Salvation Fire Sale   

 Romans 3:19-28

The following is a dramatization:

             I stand before you this morning in fear because the situation is urgent. So little time and so much at stake. People, there are souls in grave danger today. Souls in grave danger in this room. And even more so, souls in grave danger outside this room.

 

            My friends, God will not be mocked, and there has been a lot of mocking going on. You all claim to be Christians, to be followers of Jesus, but how do you back it up? For the most part, we pretty much all go our own way, and let Jesus hang around with us when it’s convenient.

 

            We give a lot of lip service to the importance of the 10 Commandments, but where’s the follow through?  Take the 3^rd commandment, keeping the Sabbath holy, a day set aside for God. When did we decide that was optional? Look at our attendance the last 2 Sundays—what happened there? Does the commandment say, “Keep the Sabbath when feel like it.”?

            What about the 8^th commandment against bearing false witness. According to Luther, this commandment means we should speak well of our neighbor, and always explain his words and actions in the kindest possible way. Does anyone here do that?

            What about bringing up a child in way he should go? Where have the kids been in Sunday school the past few weeks?

 

            You don’t have any idea of the trouble you’re in, do you?

            Here’s a news bulletin: being as good as the next guy, or better than most, doesn’t cut it with God. The Bible is very specific about what God expects from you, and you are not living up to that. How much are you supposed to give to the church? It couldn’t be clearer. The tithe, 10% off the top. Who in this congregation is doing that?

 

            Leviticus is full of rules about how you’re supposed to act. You’re not doing half of them. What, God’s laws are just suggestions, like a menu where you pick and choose—one  from column A, one from column B?

 

 

 

            What about that command to love your neighbor? How are you doing with that one? Bombing your enemies with love, are you? How about Jesus command to turn the other cheek? You say you’re a follower of Jesus, how come you don’t what he says?   

 

            Still think you’re relatively okay with God? Jesus says anyone who calls his neighbor a fool is liable to the eternal flame. Did you forget about that one?

 

            Yeah, you’d better be shaking. As John the Baptist said, “God’s winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”. You’re in trouble.

 

            Do you think this ritual of confession and forgiveness at the start of the service is going to save you? Are you serious? Of course God forgives sins, but only if you repent of them. Repentance does not just mean saying you’re sorry for them, it means you’re going to stop doing them. You turn away from what you do wrong and live differently. Go and sin no more.

 

            Well, do you? No, you don’t, you come here every week with the same old sins. You don’t change your ways. Do you really think God is going to forgive you just because for a few minutes on the occasional Sunday, you claim to be sorry for actions you have no intention of changing?

            My friends, forgiveness does not come without repentance. And true repentance requires sacrifice. Not just saying you’re sorry, but sacrifice to show you are truly sorry, that you are serious about wishing to make up your incredible debt to God. How are you going to prove to God that you’re sorry?

            People, that is why we have a church. Because individually we mess up and can’t get right with God. As it says in Romans, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God brought the church into being to offer you a way out of this mess. A way for you to redeem yourself, to prove to God that you are truly sorry for your sins.

 

            The answer is simple: cut loose some of your treasure. Give something to God. Whatever you give is not close to debt you really owe, and it all belongs to God anyway, but God will reckon it as righteousness and count it toward your salvation.

            God is giving you an opportunity to get salvation—at bargain rates. Here’s all you have to do. Double your giving, on the spot. Make a commitment now. Of course it’s going to hurt—that’s what sacrifice is all about. You give til it hurts, true sacrifice for the work of God, and God will reward and bless you.

 

            And if you think you’re in a bad spot, imagine how it’s going to go for those loved ones you worry about. The children who don’t come to church once confirmation is over. Friends who have fallen away over the years. Neighbors who don’t have any interest in learning about Jesus. All those sins that never confessed. All those years ignoring God’s law. God will not be mocked. What’s going to happen to them? 

 

            Again, the church to the rescue. We are here for you. Through the grace of God, you have an opportunity to intercede for them. Not merely with words, that’s cheap and easy to do. You’re going to have to do something to show you mean it. Back it up with some coin show you’re serious. When you give to the church on behalf of another, your generous work will touch God’s heart and he will grant them his grace.

 

            So following church today, we have two tables set up in the narthex. One is there to help you get right with God. And don’t try to cheap your way out. You think God doesn’t know when you’re being stingy. Make a commitment that shows you really repent. Open your checkbook, get serious. Let your contributions flows and blessings will flow back to you. For every hundred bucks you give, you will get an official certificate signed by the church, as evidence on your behalf on judgment day when that accusing finger points at you. You can hang them on your wall and let them be a comfort to you.

 

            The second table is for intercessory gifts. Do you want it on your conscience that loved ones are heading for eternal punishment and you just stood by and watched? Give the gift of love, intercede with them. A generous gift given on behalf of the unworthy will be accepted and highly regarded. Again, you will get a handsome certificate as proof of your Christian sincerity. It will be there for you to take comfort when you look on it, knowing that you did all you could for the loved one save from suffering.

 

Okay, end of dramatization.

 

            Wow, hellfire and brimstone sermons are fun. I can see why some people really get into them.

 

            The speech I just gave demonstrated what was going on in the time of Martin Luther. There is truth is much that I said, but the plot thickens when you consider the motives that lay behind those hellfire and brimstone speeches. Basically, the church was short on money for massive building projects. These sermons were proven effective moneymakers. Just push the soul-saving angle, with a heavy does of fear. The church gets a ton of money; you get to save your soul. It’s a win, win situation.

 

            No it isn’t. It’s a travesty of the Gospel. It’s why we had a Reformation, which we celebrate today. The church in the 16^th century had gotten away from its roots—the Bible. It had slipped back into the old money-changers in the Temple syndrome. The church was using the Bible as a fundraising tool, as a weapon to beat people into submission. They perverted the message of the Bible, which tells us that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to save us and bring us life.

 

            This Reformation of the church was not a one time thing. Like all of us, the church is constantly falling into bad habits, constantly in need of reform, of returning to the message of the Bible. One of the biggest television evangelism ministries in world today is based exclusively on this question: “Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and He were to ask you, `What right do you have enter my heaven.’ What would you say?”

 

            The implication is, you’d better get busy. Start earning your points before it’s too late.

            It’s a gripping and effective message, and it articulates a key doctrine of a major world religion. Only that major religion is not Christianity. The Bible never says you earn your seat in heaven. The Koran does.

 

            Isn’t it amazing that some of the most successful Christian ministries today take their marching orders not from the Bible but from the Koran?

 

            The fact is that those who don’t read history are doomed to repeat it. We are still fighting the same thing today that Luther fought against in his time.

 

            How would you answer the question, “What right do you have to enter my heaven?” If you are Lutheran, it’s easy. For all our faults, maybe it’s worth putting up with Lutherans in this world if for no other reason than we know how to answer that question. We are just rooted enough in history and tradition to know what the Reformation was about, why the Reformation can never be taken for granted, and why the Reformation is as relevant today as it was in the 16^th century.

 

            We answer that question by admitting straight out, “I have no right at all to enter God’s heaven. I have not done anything to deserve it; I cannot do anything to deserve it. Discussion closed.”

            As Romans says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Nobody earns the right. Not even the saviors of society. Not the self-proclaimed righteous. Not the moral champions of this world. Not the saints or the martyrs.

 

            As Paul notes, If I could punch my ticket into heaven under my own power, then I that death on the cross and resurrection was a nice gesture but really a tragic waste.

           

            All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. My right to enter into the presence of God does not exist.

 

            But I can do so because God wants me to be there. I get a free pass. Not because of who I am or anything I have done or will do. Christianity is a deep and mysterious and often mind-boggling religion, but it is based on a concept simply enough to be put in a children’s song: I get the free pass because Jesus loves me. The theological name for that is justification. The only justification or reason why we are able to live in God’s presence is that God gives it to us as a gift.

 

            There’s something uncomfortable about that. We like to pay our way. We especially want others to pay their way. All this freeloading isn’t good. Where’s the responsibility? Where’s the accountability? How can we build a church if is there is no one who feels obligated to help? How can we raise money no one sense of duty? It’s all going to fall apart. How do we expect people to behave if there are no consequences?

 

            In our world, in our society, we can’t. Our legal system operates on carrots and stick, rewards and consequences. Because of sin, we have to.

 

            But that is not how God runs things. God says, enter, live in the kingdom. Not because you earned it, but because I want you here with me, and I’m willing to pay the price to get you there.

 

            So where is the motivation to do good?

 

            The motivation lies in this: if we truly believe in a God who loves us so much that God has made an incredible sacrifice to give us a free pass, it will make a difference in our life. It has to. People respond to love. That’s how we’re made.

 

            If God’s grace and love do not bring about a change in my life, if they make no difference in my life, then clearly, I do not believe they exist. No matter what I say or do to convince myself or anyone else, my actions are what indicates whether or not I believe it.

 

            In God’s system, salvation isn’t something earned; it’s something that is given. Righteousness is not a cause of God’s action, it is an effect of God’s action. Good works are not a means to an end, they are signs of faith.

 

            Yeah, we could have made a bundle on a stewardship program that plays on earning our way to heaven. But the love of Jesus is too great a thing to cheapen by using it as a lever to pry money out of people’s pockets. We will have to find a different, more honest way to talk about stewardship.

            We will. Stayed tuned over the coming weeks.  

            Happy Reformation Day.