Reformation Day: 10/28/07 “The Truth that Makes Us Free” Peace Lutheran Church Grass Valley CA

Reformation Day: 10/28/07 “The Truth that Makes Us Free”

Text: John 8.31-36

On Reformation Day we celebrate the witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ made by Martin Luther and the first Reformers of the 16th century. It is a day for flags to fly and trumpets to blow for us Lutherans, a day for remembering our heritage with thanks and praise. But the day is more important than simply a celebration of our Lutheran heritage. It is a time to reflect on just what the gospel proclamation of the Reformation was all about. And our Scripture lessons force us to that reflection, for they are not lessons with merely historical or antiquarian interest. They speak to us today; they make the Reformation issues alive for us today. To demonstrate that, let’s consider this morning’s gospel lesson. Let’s listen to it carefully, and understand what it means for us.

“If you continue in my word,” Jesus said, “you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Familiar words, emblazoned in countless classrooms. But the sense of this lesson is not just that truth is a valuable thing for its own sake. Rather Jesus here talks about a particular kind of truth, and a specific kind of freedom. Let’s consider first the freedom he talks about, and then the truth.

I like baptisms—I like lots of them, for the more of them we have, the more familiar the very important words become to us. “In Holy Baptism,” our liturgy claims, “our heavenly Father liberates us from sin and death.” That’s a good starting point for talking about freedom. For us, for the baptized, the freedom about which Jesus speaks is freedom from sin and death.

It is freedom from sin. That is the most fundamental thing we must understand. In our prayer of confession this morning, we said that “we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.” I don’t know about you, but those are among the most honest words I’ve spoken this week, or any week. “Captive to sin,” or, as the LBW puts it, “in bondage to sin.” That’s a good Reformation phrase. Luther himself wrote an important treatise called The Bondage of the Will. In it he argued that we are in bondage to sin, and that no matter how hard we try, no matter what works of charity or piety we do, no matter how much money we contribute to the church, it is still our reality that we are sinners. When he made that claim, he came under attack from all sides. His critics claimed that we can do God’s will, if we just try hard enough. We can earn God’s favor by our own strength, they said. Luther was too pessimistic. He did not give us human beings enough credit.

Now the issue is still very real today. Some years ago I visited my great-aunt when she was nearing death. “I just hope,” she said, “that I’m good enough to go to heaven!” After 400 years, that’s still not an unusual concern for people to have. “I hope I’m good enough!”

And it isn’t just a death-bed hope, it starts when we are very young. “I hope I’m good enough to please mommy and daddy.” “I hope I’m good enough to get through school.” “I hope I’m good enough to get a job.” Those are the real hopes that we nurse, and it doesn’t take much of a step to then say, “I hope I’m good enough for God to love me.”

The truth, dear friends, is that this hope is a false hope. You are not good enough for God to love you—and neither am I! We are in bondage to sin, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t be good enough. And yet—the good news of Jesus Christ is that God loves us, just the same. He loves us, even though we aren’t good enough. He loves us, even though no matter how hard we try we can’t seem to stop sinning!

Now that helps us see what it means that we are, in Holy Baptism, set free from sin. That doesn’t mean that we no longer sin; we certainly still do. But freedom from sin means we need not worry about whether we’re good enough! No more is it necessary for us to hope that somehow God will let us in! He already has! “In his divine forbearance,” Paul says, “God has passed over the sins we have committed.” “He remembers them no more,” says Jeremiah! We don’t have to be afraid or anxious or uncertain, but we can be absolutely sure that we are forgiven. We are baptized, and in that identity, Christ has already freed us from our past and forgiven us all our sins.

Now the freedom from sin is also freedom from death. The 1993 winner of the Grammy award for best song was Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” It is a song that arose out of tragedy. Clapton’s four-year-old son accidentally fell from the 53rd floor of a New York apartment building. Can you imagine the feeling of a parent going through that experience—the grief, the horror, the guilt? The song was a melancholy one, reflecting his deep sense of loss.

When Christians face the mystery and the horror of death, they do not feel any less grief or any less sorrow than anyone else. But there is one thing added. It is that word of promise: “Our heavenly Father has freed us from death . . . ” And like the freedom from sin, this freedom does not mean that we escape the reality of death. That is still part of our experience. But we know that death does not have the last word. We know that death does not win this battle, because Christ has conquered death. Because we are joined to Christ, we are set free.

So the freedom of the Christian is a freedom from sin and from death. And that freedom, Jesus says, comes from knowing the truth. What truth does he mean?

I said that I love baptisms. I love especially the part when the sign of the cross is traced on the head of the baptized with a little oil and these words are spoken: “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever.” It is my favorite part of the baptismal liturgy.

So here’s the question: “For how long are we sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ?” Are we sealed by the Holy Spirit until we die? Are we marked with the Cross of Christ until we sin, or as long as we go to church, or as long as we lead a good Christian life? No, no, and no—none of those are the case. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever!

Now that is the truth that makes us free. Knowing that we have been so sealed and so marked, so chosen, so loved—knowing that, there is nothing that can threaten us or shake us. We are Christ’s! We are his forever!

Martin Luther struggled and wrestled with his faith, perhaps as much as anyone in Christian history. He faced times of great doubt and uncertainty. Was his understanding of the gospel true, or had Satan deceived him? But often, when his struggles were the worst, he would touch his forehead—the place where that sign of the cross was made in Baptism—and he would say to himself, “Martin, be calm. You are baptized!” Sealed by the Holy Spirit, marked with the cross of Christ, FOREVER! Even in doubt, and even in turmoil, we belong to Christ!

William Willimon tells the story of the college student, a member of his congregation, who dropped by at the beginning of summer vacation to announce that he wouldn’t be attending church that summer. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about religion while I’ve been at college, and I’ve decided I don’t really need it anymore.” Pastor Willimon responded by saying, “Well, that’s very interesting.” “Well, aren’t you worried?” the young man asked. “I thought you’d go through the roof!”

“No,” the pastor replied, “I’m interested, but not overly concerned. I’ll be watching to see if you can pull it off.”

“What do you mean by that? I’m 19, I can decide to do anything I want to do, can’t I?” “When I was 19, I thought that, too,” said Willimon. “I’m saying that I’m not so sure you will be able to get away with this.”

“Why not?” “Well, for one thing, you’re baptized.” “What does that have to do with anything?” “Well, you try forsaking it, rejecting it, forgetting about it, and maybe you’ll find out,” the pastor said. “For one thing, there are people here who care about you. They made promises to God when you were baptized. You try not showing up around here, and they will be nosing around, asking you what you are doing with your life. Then there’s God. No telling what God might try with you. From what I’ve seen of God, once he has claimed you, you don’t get off the hook so easily. God is relentless in claiming what is his. And in baptism, God says you belong to him.” Willimon concludes the story by saying that the boy left his study in a state of utter confusion, and that he was back worshiping the next week.

When God has claimed you as his own, he does not let you go. You know, some churches make a lot out of the idea of “making a decision for Christ”—and that’s not a bad thing. Making a decision for Christ is a good thing, though I’d be more likely to say that we face those decisions every single day. Sometimes we make the right decision and choose to follow him; too often we make the wrong one and choose to turn away. But in the end, what is important is not so much that we choose to follow Christ, but that Christ has claimed us in Holy Baptism. You are his, you see, not because you decided that you would follow him, however fervid or tepid that decision might be, but because Christ himself chose you, marked you, sealed you forever! That’s the truth! And it is the truth that makes you free!