Sermon: Reformation Sunday, John 8:31-36

October 27, 2024 
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman

Today is Reformation Sunday when we celebrate the birthday of the Lutheran tradition. For it was 507 years ago, on All Hallows’ Eve (also known to some as Halloween), that Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses. That led the way to the Reformation which birthed our church. 

The genius of Luther is that he rediscovered the core of Christian teaching, namely, that we get right with God not by our good works, but because God loves us so much that God saves and redeems us as a gift of grace. The free gift of salvation is the central idea of Lutheranism. And this insight is rooted fundamentally in the writing of the Apostle Paul which Luther zeroed in on in his own thinking. 

Here’s how Paul sums it up in his letter to the Romans, today’s second reading: “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified [saved, redeemed] by God’s grace as a gift…effective through faith.” (Romans 3:22b-24a, 25b) In short, when it comes to our relationship with God, all we do is receive the gift of grace with confident trust and with a thank you. 

Today, I want to focus on two other themes that are central to our Lutheran understanding of the gospel, and they relate closely to salvation by grace alone. Those two themes are truth and freedom. 

Truth and freedom – two terms much used and much abused in the circumstances we find ourselves in these days in our society.

Here’s my take on popular understandings of truth today. It’s all about my personal truth. I have my truth and you have your truth. Thus, truth is whatever we want it to be. And if I feel it and have strong opinions about it, then it’s true. Full stop. Thus, there’s little sense of objective truth. And this relativism about truth paves the way for misinformation, disinformation, and so called “fake news.” And all of this wreaks havoc on our whole society leading people not to trust the judgements of doctors and scientists and other experts. This corruption of how we understand truth may lead to our destruction. 

Then there are the popular views of freedom. Freedom for so many is really licentiousness, lawlessness, no rules, no regulations. In simpler terms, many believe that freedom means I can do whatever I darn well please, regardless of the consequences and the effects on others. 

We see this kind of attitude in the corruption of the First Amendment on freedom of speech. For too many, this freedom means that I can say whatever I want regardless of how this may lead to damage and destruction. And this also paves the way to wantonly spreading lies and misinformation. Such a perverted view of freedom may also lead us down the paths of destruction. 

That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news: Jesus’ views of truth and freedom stand in stark contrast to today’s popular views of truth and freedom. For Jesus, truth and freedom have everything to do with him personally as God’s Son, and indeed, as God himself, a key person of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. 

Here’s Jesus’ own words as recorded by the gospel writer John: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31b-32)

Jesus goes on to say in essence that we are captive to sin and we cannot free ourselves. Again, Jesus’ own words in John: “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin… [But] if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34b, 36) In short, Jesus is truth and Jesus is freedom.

Here’s the conundrum, the problem: we cannot by ourselves and our own efforts fully or consistently embrace more godly understandings of truth and freedom, because our old sinful self keeps pulling us down in the opposite direction. We still end up with a relativized view of truth as whatever I want it to be and a view of freedom that means I can do whatever I want. We need help out of these pits that we dig for ourselves. We need a savior.

And who will save us from ourselves? Christ, of course, which is why the truth about truth and freedom are rooted in his personal identity as God’s Son, as the Word of God who was and is God made flesh to dwell among us. It’s why Jesus says of himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” And it’s why Jesus says, “If you continue in my word… you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” 

And Christ’s truth and freedom are seen most explicitly and most decisively on the cross and in the empty tomb. It’s on the cross that we see most clearly the truth about God, the truth that is God. God loved us so much that he gave his only Son to die for us. And it is Christ’s dying, vindicated by the resurrection from the dead, that truly sets us free from our captivity to sin, mortal finitude, and death. Alleluia. 

So, how do we continue in this Word who is Christ Jesus in such a way that we may know the truth of Christ and be given freedom in Christ? 

By doing exactly what we’re doing right now, dwelling closely with Christ in his Word in the scriptures and in the sacraments where Christ is made known to us. For it is here through these means of grace that we receive the gift of Christ’s personal presence to us, who conveys to us God’s free grace and mercy and forgiveness, God’s truth and God’s freedom in Christ. 

Moreover, here in this place we see how the prophecy of Jeremiah is fulfilled among us, as we heard in today’s first reading: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with [my people]… This is the covenant that I will make with [my people] says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

God’s law of gracious love is written on our hearts, and comes to dwell deeply within us, when we are baptized into the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection. We are thereby freed to live a new life in Christ when we emerge from the waters as beloved children of God. 

And when we come to this table to eat the bread and drink from the cup, we literally take Christ into ourselves, where the law of love will dwell within us and be written on our hearts. Through Christ dwelling deeply and sacramentally within us, we thus come to trust, have faith in, God’s way of truth and freedom in Christ.

And this indwelling by faith of the truth and freedom of Christ is the antidote to all the ways we humans corrupt and abuse truth and freedom. Truth is not whatever I want it to be. Truth is rooted in Christ and Christ’s word first and foremost. 

And we come to see that freedom is not freedom from rules and the claims of others, but freedom for serving our neighbors in love and mercy. Because we are freed by God’s grace and mercy through faith, we are free to be for our neighbors in loving service. That’s true freedom. It’s not a freedom from others, it’s a freedom for others!

Thus, we leave this place in the truth and freedom of Christ to serve our neighbors in need and to seek God’s justice. (You know that I say this Sunday after Sunday because it keeps being true! It’s not that I’m a broken record; it’s that we need to be reminded of gospel truth all the time, lest we forget, as we are wont to do!) 

So, we proclaim Christ, who is truth and freedom, in word and deed to a world held captive by lies. Through our ministry as church, may our world know the truth and be set free that we may be saved from destruction. When it’s all said and done, that’s what Reformation Sunday is all about. That’s what every Sunday is about. Amen.