October 30, 2022 Text: Revelation 14:6-7
Dear Friends in Christ,
We all can be disagreeable. What disagreements are worth it? In my anecdotal evidence collecting of the last 30 years there is one thing that stands out this time of the year especially among spouses. What temperature are we going to set the thermostat at for the winter months? There seems to be a lot of disagreement among spouses. One of you likes it cooler, one of you likes it warmer. Most of us end up compromising and set it at a temperature we can live with. The same thing tends to happen with the summer thermostat setting. At the Lueck household we have learned that we are not going to agree. I prefer sauna. Toni prefers igloo. We have found the disagreement is not worth it. With the price of natural gas this winter, I am willing to concede another degree or so. How does it play out at your home? We even have the same challenge here at church with competing voices.
Today is Reformation Sunday. Was the disagreement Martin Luther and the reformers had against the Roman Catholic Church at the time worth it? Is the disagreement still worth fighting for today? Let’s see where we land as we answer . . .
“WAS (IS) THE DISAGREEMENT WORTH IT?”
Our text is from Revelation 14. “I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” (v. 6)
Having been Lutheran my whole life I learned for the first time this week that many Lutherans thought for years that the angel or messenger referred to here is the reformer, Martin Luther. C.F.W. Walther, the first president of the LCMS preached in a sermon just 177 years ago this, “The angel, the one sent from God, who flew through the midst of heaven is Luther, and the eternal Gospel that he preached is Luther’s doctrine.”
For the last one hundred years not a single Lutheran can be found who still believes this way. But it is not far-fetched that many felt this way for so long because Luther, by the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, had set them free from utter bondage. And that was no small thing.
Walther characterizes it this way: “Before (Luther’s Day), nearly a thousand years of spiritual darkness had settled over all of Christianity…The light of the pure Gospel was lost nearly everywhere…the Holy Scriptures lay in dust, right in the midst of Christianity…Christianity languished in fearful despair and anxiety. Thousands had, in their previous predicament of sin, cried out in vain, ‘What must we do to be saved?’ but there was no answer.”
It was really bad. It does not get more desperate or worse in this life, than when a man does not know, cannot find, the gracious God revealed at last in the Gospel that Luther discovered in the Scriptures and proclaimed so clearly.
This idea of infused grace, conditional penance and mitigated forgiveness could not satisfy his yearning to know that God was his friend and not his enemy. The Roman Catholic system at the time was good at raising money but had little to deliver man under the burden of the flesh a clean conscience and confidence with God.
Luther with a great desire to understand the Bible and with God’s grace found that Christ is his Savior from sin. God the Father declares him righteous in love. Christ is your Savior. His death on the cross has taken away your sin, given you eternal life, despite your sin, entirely apart from any works of yours. No credit belongs to us poor sinners, but all the glory for our salvation, our standing, and our confidence belongs to God alone. This is what Luther preached.
So is what he did worth it? Was the disagreement worth everything that he gave up, including his freedom for a time? We have to respond yes. His grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone preaching and teaching was and is important. We no longer have to worry about doing enough. Christ has done it all in our place. This is a free gift given to us by our gracious Lord. This message is still important. It transforms lives. Both in Luther’s Day and in our day.
We continue to battle for the truth of the Bible. The inspired, inerrant Word of God does not change. We preach and teach the Law and Gospel. Yes, we struggle in our sin but we are saved through forgiveness that comes through Christ Jesus. We are strengthened in the Word and the Sacrament.
The thermostat may not be worth the battle, but the Word of God always will be. It needed to be reformed in Luther’s Day and so many believers came back to what our text says, “Fear God and give him glory…worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” Our text also says, “the hour of his judgment has come.” Therefore, we continue to stand for the truth of His Word. We desire, through the Holy Spirit, as Scripture declares, “that all people be saved.” We still have work to do.
The Reformation disagreement was and is worth it. We do well to remember it with thanksgiving to God.
Amen.