Sermon - Reformation Sunday

October 25, 2009 - Year B - Year of Mark

Isaiah 53:4-12; Psalm 91:9-16; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

Of all the images of the Reformation I love most is the one where Luther was hiding at the Wartburg Castle. Days before he had challenged the authority of church and state by refusing to renounce his beliefs. He had stood in the hall and said before the emperor, "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."

He had defied the authorities, and a death sentence had been placed on his head. Consequently, the prince pretended to kidnap him, and hid him in the castle to be safe. Luther stayed in the castle for almost a year. He let his hair and beard grow, and dressed in the cloths of a knight in order to disguise himself. However, he was a knight unlike any other. He read books in Greek and Hebrew. He spent his time studying the Bible. He even had a study in the castle where he wrote and translated the Greek New Testament into German.

However, Luther was terribly depressed at this time. He was cut off from everyone he knew. Worst of all, he began hearing rumors that the work he had been doing was spinning out of control. People were smashing altars and rioting in the churches. They violated the sanctity of churches with their mad behavior stealing chalices and altar cloths. They had twisted Luther's teachings into a crazy distortion that fit their own desires. He wanted to stop this before the Reformation was doomed by its own excess.

Risking his life, Luther returned to Wittenberg where he restored order and brought the Reformation back to focusing on Biblical truth rather than the truth and words of humans. What he did was an act of courage, but again he was bound to upholding the truth against the forces that would distort it even if it meant going against those who thought they were on his side.

The truth is that had Luther not returned to Wittenberg, and simply continued to live in the castle, none of us would recognize the lives we now live. There are a few times when the whole course of human history was changed by a single act or event. This was one of those moments. All of western history was changed by Luther's return to Wittenberg.

Within the Reformation were the seeds of individual liberty and thought. The Reformation held the beginnings of the spirit that would eventually break apart the system of serfs and repression that made Europe at that time.

The translation of the Bible into German meant that each person was free to read the texts for him or herself. Each person was accountable to God. How we live and perceive the world was all influenced by what happened in the Reformation.

For Luther the words from John's Gospel guided what he did during that time of crisis. "...if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Although Luther did not want to be imprisoned, and he did not want to be killed for his faith, he was willing to risk those things because he knew his real freedom rested upon something greater than this world. He knew he was freed by Christ. The state nor the king could bind Luther because he was free in Christ, and that was the only freedom that mattered.

The problem that Luther faced in his day is one we face today. People will take that freedom and turn it to mean that we are now free to do whatever we want without having to worry about the consequences. However, there are always consequences. Following the truth of Christ makes us accountable for those consequences and thus, we are made fully human. It is only when we are accountable for what we think, say, and do that we are actually free.

The freedom won by the Reformation was so that people could be freed from the burden of sin rather than think that sin does not matter. The problem Luther saw was that the church of his day was leading people into sin and was holding them hostage. In Luther's day if a person sinned, to atone for that sin, he or she would have to make an act of contrition. What Luther wanted was for people to be accountable for their sins so that they would freely confess their need for forgiveness. Only a free person can see his or her sin; and only a free person can ask for forgiveness.

The freedom won by the Reformation can lead us to think that because we can think for ourselves, we have no need of God. Luther would tell us that this is an illusion. We are freed so that we can follow God and his truth rather than our own. We follow Christ so that we may enter his kingdom rather than be lost of the chaos we make of our lives.

Luther in the castle is my favorite image of the Reformation not only because it is colorful. It also points to the freedom of Christ. Had Luther stayed hidden away, he might have been safe, but cut off from what gave him life. By taking the risks of being freed, he was able to live with all the consequences that come with living in the freedom of Christ. Amen.