Sermon for October 31st (Confess)

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”
I want you to imagine yourself standing in front of God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the mighty and everlasting God as you shout profanity at your spouse because you’ve had a bad day. Imagine Jesus Christ, your Savior, your friend, the lamb of God who was crucified for your sins listening in as you gossip about what a jerk someone has been to you at church. What would it be like to experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as you fall into a dazed and drunken stupor one Saturday night with your buddies. You might feel embarrassed. You might feel guilty. You might feel afraid. You don’t have to imagine any of this. God is by you during every sin and shameless deed, watching, listening, waiting, crying.

Do you realize that during every argument, during every steamy movie’s cinematic sex scene, during every late night party, throughout every bitter feeling, God is present and aware of your thoughts, actions and deeds? Do you realize it now? Imagine what it must be like for God to catch you in the act. To remember what has happened. If you feel even an inkling of shame, of guilt, of fear—then you can appreciate that a man named Martin Luther felt the same way once.

Now, imagine how you would feel if you were a slave being set free. No more beatings, no more demands, no more fear. Imagine falling in love at first sight and having that person love you back. Imagine you were an orphan, and you met your birthparents, and they had come to take you home once and for all. Do you realize that when Jesus died on the cross, he set you free from sin? Do you know that the creator of the universe cherishes you with a love unequaled by any other on earth? Have you heard that your father in heaven has looked and looked for his one lost sheep and now he has found you, you his beloved child? If you’ve ever known the feeling of relief, of freedom, the joyful celebration of reunion, the butterflies of love in your stomach, then you know what Martin Luther felt when he found out that the God he had been terrified of was actually a loving God, his Savior, his Father and his protection.

So then, is that what we are celebrating today on Reformation Day? The thoughts, feelings, and actions of a German monk 500 years ago? No. We are gathered together today because, get this, God’s not done yet! We are NOT simply memorializing the day a monk read the Bible and had his life changed. We are NOT simply remembering the 95 arguments that monk nailed to his church’s door-the 95 Theses. We are NOT celebrating HIS efforts at reform or even his great confession of faith in the face of great danger.

We are gathered together today with the faith and expectation that God’s Holy Spirit is doing it again today. The Reformation. Right here. Right now. In your life. In your heart. In your mind. In this church. Right now. Today. The Holy Spirit is not content with reforming one monk or even one Holy Catholic church in the 16th century. He is after the reformation of each one of you here. So get ready. Maybe historians will have something else to write about one day.

To have faith means to confess and God is out to get that confession out of you one way or another. Hey confirmation students! We talked about this the first week we met together if you remember. When God calls us to confess, he means for us to do two things. Both are important to our faith? Do you know what they are?

First of all, confessing means to admit that you have done something wrong. We do this every week at our worship service. “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves . . . .” We are all sinners here. If you’ve come into this church today broken down by life, believing that you don’t belong anywhere, then you are in the right place. You belong here. Faith means to confess that we are all equal in the sight of God. No matter our virtues and no matter our hang ups. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We stand speechless before God’s almighty justice.

Confessing also means to say, out loud, what you believe. We also do this every week in worship, maybe most clearly in the words of the Apostles Creed. When there is a baptism, we don’t just come up and say, “I believe in my heart”, we stand up and commit ourselves to faith in Jesus before the entire congregation. Why? “Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” Confessing what you believe, out loud, for the world to hear, is essential for faith.

If you attended a Roman Catholic church, you might begin to realize that the essential part of every worship service there was Holy Communion. In every Roman Catholic service, it is necessary to celebrate the Lord’s Super. If you attended a Protestant church such as a Baptist, Assemblies of God or Pentecostal church, you might begin to see that the essential part of every worship service is “conversion”: the altar call, the testimony of faith, the renouncing of the old self and the regeneration of the new self.

All of this is of course important for every Christian, but when you attend a Lutheran church, you will hopefully find that the essential part of the service is confession: confessing sins and confessing faith. If we don’t have the Lord’s Supper one week, it’s ok. No hymns, if we must. No offering, no faith talk, no sermon? Still possible. No scripture readings? Well, that’s tough to swallow, but you can still read the Bible at home. What is worship in a community all about? Why do we come together instead of being spiritual at home in our gardens and cornfields? Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the good news.” In worship, you confess your sins, you repent, and then you hear God’s forgiveness so that you can believe again.

In worship, this voice does not come from your own mind, or simply written in the pages of a book for you to read, it’s easy to wiggle out of that. In worship, this forgiveness comes from another person, someone who heard your confession, and when that person says, “By God’s authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all yours sins.” You can trust that forgiveness is as good as from the lips of Jesus himself. Because it’s God’s promise. And he promised, “He who hears you hears me. He who accepts you accepts me.” Faith comes through hearing. So that you can believe. Not just repent, but believe.

Without confession, we never admit that God has touched us. That we need a Savior and that we have faith in Him. By the power of the Holy Spirit, there is the possibility of a reformation every day. In your heart. In your life. In your church. Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, the Holy Spirit did. God did. And He still is. Whenever you take a stand for your faith in the face of danger, the Holy Spirit is reforming again. Whenever you confess your faith at church, the Holy Spirit is reforming again.

Yesterday, we had a praise band recharge. Like Martin Luther, these people in praise band are people who realize their failures, their tendency to selfishness, unforgiveness and anger. No one can see their sins without the Holy Spirit reforming their lives. But these men and women also have spiritual gifts of music, leadership, mercy and evangelism (to name just a few) and when they believe that God’s forgiveness is stronger than their sins and stand up in front of you again each week—standing up for their faith—that’s the Holy Spirit reforming this church. Every person who gets involved in this church is part of this reformation. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin and then compels you to stand up for your faith even in the face of your failures.

Martin Luther didn’t reform the church, but he sure did have some great quotes. I’d like to end today with one of my favorites, “Sin boldly, but believe in Christ more boldly still.” You are a bunch of sinners. Praise God for that! Because without the Holy Spirit, you’d never believe it. There is nothing more scary to me than meeting someone who doesn’t realize that they are a sinner. But today, on Reformation Day, we celebrate the possibility of God creating such faith in our hearts, that we stand up for what we believe in, trusting in God’s forgiveness more than our sinfulness, trusting that we are righteousness in God’s eyes through faith alone, not by what we have done or not done. Faith means to confess. To confess yours sins and then for the power of the Holy Spirit to wash over you with such exhilarating force that you start confessing your faith. In your heart. In your mind. In your mouth. In your world. In your church. Praise the Lord! It’s Reformation Day! Amen.