In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Why should we be Lutheran? It's not good enough for you just to say "That's what my spouse is" or "That's what I and my parents have always been." That's a lazy answer. Why should you be a Lutheran now? You know, the big push these days is to break down all the barriers that stand between church bodies and to unite, to come together, even if there isn't agreement on doctrine. It is said that we should all just get along and agree to disagree. It is said that the only name we should call ourselves is "Christian." Why should we be Lutheran?

The answer is referred to at least indirectly in today's Gospel, where Jesus says, "If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We desire to be Lutheran because what Martin Luther and the Lutheran Church has historically confessed is the Scriptural truth. It's not because we want to be separatist or because we think we're better than anybody else. It's because the truth of Christ's Word is more important to us than anything else. Christ's Word of truth alone is what sets us free from the power of death and the devil. It's the only thing that can save a world in bondage to sin. The reason I'm a Lutheran is precisely because I'm a Christian. The faith confessed by the Lutheran church is the true Christian faith. Other church bodies unfortunately hold to teachings or engage in practices that conflict with God's Word and that threaten saving faith. That's not to say that only Lutherans will be in heaven. People from other bodies certainly can have saving faith despite the false doctrine they hear, if they still cling to the truth. But the point is that it is out of love for Christ and His Word that we desire to be and remain Lutheran.

On this Reformation Sunday, then, let us take a moment to remind ourselves what it means to be Lutheran in the light of two defining moments of the Reformation-one which sets us apart from the Pope and Roman Catholicism and the other which sets us apart from Reformed Protestantism.

The first defining moment you are hopefully already familiar with. Martin Luther was a monk in Wittenberg, Germany, struggling with his own sinfulness and how he could become righteous before God and be saved. He knew very well what the Epistle said, that all the world is guilty before God by the Law. Through the Scriptures He was coming to see that righteousness is not something we can acquire by our good works but that it is rather a gift of God given through Christ. We are saved by grace alone through trusting in God's promises. Well in 1517 a certain preacher named John Tetzel was sent to raise money for the building of St. Peter's basilica in Rome. He came near Wittenberg with his message that by purchasing certain indulgences which he had from the pope, people could, in effect, buy the forgiveness of sins and God's grace. These indulgences could also help deceased relatives out of their supposed suffering in purgatory. Tetzel had a saying, "Once the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory heavenward springs!" Luther roundly criticized these indulgences, not only because he saw them as the church's way of defrauding the people out of their money, but also because he saw this practice as being contrary to the Gospel. It robbed Christ of His glory by attributing salvation and forgiveness in part to human works. It built the certainty of eternal life not on the solid rock of Christ's all-sufficient death on the cross but on the shifting sand of the deeds of man. This is contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures; and it is contrary to Christian faith, which trusts in Jesus alone.

In response to Tetzel's preaching, Luther wrote the now famous 95 theses which He posted on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. These theses called into question the sale of indulgences and the false teaching of the pope which lay behind them; they mark the beginning of the Reformation.

Luther, of course, got into hot water over this. Still, for the next four years he continued to write and preach and flesh out the teaching of the Gospel that was dawning on him through the Word. But in 1521 he was called to stand trial before the Emperor himself. The pope's emissaries at the trial called on him to recant his teaching and repent. For a moment Luther faltered. He asked for a day's time to answer. But when he returned the next day and was again asked to recant, he spoke boldly in the face of those who could very well have executed him as a heretic. He said, "Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning-and my conscience is captive to the Word of God-then I cannot and will not recant." Then Luther added, "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me!"

Therefore, first of all, to be Lutheran is to reject the false teaching of the Pope that Christ has only done part of the job of salvation and that we must complete the job through our own deeds of holiness. To be Lutheran, rather, is to believe according to the Scriptures that our own holiness is as filth in the sight of God and merits nothing before Him (Isaiah 64:6). Our own works earn us nothing but judgment. And therefore, it is to believe boldly and confidently that we are saved purely by God's undeserved kindness and mercy, through the holy, precious blood of Christ and His innocent suffering and death for us. It is to place your faith entirely in Jesus as the Savior and to seek your life in Him alone. It is to know that heaven is yours because Christ has done all that is necessary to make a place for you there.

That is the first side of the coin of Lutheranism. But this coin has another side which perhaps has been less familiar to us but is equally important. This flip side of the coin is well illustrated by another defining moment that occurred a few years later in the Reformation. While Luther was preaching and teaching in Germany, there was a preacher in Switzerland named Zwingli who joined Luther's cause and seemed to be on his side in the battle against the pope's false teaching. But there were some important differences that came to the surface between the teaching of Luther and Zwingli. In rejecting the errors of the pope, Zwingli also ended up rejecting some of the truths of the Scriptures which the pope happened to have right. He was throwing out the baby with the bathwater. In particular, Zwingli rejected the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. He taught that the bread and the wine were only symbols of Christ's body and blood. Luther, on the other hand, taught that Christ's words were not the least bit figurative but meant exactly what they said, "This is my body; this is my blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."

Through their writings, Luther debated back and forth with Zwingli. Luther made himself very clear; he called anyone who tried to turn communion into a mere symbolic ceremony "an instrument of the devil." It was satanic to change the meaning of the words of Christ and to undo what Jesus had instituted. Finally, Luther and Zwingli met in the city of Marburg. They were able to come to agreement on seemingly everything except the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Luther wrote with a piece of chalk on the table the words "Hoc est corpus meum," This is my body. Then he covered the words with a fine cloth as if it were the communion on the altar. He insisted that those words stood firm and true against all human reasoning, and he demanded to be shown from Scripture that they were not true. This Zwingli could not do. For Luther, human logic and human wisdom were subservient to the Word of God. Just because we can't explain the mystery of Christ's presence in the Sacrament doesn't mean it isn't true. His Word says so, and therefore we believe it, even though it's beyond the comprehension of our puny human minds. Luther would not allow human wisdom and reasoning to become a new pope. Christ and His Word are supreme.

And so as the Reformation develops, there is a battle on two fronts. On the one side was the false teaching of the Pope. On the other side was the false teaching of the Zwinglians and other such Protestants who wanted to throw out everything that appeared to be popish or Roman Catholic, and who were denying the Scriptural teaching on the Sacraments. These Protestants preferred inward and spiritual things to external things. Out of one side of their mouth they confessed faith in the Gospel of Christ, but out of the other side of their mouth they rejected the Gospel way in which Christ comes to us in baptism and the Lord's Supper. Luther made it abundantly clear that the Holy Spirit doesn't come to anyone through the inner spirituality of their heart. The Holy Spirit comes, rather, in the ways Christ has promised, through the outward preaching of the Gospel and the external administration of the Sacraments. Faith isn't a good work which has to climb up to heaven in order to attain Christ. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit which simply receives Christ as He comes right down to where we're at.

This, then, is the flip side of the coin of Lutheranism. Not only do we believe that we are saved by grace alone through Christ's death and resurrection. We also believe that Christ's salvation is given to us by grace alone through baptism and absolution and the Lord's Supper-by Christ's working, not ours. The Holy Spirit is really given in baptism to create faith in us and give us new life. Christ is physically and literally present in Communion to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith. Zwinglians and Protestants reject those Scriptural truths. They'll say that Jesus earned forgiveness of our sins on the cross. They may even use the term "grace alone." But then they'll add some human work or decision or commitment as being necessary to complete the job. Jesus did His part, now you've gotta do your part to get your salvation and especially to keep it. In effect, then, they're just like the pope; for they say that Jesus only did most of the job of the salvation and that you've got to finish it off by your own doing. For the assurance of your salvation, they direct you not only to what Christ has done but also to whether or not you're truly following Christ and living a Christian life. In rejecting the Sacraments they end up substituting human works.

We Lutherans, then, are sort of an odd bunch; we don't fit into the contemporary religious scene very well. We're not Roman Catholic; for we don't accept the Pope's authority to establish new doctrines apart from the Word of God, we reject prayer to Mary and the saints as false worship, and we believe, as the Epistle said, that we are declared righteous before God by faith in Christ apart from the works of the Law. But we're not Protestant, either, for we embrace the Sacraments as being at the very heart of our faith and not mere add-ons to the Gospel that you can do without. We see in Baptism not just a ceremony but the very essence of our daily living, dying to ourselves and rising with Christ to new life. With Luther we keep private confession and absolution as a means of applying the forgiveness of sins to the penitent. We adorn the preaching of God's Word and the body and blood of Christ with the reverence of the historic liturgy, with robes and candles, crucifixes and the sign of the cross, and whatever else enriches and lifts up the proclamation of the pure Gospel. Like Luther we don't throw out good traditions and practices; we embrace the good things that have been handed down to us, and we reform those places where errors have crept in that are contrary to the Word of God and the Gospel. That's why it's called the Reformation. We don't see ourselves merely as individual believers but as those who are a part of the one holy church of Christ that spans the centuries.

There is a Latin saying, "Ecclesia Semper Reformanda," "The Church is always being reformed." The Holy Spirit is continually calling His people back to the truth of the Gospel. We must recognize that we ourselves are in continual need of Reformation, both as a church and as individuals. As a church, Lutheranism is in sad shape. Many who claim to be heirs of Luther teach and practice in such an unscriptural way that he would be rolling over in his grave if he knew. The Lutheran Church in this country is in danger of going the way it has in Germany, where faith in the pure Gospel seems almost non-existent, where the Luther sites are little more than tourist attractions. And as individuals we dare not become like those in the Gospel who prided themselves on being Abraham's descendants. We dare not say with proud hearts, "I've been a Lutheran all my life" as if the name of Luther can save us. Our faith is not in some 16th century German monk but in Christ alone. We dare not come to a point in our life where we think we no longer need to repent. We must continually acknowledge the truth of Jesus' words, "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." Then, with penitent and trusting hearts, we will eagerly and gladly look to Christ for help and receive the freedom that only He can give.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord has freed you from your sins by His blood. He has paid the price to release you from your bondage to death and the devil. By His sacrifice you are declared righteous before the throne of God. You are holy in His sight. Believe that Gospel. Abide in that truth of Christ. For if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.