Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + Amen
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish you a very blessed Reformation Day. As the Sunday in October closest to October 31st, we celebrate the historic moment of Martin Luther nailing the Ninety Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, openly calling out the wrongful practices of the Roman Catholic Church and beginning what would be known as the “rediscovery of the Gospel,” bringing back a focus on the gifts that God gives us over and above our works and desires to work our own way to heaven. Out of this event developed what would become the Lutheran Church, as many of the historic Reformers collected our Confessions in the Book of Concord, which still guides our interpretation of scripture and our church practices to this day.
We take this time out of our church year to celebrate the wonderful gifts that God gives to us as Lutherans. We are blessed as Lutherans with such wonderful proclamation of the Gospel through the Word of God and the Sacraments, with a right distinction of Law and Gospel, and with liturgy based on scripture and the ancient traditions of the Church throughout history. There’s a lot to be thankful for on this day! So when this day comes up in the church year, the easiest thing for a pastor to do is to come up and preach “O God, we thank you that we are not like other Christians, who teach works-righteousness and focus on the law. We read our catechisms, sing from the hymnal, and all the good things us Lutherans should do.” Yes, all too frequently, our Reformation Day festivities end up being a prideful festival, celebrating ourselves rather than the gifts the Lord has given to us, ultimately making us sound like the Pharisee from our Gospel reading.
Many times, when Reformation Day comes up, the readings line up to do something nice and festive. Typically, a sermon might be preached on Romans 3, emphasizing that we are saved by grace. Others are preached on John 8, talking about abiding in the Word of God. These are right and good, and point us toward the reasons we are Lutheran: reading the scriptures in the way they were intended, full of the grace of God for us sinners. We believe that our doctrine is pure in the Lutheran Church because we believe that the Word of God actually means what it says directly. That the bread and wine are Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, that Baptism really does save.
But when I saw that the normal reading for this Sunday, without observing Reformation Day, was this small parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, I felt compelled to speak on it as there is an application to how we might see ourselves as Lutherans.
In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells a short parable on pridefulness. The Pharisee in this parable goes before the Lord and very publicly proclaims how thankful he is that he is not like “evil men,” even directly calling out the tax collector who prays nearby. But the tax collector does not pray like this. Far off, he bows his head, believing himself unworthy to look to heaven in prayer. He simply prays: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Too many times, Reformation Day celebrations can end up sounding a whole lot more like the first man than the second. If this is how we might sound, we ought to repent.
Do not hear me incorrectly, I am proud to be a Lutheran. As your pastor I feel it’s important to let you know that I really do believe that the Lutheran Confessions are the truest interpretation of the scriptures that we have. I took vows this Summer right in this church to uphold that belief. But you can see inherently where that could lead to some pridefulness. When we truly believe that we have things right, even if that is really true, we can easily get puffed up about this. Reformation Day, when celebrated incorrectly, becomes a celebration of Luther himself, of the actions the reformers took to “set the church free” or however you want to say it.
But Luther himself would be appalled by that if it were the case, if this turned into some celebration of his works, or how great we think it is that we are Lutheran! Luther did not even want us to be called Lutherans, as he did not want his own name to profane the name of God or His Word. We celebrate the Reformation not as sinful pride, relishing in “not being like those other denominations that don’t have it as good as we do,” but as a celebration of the gift of the Gospel and praising God for freeing the Church from the sinful practices of men in any denomination, and for the blessing of the Word of God taught in purity and truth.
Be thankful that you are Lutheran, it is a wonderful thing! Be thankful that in your confession you receive freely the gifts of the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins in such sweetness and joy. But know that this is a merciful gift from your Father in heaven and that you still are a poor, miserable sinner. I was once told by another pastor that humility is not something that you can truly strive toward, but it is something that is placed upon you. The Law does this for us: it shows us the sin that we have done and the ways that we have failed when we don’t do the things we should. We hear the Law to shatter our pridefulness and bring us low, that we might continually come before the Lord like the tax collector: bowing before the Lord and praying “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
To be Lutheran is not about “being right” as far as theology goes. We are not saved because we’re Lutheran, we are Lutheran because we are saved. We are Lutheran because we believe the truth of the Gospel and are blessed recipients of it in faith. As our theology is based on receiving grace through faith and not by works, it is inherently more Lutheran to come before the Father humbly and pray “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” We ought not stand before the Lord thanking Him that we are not like others because we know the depths of our sin and how our own sin made it necessary for Christ to die on our behalf, as we cannot overcome it on our own. To truly be Lutheran is to set aside pride, and to be humbled by our righteous Lord.
Thanks be to God that our Lord Jesus has been merciful on us sinners. As we remember the gift of Martin Luther, the Reformers, and the Reformation, we must also remember that in all things, Christ must remain at the center. The Reformation is only worth celebrating because the Gospel is worth celebrating. Today we rejoice in the gift of the Gospel, we rejoice in the work not of men, but of Jesus, who died and rose again for the forgiveness of all our sins. When you remember the famous Luther quote “Here I stand, I can do no other” remember that this is not some act of righteous rebellion, but simply standing firm in the truth of our Lord Jesus, standing with God’s Word rather than the words of man. In that famous speech where Luther stood before the Diet of Worms, defending the faith and refusing to deny the writings he had done professing the Gospel, we often remember the bold statement of “here I stand,” but do not forget how he ended this statement: “God help me. Amen.” Just like the tax collector, praying “God be merciful to me, a sinner, we approach God as our only help in times of trouble and as the source of all good in His Son, Jesus. In all things, may God help us and be merciful to us, lowly, forgiven sinners that we are.
In the holy name of Jesus + Amen.