Sunday Sermon

Sermon # 1014
October 31, 2010
Romans 5:1-11
Dr. Ed Pettus

“Always Reforming”

While many people have or will be recognizing and celebrating Halloween this weekend, today is a great day in the life of the church for a very different reason. Today is Reformation Sunday. On October 31, 1517, in Wittenberg Germany, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, 95 theological statements published for debate. This was the way theological debate occurred in the 16th century, theologians posted their beliefs for debate with church leaders. Martin Luther’s 95 theses started the chain reaction that lead to the great reformation and the beginnings of the Protestant Church. Luther was not alone in the reformation as many theologians took off in various directions with ideas that challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s teachings lead to the formation of the Lutheran Church.

John Calvin was another theologian who began preaching, teaching, and writing theology similar to Luther but also differed enough to branch off into another strand of thought that would lead to the Presbyterian Church. There were others who also challenged the status quo of the church and thus we have today Methodist, Baptists, Pentecostals, and all other Protestant denominations.

In Luther’s 95 declarations there were two leading issues addressed in the life of the church: justification by grace alone (instead of works) and the church’s sale of indulgences (paying to have sins forgiven). Indulgences were the most egregious corruption in the church. Priests collected money from people basically charging them for forgiving sins, even to purchase forgiveness for those they believed to be in purgatory. The other major theology was works righteousness. Luther claimed that nothing we did could earn us salvation, but said: “we do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds” (A History of Christian Thought, Gonzalez, p. 29).

The Reformation was a long process over many years of debate and thought. John Calvin, for instance, began writing the Institutes (his systematic theology) in 1536 and they were not completed in the form we have today until 1559. Over twenty years of refining what Calvin interpreted in the Bible. Calvin redefined how the people of God thought about the character of of God and God’s relationship with humankind and his thought helped to shape what we know today as Reformed theology. One theologian who studied with Calvin was John Knox, from Scotland who helped shape the the church in Scotland. More reforms developed all across England, Holland and France until the Reformed movement was growing all over Europe.

Now let me take an aside here to point out that the Catholic Church today is vastly different from that of the time of the Reformation. The Catholic Church has itself been through reforms that have redefined how Catholics view scripture and grace and faith. The Reformation taught the Church that every group, Protestant or Catholic, need reforming any time we get away from scripture as our authority.
Donald McKim, in his book Presbyterian Questions, Presbyterian Answers, distinguishes the Reformation in this way:
Other reformers agreed with Luther’s criticisms of the Roman Church, but also began to differ with him on some items of biblical interpretation. This led to be recognized as another “Protestant” movement. Theologians such as Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and Heinrich Bullinger became leaders of this movement, which became known as the Reformed tradition. The term “Reformed” came from a comment by Queen Elizabeth I in England that the followers of Zwingli and Calvin were more “reformed” than the Lutherans, in that they wanted a more thoroughgoing reform of worship practices based on their understanding of the Bible.
”Reformed theology” refers to the theological beliefs taught by these early Reformed theologians and the tradition of their followers that began after their deaths and which continues to the present day…Reformed theology is marked by a recognition that Christian faith needs constantly to be articulated and confessed (Presbyterian Questions, Presbyterian Answers, McKim, p.4).

Presbyterians consider Calvin to be the father of Presbyterianism. His cornerstone theology is his work called Institutes of the Christian Religion where he discusses topics such as God, humanity, sin, grace, sacraments, scripture, and our “favorite” predestination. One of the most prominent theological articulations from Calvin are his five points that set Calvin apart from another theologian named Ariminius, those five points are popularly known as TULIP – T-U-L-I-P. TULIP stands for T- Total Depravity, that humans are totally affected by sin, U- Unconditional Election, that God elects persons to salvation, L- Limited Atonement, that Christ died for the elect, I- Irresistible Grace, that we cannot resist God’s grace, and P- Perseverance of the Saints, that once we are saved we will not be lost. TULIP has been debated ever since Calvin proposed these five points. Not all Presbyterians adhere to all the points, but that is the nature of reformed thought, we are always debating theology!
Other hallmarks of the Reformation for Presbyterians are recorded in our Book of Order, part of our church constitution. In Chapter two we read:
(G-2.0400) In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) identifies with the affirmations of the Protestant Reformation. The focus of these affirmations is the rediscovery of God’s grace in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. The Protestant watchwords—grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone — embody principles of understanding which continue to guide and motivate the people of God in the life of faith.
(G.2.0500) In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) expresses the faith of the Reformed tradition. Central to this tradition is the affirmation of the majesty, holiness, and providence of God who creates, sustains, rules, and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love. Related to this central affirmation of God’s sovereignty are other great themes of the Reformed tradition:
(1) The election of the people of God for service as well as for salvation;
(2) Covenant life marked by a disciplined concern for order in the church according to the Word of God;
(3) A faithful stewardship that shuns ostentation and seeks proper use of the gifts of God’s creation;
(4) The recognition of the human tendency to idolatry and tyranny, which calls the people of God to work for the transformation of society by seeking justice and living in obedience to the Word of God.

When at seminary we would joke sometimes that it seems impossible to have three “alones” but there they are, grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone. These were three foci of the reformed movement: focus on the grace of God to bring us justification in the righteousness of God, faith alone as the way to that justification, and scripture as our authoritative source to reveal grace and faith.

I selected the Romans 5 reading today because Romans was a key book for Luther in criticizing the church. The phrase “justification by faith” completely changed Luther’s life bringing him the joy that had been missing from his life prior to reading the Bible. What Luther took joy in discovering was that God’s gift of grace and God’s gift of faith and God’s gift of salvation is truly a gift, not something we earn. This reading of the text changed the Christian Church forever. We are who we are today because of those who came before us to pave the way in Reformed theology.

As the Book of Order states we are “The church reformed, always reforming…” Perhaps better said still: “The church reformed, always being reformed, because God does the reforming. Reformed and always reforming demonstrated a faith that is living, growing, changing, learning. We cannot be settled with faith. What we know of God at age ten is different when we are twenty and thirty and as we grow older we come to know and appreciate more about God. The Reformed tradition itself calls us to be ever studying, ever growing, ever faithful, ever grateful. Today we celebrate our history as the church reformed.

Perhaps we could consider this Reformation Sunday as a call to reclaim our history as a people of reformed faith – to renew our understanding of the centrality of the scripture and the gifts of God in grace and faith. Some would argue that we have forgotten who we are as the church of Jesus Christ, that our identity has become shaky at best, and that we need to get back to our roots as reformed thinkers. Who knows, the Spirit of God may once again move through the church and lead us to another great reformation. Ω