Lutherans hear this in one way or the other every Sunday:  “We are justified by Grace through faith.”  (Thank you Dr. Luther!)

Two years before the penning of his infamous Ninety-Five Theses for the church door in Wittenberg, Luther had been asked to prepare lectures on the Book of Romans.  Up until now, he had been under the careful tutelage of Johann Staupitz, his confessor father.  Martin struggled greatly with his relationship with God, believing like most everyone else of that time period, that God was this distant, austere deity who reveled in punishing His children.  He even once confessed to Father Staupitz that he couldn’t love God, but rather hated Him.  This was blasphemy!

In 1515, he read Romans 1:17, which ends in the NRSV, “…the one who is righteous will live by faith…”  I’m not sure how he translated that in his German language, but what eventually is understood by him is the simple phrase – one that would become a foundational statement for the Reformation – “The just shall live by faith.”  These words often would accompany published copies of his coat-of-arms, otherwise known as “The Luther Rose.”

He is quoted more than once throughout his life that when he read Romans 1:17, it was like the “gates of paradise were opened to him.”  He realized that it was not his doing that brought about his own personal salvation but the doings of Jesus Christ, meaning—the cross and His resurrection!  Those acts of Christ is what did it for him!  His simple task?  Have faith!

Thus, the era of reform began…yes, two years before the nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg.

It fits.  For in 1415, Bohemian Roman Catholic priest Jon Hus had been hunted down and captured for raising some of the very same concerns that Luther would raise.  There was one exception:  Huss was quickly tried and found guilty of treason and heresy against the Empire and the Church.  He was burned at the stake.  It is said, that as the fire was about to be laid to the kindling for the fire, Hus (who had been nick-named “the Goose” for his honking presentation of sermons and boasts against the Church) began to sing hymns.  He gave glory to God for his life.  And, upon a request for any last words, he responded:  “You will silence the voice of the goose, but in one hundred years, there will come a swan’s song that you cannot silence!”

One hundred years later, “a swan’s song’ would ring out in the voice of Martin Luther.  His song of reform would not be stopped.

Sunday is Reformation Sunday.  In it, we do NOT celebrate our independence from the Roman Catholic Church; we do NOT celebrate any form of victory over any others of whom we might theologically look down upon for the reformation of the church.  That’s nonsense.  What we celebrate is the gift of God’s Holy Spirit who intervened in the Church and brought a much needed new blood to the Gospel of Jesus Christ—something that could be infused into Christ’s Church today!  (Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and everyone else in Christendom alike!)

Celebrate the heritage that comes from the great reformer, Jesus Christ.  After all, at the center of Dr. Luther’s Coat-of-Arms is a cross, put there to remind us where all of our thoughts and expressions are to be centered every day of our lives.  “Solely Christ”

God’s peace is with us.  We are justified, but only by the Grace of God!  Thanks be to God!

God loves you and so do we!

Pastor Jim