Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church
Auburn WA, October 25, 2009 – Reformation Sunday
by Gregory S. Kaurin, Senior Pastor
Texts: Psalms 46; Romans 8:31-36
“The Remission of Sins”
Each year, on the last Sunday of October, we remember how, on October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther, our name’s sake, nailed up an invitation to debate him over something called indulgences. 1517: that means we are only 8 years away from the 500th Anniversary.
Here’s the introduction he wrote at the start of that invitation: “Out of love and zeal for truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following theses will be publicly discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the reverend father Martin Lutther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology and regularly appointed Lecturer on these subjects at that place. He requests that those who cannot be present to debate orally with us will do so by letter.”
Tradition has him boldly nailing it to the front of the new Castle Church door in Wittenberg; makes a dramatic image in our minds. But the front door of the church was the normal place to post flyers and announcements. Whatever poster he put up was bigger than what we normally picture. The 95 Theses normally take up about 8 pages in our books, so this was big flyer that he posted. Today, the door of the Castle Church has these 95 Theses permanently em-bronzed.
You know, we mention these 95 Theses nearly every year. The debate never formally happened, but the theses were reprinted and spread like wildfire. Today, very few Lutherans have ever read them. Many or most of us know that the Theses opposed the abuse of something called “indulgences,” but then again, not many Protestants really know what these indulgences really were. I should say, “are” since they still exist in the Roman Catholic Church.
For instance, right now, if you hurry over to Rome and visit the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs, (or as it’s better known, the Pantheon)… “It is the 1,400th anniversary of the Pantheon as a church and the pope has offered a plenary indulgence to all who attend Mass here during the month of October, [2009]” (Catholic News Service Blog).
What are indulgences? Generally, we Protestants think that they are pieces of paper or something you buy to keep yourself, or a loved one out of hell. This morning, I want to do something a little different with our time, and it’s going to take a little more work and concentration on your part. I’d like to take time to teach a few basic related terms and ideas. I just think it is helpful to have a better idea of what we’re talking about.
A little over ten years ago, we actually studied Indulgences and the 95 Theses in our Monday night Bible study over a period of 4 weeks. Since I don’t have those 6 hours, I’m going to have to skip going over the Theses and things like the difference between venial and mortal sins.
Let’s start with this: imagine that you went to church, confessed your sins and received the absolution. You’re forgiven. You’ve got nothing on your head; you are fit for heaven, or in what we might call a “state of grace.” Then, let’s say you commit a horrible sin. In a bit of jealous anger, you intentionally knock the neighbor’s beautifully carved jack-o-lantern off your adjoining property fence.
In that action, you move from being in a state of grace, fit for heaven, to being in a state of? sin, headed on a path for? hell. You have sin on your head. Okay, in the normal course of things, if you wanted to change your situation, you’d need to start with honest contrition, guilt for what you’ve done, or at least attrition, fear of eternal punishment. You’d rush to find your priest, and there you would confess your sin, and after doing that, the priest would absolve you, provide absolution of your sin, moving you from that state of sin immediately back over the line into a state of grace, once again headed toward? heaven.
Good for you. Seem too easy? What about the neighbor’s pumpkin? Does that fix the damage you’ve already done? How can you make up for the damage your sins cause on earth while you are here? Penance, or satisfaction. Penance: an act or sacrifice of humility or devotion to ‘satisfy,’ or make up for your misdeeds.
Added to that was the idea that this penance often takes time, or ‘temporal penance.’ So, even though you’ve confessed, received forgiveness, and are once again in a state of grace and destined for heaven, there was this idea that you still needed to make up for what you did, either here on earth while you were alive, or maybe even after you die. Every sin carries some kind of penalty that needs to be worked off. Worse sins carry steeper penalties.
Sometime after the 1300’s the idea of purgatory was more fully developed. Purgatory is that place for Christians who are destined for heaven. All their sins are forgiven, but they die before they have the time to work off all their penance… and in purgatory that penance, instead of taking a few actions or days, can take thousands of years. If you’re in purgatory, you will eventually make it fully into heaven, but only after many years of physical, spiritual suffering and devotion.
If only there was something that might speed this process up, powerful enough to move things along. If only there was some way I could help out my dearly departed Uncle Jim! I hate the thought of his suffering for the next 10,380 years in purgatory, but what can I do?
Enter the indulgence. Actually, indulgences are related to the idea of the Communion of Saints from our creed. We believe in the Communion, the Community, of all the Saints. All believers, you and me, together with the Virgin Mary and St. Paul, we make up this Communion of Saints, or the Body of Christ. The idea is that being together, we have access to all the good works of all those amazing Christians and martyrs before us, and that connection also allows us to help each other, even those who have already died. We can be “indulged” with an extra gift of grace, or with a prayer, we can send that indulgent grace to another part of the Body, even to Uncle Jim in purgatory!
Indulgences were basically special acts of penance, declared special by papal decree, that allowed you to draw on this treasury of the saints, to shorten the normal time of penance. That would be a partial indulgence. OR, to bring penance to an abrupt or immediate end, a plenary, or full, indulgence. You could not get anyone out of hell with it, but you could help them get out of purgatory for an immediate entry to heaven!
Okay now, let’s zoom a couple hundred years up to Martin Luther’s day. The pope had just started the 120-year project of re-building St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Rome. It is very expensive to build huge cathedrals, always has been. It takes lots of sacrificial giving. Always has.
Now, what if I told you that by making that sacrificial gift of a certain amount, toward the building up of the Church, this huge monument and symbol of our love and devotion of Jesus Christ, a huge place for the people’s prayer and devotion, what if I told you that your sacrificial gift would also give you or your loved one a full indulgence? And here’s a letter from Pope Leo X himself assuring you of that indulgence.
Go to Martin Luther’s city, and look at his people. Many of them could barely afford to feed their own families, and yet can you imagine the love and fear that inspired them to sacrifice for these pieces of paper. Life was suffering enough, but to imagine 1000’s of years in some kind of unknown land of purgatory, still trying to reach for heaven? But here was a promise of immediate release and relief: indulgence. People were neglecting God’s call to care for each other, to love their neighbors, all to get their hands on these pieces of paper… because they were afraid. Afraid of pain, afraid of purgatory. Afraid of God.
If God’s grace is going to be taken seriously, and trusted, if we are going to believe what Paul in the Bible tells us about this grace, then we cannot rebind people once again under the Law, or under new Laws of penance and indulgences.
Jesus says in the gospel that he is the Truth. The Truth sets you free. “Hold to my teaching,” he says, “Trust me, and that is enough. If the Son says you are free, then you are free indeed, fully.”
I took you on this journey today. It was more teaching and history than what we normally call preaching. But I want you to be aware that this rebinding still happens. It may be more subtle, and they don’t call usually it purgatory or penance, but it is this tendency to qualify other people’s Christianity, or yours. In fact, we do it to ourselves.
Christianity is, pure and simple, keeping Jesus Christ central, trusting that his death and resurrection on the cross paid any price, and that he has a eternal relationship with you that is not qualified, and cannot be undermined or taken away by any force. His forgiveness is full and free, even for sins known and unknown. Your place in heaven has already been prepared. Your loved ones are in the hands of God who willingly loved, died and gave himself for the world. I think we can trust God to do what is most loving, merciful, right and just. No tears in heaven, and no suffering in a purgatory to get there.
You and I slip up all the time, but we are not sliding back and forth between God’s grace and condemnation. He remains faithful, and his baptismal claim on you must be trusted. God did what he did to set us free, to be the kind of people he created us to be, We are no longer ruled by old or new Laws of sacrifice or by Rules of Purity. Instead, we strive to live by these fruits of freedom: love, peace, mercy, generosity …full of joy, patient even in difficulty. Yes we will make up for our sins, and admit that we pushed the pumpkin over, not because we’re afraid of purgatory or punishment, but because we’re sorry and it’s the decent thing to do. We will be kind and merciful because, after all that God has done, we can afford it. We can be unfearful. Unafraid.
Today, Pastor Jon will lift the communion cup saying that Jesus declared that this cup is the new testament of his blood shed for you and all people for the forgiveness, or remission, of sins. Your sins are in remission, not like the doctors say of cancer, which still leaves the possibility that it may come back. No, they, your sins, are remitted, sent to the cross and destroyed there, never to come back to you. Instead, Jesus Christ gives you a Life Sentence.
Just for one minute, can you trust Jesus at his word? Just for one minute can you trust the God who loves you and died for you? If this is the God who is on your side (and he is) then you have nothing to fear, or earn, or prove.
I declare to you, baptized children of God, by Christ’s authority, and for the sake of his cup of suffering and death, the entire remission of all your sins. He forgives you. So, let Christ stand you up, or hold you close, and can you say this once, at least for this moment of time, “I am not afraid.” Say it again, “I am not afraid.” Then there is nothing in our way.
