“…the truth will make you free.”

Today in our worship service we are remembering Reformation Day, which actually shows up on the calendar later this week (October 31).

Legend has it that it was on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther, a young German priest and professor of theology, posted his 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther wrote these theses – or statements – as a challenge to the Roman Catholic Church. He wanted to engage the Church in a discussion on current beliefs and practices that, in Luther’s opinion, did not reflect the true nature of God’s ongoing relationship with God’s people and with the Church. By posting these statements in a prominent place where many people would see them, Luther hoped to use them as the basis for reforming – changing and making new – the Church in some specific ways. It was not his intent to form an entirely new expression of the Church; though that is, indeed, what eventually happened. Sometimes, we don’t know how things will turn out.

Luther was led to his reforming ideas for the Church through a multiyear process of personal discernment – that is, a process of faithfully attending to God’s action in his life through scripture reading, sacred listening and reflection. In time, Luther came to the realization that God’s saving love offered to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is given to all people through God’s free gift of grace; that is, we “are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”, as we hear from Romans today.

Let’s be clear: God’s love and forgiveness for us – and for all people – is pure gift; none of us deserve it and there’s nothing any of us can do to earn it. We receive it by grace alone; through faith alone (which is also a gift) in Christ Jesus alone.

Luther’s new understanding of God’s gift of grace revolutionized the 16th century world and led to the reforming of the Church through the adoption of new teachings and practices. This included translating the Bible into the language of the people, so more people could read it and come to know the freedom that is found in God’s gift of grace.

Now, all these hundreds of years later, the Lutheran Church continues to believe and to teach that, grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church – in all its expressions – is still called to reform and to be made new, to change what we do and how we do it, to fully reflect the good news of God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ for all people and to bear witness to God’s enduring grace and mercy in the world in which we live today.

Now, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is called into a time of discernment; that is, a process of faithfully attending to God’s action in the life of this community of faith through scripture reading, sacred listening and reflection.

Now Holy Trinity, grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, is called to reform and to be made new, to change what you do and how you do it, to fully reflect the good news of God’s redeeming love through Jesus Christ for all people and to bear witness to God’s enduring grace and mercy in the world in which we live today.

We don’t know yet how this process of discernment and transition will turn out for Holy Trinity. My hope is that you will receive the wisdom you discover through your discernment  with joy and thanksgiving.

We do know that we live in a world that desperately needs to hear you and see you – and me – and all of us who follow Jesus – reflect in our our own lives – through our words and our deeds – the good news of God’s redeeming love; love that is freely given to all people  through Jesus Christ.

The world desperately needs to see you and hear you – and me – and all of us who follow Jesus – bear witness to God’s enduring grace and mercy in this world. In this time of violence, divisiveness, anger and lies, we must bear witness faithfully, with love and compassion, to the love that God has for all people; knowing, as the psalmist reminds us, that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”.

Now is the time for those of us who follow Jesus to continue in his word, to abide with him; to stand firm in his love; to speak the truth in love.

Now is the time to know the truth and to witness to the truth that we are set free from sin and death through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We are set free by God’s covenant – God’s promise – that God is our God and we are God’s people, created in the very image of God.

We are set free by the word of God, made real in Jesus Christ, to love and serve our neighbors and our enemies.

We are set free through the waters of baptism; strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit; to live fully and authentically as the unique person God intends each one of us to be.

We are set free through the body and blood of Jesus Christ; nourished at the table; to live boldly in the world; to speak the truth of God’s love for all people; to work for justice and peace in places where people are oppressed; to stand up against hatred and racism and sexism and gender violence and ableism and ageism and all other evil ways that seek to separate people from each other.

As people who follow Jesus, who know the truth that makes us free, we are free to let ourselves be reformed; we are free to be made new; we are free to change – to change what we do and what we think and what we say and how we live.

We are free to live in this present time, letting go of past practices that no longer serve the church or the world today; letting go of past conflicts and disagreements that keep us from fully loving each other as we are; letting go of judgement and fear, trusting fully in the Holy Spirit to lead us into a new way of being God’s people together in this place and time, all for the sake of the world that God so dearly loves.

The good news for this day is that we have been justified – we have been made right with God – by faith alone through grace alone in Christ Jesus alone. And it’s all a gift – freely given through the power of the Holy Spirit to you and me and all those who believe.

The good news for this day is that we have a permanent place in the household of God. Nothing can change that; “…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).

The good news for this day is that God loves each one of us – all of us – with an everlasting love, freely given and freely received as the true gift that it is.

May you live faithfully in God’s love and share that love as you go about your daily routine.

May you live faithfully in God’s love and share that love as you serve your neighbor with love.

May you live faithfully in God’s love and share that love as you witness to the truth that makes you free.