From from What Enslaves Us!

Reformation Sunday, October 31, 2021

John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 

Today on this Reformation Sunday we celebrate freedom. For it is the activity of God in our world and the work of the Holy Spirt that frees His beloved people in many times and places from all manner of enslavement—physical, institutional, or our own personal brokenness.

Take the Israelites, for example. They were physically enslaved in an economic system that required many slaves to do the work of the Egyptian Empire. Through forced labor, the royal storehouses in the cities of Pithom and Rameses were built. They groan under their bondage and cry for relief from their hard labor. God hears their cries. He remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and calls and empowers Moses to lead his people out of their enslavement. By pillar of fire God guides them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea into the wilderness and destroys their pursuers. They are free and they lift their voices up in song and praise to the Lord.

What about freedom from institutional enslavement? Actually that is what the Reformation is all about. Let’s recap a brief history of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, 1517 in Wittenberg, the Holy Spirit moved to awaken the Church through the actions of a man named Martin Luther who was disgruntled over abuses instituted by the Pope and the Church’s hierarchy.

Luther, a teacher and a monk, published a document he called Disputation on the Power of Indulgences. We know it as the 95 Theses. This document was a series of 95 ideas about Christianity that Luther invited people to debate with him. By the way, it was not Luther’s intention to break away from the Catholic church. He only wanted to debate the practice of indulgences and reform those positions which he believed was a misuse of the Church’s power. The points Luther cited were controversial because they directly contradicted the Church's teachings. He challenged the Church's role as a intermediary between the people and God. He was opposed to a system that, in part, allowed people to purchase a certificate of pardon for the punishment of their sins. And he was against the practice of buying or earning forgiveness.

Luther believed that salvation is a gift that God gives to those who have faith. He also thought it was reprehensible that the Church was involved in selling indulgences to the poor in order to raise money to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. For the most part, most of the challenges to the Church revolved around the idea that believers should be empowered to be in direct relationship with God. They should take personal responsibility for their faith, and have access to reading Bible for spiritual wisdom. 

In other words, Luther saw that the Church enslaved her people in a system of power, control and greed that frightened the faithful, preyed on the poor, withheld the Word of God (the Bible), prevented believers from taking responsibility for their faith and discouraged the faithful from having a direct relationship with God. The result of the Reformation was that it provided freedom from the Church’s enslavement.

But what about our own personal enslavement?In today’s  Gospel lesson Jesus addresses the Jews who had believed in him. He says, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Caught and enslaved in their own belief, religious system, and denial; blindly they answer, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. They simply do not understand what Jesus is trying to tell them and they say, “What do you mean, Jesus, by saying we will be made free?”

Jesus answers them saying, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” In other words anyone who breaks any of the Ten Commandments or engages in any behavior that is harmful to another person is a slave to sin. 

Let’s face it folks, it is all of us! We all fall short of the glory of God. But the beauty of one of the main tenants of the Lutheran faith is the Theology of the Cross. It helps us understand the fullness of what it means to be human, and thus how broken humanity is. This theology is most certainly a uncomfortable revelation for us. We don’t like to think of ourselves as being enslaved to sin. 

And yet, there is good news in the theology of the cross because it points us to the center of our humanity, our trust in Jesus Christ. From the foot of the cross we see how wrong we are no matter how well we behave because we do not love and trust in God above all things. To our confirmands who are listening, this is what the first commandment is all about. We witness to the God who instructs us to trust him above all things. God bestows in us a new identity in this trust and sets us free with the truth that we are beloved and empowered by God to do God’s will. And so Jesus says to the Jews in our gospel lesson, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave only has a temporary place in the household; but a member of the family has place in the family forever.

Jesus goes on to say, “So, if the Son—Jesus is talking of himself—makes you free, you will be set free. No longer will you be enslaved by sin.” So, we, who are members of the family of God,  can celebrate and rejoice that Christ has redeemed us from our sin.

When it comes down it, God’s activity in our world and in our lives and the work of the Holy Spirt frees people in many times and places from all manner of enslavement—physical, institutional, or personal.

Today we celebrate, on this Reformation Sunday freedom from what enslaves us, as the Israelites did once did when they set free from the bondage they endured in Egypt. For you see, the Holy Spirit, showers down grace from heaven upon us. We celebrate the Spirit who broke through centuries of dead human tradition,  

to resurrect, renew, and recreate the Church. We all celebrate the Holy Spirit, who from time to time shakes us free from the bonds of tradition and addresses us face-to-face saying, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” The false gods that entice you or the living Lord. 

For we cannot, by our own strength and understanding, believe in the Lord, come to him, or serve him. And so in addition to celebrating the Holy Spirit’s breaking through to us, we also confess our weakness and our sin. Furthermore,  we dare to hope that the Holy Spirit—who calls us through the gospel, enlightens us through the sacraments, daily keeps us, and makes us holy—will overcome that weakness too.

We believe that the Holy Spirit rains down grace upon grace that frees us from our personal enslavement and fills our hearts with love.

And so I pray, may we come to know the truth of Jesus’ love. The love of Jesus that is the love of the truth makes us free and sets us free from the enslavement of sin. As Jeremiah puts it, the Lord will put the law into us, writes it in our hearts. For you, Lord, are our God. You forgive our iniquity, and remember our sin no more.

May we walk in the newness of life and in the joy of the freedom God grants us. And may all of God’s people say in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Amen.