Sermon 28th October 2018 –
Reformation Sunday
Text: John 8:31-36 – The truth sets
you free.
In my recovery at home earlier this
year from Influenza and Pneumonia, I watched lots of TV.
There was not much I could do because
of my lack of energy.
And I have to admit, I watched lots
of episodes of Judge Judy.
She has lots of sayings that she
yells at the litigants on her show but the one that I really love is when she
catches out someone being a little loose with the truth.
She says, if you tell the truth then
you don’t need a good memory.
When you lie you not only have to
remember the details of the lie but you have to reconstruct new events around
the lie which can often lead to being caught out.
If you tell the truth then you don’t
need a good memory.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus
speaks about the power of truth: he says:
If you hold to my teaching, you are
really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free.”
Quite often Jesus would begin
teachings to his disciples by saying: “Truly, truly I say to you”.
"Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)
In some older version it would have
Amen, amen, I say to you – as the Greek word “amen” is translated at “true” or
“truly”.
So when we pray and end our prayer –
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen – we link praying in Jesus’ name with the truth.
This is complete opposite to Satan
whom Jesus describes as:
A murderer from the beginning, not
holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his
native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Luther in his Small Catechism ends
his explanations of the Apostles’ Creed – this is most certainly true.
When Luther took on the church of his
day it didn’t matter to him that he was taking on one of the most powerful
institutions of his day – because he had the truth on his side.
It didn’t matter that he was taking
on one of the most powerful rulers of his day – because he had the truth on his
side.
It didn’t matter that his life and
livelihood was in danger – because he had the truth on his side – and the truth
was all that mattered.
And so when he is summoned to defend
himself before the Emperor in 1521 at the Diet of Worms, he is demanded to
recant all his criticisms of the pope and the Catholic Church he concludes with
that famous statement; Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me! Amen.
The truth is, as Jesus says, a
freeing gift that God has given to us.
I’ve known situations where people
have lived with lies for years fearing the consequences of their actions who
have confessed after years of living their lie – years of covering up their
shame – trying to remember what they had said to avoid detection.
But the weight on their conscience
became too much and they confessed their guilt preferring to live with the
consequences and shame of their actions rather than their guilt.
King David wrote about his own
struggle with his conscience and the weight of his guilt and the freeing of his
conscience through the truth:
In Psalm 32 he writes;
Blessed is the one whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted
away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy
on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and
did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
For King David, the consequence of
his sin remained after he confessed – the death of his son – but the weight of
guilt was removed immediately by God.
Sadly truth has become a victim of
the age we live in.
We live in a time that is still known
as Post Modern and one of the features of post modernism is that truth is
relative.
What that means is that truth for me
may not necessarily be truth for you – and we can both be right even though we
believe the complete opposite.
We see that in society and we see
that in the church – whether it be views on same sex marriage – the ordination
of women – abortion – euthanasia or any other contentious issue.
And we’ve seen these differences
descend into fights where we hurt each other because none of us can convince
the other that they are wrong or that we are right and we refuse to see any other
view other than our own.
And that happens when we take
ourselves away from God’s Word and allow our own views and the world’s views to
influence our truth.
That’s what happened in Luther’s day.
The church had lost its way.
The Word of God was no longer central
to their teaching.
And therefore the Gospel was lost.
The Gospel that was found in God’s
word where Salvation is by God’s Grace alone.
Unfortunately the word “Gospel” is
used for many and varied things in the church and has lost the impact of what
it actually means – saved by Grace.
So too in Luther’s day:
The Word of God was no longer taught
in families.
The Word of God was no longer taught
in the church.
So they didn’t know how to love one
another and listen to one another.
How similar to what is being
experienced in today’s society where God’s Word is no longer the source of
truth.
Social media is where people go to
find their truth and we discover what has been coined as “fake news”.
People believe everything except what
God has said.
We need to get back to our Bibles and
allow the Holy Spirit to guide us back to what God is saying to us, as Jesus
said in John’s Gospel:
When the Spirit of truth comes he
will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak
only what he hears.
There is a saying amongst the
Lutheran church that says: Ecclesia semper reformanda est (Latin for "the
church must always be reformed"
Some believe that reforming means
that the church should always be changing because the world is changing.
That’s not how Luther saw the
Reformation.
He fought for truth because the
church had moved away from what God had established through Christ.
The church no longer resembled the
body of Christ.
Many believe the church is dying
because it has become irrelevant in the eyes of the world.
Maybe it’s dying because its message
has become no different to that of the world
Maybe it’s dying because it no longer
offers a word of hope different to the world.
Luther brought the church back to
God’s word and declared:
By Grace alone – by faith alone – by
Christ alone – by Scripture alone.
The church in Luther’s day had lost
the truth because they had put works over grace – Mary and the Saints over
Christ and tradition over Scripture.
Today we face the same challenge
unless we can encourage Christians to open their bibles and let God speak to
them.
It’s hard in today’s world but we are
called to speak the truth in love.
Luther spoke the truth in love
because he loved God and he loved his fellow brothers and sisters.
In speaking the truth he ruffled a
few feathers but he was more concerned about the faith of his brothers and
sisters in Christ.
He could see that they did not know
the word of God and were relying on worldly things just like the Jews in Jesus
day who had moved away from God’s word and relying on “We are Abraham’s
descendants”
God’s Word is still relevant for
today as Jesus said:
Heaven and earth will pass away, but
my words will never pass away.
For truly I tell you, until heaven
and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Friends we need to study our bibles.
We need to open our bibles and read
what it says about the world we live in.
And sometimes we need to speak the
truth in love;
But let us remember remember how that
love looks:
Love is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
If we are going to call ourselves
Christian, then we need to know what Christ says and teaches.
And to do that we need to hear again
and again what Christ teaches.
And Jesus says:
“If you hold to my teaching, you are
really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free.”
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