Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation

John 8:31-36

October 27, 2019

Lady Gaga tweeted on Friday, “Fame is prison.” I believe her.

 “We … have never been enslaved” said the Jews to Jesus. I don’t believe them.

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons. 

Perhaps you’ve struggled with an addiction. Alcohol. Video games. Porn. Social media. Gazing into the electronic abyss, fondling your phone.

Maybe you’re mired in what seems an inescapable situation. A job; a marriage; a mental construct that tyrannizes your mind and desolates your soul.

For Luther, he saw he was imprisoned by his sin. He knew God demanded righteousness. And Luther knew he was not good, no matter how hard he tried.

Luther quit law school and joined a monastery. He went all in and became the best monk. He was ordained a priest. The Augustinians sent him on a mission to Rome. There he saw the corruption of the Roman church. Priests with prostitutes, sham relics, and money, money, money at the center of it all.

The Augustinians sent him back to school. He got his doctorate and became a professor. But at the core he knew he was still a slave. And it was helping out as a pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg—it’s still there, you can visit it—it was serving as a pastor that he saw that not only the professor, but the pig farmer was a slave as well. 

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons. 

You know the song “Don’t Stop” by Foster the People? It’s about a four year-old who rules the world. [Insert political joke and/or relevant connection to family life here.] “Don’t stop, don’t stop … until I’ve broken every law.” That is the unbridled sinful nature. And when it becomes full grown, it gives birth to death. That’s why Miley Cyrus’s hit song a few years ago said not only “We won’t stop” but “We Can’t Stop.”

Our appetites enslave. Death imprisons.

The world has changed from Luther’s time. Jesus might be Kanye’s King, but for the elites and the revolutionaries, Jesus is object of derision.

The body itself has become prison. The God-given reality of being a boy or a girl, a man or a woman must be destroyed. “We can’t stop” … “until we’ve broken every law.”

I know you’ve felt the impulse of “we can’t stop,” but you are baptized, which means you want to stop. You want to run until you’ve broken every law, but you also know the Law is good, and expresses the will of God who desires your good.

Into this slavery of appetite and desire, leading to death, comes Jesus who says, “The truth will set you free.”

A few miles from here is the Virginia Theological Seminary. While doing some research at their library I saw carved in stone these words: “Seek the truth come whence it may.” This assumes the truth comes from … wherever. We don’t know. In this framework, truth is evolving and changing.

A Reformation slogan presents a very different source of truth: Verbum Dei* Manet in Aeternum - “The Word of God Abides Forever.” It’s not uncommon to see this abbreviated as VDMA. The Word is the truth. Truth comes from Jesus who is the Word, the Word made flesh, who says in the Gospel for Reformation Day, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Notice how later Jesus says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Put differently, the Word and the Son are the same thing; the Word and Jesus are the same thing. Jesus is the speech of God. The death of Jesus is the death of your desires, your passions, the things that enslave you. The life of Jesus is your freedom from the slavery of death. 

Luther saw a world in bondage, and a church so corrupt that it was literally selling the gospel. It’s a kind of tragedy that today we’re called Lutherans, because that’s not what Luther wanted at all. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

I ask that men make no reference to my name and call themselves not Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? After all, the doctrine is not mine, nor have I been crucified for anyone. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 would not allow Christians to call themselves Pauline or Petrine, but Christian. How, then, should I, a poor evil-smelling maggot sack have men give to the children of Christ my worthless name? Not so, dear friends. Let us cast out party names and be called Christians after Him whose doctrine we have. The papists justly have a party name because they are not satisfied with the doctrine and name of Christ but want also to be popish. Let them be popish, then, since the pope is their master. I neither am nor want to be any man’s master. Christ alone is our Master. He teaches me and all believers one and the same doctrine.

We’re stuck with the name for now, so let us remember that Luther always pointed away from himself to Jesus as the Truth who sets us free. Luther recognized that God’s Word is the authority in the church, not any man, no matter how exalted he may be dressed or called.

Take an honest look at your life. What is holding you in bondage? To what are you a slave? How is sin corrupting your thoughts, your attitudes, your relationships? Jesus is the truth, and He sets you free. Not free to sin, but free to live. Jesus makes you free to live out your calling now, with contentment. And He sets you free even from death. Even the grave and hell cannot hold you. Jesus makes you free. You are free from sin, free from death, free from everything that enslaves you. Go and be free. +INJ+

* or Domini