A Homily for Reformation

[Texts: Epistle, Romans 3:19-28; Gospel, John 8:31-38]

One of the great watchwords of the Reformation was "Faith alone." We are saved by "faith alone." We heard in the Epistle reading the grounds for such an audacious statement: "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." (Rom 3:28). And so some people say: "Well, I believe and that's enough." Is it? Is having believed in Jesus enough?

If we ask Jesus in today's Gospel, he apparently says "no." Jesus said to the Jews *who had believed in him*: "If you ABIDE in my Word then you are truly my disciples." Now let's be clear: the Word of God is what works faith in a person. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ." Rom 10:17. But faith not only originates in the Word; the Word also is what keeps faith alive. Faith always comes from the outside in, and so for faith to stay alive - not just strong or growing, but precisely alive - we must abide in the Word of God and the Word of God abide in us. The longer a person who has been brought to faith in Jesus stays away from the Word, the weaker faith grows, and eventually, if it is not nourished again by the Word, their faith will die. Hence Jesus' word: "abide." "If you abide in my Word, then you are truly my disciples."

The Word is the food of faith; the Word is the air faith breathes; the Word is the fuel faith burns; without the Word constantly nourishing and sustaining faith, faith dies. This is so of individuals. This is so of congregations. This is so of whole churches.

Christians are always tempted to look for other means to shore up the church. "What we need around here is big evangelism push!" "What we need is a stewardship program!" "What we need is a contemporary service to attract the young people!" To all of which we must speak an unqualified: Hogwash! What we need around here, what the church needs in every place, is the preaching of and the listening to the Word of God.

Regarding the Word the promise has been given: "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that is may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my Word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I send it." (Is 55:10,11 The Church of Christ is sustained and given life through the Word and through the Word alone.

Every attempt to inject life into the church apart from the Word with some doings of our own is doomed to failure from the outset. The worst that can happen is that such a method might outwardly succeed and the church would begin to look lively. That would be the worst because then we'd be living the lie, like the church in Sardis that had a "name of being alive" but was dead. Dead because the Word was not what was sustaining and filling her life. Dead because she appeared to be alive only to the eyes of man and not in fact in the eyes of God. Dead because she'd forgotten what she first received and heard. (Revelation 3:1-3)

But what shall we say when the Word itself is being rejected? Whoever is rejecting it - be it a parish, a church, or an individual Christian - is committing spiritual suicide. Let me be quite concrete: people of God, when we do not regularly open our Bibles and read the Word, sucking life from it, drawing faith from it, we are despising the Word of God. "The B-I-B-L-E yes, that's the Book for me. It sits on the shelf all covered with dust, while we all watch TV!"

People of God, when we do not hunger and thirst for a deeper understanding of the Word, when we are deluded into thinking we learned all they needed in Confirmation instruction and have no further need of instruction – as though God has nothing more to teach us - we are despising the Word.

When we come to church and sit through a sermon, listening to it as to some entertainment and judge the sermon’s worth on how many times the pastor made us chuckle and feel at home, we are despising the Word.

The Large Catechism teaches us that we break the Third Commandment every time we come to church and listen without trying to learn and retain; when we sit in a pew every Sunday and end the year as ignorant as we were at the start.

And what can we say when the Word of God is opened for study and people of God are summoned and two or three or maybe four show up and the rest walk on their merry way? And how can we teach our children to love and treasure and draw life from the Word when the Word is neglected in the home and the in the church? When parents don't read it with their children? Do we need to explore further why our faith seems so weak at times, why sometimes on the brink of extinction? "If you abide in my Word,” says the Lord, “you are truly my disciples."

But of course, he, the Word enfleshed, didn't stop there. He went on: "and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." And so he rouses hunger in us for the Word. Because in it, the truth is known and it is knowing of the truth which is in the Word that sets us free. Free from sin, free from fear, free from death. Free from slavery! My friends, the Word was written, the Scripture given, not to give us a list of dos and don'ts. The Scriptures are given to unfold to us the immeasurable gift of the Incarnate Word. The Bible is all about Jesus and what the Father gives us in His Son. It is His book. His words. His Spirit inspires it from the first letters of Genesis to the last Amen of Revelation. This book preaches into our hearts the truth that is Jesus - and it is that truth which is kindles faith and keeps it alive.

And the truth that is there is the truth heard from a cross, the true Word of forgiveness. Jesus speaks it on every page and He alone can speak it, for He alone has borne the sin of the world - yes, even the sin of not listening to Him and not wanting to hear what He has to say. He has borne it all. All forgiven. And so to know that truth is to be set free from slavery: freed from our callous disregard and freed to listen, love, treasure and keep the Word.

Have you ever thought out the implications of when the Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples on the way to Emmaus, before he ever showed them who it was that was walking right alongside of them, he first led them to the book and showed them Himself in the Word there written, showed them that the Christ had to suffer and die and after three days be raised again and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all people? Jesus, the Word Incarnate, led them to the Word enscripted to set fire in their hearts -the fire of faith. You know, in his own way and in his own time, Luther attempted to do a similar thing for the church, to lead her back to the book, to the message of the truth that sets souls free, to the good news of forgiveness in Jesus. And Luther was right to do that, because only the Word can keep saving faith alive in us, in our children, in our church, and so it is our prayer on this Reformation: "Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word!" Amen.