Sermons
Sermon in the Wittenberg Castle Church opening the Luther Decade (Romans 14:17-19, Mark 12: 28-34)
Bishop Mark S. Hanson, President of the Lutheran World Federationand Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
September 21, 2008
Grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen
It is a great joy to worship with you today.
I bring you greetings from the 140 member churches of the Lutheran World Federation and the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Thank you for your hospitality and for the important leadership the people of Wittenberg are providing to the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.
What questions do you bring to this worship service? Are they burning questions like Martin Luther's, "What is my posture in the presence of God?" ((Coram Deo"). Are they questions we Lutheran Christians always should be asking - "What gospel are we proclaiming?" What Jesus are we portraying?" What faith are we professing?"
Perhaps you are asking questions similar to those no doubt asked by Roman Christians to whom Paul wrote - "How shall I remain faithful to Christ in the face of an empire's brutal power?"
Are your questions about how we live as Christians in an increasingly multi-faith world that seems ever drawn to _____________ on the one hand and secularism on the other?
Perhaps you are questioning whether given our consumptive living and warring madness there even will be a future for God's creation. So often our questions reveal our greatest fears and our deepest desires.
As we begin this decade commemorating the Lutheran Reformation it is fitting for us to ask - "How far have we come together?" As a Lutheran tradition, as a communion of faith - how far have we come? Are we stuck in the sixteenth century? Is this weekend's celebration simply our nostalgic longing for a bygone era? Some would say so. I think not.
We have covered real territory together. What began in Germany 500 years ago as a reforming movement now spans the 68 million Lutheran Christians in 140 member churches in 78 countries make us the Lutheran World Federation - a communion of churches. As you know, the fastest growing Lutheran churches are in Africa and Indonesia. In many places, Lutherans are an evangelizing people engaged in God's mission for the life of the world.
Yet in other places where Lutherans were once strong, we are declining in membership and lacking a sense of vitality in ministry and mission. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in which I serve as presiding bishop, continues to lose an average 40,000 baptized members a year. Our fastest growing group of congregations are those that worship fewer than 50 persons on a Sunday.
One of the opportunities we are given in this coming decade is the look back over the past 500 years. In so doing, we will see that as Lutherans we have covered real territory together. We have lived real history together; we have made history.
But, now, looking at that history, what can we say about the path we've taken together as Lutheran Christians in almost five centuries? Forget about any pretence that it's been a sinless, perfect march; we all know much has happened that needs forgiveness from God, other believers, the human family. That we are simultaneously saint and sinner (simul justus ef pectus) is not just a doctrine it is descriptive of our lives and legacy.
This weekend begins what I hope will be a thoughtful, global conversation as together we contemplate the question - "where have we arrived as a human community 500 years after Luther arrived in Wittenberg?" Please notice that is a different question than where are we as Lutheran Christians? Yet the question regarding where we are as a human community will involve our asking whether there has been any justification for five centuries of perseverance in distinguishing ourselves as a church, a confession - has there been any good effect that lives up to the none "evangelized"?
This morning our questions about the significance of where we have been the past 500 years and where we are going as an evangelized reforming movement in the church catholic are interrupted by a conversation between Jesus and a scribe.
Like many of us, the scribe had a burning question. It arose as he witnessed Jesus dispute with some Sadducees over the resurrection of the dead. It was an understandable question - perhaps one we too would want to ask Jesus - "Which commandment is the first of all?" So why would you want to know Jesus' answer to that question? Perhaps because keeping even 10 commandments seem difficult if not impossible. When one adds all 613 commandments in the Torah it is simply overwhelming.
It is understandable why we would not want some directions from Jesus. And Jesus responds quoting the Shema, "HEAR, O Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. And with all your mind, and with all your strength." Then quickly Jesus adds, "The second is like this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.
In a sudden reversal of roles, the questioning scribe affirm Jesus - the teacher responses as being correct saying, "these commandments are "much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices". What was Jesus' response? "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Among all the questions you are asking this day, and all the questions we are asking as we embark upon this decade commemorating the Lutheran Reformation. Did you hear that word Jesus spoke?
Did you hear when and where it was spoken - two millennia ago to a member of a defeated, occupied nation, far from the center of power, a minor local official whose name is not in the historical record?
Did you hear it now across the centuries spoken in your hearing, here today in the Castle Church in Wittenberg? Did you hear Jesus saying, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
Was Jesus simply trying to give a word of encouragement to the scribe and to us that if we fail to keep all the commandments but at least obey these two then by our obedience we will have achieved our place in the kingdom of God? Yet such an interpretation would hardly be faithful to Martin Luther's understanding of the law as that which both reveals God's will for us and express our sinfulness and need for God's grace and mercy in Christ Jesus.
"You are not far from the kingdom of God". Who could say such a thing: Yes, anyone can mouth the words but from the beginning of his public ministry Jesus was proclaiming the good news of God saying, "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:14-15).
That is exactly what people were experiencing right before their very eyes when Jesus embraced the outcast and befriended the sinner. It was happening in their very midst when in expectation and hope the sick came to him or their friends brought them, even tearing open a roof and their lives were restored, opened up, reconciled.
Oh, my friend, the kingdom of God suddenly was showing up all over the place to thousands hunger for just a morsel of bread to terrified disciples in a boat to Lazarus in a tomb to a syrophoenician woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit. You do know the signs of the kingdoms coming don't you? But just in case we forget or fail to see, Jesus told stories - the kingdom of God is like a sower who went out to sow, a mustard seed when sown grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs..The kingdom of God is like a woman with a lost coin, a man with two sons, a shepherd of a lost sheep.
"You are not far from the kingdom of God." Could Jesus have been speaking not only about the scribes understanding of the law but also of Jesus own impending suffering, death and resurrection."
The reign of God on the cross. . . the place that seems most God-saken, the place created by human hatreds and rejections, by fears and cynicisms, there, on the cross, in that place, Jesus' faithfulness to God's mercy and laws was lifted up publicly for all to see. It is why Jesus came, to bring the enduring, steadfast love of God to the most God-Forsaken place - a cross, a tomb. Jesus came to be obedient to death, even death on a cross. Behold the lamb of God. The kingdom of God is at hand.
"You are not far from the kingdom of God" (M K12:34). Those words continue to be true for you because God's kingdom has called out servants of the Word. The city of Wittenberg and all who have carried the name "Lutheran" can rightfully give thanks to God that this man Martin, having experienced the "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" of which Paul wrote, come to many places - the pulpits of Germany and the pages (Flugschrifle) of history - with the confronting message of life in Jesus Christ on his lips.
It is through the Living Word of God - incarnate in Jesus the Christ, proclaimed through law and gospel recorded in scripture that the Holy Spirit brings us to faith. The evangel - the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and risen - frees us from the burdens of our sins but not from obedience to the law.
By God's grace through faith for Jesus' sake you are set free to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. In Christ you are set free to love your neighbor as yourself.
According t Luther, Christ's love has to dimensions: "The love Christ bears toward us, and the love we awe our neighbor." (Martin Luther. "Sermon on the 16th Sunday after Trinity" p.279).
As Luther wrote, "Indeed, by faith we become Gods, and partakers of the divine nature.. but through love we become equal to the poorest. servants of all. By faith we receive blessings from above, from God; through love we give them out below to our neighbor" (Sermon on the Third Sunday after Epiphany 2: 73-74).
May our commemorating 500 years of the Lutheran Reformation and our discerning the future of this reforming movement in the church Catholic always be centered in and flow from God's living word of promise.
That word continues to enlist servants in "what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding (Romans 14:19) just as it once attracted a nameless "scribe" and called a servant name Martin.
Through that word in baptism, the Holy Spirit joined us to Christ's death and raised us to newness of life in Christ.
By the power of the Holy Spirit we are sent as servants of the word proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through word and deed. Serving all people following the example of Jesus, striving for justice and peace in all the earth.
Even today in this historious church that word of God will bring simple bread and wine into its service. So that no one will need to ask "who will ascend into heaven?" (that is , to bring Christ up from the dead) But what does it say? "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart" (that is the word of faith that we proclaim) (Romans 10: 6-8).
Yes even amidst all the questions with which we struggle the promise is clear, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."