Christ the King-Epiphany, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

October 27, 2024 / Reformation Sunday

Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Complete this statement:  If I carefully follow the recipe I just picked up for butternut squash pasta, then . . . what will happen?  It’s fairly predictable, right?  I mean, failing an oven malfunction when I’m roasting the squash or a mis-measurement of ingredients or pantry flies having gotten into the craisins, I’m pretty certain that, if I follow the recipe, then I’m going to prepare a delicious meal.

But the results of our actions are not always so predictable.  Complete this statement:  If I work hard, then ________________.  See, that one’s a little harder because how do we know how hard is hard enough?  It depends.  And who’s to say what your reward will be?  That also depends.  It’s a lot less predictable proposition than If I follow the recipe . . .

One more – If I am a good person, then ______________.  This one’s even harder.  You have to qualify – good enough for whom?  Good enough to satisfy your mom?  Good enough to make your peers think highly of you?  Good enough to please God?  Or (perish the thought, and please, please, please tell me that none of you would say this) good enough to get into heaven?

We don’t go to heaven because we are good; we go to heaven because Jesus is good.  We are not freed from our captivity to sin because we’ve been successful at following the commandments; we are freed from sin and even from death because Jesus loves us. We are not saved by our goodness; we are saved by grace through faith.  That is the central tenant of the Protestant Reformation which we celebrate today.  Whether you were raised in the Lutheran church or not, just from knowing a little bit of world history, you will know that the Reformation officially began on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther posted his 95 points of disagreement with the Roman Church.  But did you know that the idea that inspired the Reformation actually came a couple of years earlier, when Luther was preparing to lecture on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans at the University of Wittenberg.  It was in wrestling with the text that we heard this morning that he had his breakthrough:  “But now, apart from the law, [the law which tells us what we must do], apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed . . . the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Our getting into heaven has nothing to do with the way we live; it has everything to do with what God has done for us through Jesus.

But that’s so hard to believe because it means we’re not in control of our own destiny.  We like to believe that if we behave, then we won’t get into trouble; that if we work hard enough, then we will get ahead; that if we do enough good deeds, then we will have a blessed life.  But we all know that those propositions are far from certain.  We all know plenty of people who have gotten into trouble even though they’ve behaved; who have worked very hard but can’t seem to get ahead; who have given their life away in service to others but who still have bad things happen to them.  

And so the doubt creeps in.  When the “if’s” don’t result in the expected “then’s,” we begin to wonder if God has deserted us.  And when we can’t even do the “if” parts – when we fall short of our own goals to stay out of trouble or work hard or be a good person – we begin to fear that we are unworthy of God’s love.  This fear enslaves us by its anxious questioning:  Am I following the commandments closely enough?  Do I love my neighbors enough?  Do I give enough money?  Do I volunteer enough?  Do I read the Bible enough?  Do I pray enough?  Am I enough?  It can crush our spirits.

But friends, we all fall short.  None of us is enough, on our own.  But we’re not our own.  We have Jesus.  God’s love is enough for us.  The word “if,” and all the things that we might or might not do, that we might or might not be, don’t even come into play.  The good news of God’s love for us, writes Nadia Bolz-Weber, is more Wizard of Oz than that.  Why Wizard of Oz?  Because because because because because . . ..

• Because God is our creator and 
• because we rebel against the idea of being created beings 

                        and insist on trying to be God for ourselves and 

• because God will not play by our rules and 
• because in the fullness of time when God had had quite enough of all of that, 

                        God became human in Jesus Christ to show us who God really is and 

• because when God came to God’s own and we received him not, and 
• because God would not be deterred God went so far as 

                         to hang from the cross we built 

                         and did not even lift a finger to condemn 

                         but said forgive them they know not what they are doing and 

• because Jesus Christ defeated even death and the grave 

                         and rose on the 3rd day and 

• because we all sin and fall short and 

                         are forever turned in on ourselves and 

                         forget that we belong to God and 

                         that none of our successes guarantee this and 

                         none of our failures exclude this and 

• because God loves God’s creation 

                        God refuses for our sin and brokenness and inability to always do the right things 

                        to be the last word 

• because God came to save and not to judge 
• therefore…therefore you are saved by grace as a gift 

                         and not by the works of the law 

                         and this truth will set you free . . ..

Faith does not start with “if” and end with “then.”  It starts with “because” and ends with “therefore.”  God’s love is not conditional.  Because of the grace of Jesus, therefore we are free from worry, free from doubt, free from sin, free from death.  There are no “if’s” about it.