when i lose

i hold out

Romans Six sermon on Luther

Luther’s story gets going when the one he’d been trying to live ended… 

And it’s a story we all try and live out, the story of perfection.

Luther tried to live this story out in the church. These days, though, we’re more likely to try and live it out as parents or spouses, in our careers or at the gym, on social-media or anywhere else we can measure progress… 

It doesn’t matter where you try and live this story out, though, it always end in the same way; at a dead-end. 

Which is how it went for Luther… 

The thing, though, is God LOVES dead-end people! God took Luther’s dead-end, and made it into a new beginning. The beginning, not of Luther’s perfect life, but of Luther’s life lived in light of God’s perfect love! God’s love that get’s going, when we can’t!

And this was just as true for Luther, as it is for you, by the way! 

If you’re at the end of your rope, unable to pull-off the project of perfection; hear this: God’s perfect LOVE is all the perfection you need! Hidden in your failure to be a perfect parent, to be perfectly healthy, successful or attractive is an even better perfection; God’s perfect love for you! 

As Luther once said, God doesn’t love you because you’re beautiful; God loves you and that makes you beautiful!

Luther experienced this upside-down love of God studying Romans; when he finally heard Paul saying what he had been saying all along, that God’s righteousness is NOT something we achieve, but something God GIVES!

Freed by this promise Luther couldn’t keep quiet about it! He shared it with his students and the members of the town church where he preached. 

But one day a few years later, Luther encountered a preacher selling that same old story of story of perfection. Compelled by the Gospel, Luther couldn’t let this bad practice go unquestioned! He posted the 95 Thesis; 95 statements questioning the practice of selling indulgences. 

These statements touched a nerve, too. When they got out, Luther found himself on a collision course with the church authorities with initiated the practice…

Even though anyone could see the collision coming, it didn’t mean it was easy to go through. Luther worried about what would come of him and his future. He suffered attacks on his character. But, in the midst of that, something happened; God used it! God used it to make a theologian out of Luther!

Suffering is the humbling tool God uses to make true Christians out of us.

And this is just as true for you as it was for Luther, too! So, if you’re in the thick of it, listen up! Suffering will NOT have the last word! God will use it to make a witness out of you! Someone who can testify to the wonder of God’s power that’s strongest in us when we’re weakest!

For Luther the collision came to a heard in 1521, at the Diet of Worms. An official meeting of the empire. And we’re not going to do a whole history lesson here, but there’s some really interesting things happening: 

First, secular authorities convening church business. 

This was because Luther refused to go to a hearing in Rome; he didn’t have much reason to believe he’d get a fair hearing there. 

*In fact, 100 years before, another reformer, Jan Hus, was burned at the stake after his trial. 

There’s a legend that when the executioner was lighting the pyre he said, “now we cook the goose (in Bohemian Hus means goose); to which Hus replied, “yes, but there will come an eagle you will not reach.”

Second, even getting Luther to Worms took work; his prince had to secure safe-conduct to ensure Luther wouldn’t be killed on the way! 

…As Luther traveled to Worms, though, crowds met him! All the acclaim only gave Luther pause, though. He couldn’t help but remember how well Christ was received in Jerusalem just days before his crucifixion… 

Now, at Worms the task at hand was to settle the “Luther matter,” as it was being called. Luther was to speak before the Emperor and an official representative of the church. 

As far as the church representative was concerned, though, the only acceptable solution was for Luther to renounce all his writings. Luther had gone to the diet expecting a debate, though. So, when asked point-blank if he would renounce all his writings, he was shaken. In a low voice he asked if he could have time to think it over. 

To which the church representative chided him for needing.

After a day of reflection, discussion and prayer, everyone was gathered again. This time the room was crowded and the atmosphere tense. Luther apologized for his lack of familiarity with courtly proceedings, and then in front of everyone said he couldn’t renounce all his writings! 

After all, he had writings not even his enemies disagreed with! 

But, Luther did acknowledge some of his personal attacks had gone too far, and apologized. 

Finally, Luther ended his speech stating he was bound to scripture. That he could not and would not recant anything found in those pages, since it wasn’t safe or right. Ending, “I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, God help me. Amen.”

And everyone knew what that meant. Luther was whisked away. The Emperor declared him an outlaw. And while all that was happening, Luther was being snuck out of town! 

In fact, Luther’s prince secretly arranged for men disguised as highway robbers to abduct Luther and take him into hiding at Wartburg Castle!

As traumatic as all that was, though, what was even more traumatic was something that happened earlier. Luther’s superior, seeing the writing on the wall, released Luther from his vows. That way, if he ever had to turn Luther over, he could say Luther was no longer under him. 

Luther said it was like being excommunicated three times. By the Pope. By the Emperor. And finally, by his beloved superior. And it was that last “excommunication” that bothered Luther the most…

Here’s the thing, though, after all that, while Luther was hiding in Wartburg; declared as good as dead by all the people who mattered; he became more free than he had ever been!

You ever known someone like that? Who, after some traumatic experience, comes out the other side different? Maybe that’s your story. Why you’re here… It’s what Paul’s talking about. And it’s something countless Christians have experienced in one way or another; how God hides NEW Life in Death! 

And not just any new life. The new life built in the shape of Jesus’ cross, made from the rubble of our old life! 

…We spend so much time and energy, we get so anxious trying to hold our lives together the way they are; when often what we need is for them to come apart. For one thing, because the way things are, aren’t working very well for us. For another, and more importantly, because God is a master-builder with wreckage!

For Luther, once he was declared as good as dead to all the places that mattered, he was finally freed to really pursue reforming the church around one thing: God’s grace. And he set himself to it! 

Luther didn’t just hide in the Wartburg, he began translating the Bible into German! He wrote to his colleagues in Wittenburg to encourage them in the midst of the challenges of reforming. 

In fact, when he heard there was unrest in Wittenberg, Luther defied his prince, and came out of hiding to bring calm and order to back Wittenberg! Luther’s prince was worried about what would happen to Luther is he came out of hiding, but Luther had been freed from all those concerns! All because he had been declared as good as dead. 

And that, that is what you have in common with Luther. There are places in your life that matter most. Places you spend your life trying to chin-up to the measuring bar in the the belief that once you do life will come together. 

But that way only leads to a dead-end. The target always moves. BUT, once you’re as good as dead in those places, then you will finally be free of their tyranny!

…Sadly, it is here we must leave Luther’s story. But there is so much more. Honestly, it’s just getting started; there’s the advances he worked for, the folks he helped, the family he and Katherine started, the dust-ups he got involved in. 

The important thing, though, is that for all that to happen, Luther had to die. And as far as he was concerned, it didn’t just happen once; it happened three times. BUT, before any of those deaths occurred, the One that really mattered had already happened; Jesus’ death! And by his baptism, Luther shared in that death!

This is why it matters that our savior dies!

When Jesus died, he went into the jaws of Death and defanged the old foe! Now Death’s bite no longer stings! In fact, now it serves God’s good purposes! Now it is the beginning of new life, eternal life, life freed from sin’s power, life lived in Jesus! And it is that death, you’ve been baptized into! Making you just as free as Luther. As Paul. As Jesus himself! 

In his death Jesus took your death! And in his resurrection he gave you his life! That’s what you’ve been baptized into!

Every time we gather here, there’s at least some area of your life you’re struggling to hold together. Isn’t there? But the promise you have is, God is perfectly capable of building with debris! Hidden in our wreckage is the cornerstone of a life built on Jesus and his perfection! 

Okay, one last story about Luther, this one about his death. When he died his companions went through his belongings, and in one of his pockets they found a scrap of paper on which he had written, “We are beggars. This is true.”

After everything he had been through, all he accomplished; Luther saw himself as a beggar! Not because he was down on himself or the human race, but because he had experienced the abundance of God! The abundance of God you can never earn, and only receive! 

The abundance of God you have been baptized into! The abundance of God your hope, your suffering, your life and even your death are all hidden in!