October 29, 2017, Reformation Sunday
The official start of the Lutheran Protestant Reformation is October 31, 1517. On that day for the first time Martin Luther formally and publicly called for a debate about the teaching of the Christian Church. He posted his famous Ninety-five Theses. This was a call for a debate about the sale of indulgences which Luther opposed. It was really a call for a debate about the central teaching of the Christian Church, which is the forgiveness of sin by Jesus Christ who died on the cross to forgive our sin and rose on the third day to give us eternal life and salvation. Everyone in the church knew that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Everyone knew that that was to forgive sin. But how does that forgiveness and salvation come to me? Can I buy it? Can I buy it for someone else, even for someone who has already died? Can I earn it by living a good life? Can I earn it by acts of charity or donations to the church? Can I get to heaven by certain prayers and acts of worship?
An indulgence was a certificate of forgiveness. It was a written guarantee of going to heaven, even if you sinned. Actually that sounds pretty nice. You do have to worry about your behavior, you can do anything you want, you can sin if you want to. But there are a number of problems with indulgences. First, you cannot buy forgiveness. It is not like paying a traffic fine. It is not like buying a theater ticket. Actually you can not buy it at all because Jesus has already paid the price for your forgiveness when he died on the cross. He paid with his holy blood. You cannot pay for something that has already been paid. And since Jesus is God Almighty, his blood forgives the sin of the world, yours and mine. The second problem with indulgences is that it makes the sacrifice of Jesus seem incomplete, that we have to add to it. That takes away from the glory of God.
So, how can a person receive the forgiveness of sin and go to heaven? How can we be in a right relationship with God? How can you be sure? We can be sure because of the Word of God’s Promise. Such a promise is Romans 3:22-24.
“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Faith is to trust what God has done you. It means that I do not save myself, I cannot do so. Since Jesus paid the price, it is a free gift of his grace.
In modern conversation English, the word indulgence means something that is not good, it means to do too much of something. For example, if I am on a diet and want to lose weight, I know that need to watch what I eat, but today, I will give myself special permission to eat chocolate cake with ice cream. I will indulge in the cake. I give myself permission to do something I know is bad, even if I may have to pay for it later with an upset stomach. An indulgence sold by Brother Johann Tetzel meant that you could eat the chocolate cake without gaining weight. You could sin and not worry about punishment in Purgatory.
It is sort of like two Japanese words that are similar in meaning, have the same pronunciation, but the Chinese characters are different. 1. 許しyurushi = permit and 2. 赦しyurushi = forgive. #1 gives you permission to do something that is otherwise forbidden, like entering a classified area. If you have permission there is no punishment. #2 is important when you get caught in a restricted area without a permit. #2 means you are not punished. Indulgences are like #1. Salvation through Jesus Christ is like #2. God never gives us permission to sin. But he does give forgiveness. It is not because we do the right thing, but rather because God does the right thing. That is why in the Bible passage above, it is not my righteousness but rather the righteousness of God. It is because God does the right thing freely by his grace in Jesus Christ. That is the central theme of the Reformation. As then, even now, it is still all about Jesus Christ..
Another problem about indulgences was that you had to pay for them. “When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.” The prices were scaled according to income. Those without means could pray and fast – which might mean a whole year of fasting, living on bread and water alone. That is one reason why the German people loved what Martin Luther had to say. He said that the grace of God was free, that you did not have to pay, that you could not buy forgiveness from God. Yes, it did cost Jesus his life blood, but for us it is free. It sounds like a good bargain! We are free to do anything we want, since we will be forgiven anyway!
The German Lutheran Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a famous book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” In the book he talks about cheap grace and costly grace. Cheap grace is like indulgences. Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Cheap grace, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship. In contrast to costly grace,
“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
The temptation for Lutherans is to depend so much on grace alone and faith alone that we live in sin and do not worry about it. But the First of the 95 Theses says, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance is to know that we are sinners before God, to be sorry, and to receive forgiveness, daily, continually, and therefore to live completely on the grace of God. That is what faith is. That is what Christian life is. That is what we are celebrating today. That is what we pray for.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church
