Episode 7: Reformation Day

Readings:

Psalm 16
Psalm 46
Ephesians 6:10-18
John 16:1-14


Sermon:

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
John 8:31-36

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

"For ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free..."

Though he had felt the truth work through him as scribbled on that page late at night, the candles burning at his eyes, though he felt a sense of freedom he had never felt before, a sense of freedom he never felt as his soul cried out in torture and torment, it quickly evaporate with every long step he took towards that Cathedral. The story of Jan Hus was probably whispered through the halls of the monastaries and churches. Burned alive at the stake for challenging the authority of the church it was warning to those who might dare to rise up, to stand up and question those prevailing and prevelant thoughts of their day. For John Wycliffe, the spiritual mentor of Hus, his death wouldn't be as grostesque, he would be allowed to live out his days. But death would come and so would the desecration of his grave. For his heresy his remains burned and thrown into the River Swift as to try and prevent his bodily resurrection.

Step by step, that slow march to the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral... step by step, the screams pain of Hus as he was burned alive in his martyrs death, haunting his ears....step by step, the smell of Hus and Wycliffe and so many others who dared to defy the churches, fate filling his nostrils... step by step, he had to have been able to almost feel the flames as if they were upon him...

Then, with a single hit from a hammer, a sound that would ring through the Holy Empire, a tremor would be unleashed that would shake the foundations of Church and Faith forever.

Almost 102 years after Hus' death, almost 102 years after he uttered those last words, "in a hundred years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed", Dr. Martin Luther, a priest from a small town in the back waters of Germany would nail those 95 thesis on the Cathedral door and set in motion the wheels of the Protestant Reformation....

For Luther and for those reformers who would join his ranks, teaching other doctrines within the Christian Faith, doctrines that perhaps would drive a wedge between them, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, Thomas Muntzer, Thomas Cramner, their defiance would carry with it a heavy cost. A writ of Excommunication from the Pope would be a death warrant. No longer protected by the laws of the church, if these men were murdered then so be it, finding themselves outside of Romes decrees it was no longer a sin, at times it was even sanctioned.

But, as St. Paul knew so too did they, "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philipians 1:20 and 21).

For them to know the truth... to know truth was to set them free....

No matter what could come, no matter what would come they would that freedom that only God could grant, that freedom that could only be found in Christ and at his cross and, within it, that peace that only could be given in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Come life or death, come triumph or trial, they knew that to abide in the truth, to dwell amidst its warming glow, was enough to sustain them in all that they could ever want or need. In the words of Hus, "God is my witness that I have never taught that of which I have by false witnesses been accused. In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, I will die today with gladness." In the words of Luther, "Here I stand, I can do no other, God have mercy upon me."

Almost 500 years later there is still a great deal we can learn from those Reformers. Like the now deafening sound of that parchment being pounded into that church door that would usher in a new era of religious reawakening and freedom, our voices too must lift, raising up a rich testamony for the message of Christ, teaching and preaching the truth of our salvation unto the world.

Just as surely as they made there stand for their faith we too must make our stand for our faith, trusting in the love of God, in the guiding hand and protecting graces of Him to sustain us in all that we do and all that we face. There we must realize that there will be those amongst us who challenge our faith, who will try and silence us for that maessage of salvation in Christ, perhaps not in as dramatic of a way as those fathers of the Reformation, or those forebearers to it, but nonetheless in other forms of persecution that try at our very being and seek to silence us in a sense of fear.

There we must cast aside fear and doubt, knowing that every step of the way that we are protected by a loving God who understands us and our needs, who knows the trials and pains we may face in His name, and for our testimony for his name. If we make that stand for the truth, for the Bible, for faith, for Christ, we know that amidst the wars of soul that we may find ourselves in we will wear the whole armor of God, that we too will be able to make our stand.

Pray for that strength dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, pray for that strength to stand against this world and all the forces that may be sent to tear you away from the blessings of your salvation, knowing that God will always answer your prayers. Pray and edify and strengthen one another in their walks knowing that God gives us fellowship, that God gives us one another that we may uplift each other to face any challenges that come our way. And in all things know that it is by His power and by the great sacrifice of His Son that the truth has come into this world, it is by His power and the strength of His Holy Spirit that it has been sustained from age to age, it is by His power that we are free.

Now the peace of the Lord that transcends all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting. Amen.