Today we are celebrating Reformation Sunday, as we remember those events from the early 1500’s which gave birth to the Lutheran Church and a host of Protestant denominations. It began with a young monk named Martin Luther who was teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg in Germany.



At that time the Roman Catholic Church was running a capital campaign to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In order to raise money for this effort, the Church started selling indulgences. It was believed that the saints had amassed an extra measure of good works in their life time and that these good works could be assigned to any one buying an indulgence, or assigned to their designated loved one who was hanging out in purgatory waiting to for an upgrade into heaven. The chief salesman at the time was a man by the name of Johan Tetzel…who marketed indulgences throughout Germany with the campaign slogan, “when the coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs.”



Now you can imagine how all of this made the people of the time feel. They were absolutely overwhelmed with fear…and the church was preying on this fear. People desperate to do something for their dead relatives scraped together what little money they had to buy these indulgences.











PF: Excuse me, Pastor David, but I have something to say.







PD: Uhh…Well, can’t it wait until later? I’m just getting into my sermon.







PF: Not really. It’s about your sermon. So far it’s not a sermon – it’s a history lesson. You’re talking about the way things were 500 years ago. That’s ancient history. Nobody’s selling indulgences today. Does the Reformation have anything to say to people today? Do you have anything to say that speaks to the people here this morning?







PD: Well…yes, you’re right about the indulgences. No one’s out there hustling them today, but there are still a lot of people who are afraid of God. There are still a lot of people out there who have this deep seeded fear they will never be able to make themselves worthy in God’s eyes by what they say and do and so they live in fear of the punishment that they think God has in store for them.







PF: Yes, but things are not like they were back in the Sixteenth Century. Back then people were afraid of everything – including God. It was the age of superstition. Today people have lost that fear. Today a lot of people see God as some kind of indulgent grandparent who is there to dote on them and when they mess up, this indulgent grandparent just says, “Oh, that’s OK.” They think that they can get away with anything – do whatever they like, and God will be OK with it. Today, people don’t take their sin seriously. And I’m talking about people in the Church. Ever since the Reformation we’ve been hearing about God’s grace, about how much God loves us, about how all of our sins are forgiven. So people think it doesn’t really matter whether they do something wrong or not, because God’s got them covered.







PD: Well that’s true…it does seems like more and more today people fail to take their sin seriously but it’s also true that God does have them covered. No matter what we can’t lose site of God’s grace. It would be easy to take people’s sins and beat them up with them…tell them why they aren’t good enough for God…tell them that in order for God to love them and forgive them…in order for them to have an eternal relationship with Him…they needed to be saying and doing all the right things….or they are going to burn in hell forever.







In fact there are probably some preachers out there doing that very thing this morning…and we have all seen that and heard that from people before. But you can’t scare people into heaven or into church by making them afraid of God and his judgment. It may work in the short-term but eventually that strategy is going to back fire …nobody can be coerced to love God because a forced love really isn’t love at all.







Just look at Luther…as a young monk entering the monastery he was fanatical in doing all of the things he was supposed to be doing. He would fast and pray and confess endlessly thinking that would bring him closer to God but the only thing he grew in was his awareness of his own sinfulness. He tried to appease God with the things he was doing because he was scared of punishment but he came to the realization that he couldn’t love a God he was scared of…in fact he says that he began to hate God for putting him in such a position, where he never knew where he stood with God or how much he needed to do. That is the same thing that happens to people today and that is why we have to always start with God’s grace.







PF: OK, I agree, you can start with grace, but you can’t stop there. Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught us about cheap grace – something he called the deadly enemy of our time. Cheap grace says that grace alone does everything and so everything can remain as it was before. Cheap grace says we can have forgiveness and keep on living like the rest of the world. But being forgiven doesn’t mean that we are free to indulge our sinful side. Even Martin Luther didn’t throw out the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are one of the six chief parts in his Catechism.







PD: That’s right…starting with God’s grace doesn’t mean we throw out the Ten Commandments. The grace that we have freely been given by God through Christ is our starting point but it does come with a claim on our lives. But there is an important distinction here that we need to see. We do respond to God’s grace and we should…but not because we are afraid of him and his judgment…not because we have to in order to earn his love…but because we choose to fulfill the wishes he has for us. Obeying the Ten Commandments and living our lives like God wants us to live them is our joyful and free response to God’s love and forgiveness.







The starting point is always God’s grace…and living in his amazing grace and love leads us into a new life…a life lived out in the love and service of others. This is the life that God wants for us…and as his followers who are committed to this journey with him this is the life we choose to live.







In fact a perfect example of the commitment to living this new life is the 6 young women who were confirmed/will be confirmed here this morning at this reformation service. Having already been baptized, forgiven and made a member of the family of God they are affirming their Baptism and making a commitment to continue on their journey of faith with Christ. They have received God’s grace in their lives…they have been given the gift of their faith…and they are responding to what God has done for them by promising to continue to live in this new life no matter where it takes them. This isn’t an easy commitment to make but they are doing it secure in the love of God and with the help of his Spirit which will always be with them leading them and guiding them.







Responding to God’s grace with a commitment to follow him is not only for confirmands…all of us who have been baptized into God’s family and become workers in his kingdom should be constantly responding to what God has done, is doing and will continue to do in our lives…. And we do that by living out this new life that we have been given.







No…our words and our actions don’t justify us and get us into heaven…only the love and the grace of God can do that for us….but our words and our actions do show that we take our faith seriously and that in gratitude we are living out this new life given to us by God. We are saved by grace alone through our faith in Christ but what we say and do in our lives matters…it always has and it always will. And I think Luther would agree with that….right?







PF: Amen







PD: Amen