Reformation [1 Corinthians 1:18] (26-Oct-2014)

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

To begin the sermon today, I would like to take a verse from St Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:18:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Each year, only in Lutheran Churches, we have this little church festival where we celebrate the Reformation. And we celebrate it as close as possible to the 31^st of October, because on 31^st October 1517, a German monk and Catholic priest named Martin Luther made an attack on the Roman Catholic Church—his own church. The pope at this time was trying to build the St Peter’s Church in Rome. And in order to pay for the building of this church, he offered to people what was called an “indulgence”, which—put simply—was basically a piece of paper saying that your sins were forgiven. (It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s what it was in effect.) And if you wanted to get one of these pieces of paper, you had to buy one. The forgiveness of sins was being used to pay for building churches. And so meanwhile, somewhere in Germany, Martin Luther, a teacher of theology, criticised this practice by nailing his criticisms to the church door in the town of Wittenberg in order to hold a public debate on the topic. This was the beginning, not just of a debate on this topic, but a debate on the whole nature of the church, and the authority of the pope. Even to this day, the Roman Catholic Church requires that all Christians should be under the authority of the pope. Four years after Martin Luther did this, in 1521, he was kicked out of the Roman Catholic Church, and was asked to take back what he said. Martin Luther was convinced that what he had said was grounded in the word of God, and so when it came to the truth of God’s word, there simply was no compromise. This began what we know today as the Lutheran Church. Of course, Luther never named this church after himself, but eventually the label “Lutheran” became the only way the distinguish Christians who believed what Luther himself stood for.

But today, I’m not going to embark on a history lesson. There’s plenty of time still for you to learn about the history of the Reformation and the life of Martin Luther. But today, on this Reformation day, I’d like to share with you something that Luther spoke about quite often, which I have found particularly helpful: it’s what he called “the theology of the cross”.

St Paul writes: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

What’s this “word of the cross”? Luther talked about two different things: the “theology of the cross”, and “the theology of glory”. Ask yourself: what are you looking for in this life? The cross, or glory? This is a very difficult question to answer. Because Jesus says: Take up your cross and follow me. He doesn’t say, Take up your glory, your honour, your pride, and follow me. But at the same time, our flesh doesn’t want the cross. There’s something in us, our sinful nature, our flesh, that says to Jesus: I’m not really looking for the cross. I don’t really want it. I’d much rather glory. And yet, Jesus says: If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

If we want to be a disciple of Jesus, we need the cross. It’s as simple as that. We pray for our daily bread. And every loaf of bread needs to cooked with salt and with fire in an oven. So every day as a Christian we need the salt and the fire of the cross. We need the cross. And so listen to St Paul’s words again: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. What this means is that if I try and explain the theology of the cross to you, the word of the cross, many of you here today are simply not going to get it. It’s going to take a long time for you to realise that the cross is God’s power, and you’ll probably think that this is complete rubbish. Folly, as St Paul says. Even I’m not going to get it totally, even though I’m the one preaching it. None of us is going to completely get this on this side of the grave, but it’s a wonderful teaching.

Let me read to you two quotes from Martin Luther about this. First, this is from his commentary on the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, which Mary sung when she was still pregnant with the baby Jesus and went to visit her relative Elizabeth. Luther is talking about the difference between God giving us gifts, and God simply looking at us with us his grace and with delight and with his favour. Luther writes: In giving us the gifts God only gives us what is His, but in his grace and His regard of us He gives us His very self. In the gifts we touch His hand; but in His gracious regard we receive His heart, spirit, mind and will.

What’s Luther talking about here? He’s saying that when God gives us something, he’s only giving us something. But even when God doesn’t give us what we think that we need, he is still beaming the light of his face down upon us, He is still our God, He is still our Saviour, even when we’re suffering, because when he looks at us and shines on us even without giving us His gifts, He is giving us himself.

This is what we call the theology of the cross. When we’re suffering, we think, what’s happened to God? What’s he doing? He’s your God even when you think you have nothing, because when you are nothing, then He is your everything. Surely you know from your experience that this is true? Surely, you know that God has never let you down? Or do you think that God has let you down, when you don’t have what you want? Or let’s ask the question: When do you praise God? When you’ve got everything you want, or when you’ve got nothing that you want, and yet you still know that when you have God you have everything?

This is so incredibly important for us to understand. Luther also writes: A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is… He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and in general, good to evil. These are the people whom the apostle calls “enemies of the cross of Christ”, for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works. Thus they call the good of the cross evil and the evil of a deed good. God can be found only in suffering and the cross.

Listen to what Luther says: God can be found only in suffering and the cross. What do you think of that? Now, you might be quite confused as to what I am saying so far.

In order to explain what this theology of the cross is about, I’d like to show you how Luther explains the words “Give us today our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer.

And we’re going to bring these words up on the screen. This comes from Luther’s Small Catechism, which is the book Luther wrote so that everyone could understand the teaching of the bible in a simple way.

So let’s read this together.

What’s the fourth petition?

“Give us today our daily bread.”

What does this mean?

“God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”

Before we go onto the next bit, I’d like to point out the words: “even to all evil people”. Christians are not the only people who have daily bread. People who don’t pray for their daily bread, still get their daily bread, because God created them too, and is so generous to them too. And so, does having our daily bread, prove that we are Christian? No—because even evil people have their daily bread. Jesus says: God lets his sun shine on the just and on the unjust.

Let’s read the next part:

What is meant by daily bread?

“Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like.”

So let’s have a think about some of these wonderful things that God gives us. This list doesn’t even tell us everything, but it’s sure a good start. What would it be like to be without some of these gifts? Does this mean that God has left us? No—he gives all of these things to evil people too. So, whether we have any of these things or not, is no reflection on our faith at all, but it is only a reflection on how good our God is, who gives us all kinds of good things.

Take “food and drink”. We all enjoy food and drink. And food and drink is a great blessing, and something to thank and praise God for. But there are many Christians all around the world, in poorer countries, who have to really scrape to find a decent meal. People who have lived through a war, or maybe even in the great depression, know what this is like too. But does being without three meals a day mean that there’s something wrong with your faith? No—in fact, all kinds of evil people have plenty of food. When we are without food and drink, we should pray to God for it. But when we are without food and drink, God is still our God, and Jesus is still our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is still our comforter. That’s the theology of the cross. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Let’s go a little bit further down the list. “Money”. Do you have all the money you want? If someone asked you one thing that you could have, would you ask for more money? Now having money is a blessing. It’s a wonderful gift from God. But there are plenty of churches in this country (and I don’t have to name them) who teach people that if you give more money in the offering place, God will reward you with more material possessions and more money. But is having no money a curse? Of course not. You know that Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and that there are plenty of countries elsewhere where people have less money and a lot more faith. So if we need more money, we should pray for it. But remember, God gives money even to all evil people. What about our church? Is our finances, our budget, our ability to fund a redevelopment, a reflection on how much our people read the bible, and pray, and devote themselves to God? No--it’s not. Not at all. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, who don’t believe that Jesus is true God, and go around knocking on doors twisting the bible around to suit their opinions, have managed to build themselves a wonderful new building in Mt Barker recently. Whether we have money or not is no proof of whether we are Christians, or whether we are good Christians. When we have no money, God is still our God, and Jesus is still our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is still our Comforter. That’s the theology of the cross. It’s folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.

What about a devout husband or wife? I have a wife. And she also shares my faith, and I think she’s devout. And this is a wonderful gift. But there are many people who are single. There are many Christians, whose spouses reject the faith, and this is a real heartache to them. Is this a reflection on their faith? No—it’s not. Some Christians have been abandoned by their spouses. There are some terrible people, some real hardeners unbelievers, who have very faithful Christian spouses. God gives devout husbands and wives, even to all evil people. When we have no devout husband or wife, God is still our God, and Jesus is still our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is still our Comforter. That’s the theology of the cross.

The same could be said about children. The bible teaches that children are a blessing from God, and Psalm 127 says, Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them, as if children we like living arrows to shoot at the enemy into the future. Children are a wonderful blessing. But there are many Christians who can’t have children, or whose children have died. Is this a reflection on their faith? No—it’s not. Someone once told me that every single one of their children and grandchildren go to church. And this is a wonderful gift. But many people agonise over the fact that their children, and grandchildren don’t go to church. Is this a reflection on their faith? Does it mean that they weren’t good Christian parents? No… if we’re married, we should pray to God to send us children. And as Christians, we should ask God that our children would be faithful Christians. But even without children, and even without Christian children, God is still our God, Jesus is still our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is still our comforter. That’s the theology of the cross.

We could go through the rest of these things and think about them in the same way. One more: health. Good health is a wonderful gift from God. And we know that Jesus healed many people. But if you are sick, and you pray for healing, and you still wake up the next day, and you are still sick, and you never receive the healing, is this a reflection on your faith? No—it’s not. What about mental health? Do you suffer depression? Are your tears, your groaning, your ineffectiveness mean that you are a second-rate Christian? There are plenty of evil people who are generally happy. Even without good health, God is still your God, Jesus is still your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is still your comforter. And that’s the theology of the cross.

St Paul says: The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

In our epistle reading today, Paul says something remarkably profound. He says: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings. What does St Paul mean? He means, even when we have nothing, even when we suffer—in fact, especially when we have nothing, especially when we suffer, we know that we have a wonderful, loving, gracious God.

Even when we don’t have the things that we think that we need in this life, the things that really matter haven’t changed. Jesus died and rose. That hasn’t changed. You were baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and eternal salvation and the forgiveness of sins were promised and given to you. That hasn’t changed. God’s word is still true, it is still pure, it is still perfect, it is still fresh, it is still holy. That hasn’t changed. We change all the time! But God’s word hasn’t changed. Even in all your weakness, even in all your sadness, your Jesus still gives you the same gift of his body and blood for you to eat and drink, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. That hasn’t changed. That’s the theology of the cross. That’s the wisdom of the cross. Surely, you know that this wisdom is the pure wisdom of God!

Amen.

Lord Jesus, you have showered us with so many wonderful gifts for our bodies and souls, and we thank you for all of them. And even if we had none of these things, even if our lives were the most miserable lives on this earth that any person could experience, it would still be a privilege to come into your presence and thank and praise you. We thank you, dear Jesus, for your holy precious blood and for your innocent suffering and death, and we know that this death was the most wonderful thing that happened in human history. But we also look forward to seeing you face to face, just as your disciples did when you rose from the dead. Amen.