Luther, a priest, professor, and teacher, did not intend to break away from the Roman Catholic Church. He simply wanted to open a discussion and see if God was leading the church to be more Spirit-led in certain practices and beliefs. Though the 95 theses nailed on the door is now dramatized as such a dramatic event, it was not in Luther's day. That was the place where other academic church thinkers and leaders posted thoughts and theses for debate and academic discussion. But no one took Luther's 95 theses that way and responded in the normal, under the radar way, but it was soon printed and discussed widely.
As Lutherans, or even just as modern people, we are inheritors of this history. On this 2010 Reformation Day, I was invited to preach on why I am a Lutheran - click below to read the sermon!
I am a Lutheran Christian, because like many of you, I was born into and baptized as a baby in a Lutheran church. My parents had joined the Lutheran church just a few months before I was born. Maybe this is why some of you would say you are Lutheran – you were born and baptized into it.
I am a Lutheran Christian because I was raised by parents who took me to church and Sunday school. Maybe this is the same for you.
I am still a Lutheran because I became a member of a Lutheran church as an adult. Maybe that's how you ended up here. After I graduated from college and was living out on my own, I felt God was calling me to seminary and to eventually be a pastor, but I thought, this is my time to explore, to “church shop” - so I did shop around a little. I have been a lot of places in my faith life, but God has brought me here. Maybe this is a part of how you came to be Lutheran.
I am a Lutheran because I was allowed to ask questions. I went to synod youth events where I was in small groups led by caring pastors who listened, grappled with our questions. They were not afraid to speak honestly to teenagers about faith, God, and the hard questions of life. When I was in high school, I was on the debate team. I read a lot of philosophy and ethics – arguments about this and that. I think I was drawn to it not because I like to argue (though I sinfully do), but because I was looking for more - for something to say to all the “why” questions . . .
Well, not just why, but how. How can the world be like this? How do people treat each other so horribly? Why is it some people (even Christians, even Lutherans) call faith or acts of God what are clearly acts of hate? How is it that I was born here and have enough and others do not? Why is it that some people die tragically, or simply do not have the luck of others?
I am Lutheran Christian because I know I have questions. I believe in questions. They are real, and questions, as Luther shows in how he framed the small catechism, his basic teaching tool for Christians, are the building blocks of faith.
I am Lutheran, because I know I do not have the answers. Fundamentalists offer answers, certainty that I do not see reflected in the reality of the world (which is not black and white, as hard as we may try to force it into our categories). The God that I have experienced and know through scripture and sacrament shows me faith in God, not faith in myself or any answers I may cook up. God holds the answers, and reveals God's self in the “and.” I am a Lutheran because I believe in the “and” - that I am both a sinner and a saint, that the world is both good and fallen, that God is all powerful AND beat death by dying.
That God's welcome is for all people – universal AND as specific as the one way – the one we know as the cross, our Savior Jesus.
God gave me in my baptism something to say to all my questions. God gave me a promise, and the sign of that promise - (the cross, marked on our foreheads in baptism). As Luther did – on the cover of our bulletins, in this painting by Lucas Cranach, when we are asked these questions, or whenever you need to tell someone what the gospel is, the Lutheran response is not so much answers but word – God's words in scripture, through the word incarnate – Christ crucified. Luther's preaching and theology points to the cross. You see, this bulletin cover made me mad for only preserving a third of the painting – luckily this one hangs in our sacristy right here at Christ Lutheran. This is the whole painting – Luther in the pulpit, and what does he point to, in front of the people? (http://faithink.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341c69d153ef013488016501970c-800wi) (The cross.)
When asked the hard questions of life – the whys, the hows, or asked to preach the gospel, all we have to do is point – to the cross – point to God who loved us so much to come all the way down to us on earth and die for us. God died for us. Point to the cross. The cross shows us the depth of God's love. This is why I am a Lutheran – because at the core of the Lutheran theology, at the heart of the Reformation, was the cross. Just like in the center, in the heart, of Luther's seal, lies the cross.
If this seems abstract, God gives us tools, God's word in scripture, and our whole lives to wrestle with it. To point to the cross is to read these verses, which broke open the reformation and are key to Lutheran belief:
“For there is no distinction. . . since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (there is no distinction! No judgment between this one and that one, the good and the bad one – they all have all fallen short); they are now justified (that is, made right with God, reckoned righteous, put into right relationship, justified) by his grace as a gift (no strings attached. You have nothing to give in return. God gives you relationship and salvation as a free gift of grace), through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”
These words of scripture are the cornerstone of my faith, and this is why I am a Lutheran. What difference does this make in the world? It makes all the difference, and I couldn't be a Lutheran or Christian if it didn't. Being a Lutheran and pointing to the cross makes a difference in our daily lives in two very real ways:
One, it makes a difference because what you and I do tomorrow, or the next day, or any day or moment of our lives, is not to earn out salvation. God has reckoned us righteous, not by anything we did, but because God loves us enough to die for us, and give us grace. We are freed from trying to climb a ladder to heaven – because we know a God who came down to us, who meets us at our level. In the cross, God freed you – God freed you from earning your salvation, freed you from worrying about a divine to-do list toward perfection, freed you to serve your neighbor. In serving our neighbor we are freed to experience the Christian life most fully, not because we have to, but because we know God who freed us for this very work. It makes this real difference, that in the cross, we are freed to serve in whatever way we can. So when we serve in the world, we see God moving through our service.
Second, as Lutherans we know that the neighbor we are freed to serve, isn't any lower or higher than us, because there is no ladder to climb to salvation. The community meal is a very real example of this. Everyone is welcome in. For there is no distinction. Confident in God's grace for you, you can proclaim this to others by showing that there is no distinction, that all are welcome, that God's grace, not you merit, is how you relate to people.
The cross I wear each Sunday proclaims on one side that I am Lutheran – with Luther's seal, the cross at the center of the heart, God's love in the cross. The other side of the cross I wear has the sign for Jesus and from it on all sides there are people coming out. For there is no distinction, since all have fallen short, we are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the faith of Jesus Christ, who on the cross freed us to serve our neighbor. Amen.
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