Reformation Sunday      October 29, 2006              P21-06              Pastor Laird Duran

Today is a special day for two reasons. It is Reformation Sunday. This is the day we remember Martin Luther and other reformers. Their great gift to us was that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, that has been revealed to us by God’s Word alone. Thus we learned in confirmation, the reformation decree, grace alone, faith alone, Word alone. It is also a day that we celebrate Austin’s confirmation. Today he will make a public profession of his faith. (Earlier we read his statement.)

Austin’s Statement of Faith I believe in God, the father, who created the Earth and through his found us. All that I have is his and all that I do isn't without him. He protects us with a sword of righteousness in times of evil. Jesus Christ, our savior, his only son, was given to die for us and our sin. Does this make us special? Why yes, if he gave his only son to save us from sin then we are special. Especially if he died on the cross and went to hell for three days. But in this selfless act of love he has given us eternal life if we will just believe. The Holy Spirit is there too. Some people say it is the least important of the Trinity. (But) It’s just as important if not more important. It wraps around us, engulfs us in his name. It's the active hand of God, working good around us and in our minds and souls. A weapon of God in which he inserts his glorious plan into us all. In the church we pray within him, as we were taught we should, and promise to pray for others for all of eternity.

Favorite Verse: Philippians 4:13 where Paul writes, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Thank you Austin for this fine statement. First it states the gospel that God has created us, and gives us all things. If you were to list all the things God has given you, it would be quite a list! Born into your family, with your parents, grandparents, sister, brothers, and so on. God gave you talents and brains! You’re smart! God also gave you many good possessions and things! Recognizing that and giving thanks is a blessing from God, the creator of all things!

Even more, this statement is very insightful when it asks, Does this make us special? Yes! You are exactly right. You know that Jesus acts’ of love shows us that we are special. And the fact you have said so means that you know you, and each of us are special to God who created us and redeemed us through Jesus Christ. Austin, you are special to your parents, to me, and to all of us.

Then your statement says, “But in this selfless act of love he has given us eternal life if we will just believe.” Let’s consider this in light of this verse in our reading today. Paul writes, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been shown, and is shown by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

"Through faith in Jesus Christ" that has been the theme of the entire Reformation and most Lutherans, and that’s what Austin says, too. Our translation says in vers 22- “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Congratulations parents and teachers! We have succeeded in teaching Austin what most of our bibles say. “If we believe in Jesus Christ, we will be saved.”

But let me suggest one little change that changes everything in this understanding that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. It requires a very brief lesson in New Testament Greek. The original of that phrase is "dia pisteos Hiesou Christou." Compare that to the English: "through faith in Jesus Christ." The Greek the word for “in” is “en.” Did you notice? The word "in" does not appear in the Greek. That's because the Greek phrase is what Greek students call a genitive construction. That simply means that the phrase shows possession in this case, it is the "faith" someone has in God.

Now, the problem in translating the Greek is that you have at least two choices in deciding who possesses this faith. The choice made by our translators is that the context implies that it is us, the believers, who possess faith in Jesus Christ. But the other choice, and, actually, the better way of translating such a phrase, is to make it Jesus Christ who possesses the saving faith.

The better translation is, we are saved "through Jesus Christ's faith," or "through the faith of Jesus Christ." This means that rather than being saved through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved by the faith of Jesus Christ.

It's not that these two ideas are mutually exclusive. Obviously, we cannot be saved if we do not receive faith at some point. Yet the scripture’s emphasis is on Christ's faith, and that makes our faith a matter of grace, not a choice we make all by ourselves.

Here’s my point. Your faith and my faith are not something that we decided we woke up one day and chose on our own. It is not something we have done. Rather, it was something God has done it to us through other faithful people. In your case Austin your faith was a gift from your parents and, your teachers and the members of this congregation. You may have others to add to the list of those who showed you the faith. Their faith, and your faith are a gift from Jesus, and his faith.

It was Jesus’ who had the faith that saves us, a faith in God that took him all the way to the cross, and because he is risen, he can give that faith to us! This is the way the Bible stories tell us over and over again. Paul did not decide to follow Jesus all be himself. He hated Jesus so much, he as was getting Jesus disciples’ arrested and turned over to the Romans by the hundreds. Then he was boweled over one day by an appearance of Jesus who asked him, “Why are you persecuting me.” Then Jesus ent him to the believers to teach him the way of Jesus Christ.

Even in the Old Testament, the same principal applies. Abraham did not decide to have faith. Rather, God came to him out of the blue one day through a priest he never met named Melchizadek, and blessed him. God chose Abraham, and Abraham accepted, and that was his faith.

Another example is Moses. Moses was trying to stay away, just raising sheep for a living. Then out of the blue, God spoke to him in a burning bush. Abraham listened to God’s call to become the leader of the people of Israel.

The principle is this. Salvation is something God does, through Christ. It is Christ’s faith that he gives us through the power of the Holy Spirit. When you are confirmed today, you are saying that Jesus has come to down to live in me through us! Now, that's really radical grace! You and I are that special to God. And being that special in God’s eyes changes the way we see ourselves when we face issues in our life.

Consider John. He’s 15 years old, a great student with parents that are great people, but then one day, he and his mother are in a bad car accident. They are both in the hospital, fighting for their lives, and he's not doing well in his struggle. Something else you should know about John is that he never has attended church regularly. He believes in God, mind you; but now, as he fights this battle against this tragedy. To him, God feels very far away.

Then John receives a visit from a well meaning Christian friend who says to him, "Just have faith in Jesus, and let him into your life, John, and he will help you get through this thing." With John wondering where God is, is that a helpful thing to say?

Or consider Jane. She is a thirty-five-year-old mother of two small children, who has just gone through a messy divorce. Jane has been a regular churchgoer most of her life; but to compound her emotional turmoil, she has just begun to have memories of being abused as a young child by her father, and her faith in God has been shaken to the core. How could God have let this happen to her? Where was God when she needed protection from her own father? Jane, too, receives a visit from the same well meaning Christian friend who says to her, "Have faith in Jesus, and he will bring you through this." Again, is that a helpful thing to say?

When it is so hard to do the simplest things, is it helpful to hear that there is something else we have to do, namely, believe in Jesus? Do John and Jane, hear this call to faith as something that helps them? More likely, since God feels distant in their lives, they experience it as another burden to add to their load. Austin, sometimes things happen in our lives that God feels really far away. When someone says, “If you believe in Jesus, God will help you, that would only make matters worse for you.”

That makes faith something Martin Luther called “works,” something we have to do in order to get ourselves saved. Luther and the reformers re discovered that faith is a gift of God to us, given to us through power of the Holy Spirit. When facing the challenges of life, it would far better to say that Jesus has faced the challenges of life, and he was faithful to God, his Father, even to his death on the cross. He knew th joy of having close friends and family like John the Baptist and Lazarus who died. When Jesus rose from the dead, he showed us that God has given us the victory over all the evil things that can happen to us because we are in him. That makes us special.

Now that we know the depth of God’s love, the way we live is changed. We will give thanks to Jesus for his faith in God, and his faith in us. We would not want to live in sin, arrogance or violence. We keep God’s law because we know that’s how God wants us to live in peace and righteousness in the world. We love our neighbor as God has loved us. We regularly praise God in worship and go and proclaim this gospel to others. We give generously to the poor. We do what we can to heal the sick, all because Jesus did this for us. We do all of this in response to the grace and love that God has shown us.

Austin, I pray you will life by grace alone, faith alone, and Word alone. By grace, live in the resurrected body of Christ now and forever. Austin, and all here today, let us sing a song of God’s amazing grace, and let Jesus live in us now and forever. Amen

Amen