Sermon for Reformation Sunday: "Jesus' Word Does the Work"

+ Reformation Sunday (observed) – October 27^th, 2019 +

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

In a sermon Martin Luther preached in Lent of 1522, he had this to say about the Reformation: “I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”[1]

For Martin Luther, Jesus’ Word did all the work. Jesus’ word changed him from fearfully and failingly trusting in his own merits to confessing that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Pure gift. Grace. Christ who justifies the ungodly. God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us. 

Whether Luther was translating the Scriptures into German, or debating the real presence of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper with Ulrich Zwingli; whether he was singing hymns with his family at home with his lute, or writing “A Mighty Fortress”, Luther understood that it was not his own reason or strength, nor was it his merit or worthiness that caused the Gospel to be rediscovered, preached, proclaimed, and spread. Jesus’ Word did all the work. 

The same is true for us. Here at Beautiful Savior in Milton, WA, Jesus’ Word does all the work. In our live as stewards, evangelists, and in our care and mercy for our neighbors, Jesus’ Word does all the work. As we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest His Word in Sunday School, Bible class, or VBS, Jesus’ Word does all the work. As God gathers us together on this Reformation Sunday to hear his Word and receive his Sacraments, in all that we say and do as God’s people in God’s house, Jesus’ Word does the work.

Jesus’ Word also does the work of revealing our sinful condition, as he does Paul, whom he sends to us like a skilled physician, to give us the deadly diagnosis of our sin. 

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”

After hearing that, none of us are left standing. This is why Jesus says, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Jesus’ Word has done the work of showing us our sin. Diagnosing our deadly condition. Jesus’ Word, declares St. Paul, does the work of stopping our mouths. All rebuttals, excuses, and attempts to justify ourselves are clear cut away. 

Jesus’ Word does the work. The good and gracious work of setting us free, of releasing us from sin and death by his death on the cross. That’s what Jesus was trying to teach the Jews who believed in him in John 8.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples…

To be Jesus’ disciple is to be connected to his Word; his word that does what he promises. To receive the Word made flesh weekly in his body and blood; to live in Jesus’ Word given to us at Baptism by daily dying to sin in repentance and rising again in Christ’s forgiving Word of absolution. Apart from God’s Word, our faith dies. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Imagine if we treated our daily eating habits like we do our hearing and reading of God’s Word: “I don’t want to eat today, I’m too tired. I ate last week, I don’t need to go and eat this week. I’m just so busy, I can’t seem to find time to eat.” 

When it comes to food for the body, there’s wisdom in moderation; it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Not so with the daily bread of God’s Word. God’s Word isn’t meant to be read and heard in moderation. We simply can’t receive, read, and hear too much of God’s Word and Sacraments. There’s no such thing as receiving God’s forgiving, healing, saving, undeserved, grace and mercy too many times. 

For as our bodies waste away without nutrition, and as a branch withers and dies apart from the vine, so too, our faith is starved and dead apart from God’s Word. But where Jesus’ Word abides, here in your Baptism, here in his body and blood for you, here in the forgiveness of sins proclaimed and given freely for you, you abide in Jesus’ Word. Jesus’ Word does the work. Makes us his disciples. Sets us free from sin and death.

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

Jesus’ Word does all the work. 

That’s what Luther rediscovered in the Lutheran Reformation, Jesus’ Word does all the work. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift in Christ Jesus.

The same is true for us 502 years later. Jesus word does the work of calling us his children, washing away our sin, and clothing us in Christ’s death and resurrection in the water and Word of Holy Baptism.

Jesus’ Word does the work of giving us the gift of faith by his Word, water, and Holy Spirit. Faith that is given by grace alone, in Christ alone, found in God’s Word alone. 

Jesus’ Word does the work setting us free in his word of absolution: I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Word does the work of giving, feeding, nourishing, saving, healing in his body and blood – a glorious word of promise found in simple bread and wine, given and shed for you.

Jesus’ Word does the work of turning our sinful hearts from staring inward at ourselves to looking outward to our neighbor in need. 

Jesus’ Word does the work, today on Reformation Sunday, and every day. 

A blessed Reformation Sunday to each of you…

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.