Sunday 28th June – Confessing Hope – Bishop Andrew Brook

Commemoration of the Augsburg Confession  –  Theme: Confessing Hope

Bishop Andrew Brook

20 years ago, Pastor Adrian and I spent almost three weeks in Germany. We were part of a group of 12 Australians who had been invited on a study tour which included visiting the key Luther sites: Eisleben, where Luther was born and died, Erfurt, where he studied at the Augustinian Monastery, the Wartburg Castle to which he fled when he was declared an outlaw by the church, and Wittenberg, the cradle of the Reformation. We were hosted by a wonderful para church organisation called Mission Eine Welt, located in a small rural town called Neuendettelsau.

We also travelled to a small town in southern Germany called Augsburg. It’s not well known these days, apart from its football team, Augsburg FC, who play in the German first division competition, the Bundesliga. But we were there to find the place where the Augsburg Confession was presented to the emperor and the German princes. This was the day before Google maps and smartphones, and we couldn’t find it. We left Augsburg disappointed.

On the 25^th of June 1530, 496 years ago, Luther’s right-hand man and chief theologian, Philipp Melanchthon, presented a summary of what the new reform movement known as Lutheran taught about the Christian faith. This event, called a Diet, which means an imperial assembly, was convened at Augsburg by Emperor Charles V. So why wasn’t Luther there? He was the one responsible for all the fuss in the church? Luther had been excommunicated from the church in 1521, after the Diet of Worms. There was a price on his head. That’s why his co-worker, Philipp Melanchthon, represented him. The document that the Lutheran movement presented is known as the Augsburg Confession, and it is the first chapter of the larger collection of Lutheran confessional writings known as the Book of Concord, to which the Lutheran Church of Australia subscribes.

So how did the Diet turn out? In one sense, it didn’t achieve what the Melanchthon and the Lutheran reformers had hoped, which was to restore to the church the clear and unvarnished gospel. But on the other hand, the Augsburg Confession did consolidate support for Lutheran teaching and became the foundational Lutheran confessional document.

Enough of the history, because what’s far more important is the content of the Augsburg Confession itself. Martin Luther had been shocked that the church only paid lip service to God’s word and to the key to the Scriptures-the good news that God has made us right with himself through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Luther was blown away when he read the Book of Romans deeply for the first time and discovered that God wasn’t constantly on his case, trying to trip him up and condemn him. Rather, the gospel proclaimed the gift of a relationship with God that was totally God’s work, and his sheer gift through faith.

Paul writes in Romans 1: “

For those of us who have grown up as Christians, and particularly Lutherans, this might appear to be self-evident, but that wasn’t the case for people who lived in Luther’s day. They spent their lives in fear of not measuring up to God. The gospel had been turned into a list of do’s and don’ts, and Jesus himself wasn’t primarily our Saviour but our judge. God’s law was the gold standard that we had to aspire to fulfill, and getting into heaven was a combination of starting off with grace and getting the rest of the way there by our own effort.

But Luther discovered that the heart of God’s word was the story of God’s underserved love for sinful human beings, a love made concrete in the person of his Son Jesus and confirmed in his death on the cross.

” God’s word was not a religious textbook, from which we deduce propositions about the nature of God and what God demands of us, or a collection of moral laws that teach us to live the right way. Rather, it is God’s promises of life and hope for the broken-hearted, food for the spiritually hungry and drink for those who are wrung out by the stresses and strains of life.  And that’s what’s at the heart of the Augsburg Confession-Article IV-the saving work of God-justification:

The main point that the Lutheran confessors were making is that this confession is faithful to the Scriptures, and that over time the church had lost focus on the heart of the matter, the good news of Jesus Christ, where life and hope are to be truly found through the power of God’s word.

The next part of the confession, Article V, is about the office of the ministry. How does this good news, the forgiveness get into our hearts, heads and hands?

That’s what’s happening right here, right now. Every time we gather in worship, we experience the power, truth and comfort of this word. In the three Bible readings we’ve heard of course. In the absolution that Pastor Adrian pronounced to you. God’s word, spoken through the voice of your pastor, read in worship, used in our liturgy, does what Isaiah says

In a little while, we will come to the Lord’s table, we hear the words,

We receive Christ, his life and forgiveness, through the power of the word in the bread and the wine. And then, at the end of the service, God promises his presence through his blessing

We know that God is with us always, wherever we are, whatever we do as his beloved people.

What difference does this make. In our lives?  Article VI is entitled, “Concerning the New Obedience

The Lutheran movement faced the accusation that this focus on the good news meant that people would sit back and do nothing, in fact, it didn’t matter what we did, after all, we’re forgiven. But this is not just false, but dangerous. God calls us to a life of faithfully following Christ by denying ourselves and taking up our cross. But Jesus can only ask this of us because of what he has done for us in his cross and resurrection. We can now obey God because God has poured out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

It’s on this basis that Paul addresses his son in the faith, Timothy:

This is what we call an evangelical command. It’s rooted in the gospel growing in our lives, seeding love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, all the good things of God which our world needs so desperately.

In the introduction the Augsburg Confession we read:

They understood themselves to be doing that Jesus said in today’s gospel reading.

To keep quite would have been to disown God and the way he has revealed himself to the world through his Son.

What does it mean for us to confess? It certainly doesn’t mean saying sorry for what we believe. Rather, it’s saying what we together hold to be true about who God and what he has done in Christ. And, as the writer of Hebrews says,

This confession fills us with hope. That we are loved, saved, redeemer for a godly purpose, secure in God’s care, freed to love and serve God and our neighbour in this life, confident of our eternal destiny.

How do we make our confession? Do we stand on a street corner? Do we give our friends and neighbours and friends a copy of the Augsburg Confession or the Book of Concord. We may do the latter, if they ask, but perhaps there’s a better way. Everywhere I turn, I see friends and neighbours who are looking for hope, for love, for community, for acceptance, everything that the word ‘grace’ and the good news through Jesus brings. We confess our faith in the God who says through Isaiah that he is near to all who call on him in our love for them, by actions and our words point them to the God who wants to break their spiritual drought by sending his word as rain to soak deep into their hearts and transform their lives through the seed of faith. May God bless the confession we make about the work and word of God in our lives, and the same gift he wants to give to all people. Amen.

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