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Saving Grace
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 28, 2007
Joel 2:23-32; Ephesians 2:1-9; Luke 18:9-14

Joel 2:23-32
O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.  
I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.  
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.  
Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

Ephesians 2:1-9
You were dead through the trespasses and sin which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.""

I. BEGINNING

My sister is a New York Yankees fan.   I mention this because you may or may not know that I am a Boston Red Sox fan.   That has made for some interesting times, let me tell you.

After the Yankees and the Red Sox will play a game, if the Yankees win I'll usually see an e-mail in my inbox the next morning that says, "Yankees Win! Theeeeeeeeee Yankees Win!"   Once, after the Sox suffered a three game sweep at the hands of the Yankees, I opened my inbox to find a message containing only one image: a broom.   And of course, if the situation was reversed, she could expect an e-mail from me commenting on how "clutch" A-Rod was striking out with the bases loaded and the winning run on third, or something like that.   This rivalry is largely good natured even if it shows no signs of going away any time soon.

The same could not always be said for the relationship between Protestant and Catholic.   No, in fact the rivalry, if you will, has often had tragic consequences to it.

II. THE TEXT: LUTHER'S INSPIRATION

It didn't start out that way.   The whole thing began rather innocuously.  

An Augustinian monk named Martin Luther had been struggling with issues of faith and salvation for a while.   His father wanted him to become a lawyer but one night while walking along during a storm, lightning struck close to him, and all of Luther's anxieties about his mortality became pronounced.   And so he decided to become a monk.   But still he was satisfied that he was doing enough to be saved, and so he became a priest.   But still, he was tormented by the idea of predestination and longed to find a gracious God.

Eventually he came to reflect on the medieval Church's practice of the selling of indulgences.   This was a practice in which through the purchase of an indulgence, would could secure prayers for a departed loved one who was in purgatory.   With enough, the departed loved one would ultimately reach heaven.   (This is a simplification, but essentially the thrust of it).  

Luther came to understand that righteousness was not something that we could achieve, but something that was imputed to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.   This was the teaching that he found in Romans, and Hebrews, and throughout Paul's letters that would come to dominate his entire way of thinking.   Our reading tonight from Ephesians is one example:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast

Now, if his salvation was the result of faith and the gift of God--and not the result of works--what was the church doing selling these indulgences?   And so, on October 31, 1517, he posted the 95 Theses on the Cathedral door at Wittenberg.   If you read the 95 Theses, you will find them dull and dry--because they concern themselves only with the question of indulgences.   Luther posted them hoping to spark debate and conversation.

Well, it sparked something alright.

III. THE RESULTING DIVISION

A. The Debate

The posting of the 95 Theses happened at a crucial time in church history--when a number of German principalities were chafing at the authority of the church.   And so this Augustinian monk and his act of dissent became a focal point in resisting the power of the Catholic Church.  

And the church itself was not receptive to Luther's ideas--perhaps sensing the moment that this was creating--and both sides became radicalized.   Luther, who had sought only to promote debate about indulgences, soon found himself at the center of a movement that would articulate a theology that encompassed a wide range of issues. Ecclesiastical Authority, the Papacy, Obedience to Authority, Doctrine of the Sacraments, Opposition between Scripture and Human Teachings--it was these doctrines, not indulgences, that ultimately became the center of debate.   And it would be these doctrines that would ultimately define the difference between Protestant and Catholic.

The Protestant movement was not the first to have raised many of these issues --others in the history of the church--like Jan Hus and others had raised them.   But they got traction this time around because of the political situation. And the German princes who had chafed at papal authority embraced Lutheran theology for very real, political reasons.   And Luther himself, became far more radicalized, ultimately shedding his Augustinian habit and marrying Catherine von Bora, a former nun.   (I suppose if you're going to make a statement about breaking with the church, getting married, and to a nun, would be the way to do it).

B.  The Entrenchment

And then both sides became entrenched.   Catholic teaching reaffirmed many of the things the Reformers had challenged and the lines were drawn. Much like the Pharisee in the story from the Gospel of Luke, both sides claimed superiority of piety and holiness.   The Protestants insisted that they had reclaimed the true and authentic primitive Christianity, free of the accumulations and human traditions of the Catholics.   The Catholics insisted that Apostolic succession gave them the mantle of preservers of authentic tradition, whatever the Protestants might claim.

And as so often happens in religious feuds of this kind, what had been a nuance quickly becomes a dichotomy.   Protestants would argue that Catholics had law whereas they had grace.   Catholics would argue that they were repository of truth and authority, where as the protestants were either apostate or heretical.   Neither attitude was of course true.

But the consequences were far greater than a mere division over theological opinions: people died.   Many people died.   All kinds of fighting took place between Protestants and Catholics, in fighting that ultimately had little to do with whether one was saved by faith or by works--what an absurd thing to kill each other for in any event!-- but more over the political questions and issues of authority.  

C. The end of the Violence

The violence would largely come to an end after the Thirty Years War--a war between Protestant and Catholic kingdoms that would leave Europe's population decimated.   At the end of this conflict would come the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, a treaty that would remove religious considerations from statecraft--no longer would religion be used to fashion foreign policy.   It was a lesson that had been learned at the cost of many human lives.

IV. A WIDER DEFINITION OF CHURCH

But the Peace of Westphalia has not meant that every conflict between catholic and protestant was resolved.   Mark Twain once said, "Humanity is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them."   And certainly when you have competing truths, there is likely to be division.

And for a long time, this division was the rule.   In fact, it is hard for people alive today to realize that the general good relations between Protestant and Catholic were not always the norm. The colony of Maryland was founded as a place where Catholics could live in safety in a Protestant New World. People do not remember that a stone for the Washington Monument, donated by the Vatican, was stolen by a group of Know-Nothings and dumped in the Potomac for fear that anything "Papist" be a part of the monument.

Even within living memory there was evidence of the division. My father, a life-long Catholic, used to tell me stories about being told as a child that all non-catholics were going to hell. It was the kind of thing that you heard in Catholic churches.

A. Vatican II

And then along came the Second Vatican Council in the 1960's. Among the many changes that Vatican II brought--mass in the local language, etc.--was a move toward a more inclusive understanding of the church as a whole.   The unity that the Roman Catholoc Church had with other churches was now seen in baptism. Baptism was the bond that united all Christians, whether they were Catholic or not. There was   more inclination to see the RCC and other churches as being joined together in some way.   Work toward unity is not to be sought by imposing uniformity but by embracing plurality.

B.  There is still work to do

But many divisions have remained on an individual, personal level.   There are still parts of this country, my friends, were Catholicism is considered a cult. When I was growing up, I lived in a very Catholic area.   When my classmates would ask me what religion I was and I answered "Methodist" they'd say, "Is that Christian?"   

I can also recall relatively conversations with friends only a few years ago who were reacting to the fact that our church here in Washington was having an Ash Wednesday service.   One said, "I am not sure I like this 'creeping Catholicism' that is taking over our church." Funny that something as ancient as Ash Wednesday, should be considered Catholic, and that that should be a bad thing.

C.  Wesley's Solution

Faced with this reality, that there are still divisions among us, it is time that we recommit ourselves to some fundamentally Wesleyan principles. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, never set out to found a church, never claimed that the Methodists were the one true church.   In fact, his attitude was downright ecumenical.

He wrote a letter to an unnamed individual once. We know it only as "A Letter to a Roman Catholic". In it Wesley writes:

Now, can nothing be done, even allowing us on both sides to retain our own opinions, for the softening our hearts towards each other, the giving a check to this flood of unkindness, and restoring at least some small degree of love among our neighbors and countrymen? Do not you wish for this? Are you not fully convinced that malice, hatred, revenge, bitterness, whether in us or in you, in our hearts or yours, are an abomination to the Lord? Be our opinions right, or be they wrong these tempers are undeniably wrong. They are the broad road that leads to destruction, to the nethermost hell.

Elsewhere, in a sermon entitled, Catholic Spirit, he would write:

I dare not therefore presume to impose my mode of worship on any other.   I believe it is truly primitive and apostolical.   But my belief is no rule for another.   I ask not therefore of him whith whom I would unite in love, "Are you of my Church?   Of my congregation? Do you receive the same form of church government and allow the same church officers with me? Do you join in the same from of prayer wherein I worhip God?" I inquire not, "Do you receive the Supper of the Lord in the same posture and manner that I do?" Nor whether, in the administration of baptism, you agree with me in admitting sureties for the baptized, in the manner of administering it, or the age of those to whom it should be administered. Nay, I ask not of you (as clear as I am in my own mind) whether you allow baptism and the Lord's Supper at all. Let all these things stand by: we will talk of them, if need be, at a more convenient season. My only question at present is this, "Is thing heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?"

Wesley would remind us "Though we may not think alike, may we not all love alike?"

D.  An Opportunity

The divisions in the church are an ongoing challenge to the health of the Body of Christ.   And yet... The division offers us a chance to put into practice a life of loving and being in relationship with those with whom we disagree.

V. END

My sister and I root for different ball clubs--historic rivals, at some times bitter enemies.   And yet she and I remain in relationship because we are family.   We're not going to change our opinions about baseball any time soon, but that's okay--because we know we are connected by bonds of love.   What unites us is infinitely greater than what separates us.

And so it is with Protestant and Catholic. We will disagree on many matters: the nature of the eucharist, the authority of the papacy, the number of sacraments, the perpetual virginity of Mary, and so on.   But do we not agree on the essentials: that in Jesus Christ God was reconciling us to God?   That Jesus' death and resurrection accomplished our salvation?   That this gives us confidence of life over death and the impulse to spread these good tidings of salvation across the earth? What unites us is infinitely greater than what separates us.   We are all part of the broader Christian family.

Today is Reformation Sunday.   Those of us who are Protestant should be proud of the Reformation --the reassertion of the fact of God's salvation through God's grace was a necessary thing, and a point that the Catholic Church has ultimately affirmed.

On a day like today, we celebrate not with an eye of division.   Not to say, "Our way is best."   But to recommit ourselves to the cause of Christian unity through the diversity we now enjoy.   At this moment, we can rededicate ourselves to the simple proposition, that we may not all think alike, we may not all worship alike, we may not order our churches alike, determine authority alike, we may have much that is not alike, but we may all love alike.   And that is something worth celebrating.

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Copyright © 2007. Mark A. Schaefer.

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