Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Today Protestant Churches around the world celebrate the Reformation - an event nearly 500 old which changed the face of Western Christianity forever. At the center of this movement was a German monk by the name of Martin Luther. In the last several weeks I have seen both a movie and a musical about Luther's life. As I reflected on both movie and musical, I was struck by how difficult it is to capture and portray such a powerful, charismatic personality.

Then I remembered that the Reformation is not about Martin Luther. The Reformation is about God. It is about the Word of God which had gotten lost in the fears and superstitions of medieval people and in the traditions and capital campaigns of the church. In response to all of this, Martin Luther took his stand on the Word alone. Such a stand did not come easily to Luther. He also struggled with the fears and superstitions of his time, and he wrestled with the image of a holy and hostile God who would surely punish every sin. It was only through his study of God's Word that Luther came to understand that we are saved by God's grace, not by our works, and that we claim that grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This basic truth is summarized in what became the slogan of the Reformation: Word alone, grace alone, and faith alone.

Today is also Confirmation for five of our young people. How fitting it is to offer Confirmation on Reformation Sunday. A major part of their Confirmation process was the three years they studied Martin Luther's Small Catechism - a wonderfully simple yet comprehensive summary of Christian teaching based on the Word alone. In this catechism, Luther reminds us over and over that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone.

Things are different today than they were in the 16th Century. Then the main problem was that grace had become lost in the focus on good works. In the 21st Century, we also face the opposite problem. In many ways, we have focused so much on grace that the importance of how we live has been lost. When you take works away entirely, you end up with what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace." Cheap grace says that since God forgives all of our sins, it does not matter what we do. Cheap grace says that we can take God's gift without making any real commitment; that we can accept God's blessing without accepting any real responsibility. Cheap grace says that we can wear the cross without bearing the cross.

We see cheap grace at work in those people who want to be members of the church but don't want to worship regularly. We see cheap grace at work in those who only worship but are not willing to serve in some significant way. We see cheap grace at work in those who think that being saved is the goal they are trying to reach rather than the place where their life and their work begins. We see cheap grace at work in those who, once they are confirmed, have little connection to the church. We see cheap grace at work in those who come when things quick, easy, and fun but who turn away when the expectations are challenging.

I suspect that if Martin Luther were alive today, he would start a different kind of Reformation. I think Luther would want us to know that being saved by grace through faith means that we are called to live a new life. I think Luther would want us to understand that Christian freedom is not the freedom to do what we want but the freedom to serve God and others. Luther would remind us of something that he said nearly 500 years ago: "A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing is worth nothing."

While how we live has nothing to do with getting saved, it has everything to do with being saved. While we are not saved by our good works, people of faith will do good works. Luther understood that good works follow naturally and automatically from faith - just like apples naturally grow on an apple tree. He wrote that when we are confident in God's grace, then we automatically become "willing and eager to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer all manner of ills, in order to please and glorify God, who has shown toward him such grace."

In the Rite of Confirmation our confirmands will be asked to commit themselves to just such a faithful life. They will promise to "proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, and to strive for justice and peace in all the world." This is the kind of life to which we are called, for which we have been saved. This is the kind of life the Holy Spirit enables us to live as the children of God.

One of our confirmands choose Ephesians 5:1-2 as her confirmation verse. It fits so well with what we have been talking about that I want to share it with you now. These words were written by the apostle Paul, who like Martin Luther was very strong on salvation by grace through faith. This did not mean, however, that Paul had nothing to say about how we live the life of faith. Every one of Paul's letters includes a section in which he speaks directly and specifically about how we are to live as "children of light."

Ephesians 5 is one of those sections. The first two verses are a summary statement in which Paul urges us to "be imitators of God." How can we imitate God? Paul tells us: By living "a life of love." That is what it means to imitate God - to live a life of love, to love as Christ has loved us. Martin Luther, in a sermon on this passage, points out that the love of which Paul speaks in this passage is not the same kind of love that we find out there in the world. The world's love seeks only its own advantage. It asks, "What's in it more me." The love Christ has does not seek advantage or gain; it is only interested in giving and serving and saving.

The Greeks had several different words for "love." In this way they were able to distinguish between romantic love and brotherly love, between the love we have for food or for money and the love we have for God. The word that the New Testament uses for God's love is agape. Agape is defined as "self-giving love." Agape love is not born of a lover's need, nor does it have its source in the object of one's love. Agape love does not exist in order to get what it wants but only to give what the other needs. Agape love lives in order to serve and to give and to satisfy another.

Agape is defined by Jesus' life - by what he said and by what he did. As Paul says, Jesus gave himself as a "fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." He did not hold back but gave himself completely so that we might know God's love and forgiveness. Jesus did not do this because we were so deserving, because we were so lovable, because we were such good people - he did it because he loved us.

Now, this Jesus calls us to live in ways that bear witness to God's love in our lives. He calls us to love one another as he has loved us. He calls us to not only bask in the warmth of God's love, but to share that love with those around us. He calls us to forgive one another as we have been forgiven. He calls us to speak words that build others up rather than tear them down. He calls us to be generous in our giving rather than greedy in our getting. He calls us to be willing to sacrifice and even to suffer for others, as he sacrificed and suffered for us. He calls us to do these things not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. He calls us to please God not because we are afraid of God's judgment, but because we want to show God our gratitude.

To live a life of agape love requires a reformation - a reform of our minds, our hearts and our lives. And this reformation cannot be a one-time event; it must be an on-going process. Neither Confirmation nor Reformation is just a day to be observed. Nor are they just events to be celebrated. True Reformation, like confirmation, is not so much a point in time as it is a way of life.

So on this Reformation Day, as we witness the Rite of Confirmation for five of our young people, may we also affirm our own baptism - committing ourselves to a lifetime of reform and renewal, to a lifetime of love and service, to a lifetime of living as children of light. Amen.