Putting Faith Into Practice
– Discipleship
Over the past two weeks, we have focused on putting our
faith into action. First we emphasized
forgiving others. Last week I spoke
about living with a thankful spirit.
Today we continue the theme of putting faith into practice through the
act of discipleship.
I
never know where the opening stories for sermons will come from. This week it comes from Wednesday night’s
catechism class. We are working our way
through the Ten Commandments. Using
Luther’s Small Catechism, there is always a Biblical reference to connect with
the specific commandments. And this week
we addressed Commandment #5, “You shall
not murder”.
First,
I explained that in the original Greek, the word ‘murder’ was not simply
describing the act of stopping the heartbeat.
It went deeper. Murder meant to
intentionally rob someone of their very ‘being’. I asked the class for examples and I have to
admit that they responded beyond my expectations. Identity theft, bullying, and any act that
makes someone feel worthless were just a few of their answers. To murder is to take away someone’s human
value, to rob them of self-worth, or their identity. It is to say, “You are not worthy of human
respect” or “I am more worthy than you”.
So
we dug into the Scripture for this commandment which was the story of Cain and
Abel. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy
when God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but found Cain’s unacceptable. And with every action there is a consequence. God punished Cain to be a wanderer and the
earth would not reap the quality or quantity of harvests from the past.
But
one part of the Cain and Abel story that we sometimes forget is that God’s
grace was apparent. Cain lamented that
his guilty actions might cause someone else to kill him. God responded emphatically. ‘NO! Anyone who kills Cain will be punished
seven-fold.” And God placed a mark on
Cain so that others would know he was protected by God. God’s grace is present, even when there are
consequences for our actions. While Cain
was punished for his actions, he was freed from death through God’s grace.
As
we gather to celebrate Reformation Sunday, we remember our roots as Lutheran Christians
and our role as disciples. During the
time of Martin Luther in the mid-1500’s, he challenged the Church and its
practices. He argued that there was too
much selfishness in the Church institution.
He fought against the practice of indulgences (paying the Church for the
forgiveness of sins). He pressed to
teach people how to read (rather than simply hearing the Scriptures read to
them) and got Bibles into the hands of the working class.
Jesus
taught that HE is our only source of freedom from sin. And today our human sinfulness isn’t a whole
lot different from what it was in the past.
Consider the three particular issues facing Martin Luther. There was too much selfishness in the
Church. Is it really any different today? Are we not more interested in our own
organizational survival than we are about the larger mission of Christ? And while we don’t offer a menu of
forgiveness options at different prices, don’t we still expect that we will
receive more of God’s favor according to the effort and time we give to the
Church? How is that any different from
expecting Christ’s forgiveness by paying for it? Lastly, the tradition of Catholic mass has
been that the Priest reads Scripture to the people (at that time the majority
of people were illiterate) and therefore the people had no access to the Bible
other than what is said by the Priests.
According to statistics, most homes have a Bible on their shelves. Are people reading it?
The
Lutheran rose is designed with the following theme...Word Alone, Faith Alone, and
Grace Alone. It’s all of the other stuff
outside of the Word, Faith, and Grace that prevents us from feeling
freedom. But similar to Cain, we have
been marked by the cross of Christ in our baptism. We too are guilty of sin and experience
consequences for our actions (or inactions).
God’s grace is poured out through Christ and frees us from the judgment
of sin! Salvation through Christ isn’t
just about a trip to heaven one day, but it also frees us in our life on earth
when we seek to follow him.
In
John’s text, Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my
disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The truth is that Jesus loves each of us no
matter what our past looks like. The
truth is that Jesus is the only option for salvation, leaving our good works to
be an opportunity to share love to one another rather than an option for
heavenly extra points. The truth is that
our lives that we try so hard to justify are already affirmed as children of
the King. No matter what we accomplish
or don’t accomplish, we are still loved and saved by Christ alone.
In
order to be Jesus’ disciples, we need to be in his word, seeking his will. Reformation weekend is a great time to
remember that Martin Luther was the driving force to teach people to read and
to get God’s word into everyone’s hands.
Let’s give thanks for that freedom by spending time in the Bible getting
to know God and his truth. Amen.