October 28 Sermon - What’s a Lutheran?
When in conversation with a friend, if you mention you go to a
“Lutheran church”, do they give you a blank stare - what’s that? Maybe they’ve heard the word Lutheran, but
it really doesn’t mean anything to them.
I’ve tried saying we’re
catholic without the additions, and Protestant without the subtractions.
Catchy, but what additions and what subtractions.
I’ve also tried simply
explaining Lutherans were the first Protestants, so we’ve kept the historic
faith of the church, but not later practices and beliefs that aren’t in
Bible. However, that explanation
generally turns into a lecture on church history.
So today I’ll try two other catchy sentences:
Lutheranism is a religion for adults.
And, you can be a Lutheran without even knowing it.
I’ll start with the second: You could be a Lutheran while being a
member of a Baptist church or the Catholic Church.
Sounds like a contradiction,
but it immediately tells you something about that word Lutheran. It doesn’t only describe a kind of church,
but rather it’s more about how the faith is taught. So a Baptist preacher could teach the Bible
in a Lutheran way.
It also implies that Lutherans never say they are the only true
Christian church. Rather, they believe
they are a part of the universal church.
For we believe that the true church is found where ever the gospel is
rightly taught and the sacraments celebrated in accord with the gospel. It doesn’t make any difference what the sign
on the church says.
A clue to what Lutheran means is in our one sentence definition of the
church – the true church is found where ever the gospel is rightly taught
and the sacraments celebrated in accord with the gospel. The word gospel is used twice, rather than
the word “Bible”.
Just about every church would say it teaches the Bible - and we say
that too. But the Bible is big book, and
there is a lot one could teach based on the Bible. Some of it important, some
less important. What teachings do
you emphasize?
Lutherans would say the most important part of the bible is the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message
is heard through the word of Christ
[in the gospel]. The
message that God sent His Son Jesus, who died for our sins and was raised for
our justification.
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So in that sense we don’t believe something different from most other
Christians. What sets us apart, perhaps,
is that we start by emphasizing one central teaching that implies Christ is
central - we are Christ-o-centric. And that
helps to put some other areas in perspective.
For example, when Lutherans read the Old Testament, we tend to ask
“What did Jesus say about this?” Is this Old Testament teaching consistent with
His teaching? We put on “gospel glasses”
to read the Old Testament.
Lutherans believe the central teaching that illumines everything else
is “We are saved by grace - a gift of God - and we receive that salvation by
faith - by trusting God’s promise. We
can’t earn our salvation by the good we do; rather we receive it as a gift from
God. Then we respond by striving to walk
in Christ’s way which leads us to do good.”
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Jesus parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector illustrates this
central teaching.
The Pharisee was a sincerely
religious man. He was at the
Tax collectors were called sinners, because their profession implied
they broke the law. Many collected
as much as they could, remitting the actual taxes to
Roman authorities and pocketing the rest.
They were collaborators who worked for the occupying power. So they were excluded from the synagogue, and
associated with other sinners.
In the parable, this tax collector admitted his sins to God and was so
sorry for them he could not even look up toward heaven. He beat his breast, and said: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The troubling verse is the conclusion, when Jesus
says: “I tell you this man - the tax
collector, rather than the other - the Pharisee, went home justified before
God.”
What does that mean? Justified before God?
“Justified” - the Greek word means “the way things ought to be”.
Justified - “the way things ought to be” in my relationship with the Lord.
Jesus said the tax collector “went home justified before God.”
In other words, after his humble prayer for mercy, God forgave his sin
and now saw him just as if he hadn’t sinned, so his relationship with
the Lord was the way it ought to be.
The Lord had given him a second chance, a new beginning. He was now right with God.
But what about that sincerely religious Pharisee. Why wasn’t
he justified before God, and not right with God?
The Pharisee, so proud of his own godliness, thanks God that he is “not
like other people”. His good deeds had
led to spiritual pride – he looked down on those who weren’t as religious as he
was – and thus judged them – all of which are sins. Without humility there was no way for him to
be right with God.
Thus, Jesus said that the
Pharisee’s prayer did not justify him before God - didn’t please God. That does not mean that the God stopped
loving the Pharisee, or that God forgot all the good the Pharisee had done.
But said
that Pharisee needed some attitude adjustment - less pride and more
humility. Certainly a message
Pastors and good church members need to hear on a regular basis - less pride,
more humility.
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A man arrives at the gates of heaven and is greeted by St. Peter and an
angel with a lap top computer. St. Peter
asks the guy to recount all his good deeds in order to get into heaven.
“You’ll need a thousand points to be admitted and the angel will keep
score.”
The guy thinks, no sweat. “I’ve always been a member of the church –
served on committees and even the church council.” So he lists it all.
“Very impressive. We seldom see a score that
high.” And the angel says “You have 347
points.”
The poor soul breaks into a cold sweat, and begins to reach back for
every single act of kindness he ever did.
“Exceptional. You’ve got 402
points.”
He can’t think of any other good deeds.
“I’m sunk. There’s no hope for
me.
“O Lord, all I can do is beg for your mercy.”
“THAT’S one thousand points.”
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That brings me back to my topic - What makes Lutherans different. We are allergic to religious rules. It doesn’t make any difference whether they
are the various rules promo-gated by the Roman Catholic church, or the “Don’t
drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance” rules of our Baptist and Seven-Day Adventist
brothers.
Like the Pharisee in the parable, we are not saved by following rules
but by God’s grace. Beyond that, God may
not even be pleased with our observing those good rules if they lead to spiritual
pride – to thinking that our observance makes us better than others.
Which leads me to that other catch phrase: Lutheranism is a religion
for adults.
As a church, we don’t give you a lot of rules to follow. Rather we tell you to follow Christ and His
way.
Sounds nice, but it really doesn’t tell you what to do in specific
situations. Is it okay to drink
alcoholic beverages? Maybe it is – but
maybe it isn’t for you.
You’ll have to read the Bible and pray.
You’ll have to think for yourself and make up your mind. In other words, be a mature, adult Christian.
Many members of other churches would agree. For example, the Roman Catholic Church has
some rather personal rules: couples may not use artificial birth control;
divorced members may not receive communion; you should make a private
confession of your sins to a priest.
Many catholic Christians simply ignore those rules – and in defying
papal authority they are acting like Lutherans.
As Christian adults, they’ve made up their own mind, and so they are
Lutherans without really knowing it.
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The message of the parable is
central teaching of the Lutheran church: God’s amazing grace:
The Lord’s
love and mercy are unconditional
- it doesn’t depend on our record, on how good
a job we’ve done
Rather, His mercy and
forgiveness are offered to anyone who would accept his invitation to return
to the Lord for he is gracious and merciful . . .
. . . the invitation to
follow Jesus in his way.