Sunday
10/28/18 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Sola Fide”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
New Testament
Scripture: Hebrews 7:23-28
Gospel Lesson: Mark
10:46-52
Welcome again on this our Twenty-Third Sunday after
Pentecost, and on this our Reformation Sunday.
The word Reformation, can be a mouthful. What is a
reformation? Further, why do we have a Reformation Sunday? According to one
source that I found, the word Reformation has a couple of basic definitions.
One definition of Reformation is:
“1.
The action or process of reforming an institution or
practice”.
“2. A 16th-century movement for the
reform of abuses in the Roman Catholic Church ending in the establishment of
the Reformed and Protestant Churches” (www.google.com).
According
to another source that I found, the Reformation that I will be discussing this
morning is:
“The Reformation (more fully the Protestant Reformation, or the European
Reformation) was a schism in Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther and continued
by Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers in 16th-century Europe”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation).
Essentially
then, five-hundred years ago last year, in 1517, the Christian Church began
undergoing a massive set of changes, or reforms, or a Reformation.
For some
people that have celebrated this historic Sunday, they have seen it as the Sunday
where we explain why we are right and the Roman Catholic Church is wrong. This
is not what this Sunday is about, and in fact, the Roman Catholic Church today
in 2018, is very different than it was 500-years ago.
The problem 500-years
ago was corruption, greed, and the over-reach of power. Today in some churches people
sometimes still leave there church because they feel that the pastor has too
much power, too much authority, or too much influence. What do we do to check
the power of our clergy? Yes, I am asking you how do we keep our pastors and me
in check?
Well 500-years
ago in Martin Luther’s day, there wasn’t much that you could do to check the
authority of the church leaders. Martin Luther, a German Roman Catholic Priest,
who preached and taught in Germany, witnessed some of the practices in the
church as being not Biblical and not of God. The specific one that really
infuriated Luther, was the selling of the forgiveness of sins. You heard me
right, if you paid the church a set amount of money, then the church would guarantee
that you and your family members would all go to heaven. To certify this, the church
would give you a document called an “indulgence”. Well, this set the great
reformer Martin Luther into a rage. Selling the forgiveness of sin, how awful! How
corrupt!
Well Luther
was a good Roman Catholic and wanted to address the concerns that he had with
the church. This culminated in a document called the 95-Theses that Luther
nailed up in Wittenberg. Luther was hoping initially that within the Roman
Catholic Church that these reforms could happen. He didn’t want to leave the
Roman Catholic Church initially, but reform it.
Last year on
the 500th anniversary of the start of the reformation, Roman
Catholic Cardinal Arch-Bishop Timothy Dolan of the New York City Diocese and
other Roman Catholic Bishops agreed with Martin Luther. They said that he was
right to stand against the corruption that existed in the church at the time.
Further, one Roman
Catholic Bishop said that if the Pope had tried to reconcile with Martin
Luther, we all might still be Roman Catholics today. The way the Roman Catholic
Church has religious orders, like the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the
Jesuits, and etc., there could have been a Roman Catholic order called the “Lutherans”.
Yet, the Roman Catholic Pope at the time, Pope Leo X kicked Luther out of the
church or excommunicated him. At this point Luther had thousands of followers.
Soon after this, King Henry VIII of England took the British Church out of the Roman
Catholic Church. This church became known as the Church of England, or in
America the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church. The founder of the
Methodist Movement, Rev. John Wesley was a priest or a pastor in the Church of
England. This is why early on, the Methodist Church was called the “Methodist-Episcopal”
Church, due to our connection to the Church of England, or the Episcopal Church.
So with all of
this said, what did the great reformers teach that was so different than the Roman
Catholic Church? Did Martin Luther and the other Reformers not believe in our
historic statements of faith like the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Athanasius
Creed? Nope, they believed all of them. Did they not believe in the Holy Trinity
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Nope, they believed that to.
Luther became
convinced of a few things, however:
1. We don’t need to buy
our way into heaven, we get there through faith in Christ, and faith in Christ
alone.
2. The Bible is the
ultimate authority on earth for the church and for us.
3. There is not one
sovereign head of the Christian Church, other than Jesus Christ.
The disagreement wasn’t over the core beliefs of
Christianity then, but more how it was being carried out. Martin Luther taught
therefore that heaven, salvation, are free gifts offered to us only through
Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can give or do, to earn the grace of God so
freely given to us through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is repent of our
sins and accept Jesus Christ. The church exists therefore to transmit the
saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We then equip and
train converts to serve and love our neighbors. Or as the mission statement of
the United Methodist Church says, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ, for the
transformation of the world”.
So to just break this down, then tie this to today’s gospel
lesson, there are five main points of the overall Reformation of the Christian
Church. Sometimes we call these the “5-Solas,” or the 5-alone statements. (https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/the-five-solas-of-the-protestant-reformation.html).
What are these “5-Solas”? They are:
2. Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved
through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
3. Sola Gratia (“grace alone”):
We are saved by the grace of God alone.
4. Solus Christus (“Christ
alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
5. Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory
of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone (https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/the-five-solas-of-the-protestant-reformation.html).
Let me repeat
these again:
2. Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved
through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
3. Sola Gratia (“grace alone”):
We are saved by the grace of God alone.
4. Solus Christus (“Christ
alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
5. Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory
of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone (https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/the-five-solas-of-the-protestant-reformation.html).
So the Reformation that was started by the German Monk,
priest, writer, and teacher, Martin Luther, would quickly develop into a movement
focused on the Bible, faith in Christ, God’s grace, Christ as our only savior,
and living for the glory of God. In general though, we share many of same beliefs
that the Roman Catholic Church still has.
In general though, the Roman Catholic Church has much more
tradition than we have in the United Methodist Church. In the United Methodist
Church for example, some pastors robe up every Sunday, some never. Some worship
services like this one still look traditional, and some don’t. Some look like a
rock concert. If scripture is the ultimate authority though, then how much
tradition should we have? These are things to consider. Our robes are
tradition, the seasons of Advent and Lent are tradition. Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday are tradition. Next Sunday being All Saint Sunday is tradition. Our
parament rugs on the pulpit and lectern are tradition. How much tradition
should we have and why?
So to boil this all down, the Reformation became about
faith in Christ alone, the Bible, and getting back to the basics of the
Christian faith.
To connect with our gospel of Mark reading for this
morning. Once again the gospel lesson says:
“They came to Jericho. As he and
his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of
Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have
mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more
loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him
here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is
calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then
Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to
him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him,
“Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and
followed him on the way”
(Mk. 10:46-52, NRSV).
Now in this gospel lesson, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,
who is blind beggar, is shouting for Jesus to have mercy on him. He has no
money, no power, and he certainly can’t pay to have his sins removed. In fact,
the scripture says, “Many sternly ordered him to be quiet,” yet he shouted even
louder (Mk. 10:48, NRSV).
Jesus ordered that Bartimaeus come to him. Jesus then says,
“What do you want me to do for
you?” (Mk. 10:51, NRSV). Bartimaeus of course then asks Jesus to
make him be able to see again.
This gospel lesson ends once again with Jesus saying:
“Go; your faith has made you well.”
Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way” (Mk. 10:52, NRSV).
So what healed
Bartimaeus and caused him to regain his eye sight? Was it that he paid a sum of
money? Was it that he came from the right family? Was it that he did a certain number
of good things for others? No, Jesus said, that it was his faith that made him
well.
The Reformation my sisters and brothers, on this
Reformation Sunday is significant, because 500-years ago a movement started to bring
us back to the scriptures, back to faith, and back to Jesus Christ.
The church exists to be a beacon of Christ’s light in the
world. It exists to bring people to the saving grace of Christ, to train and
equip them to serve Christ, and then to send them out into the world to serve
others in the name of Christ. This is what the Reformation and Reformation
Sunday is all about. Amen.
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