not hidden?  What is not a lie?  Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Man is truth personified, unhidden, without a lie.

He is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!  Our help from God! 

“Yes, your honour, I do the crimes, but my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has done the time!”

Now that Jesus has been glorified at the right hand of our Father in heaven, and we have access to him by faith alone, we have been given the Holy Spirit to bring us to him.  With Jesus, he justifies and makes you righteous with his blood.

The Holy Spirit brings us to the living waters.  He continually proceeds from God the Father and God the Son to bring us, out of our darkness of sin, into the light of life.  He does this by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone!

The Reformation was a realignment back under Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Martin Luther was born into a Christian Church that had lost Jesus Christ.  He was still there, knocking on the door of people’s hearts.  But he had been covered up by humanity’s love of goodness borne in the righteousness of the self.

The Christian church was being enslaved by sin, while individuals within Christendom had lost their freedom through faith being replaced with the desire of one’s own feelings.

In practice, they had replaced the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, makes holy and forgives, with the human spirit who desires through self-love to climb up to God.  The starting point and the goal of this desire was egocentric.  Human desire and the satisfaction of this want was the goal. 

Humanity had become enslaved to itself in the church.  Humanity needed to be set free from itself so the one true Holy Spirit could once again lead us to the unhidden, one true body, one true hope, one true faith, one true Lord Jesus Christ, who puts us right, and justifies us in one baptism, before the one true Father and God of heaven. 

Because the devil and the world wills your old Adam to rise up against the baptism in which he was drowned, you and I need to daily welcome his death through the truth of confessing sin, having the lie and liar within exposed, and having the truth within ourselves unhidden.  Jesus’ unhidden truth kills sin and our old selfish selves with his light and life.

We cannot climb up to God through our own desire, the truth of our sinful nature is that we are too weighed down by sin to climb anywhere, let alone up to him.  Believing we can, and working accordingly, is believing a lie, wastes time, and distracts us from receiving God from where he is given.

As children of the Reformation, we are called to wash our robes in Jesus’ righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is the only spirit that will lead us to do this.  Left to our own spirit we will end up seeking to wash our robes in our own righteousness, where we find ourselves being enslaved by a lie once again.  Our own spirit will see us hidden again from living free to be in Jesus Christ.

So, practise your freedom!   Be true Christians!  Reveal, repent, reform each day under Jesus Christ.  Remain in God’s word, in Jesus Christ.  Be disciples, disciplined to receive God’s love.  Walk in your true unhidden weakness with Jesus Christ, with God’s Word made flesh.  If you want to put on the truth of Jesus in your life; read, study, and listen to God’s written Word!

Jesus’ life and death is for you, and it will set you free.  Amen.

Lord God Holy Spirit, free us from ourselves to receive the true life-giving waters, the true life-giving light that comes into the darkness of our days and lifts us into an eternity of light and life where you reign, together with the Father and the Son, one God, now and forever, truly, truly, Amen, and Amen!

B, Reformation Sunday - Psalm 46 & John 8: 31-36 "Fear and Love God"

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (John 8:31-36 ESV)

How is it that we who are slaves of sin, find ourselves in the house of God, knowing and trusting we are free?

Is it because we have proven ourselves to have satisfactorily loved God?  No, not at all!

Is it because there is a divine spark within us that is capable of making a decision for Christ?  No, it’s not!

Is it because we have always been free and are not really slaves? Nope!

Is it because it is done by someone else who knows we are slaves of sin, who knows the divine spark was put out by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and who knows the freedoms we look to would cause us shame if they were unhidden? Yes, it is!

We are free because of Jesus, the Son of God, and God alone.  If the Son sets us free, we are free indeed.

Freedom for Christians allows us to have fear in God.  Having fear in God can be understood in a positive and negative sense.  As Christians, we fear God knowing our sin does not please him, and because of our sin, all of us deserve his wrath.

As we are told in Hebrews, “‘The Lord will judge his people.’  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:30b–31 ESV)

And Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.  But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4–5 ESV)

Paradoxically, we also have a fear that fills us with awe! So much so, we are willing to throw ourselves down before him, seeking his mercy in spite of the reality we deserve his condemnation.

“Then turning toward the woman Jesus said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”  And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:44–48 ESV)

We can turn our back on God and disregard him with disrespect.  When one does this, one places both negative and positive fear in something other than God. One neither heeds God’s warning nor deems him good enough to lead us.

What we fear is what we face. 

In addition to this, what we love is what we face.

Love too has its positive and negative sense. But it’s slightly different to fear.  We always face what we love, but the motives for facing reveal the positive or negative of love. Love is about what we want, what we desire or seek, or what we worship.  The negative and positive of love can be uncovered only when we ask, “Why we want or worship that which we love!”

When we enter turbulent times temptation to fear and love other things than God also becomes murky and more difficult to discern and recognise. As the ship becomes unsettled, like the disciples, we are tempted to forget Jesus is with us in the boat.  He is still and resting as we’re tempted into panic. (See Mark 4:35-41)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,  though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. [Selah] (Psalm 46:1–3 ESV)

There is much civil unrest in the world at the moment.  Many hearts are in the mouth threatening to vomit up things that the turbulence tempts us to fear.  Adding to the foaming mess already swirling around us.

Fear of vaccination and fear of un-vaccination are making the sea of society roar and foam, making the mountains of our idols tremble at its swelling. 

Who can make sense in the midst of this mess in which we find ourselves?  There’s  so much venom and violence bubbling away in the hearts of humanity in the majorities and minorities.

When I am confronted with such fear it is easy to be swept up in the surging swell of it all.  I am tempted to add my sin to the sin of others adding mass to the mountains of majorities or minorities.

What mountain of fear are you facing at the moment?

What is your fear causing you to want?

Whatever it is, this is what you love!  This is what you are worshipping.

Like those who sought to silence blind Bartimaeus, as we heard in last week’s Gospel reading, are we not blinded by our superiority of our perception of other’s seemingly inferior fears?  (Mark 10:46-52) 

Yes!  I am just spewing into a sea of churning and foaming chaos.

Now we move onto a new picture painted by the psalmist in Psalm 46

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.  The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. [Selah] (Psalm 46:4–7 ESV)

Here we have a picture of tranquillity. It is the same picture of peace amongst the chaos, as Jesus sleeps in the boat while the disciples face their fears in the death and destruction of the churning storm on lake Galilee.

Jesus is with us in his church.  He is with us in his word, and he is bodily with us in the sacrament.  Fear him, not the unvaccinated! Fear him, not the mandate to vaccinate.  The kingdom of God is not concerned about being vaccinated or un-vaccinated. 

The morning will dawn, and God’s hand will be revealed in all of this.  He may choose to reveal what that is in our life, or we might have to wait until the resurrection to know exactly what that is.

But for now, in these days of darkness what is God’s will for us?  What is Jesus’ will for you, in his boat?  To where is the Holy Spirit leading us?

Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.  “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. [Selah] (Psalm 46:8–11 ESV)

We are called to fear and love God?  We are called to behold the works of the Lord!

But what are the works and will of God?  We are called to be a community gathered under Christ’s love.  By this love the Holy Spirit gathers us in forgiveness. By this love we know we need forgiveness for our faithlessness. By his love we know we are forgiven.

Through his love and faithfulness, we know others need the same forgiveness. And by his love we petition God to help us forgive them as the Father has faithfully forgiven each of us and seeks to still the churning storm within you and me.

Our loving Heavenly Father wants to dissipate your venom, and clean up each person’s vomit, swirling the seas of spewing churning darkness.  He does this by the power of the Holy Spirit calling us to the stillness of Jesus on the cross.  This is the reformation into which God calls you and me daily. 

As we all face the cross, he calls us to know that he is God!  He will be exalted by all people when the curtain of chaos is finally torn in two.  It will reveal the hidden presence of the God of peace. The whole of creation will exalt him for the peace he returns to it, when he finally restores it to its former glory, which he created for us.

He promises us in his Word, he will usher in the eternal era of sabbath rest. This is where all who abide in the work of God’s forgiveness will stand face to face, fear and love God, the Lord of Hosts forever. Amen.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for evermore. Amen.

C, Reformation - John 8:31b-32 "Tall Poppies"

When it comes to a balanced belief on how we might be righteous before God, there have been many before us who have also wrestled within.

The struggle between the sinful old human nature and the new Christ-centred nature has been a fight that’s been raging ever since Christ walked the earth and shed light on the reality of the human conscience.

Jesus’ coming into the world, and our lives, did and does things in people, and in us, when one comes up against the holy perfection of God’s own Son. It’s what we in Australia call the tall poppy syndrome. This is when someone seems to be better than us, in some way or another, causing a need for others to chop them down; to bring them down a peg or two; to cut them down to size!

So, from where does the desire come to chop down the tall poppy? It comes from the deepest recesses of our old human nature. A person’s natural desire is to see themselves as the centre of their existence, to place themselves at the top of the pile, as number one. Put simply, the ego says there’s nothing greater than itself. “I am” the source of all things.

But then along comes someone or something which shows our ego to be less than our inflations imagine it to be. So we set to bring down the tall poppy. We see tall poppies only because of our pride. In others we see their pride and ours automatically wants to see if we can conquer it.

There are two ways this happens. Either, the ego seeks to be seen as better by doing better than its competition. Or, the ego knows it can’t do better so it goes about undermining its competition to discredit the perceived competitor of its height.

The end result is the ego can then rise into the dizzy heights of a self-inflated infatuation. All glory to the tallest poppy, to the one whose nature can pop its head up the highest.

But even when standing tall, the ego is worried. Why? Because it knows the truth of how it got its height. The ego knows the ugly reality is its seemingly glorified existence is built on its own darkness and the cut down dead bodies of pride around itself.

Therefore, pride is often found with anxiety, worry, and doubt. Pride and depression are the heights and valleys of the same scene; they’re the two sides of the same coin. Religious or spiritual depression comes as a result of the ego knowing it cannot legitimately climb to the starry heights it thinks it should.

Since world war two, western society has been obsessed with climbing the heights of popularity. Everyone wants to be the “tall poppy”. We amass objects and ideologies to bolster the ego and hide the darkness lurking within. But the end result of our religiously working to be, and have, the best, and hide the rest — is we’ve created the right climate for an ever increasing rate of medical or clinical depression.

Martin Luther was no saint when it came to pride. He was trapped in the same sinful tall poppy syndrome. So much so, Luther was a very depressed man and as a result died at an age we would consider young today. Born on the 10th of November 1483 and dying on the 18th of February 1546, Luther was just sixty-two years of age.

In his early years Luther with many other monks in the monastic life, sought to be one of the spiritual elite through the religious rigours of seeking to be righteous. He belonged to the Order of Augustine of Hippo. This monastic order focused on its adherents devoting themselves to a life of love towards God.

Back in the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo was led more and more to focus on God’s grace throughout his life, because he constantly struggled with his love for the flesh. He found no peace in his life by appeasing his insatiable appetite for sexual gratification and the finer things in life. And so centuries later an order came about where one might look to God and away from the lusts that lurk within.

Luther lived the Augustinian life, he sought to seek out his sin and confess it. If he could do this, then he would obtain the righteousness God required of him. However, the more he sought to examine himself, the more he sought to righteously do the right thing, the more he realised how far short he fell before a God who sought a righteousness which was perfect — indeed holy.

He soon learnt that the more he focused on sin the more he did it. One can only imagine the sin that dwelt in the hearts of young monks seeking pure lives under the vows of chastity. Even if they felt regret for what they did, and demonstrated it before God, as Luther did often by self-flagellation, scourging and whipping himself, it didn’t stop the reality that one was doing things out of a love for the self, the ego, and not out of a love for God and his will.

The monks of the day sought to be the tall poppies of the church but many of them spent much of their time in self-absorbed doldrums. In fact, so common was this experience amongst monks, they had a slang term for it – in cloaca, literally meaning “in the toilet”. So an absurd contradiction existed in their lives, and in Luther’s life too. Monks sought to appear spiritually beautiful, like poppies, but lived lives of horrendous doubt and harsh works.

Are you living in the same contradiction as Luther was with all the religious monks of his day? Is your life absurdly, consistently one lived in the toilet of spirituality? Then Jesus’ word is the word for you…

He says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31b–32 (ESV)

For Luther he delved into study of the word in a quest to find the truth. But rather than the truth being found in his diligent study and understanding of scripture, it led him to focus away from sin and what he thought to be a righteous action to yet again get God’s favour, and over time God’s word did something more profound, it gave him faith and it set him free.

You see when Luther sought to love in the most sincere and godly way, he knew, and couldn’t escape the knowledge, his being was motivated by a love for self and therefore tainted with sin. Luther came to realise that not only did humans bearing the old sinful nature “enjoy the gifts of God”, but sought to “use God” too.

Repentance, prayer, faith, everything we set out to do, can never be done well enough to allow any human to be completely blameless before God. These as works just don’t work. And over time Luther came to realise that trusting in the righteousness of Christ, that on allowing God to focus him on his Son, Jesus Christ, everything was done and was being done, and the Holy Spirit dwelt within being. The Holy Spirit is the agent of action within the shell of the believer’s sinfully prone existence.

Perhaps you are in a toilet of spirituality because of the righteous and religious poppies you’re seeking to grow, while focusing on the heights of other’s growing over the fence. Seeking to do better or to stop doing wrong only leads one deeper into the deception of pride — it appears to makes everyone else’s poppies stand taller, and our own seem shorter.

Like Luther, abide in God’s word. Uphold it, endure in it, dwell in it, and trust in it. Remaining in God’s word also requires sacrifice. One must sacrifice all righteousness and unrighteousness that’s motivated by what we do – your moralism and immoralism; your understanding and misunderstanding; and your emotionalism, that is good and bad feelings being a barometer for your faith.

In allowing yourself to endure in God’s word and letting God immerse you in his word, you will find that no longer will you have to focus on what to do and not to do, but you will know God’s will is being done in you and through you.

Instead of worrying about what God’s word means and what you think about it, God will give you understanding growing out of faith and grace. So simple yet so profound, a child will know it’s true but it will confound the wisest minds on earth.

And rather than beating yourself up mentally that you’re not feeling bad enough about your sinfulness and loving enough towards God, a love for Christ will ooze out of every pore of your being.

Instead of being the tall poppy growing on the failures within and without, let Christ grow you up into faith and love. His grace is sufficient for you, the faith the Spirit places in you can drown mountains of your sin in the sea, at baptism and at the cross. Through Jesus Christ the righteousness we gain gives us a desire to dwell with God in peace.

Standing, remaining, and enduring with this balanced belief, given and sustained by God in his word, is the truth given in his word. And like Luther and many others, it will set you free and your will be free indeed. Amen.

B, Commemoration of the Reformation - Romans 3:20-24, 27-28 "Reformation Lamination"

Shaken not Shattered

Driving the roads of Australia can sometimes be hazardous! Narrow, broken edges, long distances, kangaroos, emus, tiredness, and big trucks coming from the other direction, can make it quite risky at times.

As it happens, there was not much to look at when I found myself daydreaming and tired driving on a narrow windy bitumen road through lifeless scrub. Out of the blue on a bend of the road hidden by the bush suddenly appeared a dirty great big cattle-carrying road train.

The truck was bearing down on me at what seemed like two-hundred kilometres per hour. Our rendezvous must have taken him by surprise too as he swerved the heavy transport to the left with a sudden jolt. I did the same and headed for the hard shoulder in a bid to avoid the mass of metal and moo-ving meat.

I got past the prime mover ok, but when a road train is suddenly lurched one way the movement is exacerbated as the effect ripples back through the trailers. I was a bit worried I wasn't going to make it there for a while, as the last trailer swayed like an overweight snake on and off the road in front of me. But through the dust and debris a path appeared for me to pass safely.

I thought I was through, when suddenly, CRACK, a large stone left its lasting impression on my windscreen. Understandably, the whole event left me a bit rattled as I drove on.

Old Crystal Highways

As I drove on it led me to ponder earlier times on roads such as the one on which I had just had my near miss; times when roads were referred to as crystal highways because of the shattered glass scattered from windscreens broken along these old rough roads.

The name crystal highway sounds as if they were something beautiful, but the reality of a crystal highway was anything but beautiful. If one was a contributor to the crystals of glass scattered alongside the highway it usually meant driving to the next town with no windscreen, being wind blasted while the remnants of the old windscreen sat on one's lap and under the feet.

Then there was the wait as the local service station mechanic replaced the glass so the journey could continue. And there was no guarantee that five minutes the other side of town another stray stone wouldn't be flicked up into the path of your new windscreen, shattering it and causing the woes of travelling on rough roads with a broken windscreen to begin all over again; not only breaking the glass but shattering the spirits of those in middle of their journeys.

The Pre-Reformation Church

Martin Luther lived in the Church of the Middle Ages. Some refer to the Middles Ages as the dark ages and it surely was spiritually dark for Martin Luther and many others trying to live lives as faithful Christians. Before the 31^st of October 1517 the church had sunk into the blackest of darkness.

Fifteen hundred years after our Lord ushered in the new covenant—the radiant brilliance of a new life in eternity without sin, through the spilling of his blood, his death on a cross, his entombment in the earth, and his victorious resurrection—the church had turned its back on the centrality of its existence, it had severed itself from its head, its Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The church's hierarchy had pushed aside the pure Gospel, laying God's Word in the dust, forgetting about it and in its place inventing its own doctrines of anti-gospel. The servants of the church had elevated themselves to be the masters of the church, who, instead of tending Christ's sheep, only gorged themselves with their goods and sucked the blood from the church's veins.

Before the 31st of October travelling on the crystal highway towards eternal life was oppressive for the most hardened traveller. A thousand years of silence on justification by God's grace, and the righteousness of God, given as gift, had culminated in Christians languishing in a fearful despair and anxiety.

Thousands had, in their previous predicament of sin, cried out in vain, "What must we do to be saved?" Their answer as they lay shattered beside the crystal highways of Mediaeval theology was rerouted to paying indulgences for departed saints, to human works, to their own penance, repentance, works of satisfaction and service. Christ and his fully sufficient service was silenced and the Word about faith gagged. Instead even more shattering stones were hurled at them knowing full well the impossibility of travelling along the road to glory by themselves.

Even learned men like Luther tormented themselves seeking, by themselves, to perform the righteousness that God expects of anyone who wishes to come into his holy presence.

Lamination and Reformation

Thank God for laminated windscreens. Even though my windscreen bears the scars of travelling along an old crystal highway, my journey was not halted nor was it shattered. Even though the road train rattled me, its debris didn't destroy my vision; I could still travel on.

The windscreens of the past, which once would have shattered from the impact of stones are long gone. We certainly still have windscreens but now they are laminated keeping the glass from shattering into a thousand pieces, or worse, from sending great spikes of glass back into the people in the vehicle.

These windscreens stand the test of time, the fragile glass protected from shattering by the thinnest invisible layer of laminate plastic. Sure we still see the results of what the old crystal highway might throw at us—large stars might appear on our windscreens—but they don't stop us from travelling towards the goal, toward the end of the journey.

Thank God too for the Reformation, for the reformers return to the law being laminated to Christ's vicarious action alone, for Martin Luther, and those, who, like him, were recaptured by the grace of the gospel, Philip Melanchthon, Martin Chemnitz and Jacob Andreae.

These men and thousands upon thousands have been reconnected with the love of God, through the righteousness of Christ, justification at the hand of God, day after day as they live the faith given to them in baptism, taught to them by Christ as their hearts are opened to his Word—preached from pulpits and taught by teachers—and to the faithful reception of Jesus body and blood in the elements of bread and wine, which Jesus himself instituted for us in his Word.

The rediscovery of the gospel in the Reformation is the lamination of our lives in Christ Jesus and the lamination of the church, protecting it from the evil attacks of the devil!

The Heavenly Crystal Highway

So now we no longer have a struggle with the law that ends in eternal death. There is no need to be fearful of having our vision of the heavenly goal shattered by the unattainable demands of God's holy law.

The law like the glass still exists but it is bound to Christ as is the glass to the laminate in today's windscreens. Hear God's word again for your assurance as you travel laminated and stuck to Christ and his promises in this life. First from St Paul in:

Romans 3:20 …no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and [all] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus… 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

This faith is ground in Christ's fully sufficient service, alone, made know to us through his word, alone, by the power of the Holy Spirit, alone, and gives us the freedom to travel with unshatterable confidence towards eternal freedom with Christ. Now hear and believe what God the Son himself says and teaches us:

John 8:31b "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 34 [Then Jesus continues], "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

You have held to his teaching! Yes you have sinned, but faith not of yourselves has given you the ability to hold on to Christ and to faithfully endure. Faith has brought you to church, faith has enabled you to confess your sin, faith has drowned you in the gracious, righteous, justifying, death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ for you and faith has set you free! So you too will be free indeed. Amen.