Loving God, through your Son Jesus you reveal the truth to us about our own sinfulness, and also about the depth of your great love.  Enable us today to rest in your love, marveling at your most gracious gift, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Just out of curiosity, how many of you who are here today came in order to hear a history lesson about Martin Luther?  How many want to know all about the 16th century and the Reformation?  And how many would like to hear the truth?  Are you sure?  Can you handle the truth?  Or do you kind of “edit” the truth, like the people talking to Jesus in today’s gospel?

    “We are descendants of Abraham,” they proclaim, “and have never been slaves to anyone” (Jn. 8:33).  Really?  What happened to that time when they were slaves in Egypt and were rescued by God’s mighty hand?  What happened to those times when they were carried off by the Assyrians and the Persians – taken away as slaves to Babylon?  Apparently their memory has become very selective, and they do not believe that they need to be set free.

    However, Jesus persists in telling the truth.  “Very truly, I tell you,” says Jesus, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34).  So... does that include us, or do we have selective memories, too?  Do we think of ourselves as sinners who need to be redeemed and set free, or do we think of ourselves as basically good people who are trying our best?  Enter the apostle Paul, who persists in the same vein as Jesus as he writes to the Romans: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).

    Let’s test this out for a moment and see if we are, indeed, under the power of sin.  Have you ever neglected to share with somebody else who is in need out of fear that you won’t have enough for yourself?  If you have, this is sin.  It is failure to trust God for all that is needed and failure to cultivate a spirit of generosity.  Here’s another one: Have you ever found yourself unable to trust others because they might take advantage of you?  This is what the power of sin does.

    How about this: Have you ever looked after your own interests without regard for the needs of your neighbour?  This, too, is sin.  And how about the decisions we make every day about what to eat or what to wear or what to buy that adversely affect either the well-being of others or the well-being of the planet?  This, too, is sin.  And finally, what about the approach that says, “Make what you can, can what you make, and sit on the lid!”  This is greed and idolatry and a failure to acknowledge God as Creator and Owner and Provider.

    The truth is that none of us live up to the vision that God has for us.  None of us live in perfect trust, using all that we have in order to glorify God through service to others.  None of us manage to fully untangle ourselves from the greed and the dedication to false gods (or idols) that surround us in this world.  Truthfully, the sin that enslaves us is inextricably woven into our existence, and we cannot set ourselves free or save ourselves.

    However, this is the point at which we learn the truth about the God who forgives us and loves us and sets us free.  We first learn this truth today in the reading we heard from Jeremiah, where God announces forgiveness for those who have shamelessly broken God’s covenant with them.  “I will forgive their iniquity,” says the Lord, “and remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).

    Do you know how thoroughly and utterly the people had ignored God’s covenant before this message was passed on through Jeremiah?  Time after time after time they had turned to idol worship, neglected the poor, perverted justice through bribery, neglected the Sabbath, and cheated one another, among other things.  Time after time God had sent prophets just like Jeremiah to speak to the people and let them know how greatly they had neglected God’s covenant, as well as the judgement they would face because of this failure.

    However, in the midst of Israel’s unfaithfulness comes this promise of a new covenant and of God’s “intentional amnesia” – forgetting about their sin and forgiving them.  It is the same thing that God does for us through Jesus Christ – setting aside our sin and viewing us as if we are Jesus.  “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36).

    I have to wonder, though, how many of us have just as much trouble accepting this truth as we do the truth about our own sinfulness.  Those of us who don’t want to be beholden to anybody, does that also mean that we don’t want to be beholden to Jesus?

    I’m not sure if any of you have the same reaction, but it always makes me squirm at least a little bit to watch a movie or maybe an episode of a TV series where a beloved and trusted leader steps in and takes the punishment for something that they didn’t do.  Quite often it seems to be part of the story line that the leader steps in on behalf of a crew member or a team member and says, “Take me instead.”  Usually it makes other characters in the story squirm as well, as they don’t want to see their beloved leader suffer on their behalf.  If somebody says, “Here - you go free and we’ll keep your captain,” most don’t want to do it.  Most wouldn’t mind nobly offering themselves up, but they certainly don’t want to see somebody else doing the same for them.

    I have to wonder how many of us feel the same way about Jesus.  He did, in fact, offer himself up on our behalf.  He did it out of love for us and endured much undeserved suffering.  He offered himself in order to give us an amazing gift: forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  Are we ready to accept it and to experience the freedom that it brings?

    The thing is that when we know that we are loved and saved and forgiven, we are free to live in love rather than guilt and fear.  When we know how much we have received from God’s hand, we are free to live in trust and gratitude and generosity.  When we know that we are forgiven, we are free to confess our sins, leave them behind and live a new life – even if we have to rededicate ourselves each and every day!  When we know that we belong to God, as does the world and all that is in it, we are free to live secure in the knowledge that the end of all things is ultimately in God’s hands, just as we are.

    Ultimately, it is also God who has done the hard part – who has set aside our sins and has remembered them no more.  It is God who has loved us with an everlasting love – sending Jesus in order to save and redeem us.  It is God who reveals to us the truth, and who sets us free.  For “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36).  Amen.

Reformation Sunday                            John 8:31-36
October 30, 2011                                Romans 3:19-28
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                        Jeremiah 31:31-34
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2011 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved