Sermon for October 29

The reading

1 Kings 5:1-5; 8:1-13

5:1 Now King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father; for Hiram had always been a friend to David. 2 Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, 3 "You know that my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. 5 So I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to my father David, "Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.'

8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. 2 All the people of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the festival in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 3 And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. 4 So they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. 5 King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. 8 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10 And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. 12 Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 13 I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever."

The message 

For the 500th time, Happy Reformation Day.

Today, we mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses, a call to debate with the Roman Catholic Church about the sale of indulgences, authority of priests and forgiveness of sins. As much as we imagine a big scene or great spectacle, nothing seemed out of the ordinary that morning 5 centuries ago. As a monk and university professor in Old Testament, publically posting ideas for debate was a normal part of Luther’s work, it was his job. Luther’s words were way more vicious and confrontational than the usual call to debate and the newly invented printing press allowed him to widely share his ideas like no protester ever before. 

The Reformation was not one man’s battle against the Roman Catholic Church.   Luther’s opponent was sin. You were not polite or civil when you confronted evil and sin. The Reformers  were confronting  the most dangerous of sin, one that had captured the church. They were fighting sin that was pretending to be the word of God, deceiving people into thinking it was the word of God.  The very church, entrusted by Jesus to share the comfort of the Gospel, to share God’s gift of faith in the saving power of his death and resurrection, were doing the opposite. The church was abusing this authority to raise money, putting a price tag on God’s free gift. 

Luther originally thinks he is doing the church a big service. He believed that the Pope and religious authorities in Rome did not know about the abuses that were going on regarding the sale of indulgences. This fundraiser to build St Peters was creating tremendous emotional and spiritual pain for faithful people.  Luther never really intended to divide the church. It seems like he expected the 95 Theses to be a welcome correction, an enlightening and frightening note on the sorry state of the church that would inspire or force change.  In some ways, that actually happens. In the 1540s and 1550s, the Pope and political leaders hold a series of meetings called the Council of Trent.  While rejecting Protestant Theology (by surprisingly narrow votes in some cases) and defending Roman Catholic traditions and beliefs, they also cleaned up a lot of the abuses and injustices that the Reformers were protesting.

With the help of other leaders, being connected to and concerned with people and their use of existing media, the 95 Theses, a routine part of academic and religious life at the time becomes the Protestant Reformation. Over the past few weeks, in preparation for today, we have looked at our readings and different parts of the faith that inspired and grew out of the Reformation.  We looked at Luther’s catechisms, biblical commentaries and other works.  If you missed church, forgot things, or were here but just not listening, all of the things I said can be summarized in the first words of our opening hymn: The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,  That is the inspiration and meaning of the Reformation in 9 familiar words.

Foundations are important, especially if you like being in building that do not fall down or part of a church that makes sense.  In our reading today, we learn that David was not a good foundation for the temple. King David lead Israel for 40 years, uniting the northern and southern kingdoms and defeating all of their enemies in war. He receives the promise that the Messiah will come from his family line and composes many of the Psalms. One thing David does not do is build the temple.  David planned to and wanted to but in 1 Chronicles 22, we learn the word of the Lord came to David, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of peace. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name.  David plans out and instructs his son Solomon on how to build the temple but does not see the project started and never prays there.    Solomon was not a good foundation for the temple either.  The only reason Solomon can build the temple is that God creates and enforces an unusual time of peace.  

Luther is not a good foundation for our church.  That’s a strange thing to say in a Lutheran Church. Thankfully our church is not built on Luther, it’s built on God’s grace, expressed through the life death and resurrection of Jesus and sustained by the Holy Spirit.  There were many ridiculous and outlandish things Luther claimed.  Being the church’s foundation was never one of them. In 1522 Luther writes I ask that my name be left silent and people not call themselves Lutheran, but rather Christians. Who is Luther? The doctrine is not mine. I have been crucified for no one. St. Paul in 1 Cor. 3:4-5 would not suffer that the Christians should call themselves of Paul or of Peter, but Christian. How should I, a poor stinking bag of worms, become so that the children of Christ are named with my unholy name? It should not be dear friends. Let us extinguish all factious names and be called Christians whose doctrine we have. The pope's men rightly have a factious name because they are not satisfied with the doctrine and name of Christ and want to be with the pope, who is their master. I have not been and will not be a master. Along with the church I have the one general teaching of Christ who alone is our master.  In other words, The church's one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.   

The only reason Luther eventually allows and tolerates the designation of ”Lutheran” is that it becomes necessary to distinguish Protestants from one another  (In the years after 1517, there is a great deal of disagreement among Reformers around the sacraments and other theological issues).  Luther does more than his fair share to fuel these fights. He called people names, unrelentingly attacked opponents, said outrageous things and exaggerated political and social events to support his points.  Even other reformers, united in the war against sin, but disagreeing with Luther on particular issues were mocked, made fun of and called morons (or Luther’s favorite, a bag of crap).  Luther was listened to. In cases like the Peasants revolt of 1525, when he changed sides and supported the nobility, Luther’s aggressive words led to death for people.

 

In 1546, at the funeral service for Luther, Philip Melanchthon, another pastor professor who taught with Luther and an integral leader of the Reformation, celebrates and lifts up Luther’s accomplishments, things like translating the bible into German, confronting the Roman Catholic Church, writing the catechisms and composing hymns.  Melanchthon also addresses Luther’s severe words,  Some by no means evil-minded persons, however, express a suspicion that Luther manifested too much asperity (roughness). I will not affirm the reverse, but only quote the language of Erasmus, “God has sent in this latter age a violent physician on account of the magnitude of the existing disorders” Melanchthon does not make excuses for Luther’s words, he simply observing  that the world was so sick with sin and corruption, the cure needed to be violent to drive those things away. 

Despite all the people Luther considered enemies and called morons or bags of crap, the real enemy was sin. Some of the most insidious forms of sin or tools of the devil were the ideas that we could save ourselves from sin by good works and the pride that caused people to overlook Jesus and find other foundations.   The only way to confront that sin was the word of God clearly shared and the waters of Baptism that contained God’s promises, The only way to get rid of those sins was telling the news Christ is risen from the dead, A few fancy papers from the pope cannot stop sin, trying our best to be okay people cannot stop sin, feeling very sorry for being bad cannot stop sin, taking monastic vows cannot stop sin,   The only tools we have to stop sin are the declaration “because Christ is Risen from the dead, your sins are forgiven” and the words “I baptize you in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, the promise that you are part of the kingdom of God because Jesus dragged you there, while you were kicking and screaming and trying to get away. For Luther any foundation that was not Jesus Christ our Lord, any attempt to maintain the church that did not have water and the word, those things were all too weak to withstand sin and had to be destroyed so they could not deceive others.  

Perhaps, more than anything else, that is what we celebrate today, Luther as an example that with the church’s one foundation of Jesus Christ our Lord and with the power of water and the word,  we can make things different.