The sound of these being nailed to the door

October 25, 2009
Reformation Sunday
John 8:31-36
The sound of theses being nailed to the door

(Dalerond is nailing pieces of paper to the door)
“Bang, Bang, Bang…” What are you doing? “96, 97, 98…I’m nailing more theses to the door.”

Today is Reformation Sunday, a day where we remember the Reformation, the movement in 16th century from which the Protestant church emerged. The Reformation is widely regarded to have been started by the 95 theses nailed to a church door by Martin Luther, a monk and professor at the University of Wittenburg in Germany. The 95 theses raised an array of theological issues that Luther had with the Catholic Church of which Luther was a part. The reason these 95 theses had the effect they did was because Luther was attacking the sale of indulgences. Indulgences at the time were documents one could buy for the remittance of sins. One could buy an indulgence and free a relative from purgatory, where souls wait before they go to heaven.

There is a scene in the movie Luther (we are watching tonight) where an “indulgence preacher” starts burning his hand and says: now imagine your whole body burning for eternity…but if you buy this indulgence you can free your self from this eternity of roasting. Later the indulgence preacher tells a woman with a crippled child, “make sure when the time comes your daughter can run to Jesus.” When she buys an indulgence from him and shows it to Luther, he tells her that it’s no good, and that she should “trust in God’s love.” The next scene in the movie is where Luther nails the 95 theses to the door.

One temptation for Lutherans is to look back at the Reformation and say: Luther had it right, he fixed the problems. Lutherans are the best, all the other churches got it wrong.
As we look at the Church (broader Church, Lutheran Church, this church), there are a lot of things we do well. What if instead we took Reformation Sunday as an opportunity to look at the Church through the eyes of Luther.
To evaluate ourselves, and ask, what message is the Church sending to the world?
To pick up our hammer and nails and start nailing more theses to the door (like Dalerond was doing)?
If you could write a thesis, what would you write?
If you could change something about the Church as it is today, what would you change?

I’ve heard a lot of stories about the good that the Church does. I’ve also heard stories about when people have been turned away from the Church… I’ve had some conversations over the past week. One gentleman said he used to go to church, but they were “very judgemental” so he stopped going. Another said that he used to go to church, but they told him that he wasn’t giving enough money.
When Hurracaine Katrina struck, there were some Christians who said, this is the wrath of God bringing judgment down upon the city of New Orleans.

In the midst of this Economic Crisis, what will the Church’s response be? Will the Church be there with those who were laid off? Will the Church help people find jobs?

Sometimes instead of proclaiming the Gospel, the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ who frees us from our sin, we send other messages. Instead of a message of love, sometimes the Church sends a message of hate. Instead of a message of unconditional love, sometimes the Church has put conditions on the love of God. Sometimes the Church still sends out a message that salvation is something we have to earn, that we can free ourselves from our sin.
Luther’s principle message for his time and ours is that is by the grace of God that we are free, not by anything we can do.
John “so if the son makes you free, you are free indeed.” period.

If anyone is sold an indulgence, anyone is told that God hates them, if anyone is turned away from the Church, if anyone is judged wrongly…May we say what Luther said to the woman who bought the indulgence: this is no good, instead, trust in God’s love.

So, look at the Church today as if you were Martin Luther, what do you see? What reform would you make? What hopes and dreams do you have for the Church? What thesis would you nail to the wall? (after the service, you can come up and add your own thesis to the wall)

So in the spirit of the Reformation, we realize that the Church is not perfect, we’ve got issues, but we pray that God would help us…As we prayed earlier, we pray for the Church…
Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it. Amen.