There is a song, "Born Free." But the Bible teaches that we are not born free, rather we are born as slaves to sin. It is called "original sin" because its origin is in our human nature that is separated from God. It is the origin of all human misery and sin and conflict. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us free. We are "Made Free." In Baptism we drown to sin and are reborn free in Christ.

The Gospel reading for Reformation Sunday is from John 8 where Jesus says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." But what sort of freedom did the Reformers think about?

There are many "freedom movements." In some parts of the world there are areas that want to be free of the domination of another country. There are innocent people who need to be from prison. We hear expressions like "women's liberation, sexual freedom, freedom of choice, economic freedom, free speech, freedom of opinion, freedom from slavery, freedom from drugs and alcohol and bad habits and behavior, freedom from abuse, relief from pain, freedom to do whatever you want, etc., etc." These issues are important and the church can and should talk about them when we love our neighbor and live our lives as Christians. But these were not the big issue 501 years ago at the time of the Reformation.

500 years ago many people wanted to be free from the abuses of the Church in Rome. But some people took this too far. For example, Ulrich Zwingli seemed to want to be free from anything that Rome taught, and so he changed his thinking about the sacraments. And King Henry VIII of England just wanted to be free to divorce his wife. Some in their desire to be free made new regulations about how to live.

The freedom that Luther sought was freedom from sin. The 95 Theses that he posted on October 31, 1517 talked about freedom from hell and purgatory. He wanted to be free from the wrath of God. He felt trapped by the devil. He felt his own sin and unworthiness. But then the Holy Spirit revealed to him in the Word of God that God is a righteous God, that God does the right thing, that God loves us and wants to save us. Therefore Jesus came to this earth and bore our sins on the cross to forgive them. And in his Resurrection, he gives us freedom from death, from hell, and from sin. This freedom is salvation.

At this time of year, why do we in the Lutheran Church always teach the history of Martin Luther and the Reformation? Why do we love the story of Martin Luther? It is because it is not only a history lesson about Luther; it is our story, too. We understand the story of Luther because we feel the same things in our hearts and lives as Luther did. If we are honest, we know our sin. We know that we are slaves of sin. There are some bad habits we cannot break. There are some deeds that haunt our memories. We know that we have not loved God with all our hearts and have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. To be a Christian is to know this frustration. To be a Christian is to know we are not free and cannot free ourselves. We know we need the help of God. Like Luther in the thunderstorm, we might fear hell. And we cry out to God for forgiveness. And like the rain in a thunderstorm, we remember that in Baptism, God forgives us and makes us his child. As members of God's family, we rejoice in the words of today's gospel reading.

John 8: 34-36, Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." We are free because we are children of God.

Like Luther, that is our "tower experience." Some people call it a "conversion experience," but Lutherans call it daily living in faith with the love and forgiveness of God. The First Thesis of the 95 Theses reads like this. "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

Christian "repentance" is both feeling sorry for your sin and receiving forgiveness. Repentance is faith which receives the work of Christ who died on the cross for you.

That is Christian freedom. We are surrounded by the evil and various slaveries of this world. Our freedom is not of this world, because our kingdom with Christ is not of this world. And as Luther taught, we are so completely free that we have bonds of love and obligation to others. We are free to help others become free, both in body and soul, free from the oppression of this world and of the devil. And so we proclaim the freedom from sin through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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