δωρεὰν

THE REFORMATION
27 October 2024
Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church; NYC

In the year 1510 CE the first slaves from Africa were brought to the New World, specifically, to Haiti. A year later, in Germany, Martin Luther — a new and upcoming Augustinian Monk who had been ordained a priest, and had finished his Bachelor’s Degree in Theology was sent to the new University at Wittenberg to teach.

A year later, 1512, Luther was awarded his Doctoral degree, the same year as the start of the Fifth Lateran Council [so named because it met in the Lateran Palace in Rome]. The Council had the intention of reforming the Church. It began under Pope Julius II, and ended with Leo X, who at it’s conclusion issued a number of degrees, called “bulls” [bulla in Latin, coming from the word to describe the lead seal affixed to a document]. These bulls: sanctioned Pawn shops for the purpose of helping the poor, condemned certain abuses of the clergy, forbade under pain of excommunication, any printing of books without the permission of the Church, ordered some nasty words against the French, and declared a war against the Turks [i.e. Muslims in eastern Europe] establishing a three-year tithe in order to fund everything.

In 1513 Ponce de Leon reached Florida, Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean, Leo X began his papal life, and Luther began lecturing on the Psalms.

In 1515, Luther began to lecture on Paul’s Letter to the Romans, just as Coffee from Arabia was being imported into Europe.

In 1516 Erasmus (the brilliant Dutch priest and Scholar) published his first Greek New Testament, Luther was lecturing on the Letter to the Galatians, and the Reinheitsgebot law was enacted in Bavaria to assure the production and sale of pure beer.

In 1517, Pope Leo X declared an indulgence for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s in Rome, Hernando Cortex reached Mexico City, and on the 31^st of October, Martin Luther walked from his office at the University in Wittenberg down the street to the Massive Wooden Door on the side of the Nave of the Schlosskirche [Castle Church] [about the same distance as when you walk from St. Luke’s here on 46^th Street west to St. Clement’s] and [in Wittenberg] there, according to the famous legend, Luther nailed up on that door his 95 Theses, or as they are properly called the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” [The truth is that probably Luther sent one of his students to do it. But that’s neither here nor there; the Story itself has power and meaning.]

Indulgences were the touchstone in 1517, pieces of paper bought for a price that guaranteed forgiveness of sins and release from Purgatory and immediate entrance into the presence of God — for a price. Luther attacked this fund-raising scheme as an action that was not only evil, it was a contradiction of the Gospel, it was a contradiction of God’s love and Spirit, it was a contradiction of Jesus himself. It was not truth, and it created only bondage, no freedom.

So, what really happened in the 16^th Century with Martin Luther?

What turned a fervent monk in the rather strict order of Saint Augustine as he struggled to become good enough in the eyes of God — to a fervent proclaimer of God’s Truth and the Freedom that comes from knowing God’s undeserved but unconditional love that God gives to humanity?

What happened is that Luther re-discovered the Gospel —

And we don’t mean here the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John — we mean that he re-discovered the Good News that comes from God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

After years of self-denial hoping to make himself cleansed before an angry God, after hours of prayer and bodily deprivation, after long periods of doubt and anguish and a good dose of fear before an image of Christ with a sword coming out of his mouth, a sword of judgment and punishment — after all that, he re-discovered the Gospel by reading the Bible. And just where? In the letter of Paul to the Church in Rome, the letter which we often call “The Gospel According to Paul.” And where in that letter? In the 3^rd chapter, verses 19-28 which we read this morning as our Second Reading.

When we are searching for things to quote, especially from Scripture, we drive ourselves to a few words, maybe a verse, something we can cross-stitch in the front of our memory. But here in the Letter to the Romans, we have to expand — we have to open up ourselves and take in a lot of words and use that pile of language to understand what the good Saint Paul was trying to say. That’s the way it is in these verses. Yes, things jump out: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” and “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift” and “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Take them all together and you have the watchword of the Reformation, the Assembly Cry of the Lutheran Church, the Sound Bite of congregations: Justified by Faith! Luther added “ALONE!” or as we learned in Seminary, SOLA FIDE! Faith alone!

All true, all good.

I like to look for the hidden things. I enjoy searching for that which is not so obvious, not so bold and brazen, words usually which lie underneath the surface, but which when dug up point to a deep meaning and understanding.

And I found them (like Luther) when I read the text, in Greek.

δικαιούμενοι δωρεὰν τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι

It means “justified by his grace as a gift” — that’s a good translation, but more than that the little word δωρεὰν [doh-reh-AHN] means “a gift that is given freely” — without strings attached, without conditions. There’s the whole Gospel in one word!

We live in a conditional world, a world full of “Ifs” and “THENs”:

“If you do this for me, then I will do that for you.”

“If you make the bed every morning, then I will love you.”

“If you vote for me, then I will make your life so full of good things and take away your taxes and restore the myths you want to believe.”

Those are conditions, and there are a lot of them lately.

But that’s not the Gospel. The Gospel, said Paul, said Luther, say us, is UN-conditional. It’s a gift freely given.

The World of the Gospel is a world full of “Becauses” and “Therefores”, not “Ifs” and “THENs”:

“Because I love you, then of course I will make the bed for you every morning — just because.”

“Because we live together in a democracy, therefore we choose joy.”

“Because you are my child, because you are my creation, because you are my people [says God], Therefore I will love you always, forgive you always, welcome you always, embrace you always — with the emphasis on always!”

That’s the Reformation of the Church; that’s what we celebrate today.

A pastoral example: Each year the new members of our confirmation class in my parish were given Bibles. At the first meeting of the class I gave them each a pen and told them to open up their Bibles and on the inside cover to write the following three sentences:

1. The first thing is to LISTEN.

[It is the first rule of Spirituality, not talk, but listen.]

2. I am a child of God, loved by God, and always have been and always will be.

3. Nothing I have every done or ever will do will ever change #2.

God’s love, is a gift, freely given.

No one every said that Reformation was going to be easy. Or popular.

It takes work to be a follower of Jesus. It takes constant revising of ourselves, reforming and reshaping of ourselves so that instead of turning inwardly to the pleasantness of our own desires and the easiness of our comfort — we always turn inside out so that we are facing our neighbor and the needs of our neighbor in love.

God’s love, through Jesus, and the Spirit does this for us, and to us, and because of us, for the world.

That’s the Reformation. God’s love, freely given, without conditions, to us, to one another, to the world.

Let us pray:

Holy One, we thank you for those persons into whom your Spirit has been poured for the reforming of your Creation, your People. We thank you that you are still at work in the life of the church reforming us, reshaping us, and remaking us into your image. We pray that we become a beacon of hope, grace, love and light in this world. May our open doors reflect your open arms to all. May our arms and hands reaching out to those in need reflect your love for all. May our forgiveness of one another reflect your forgiveness for all. Your gift, freely given. And let us say: Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired

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Romans 3.19-28

19 Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι ὅσα ὁ νόμος λέγει τοῖς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ λαλεῖ, ἵνα πᾶν στόμα φραγῇ καὶ ὑπόδικος γένηται πᾶς ὁ κόσμος τῷ θεῷ·20 διότι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, διὰ γὰρ νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας.21 Νυνὶ δὲ χωρὶς νόμου δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ πεφανέρωται, μαρτυρουμένη ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν,22 δικαιοσύνη δὲ θεοῦ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, εἰς πάντας τοὺς πιστεύοντας· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν διαστολή·23 πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ,24 δικαιούμενοι δωρεὰν τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι διὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ·25 ὃν προέθετο ὁ θεὸς ἱλαστήριον διὰ [τῆσ] πίστεως ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ διὰ τὴν πάρεσιν τῶν προγεγονότων ἁμαρτημάτων26 ἐν τῇ ἀνοχῇ τοῦ θεοῦ, πρὸς τὴν ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον καὶ δικαιοῦντα τὸν ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ.27 Ποῦ οὖν ἡ καύχησις; ἐξεκλείσθη. διὰ ποίου νόμου; τῶν ἔργων; οὐχί, ἀλλὰ διὰ νόμου πίστεως.28 λογιζόμεθα γὰρ δικαιοῦσθαι πίστει ἄνθρωπον χωρὶς ἔργων νόμου.

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For ‘no human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

21 But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.