hallelujah, you’re still mine
all i did was waste your time
Last week we talked about how Luther had grown up on the myth that we have it in us to earn God’s good graces. Experience, though, had taught him something else; namely how impossible that is…
Luther tried to pull it off, only to find out how untrustworthy our efforts are; they run out when we most need them and go astray when you least expect them to. This experience agonized Martin. And in that agony, he began to grow angry with God…
Thankfully, Luther’s superior knew a thing or two about spiritual distress like this, and ordered Luther to go teach Bible at Wittenberg University.
This promotion was a healing balm for Luther. Remember? Because it FORCED him out of himself and into the Bible. And there, out of himself and in the Bible, he finally heard what the Bible had been saying all along! That it’s not about us and our efforts! It’s about God, and what God has done FOR us in Jesus Christ!
Luther first noticed this promise studying the first chapter of Romans. As this washed over him, Luther went over verse after verse and realized this promise is written on every page of the Bible! This break-through was for Luther like being reborn and entering into the gates of paradise all at once!
…Well, you can hardly experience something like that and keep quiet about it. And neither could Luther.
Thankfully, Luther’s teaching responsibilities allowed him to share this Good News with his students. As did his pastoral duties at the town church.
…And at this point we expect everything to be smooth sailing. Don’t we?
Isn’t that the story we tell, once you have persevered through the trial, you can sit back and enjoy a care-free existence? Isn’t that why I could just tell the beginning of Luther’s story last week and we felt like that was all there is to it?
…Well, that’s not how the life of faith works. And it’s not what happened for Luther, either.
For about four years, though, this was the blessed state of his existence. But then, another preacher, Tetzel, showed up…
This preacher was a seller of indulgences. Roughly, indulgences were something you could buy to add a merit to your heavenly scorecard. This anecdote will tell you everything you need to know; to sell these indulgences Tetzel has a slogan, ‘as soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul into heaven springs.’
Now we hear this and are mortified. As was Luther. He wasn’t put off because the slogan was in such bad taste, though. Although it was. Luther was horrified because all this was just dressing up his same ol’ problem in but different clothes!
Luther saw all too well how indulgences only tempt us to trust our own efforts. Our own ability to earn God’s good graces. And Luther knew from his own experience what a dead-end path that was.
What’s more, as someone who had experienced the true freedom of the Gospel, Luther couldn’t let this bad practice go on unquestioned. After all, Luther was a preacher and teacher entrusted with the care of soul’s. His vows obligated him to address the issue!
And to address the issue Luther posted the famous 95 Thesis. 95 statements debating the legitimacy of selling indulgences.
A few details about these thesis:
First, the date Luther posted the 95 Thesis is when we celebrate the Reformation. But, the thesis aren’t the full-blown evangelical theology our faith is built on. That would come later, as Luther would find himself swept up in the events that would unfold in the aftermath of posting these thesis.
Second, posting these thesis was the sort of thing a professor would do. In fact, Luther wrote them in Latin, the language of the academy.
You see, Luther wasn’t trying to gain a name for himself, he was only trying to be faithful to his role. The thing, though, was Luther’s points touched a nerve. So his associates translated the thesis into German and spread them throughout the country.
Which was what garnered the attention of the the higher-ups…
It would take three more years before everything would come to a head, when Luther would be excommunicated for his inability to take back what he had written.
And those three years were rough for Luther. Suddenly other theologians could earn their chops by taking swipes at him. Plus, aside from constantly having to defend himself, Luther lived under the threat of the band, that any moment he could be excommunicated. And what that meant was, it would be illegal to protect Luther. It was essentially a death-sentence…
But something surprising, at least to the way we think, happened during those years; Luther’s insistence on the Gospel became more powerful. Those three hard years were the ones Luther came to reckon with the height and depth and width of the Gospel!
But the story we usually tell ourselves is that our faith will take shape once we get our life in order. But experience teaches another story; that faith comes together when we falling apart…
Which is what happened to Luther.
Later in life, during another difficult time, while he was hiding out in the Coburg castle while his colleagues were confessing their evangelical doctrine in Augsburg, Luther talked about how those hard times were so fundamental. It’s in his commentary on Psalm 119, where he talks about how to study theology. And, because by virtue of baptism we’re all apart of the priesthood, this applies to us all.
The first rule is to pray.
The second is to dwell on scripture. And not just a little, but over and over.
*It was because of that practice Luther was able to go over verse after verse when he experienced the Gospel break-through; he had memorized them.
But the final rule is the most important, to suffer.
Which isn’t what we expect. Is it?
Luther said it is only by going through the wringer that we learn not only how to know and understand scripture, but more importantly, how to experience it.
It’s like that great Van Morrison song, “Wonderful Remark.” It’s all about how miserable it is to sit through church after a rough week when all the pastor has for you is a list of advice to add to your already crowded to-do list.
But, on the other hand, how wonderful it is to hear a blessed Word that frees us from whatever it is we’ve been going through. How Word like that can light your once cold heart on fire again.
Luther learned from his own experience how we never let ourselves taste the sweetness of the Gospel, so long as we think we can make life come out even. But, paradoxically, when we know we can’t, because we’ve failed to yet again; we’re most ready to experience the joy of letting God’s Word do the heavy-lifting for us!
Without this experience you have nothing worth saying about God. And so, looking back, Luther had to thank the folks who made life so hard for him during those years. They had made a pretty good theologian out of him!
Which is exactly what Paul means when he says something as scandalous as, ‘SUFFERING produces endurance. And endurance produces character. And Character produces HOPE. And hope does not disappoint.’
The truth is, no one has ever walked such a charmed path as not to know the sting of suffering. For those of you who have been baptized into the life and death of the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, though; suffering has lost its ultimacy.
Now suffering no longer gets the last word! In Jesus’ death, God took suffering and made it to serve God’s good purposes! Now suffering will serve hope! Will serve Faith!
That’s the reason hope does not disappoint!
And this is important, hope does not disappoint is because is not your hope. It’s the love of God that’s been poured into your heart. Your hearts no longer run by it own volition! Now it runs by God’s love, God’s power; and God’s power is strongest in you when you're weakest.
Like when you suffer. When all you can do is cling to God’s promise to make something out of your suffering because you can’t do anything else!
Hidden in that suffering you’ve know is the work of God. The work of God not letting you go. Turning your suffering into hope, a hope that will not disappoint!
It’s the compost bin of life where God makes hope grow!
If you’re in the thick of it this week; I know how hard a promise this is to hear.
In the midst of it, it feels like suffering is all there is. BUT, if the witness of Luther, Paul and countless other Christians witness anything to us, it’s that suffering does not have the last Word!
This hope that’s in you, the hope suffering stings; it will not be extinguished! For it is not your hope, it is the hope of God. The hope of God living in you. The hope of God you have been baptized into! The hope your life is hidden in! The hope all of creation waits for with longing!
And this hope, it brought again Jesus from the dead! And it can do as much for you! Take the nothingness of suffering and makes hope. Makes new life! Makes faith! Make all that where before all there was, was nothing!
In light of that promise for which we hope, we’re going to sing. Because that’s how the hope we’ve had poured into us works best, when we let go of everything else and cling to the promise we wait for. Let us sing “Amazing Grace”
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