Sunday 27th October – “Re-form Me” – Pastor Adrian Kitson
Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, John 8:31-36, pastor adrian kitson, Re-form me, reformation, Word Alone
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Everybody knows that if you want to have a nice relaxed and cosy dinner with friends, there are two things you don’t bring up: religion and politics. Might be the same rule concerning these two things of which Jesus speaks – truth and freedom.
Truth. What is that and does it exist in these times of fake news.
Freedom? Freedom from what or who? Free speech, free choice, free love, free to be me …
Jesus raises these thorny topics in another stoush with people of his own ethnicity – Jewish people; and a particular group of Jewish people; those
“who had believed in him”
Who were they? Maybe people who started well but were now struggling. Or maybe they started well and were now not following.
Luther reckons these people are those who hear the good news of God’s grace in this Jesus but when challenged by someone or something, they totter; they ask if they really have to give up this or that for the sake of this Jesus; this ‘truth’? (LW 23, John 8:32)
I think we know a lot of people like that! Many we know are saying, “No. I will not give up this or that for this Jesus, and I am unconvinced that his truth is my truth”.
And we have a particular problem with ‘truth’; Now it is “MY truth”.
Truth for us Western people is something self-constructed by each person, not given by a person, or God.
Apparently, the philosophers and culture makers tell us that the challenge we all have is to discover our own truth about who we are and what we are here for.
So, any talk of truth being given or always true for all, is now the enemy of my freedom. Belief in a given, absolute truth that you receive is too confining, too constraining. Truth is a straight jacket on our personal individual freedom.
No. we want to sing along with Freddie Mercury, “I want to break free”!
Don’t tell me what to do or how to think. Don’t put rules on my behaviour, how I use my money, how I conduct my relationships, how I treat my body, how I live in a society, how I run a business, how I work with others, how live my life.
Freedom now is jettisoning any imposed rules, any worship of one God or any god. Freedom is not being constrained in any way. I am free to simply be me the way I want to be …
Luther famously named this as the opposite of freedom. In his comment on Romans chapter 5 regarding the human condition he says;
“… our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them …, indeed, it even uses God Himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of this very fact, that in acting so perversely …, it is even seeking God for its own sake.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 25: Lectures on Romans, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 25 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 291
We have this computer sensor inside us that is always turned on and seeing what we see, going where we go and experiencing what we experience with one question: “What’s in it for me?”
We will use any means to get ‘what is mine’ – even God. We will do good things and bad things to get what we think we need – identity, affirmation, surety that I am OK; that I am not failing; that I am doing something good or memorable; … We will even do fine moral things and even religious things to gain what we need.
That is not freedom. That is a never ending and very exhausting prison in which there is never enough for me; enough affirmation, status, money, hard work, weight loss, beauty, recognition …
And when we don’t get enough of what we think we need and we face an unwanted struggle or disease or challenge or financial threat, we get angry; angry at people and angry at God, because for all our exhausting hard work, all our fine family heritage and church attendance, all our hard work and kind gestures, God is not repaying us, rewarding us enough.
That is what is in this conversation …
Jesus says to these closed off ex-followers;
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What?
“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
“We don’t need to be set free, Jesus. We are free. We are the top of the tree!”
They do know their bible. They are God’s chosen people. They are the people upon which God’s blessing either falls or not. They are the inheritors of a new kingdom with all its power and prestige and heavenly joy that will one day come. They will be the talk of the nations. All people will come bearing gifts just for the privilege of being in their presence and etc, etc …
Luther reflects on their protest:
“Your words disgrace and humiliate us. You say that he who believes in You is to be free. As a matter of fact, we are not slaves; we are masters of the world. We have never been serfs and servants. We are Abraham’s seed, and to him the words were addressed): ‘By your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.’ (Genesis 22:18 ”
… and since we are his seed, we shall, … rule in the entire world. And You say that we must first be made free by You.[1]
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 395.
“We don’t need your freedom Jesus. We are free and we will be OK ourselves. We don’t want any constraints placed upon us by you”.
Sounds like the world we know and this heart within we know.
Luther says that
“…people would gladly believe in Christ if this could make them lords or confer kingdoms on them. But if it involves suffering, they will have no part of it, and faith is finished. Therefore Christ declares: “I am sure that you will not adhere to My doctrine.” Fidelity to Christ’s doctrine is rare, especially when people encounter an evil wind. To be sure, many become Christians and hold firmly to the Gospel at first; but then they abandon it, like these fellows in our text.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 393
How are you traveling this Reformation Day? Are you thinking back to when you started well but now feel like you are having second thoughts about following this Jesus?
Or, are you sensing the Spirit confirming you again as a continuer – a person still willingly living under Jesus constraints, and you love it because you know he loves you?
Whatever the case, Jesus’ version of freedom from this boastful curved-in-on-self-prison is not casting off constraints but allowing some constraints to master you. Jesus’ freedom is very constraining.
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
In Jesus, being free is willingly being constrained … to him. In Christianity, freedom is not avoiding all constraints but embracing Jesus’ constraints because he is good, and his truth is good for us all.
How do we know he is good? Because how he opened up that curve to give you life and hope beyond yourself …
4 but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus … (Ephesians 2:4-6)
Friends, our freedom to burst out of our self-orientated universe that keeps sapping the life out of us and will eventually kill us does not come from our ethnicity, sexuality, dollars, lack of dollars, excellent moral standing or lack of….. Freedom comes from Jesus’ truth about all of them and all of you.
He made us alive, he raised us up from the dead-end death trap called human self-righteousness. He did in love – undeserved love; undeserved affirmation and affection; undeserved healing and forgiveness of our restless and wayward souls.
This is real freedom:
- Freedom to be fully and wonderfully human. Freedom from the curve. Freedom from ‘sin, death and the devil; as the Catechism names them.
- Freedom from slavishly following my insatiable passions at my own expense and that of others.
- Freedom from that scary thing up ahead for us all that casts its shadow constantly over us we experience suffering; suffering of ill-health, aging, grief of loved ones lost….
- Freedom from the incessant flaming words of the Accuser trying to get us into that dark pit of shame.
It is only his truth about you, us, the world and who God is that will get you to the good stuff – forgiveness for sin, resurrection for death, peace for a broken heart, healing for division, hope for any despair, faith for your doubt.
Friends, to continue in his truth is our freedom.
Hold on friends. Hold on to his truthful teaching. Let his word have mastery over your words; over all the words in the world.
His truth-telling is your freedom to rise above all fears and doubt.
It is our privilege to be a Reforming church – a community constantly re-formed into the truth of this Jesus who has raised us and will raise us at the last.
- Grace alone
- Faith alone
- Christ alone
- Word alone
- Glory to God alone!
That’s Freedom.
O God, Re-Form me!
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