Sermon list

"A Lutheran Identity Crisis"
John 8:31-36
Reformation Sunday	October 27, 2002
Ascension Lutheran Church	Jackson, MS
A sermon by Pastor Tom Clark

 

“I will put my law within them; I will write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  Jeremiah 31:33b

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”  John 8:31b-32

 

How do you tell that a person is a Lutheran?  Answer—On the last Sunday of October, Lutheran churches are about only ones who use red altar hangings. 

            Ask someone on street in Jackson, what kind of religion is Lutheranism, and you might get one of these responses:

            “Lutheran? Do they worship Martin Luther King, Jr.?”

            “Lutheran? Are they Christian?”

            Even those who know enough of church history to know where the Lutheran church came from may think Lutherans are an ethnic church (made up of Germans or Scandinavians) and that the only way to become a Lutheran is to be born one.  (I guess you could be adopted by a Lutheran family …)

            My mother-in-law in Atlanta once introduced me to her pastor—a well-educated man who graduated from Harvard Divinity School.  She introduced me as her “pastor son-in-law.”  She said, “He was a Methodist who became a Lutheran.”  He responded, “You became Lutheran?  Can you do that?”  He had only known Lutherans as members of an “ethnic church,” with weaknesses for sausages and strong cheeses and a fish pickled in a solution about as gentle as lye soap.

            So today I want to talk about what it means to be Lutheran.  I don’t want to focus on a cultural identity—food choices, polkas, and jokes about Norwegians—but I want to focus on our spiritual identity.

Lutherans turn to verses of scripture that lift up God’s grace over human works of good deeds; verses like Romans 3:24—“[We are] justified by [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Our spirituality identity is determined not by what we do, but by what God has done through Jesus.

            So, how may we summarize the spiritual identity of Lutherans?  Most other Christians would also recognize what we claim as our identity as part of their belief as well, with varying degrees of emphasis.  I don’t want to get into disputing whether our interpretation is better than any others, rather I wish simply to state in summary fashion what is the “foundation” that shapes and defines our faith.  

            I will summarize our faith as the following: 

Lutherans are—

1)                  Claimed by God in baptism.  Whether as baby or adult, in a little bit of water or a lot.  We are marked by God—“BRANDED” by this invisible mark.  God can always recognize the mark he has placed on us.  Jesus explained by telling the story of “prodigal son”.  (Review story the story at Luke 15:11-32).  God is like that father, never letting us go, always open to us, reaching out to us.  God reaches out and sets us free through Christ.

2)                  Set free by Christ.  We are…

a)                  Free to love God—

i)                    expressed through a devotion to prayer,

ii)                  studying the story of how God has spoken and continues to speak through scripture,

iii)                gathering together to strengthen, sustain, comfort one another, and rejoice with one another.

b)                  Free to love our neighbor—Devoted to seeing Christ in others and serving them knowing that in doing so we serve Christ.

c)                   Free to be who God intended us to be—At peace with ourselves, accepting ourselves, just as we asked to accept others, warts and all.

            God has created us to be creatures devoted to him.  According to both the Old Testament and Jesus, the greatest commandment is, “You shall love Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might/mind.”  (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37)  Jesus connected another Old Testament commandment to this one and said it was almost the same—“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39)  Some 400 years or so later St. Augustine wrote something similar–“[Lord,] … you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

            When something other than God becomes the center of our life, everything changes and our lives lose focus.  Jeremiah recognized this when he told his people that the covenant was not about keeping laws carved in stone.  The covenant was about their relationship with a God who loved them.  Paul took this further by saying that God had proved his love for us “in that while we still were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  This is a gift we receive simply by trusting, “by faith.” 

            This is who we are meant to be.  This is our witness as Lutherans.  Are we the only ones who believe this?  No.  But our witness, our calling, is to remind the rest of our Christian community that this God’s invitation to faith is our invitation to freedom.  Thanks be to God!  The one in whom we trust—Jesus Christ—has sets us free.