martin visits

for reformation sunday

I'd like to quickly go over all the questions we've considered for our stewardship month.

*Begin Slide Show*

The first question was: "Where has God multiplied blessings in your life;"

Then it was, "When was a time God used what you had to bless others;"

Next we thought about, "When was a time you were afraid you didn't have enough but God provided;"

And finally our question this week is, "What do you have to offer that God can multiply to bless others."

*Slide show cuts to Martin Luther*

Luther: Here we are, sitting here, and God is making saints of us! AH!

Me: No way!

...This can't be.

Luther: Indeed, sin boldly. Yes sin boldly; but trust all the more boldly!

Me: Woah! How lucky are we?!?!

This incredible screen has done it again! Today we get to chat with Martin Luther himself!

Luther: Who said that?!?!

Me: Luther, over here!

Luther: What is this?!?!

Me: Truthfully none of us know; but it is a way for us to chat across time and space!

Luther: My heavens.

Well, who are you?

Me: Hello, my name is Ryan, and this is all of us at Trinity, in Burlington, Iowa!

*Taken aback*

Luther: A church?

Me: Yes! We're a Lutheran church, that movement you began it's continued nearly 500 years!

Luther: What year is it there?!?!

Me: It's 2013!

What year it is where you are?

Luther: Certainly, I should have thought our Lord and Savior would have returned; and certainly this evangelical movement die out much earlier.

Me: Well, no and no.

In fact, this evangelical movement you began has continued and spread; we're an evangelical church in New World!

Luther: Oh my.

*Interrupting*

Me: AND, today is "Reformation Sunday," the feast day when we remember that movement you began so long ago in 1517.

HEY! What year is it where you are?

Luther: A feast day for the Reformation. Oh my...

It is 1521 where I am.

*Interrupting again

Me: So you've been excommunicated, written Freedom of a Christian and/

*Luther interrupting this time

Luther: And I'm stuck in this dreadful Wartburg, by myself; my patmos island.

Me: We're glad to offer you a little company for a bit then...

Maybe since we have you, we could ask a few questions.

Luther: For the company, I'd be happy to.

Me: Thank you, because the truth is, it really feels like we need a reformation again.

The "Lutheran Churches," as we call them, are not doing well...

In fact, they are getting smaller and smaller, it is harder than ever to survive.

Luther: That is the life of a Christian, Trinity.

That is God shaping your life into the shape of the cross.

Me: But it just feels like we're dying, Martin.

Luther: That is how Christians are made, by living and dying; finding themselves in need of a god who loves.

Think of what I'm going through.

We've been trying to begin an evangelical reform in the church, and I've been excommunicated for the trouble.

Here I am, hiding in the Wartburg, because it isn't safe for me to be out and about.

This Christian life is not an easy thing, and it is most of all when we find ourselves beset on all sides that we turn to God; that we meet a merciful God, that we honor God by trusting God.

This is most certainly true.

Me: Thanks for the encouragement.

Luther: That isn't encouragement. It is the truth; it is God's most salutary promise.

A promise that creates faith.

A promise that God intends to use to save sinners like us, a promise that makes us into reformers even in the face of challenges.

Me: Hmmm

Could we ask you a few more questions?

Luther: I have nowhere else to go...

Me: Great!

Er...

Well, I mean, not great that you can't go anywhere, but great that we can pick your brain a little more...

*Annoyed*

Luther: What's your question?

Me: Well, we're doing this stewardship thing, each week we wonder together about stewardship questions.

This week our question is, "What do you have to offer that God can multiple to bless others."

How would you answer that question?

*Thinking

Luther: Hmm...

Let me answer that question by changing it a little.

Let's begin, not with what we have to offer, but what God offers to bless others.

God begins by offering Jesus, God's son.

God gives all of Christ to us, in a sort of marriage.

What happens in this marriage God gives to us, is that when the judgement comes, Jesus says,

"This one is mine.

Do not look upon their sins, but upon my righteousness.

I take what is theirs, and give them my righteousness."

This is the way God uses what we have to offer to bless others.

Me: Say more...

Luther: Well, on our own we're doomed to always search out our own interests...

On our own, should we give something to another to bless them, we would be doing it for some reward, some merit from God or a favor in the future.

God knows of our tragic unrighteousness.

So God gives Christ for us.

Christ is for you.

You have all of Christ's righteousness.

In fact, God gives you so much of Christ, that you have Christ’s very righteousness.

And if you have Christ’s crown, well then you have all the reward, all the merit, you will ever need.

If you wear Christ's righteousness, you need no favors because you are God's child.

This is how God uses what you have to offer to bless others.

God gives you so much of Christ that you no longer need merit or favor; now God can use all of your life, not just your 'good deeds' to bless others.

This is most certainly true.

Yes, God multiplies what you have to bless others, by multiplying what you have to offer.

Now you can offer, not just the dressed up and put together you are at church, but your whole self, everything you have to offer.

Are any of you sisters, brothers?

Are any of you parents, husband or wife?

Do any of you live among other people; other people who need not your good works, but your very self?

 

That is what God multiplies to bless others.

Your righteousness is no longer needed, you are freed from all of that.

Now the people you live among, you can freely serve them out of, not obligation, not even goodness itself, but out of love.

Me: How is it that we can just freely serve others out of love, though?

Luther: Let me tell you a bit about myself.

You know, when I was a monk, trying to fulfill God's law, I hated that God.

I hated God because the more I tried to fill the law, the more I saw how impossible it was to fill the law.

But then, as I read Paul's letter to the Romans, the clouds were opened and I heard that Christ has fulfilled the law for me.

Do you know what happened then?

Me: Well, it/

*Interrupting*

Luther: That's right!

Upon hearing that because Christ shared his very righteousness with me, my heart rejoiced, it rejoiced to its very depth.

In fact, my heart grew tender and I loved that God,

truthfully, I honored that God by trusting.

Now instead of doing something to earn a merit, I'm satisfied with the fullness and wealth of faith.

Me: That's beautiful...

Luther: Yes, God's ways are truly beautiful.

That in a happy exchange God frees us from the law by giving us, by giving you the fulfillment of the law, Christ - in a beautiful marriage.

This is more certainly true.

*Noticing watch

Me: Wow, it's late! We need to go!

Luther: Wait, wait, wait!

I understand a young man, Jonathan, is affirming his baptism today.

Well done.

Remember, faith in Christ is your treasure beyond comparison, it saves and frees you from every evil.

This is most certainly true.

Ah! What a good conversation!

I think I should write about!

*End of convo

Me: Well, we should all read our Luther a little closer. Maybe our little conversation made it into one of his treatises...

Anyway, it is nice to have a little levity and fun on this special occasion. Seeing as this special occasion is Reformation, though, it is worth pausing to clearly declare the proclamation that the Reformation was all about.

Your sins are forgiven, not because of anything you’ve done, but because the God is that revealed on the cross is a God that is gracious and loving to people in need of grace and love, to you and I.