Nothing but a Worm... Reformation Sunday

Oct. 26, 2014                                                                

Ps. 22:1-8, Rm. 3:1-28, Jn 8:31-36

Story: Trying to teach the meaning of confession, a Sunday school teacher wanted to make sure the class had understood her point. She asked, Can anyone tell me what you must do before you obtain forgiveness of sin?

There was some silence, broken by a small voice piping up from the back of the room.... You gotta sin!

Prayer

I have to give credit for the inspiration of today’s sermon to Ryan Stephenson. Ryan wanted to use Ps. 22 as the basis for his confirmation faith paper… I thought it was a good idea… but mom decided Not So Much. So… I told Ryan that I would use Ps. 22 for my Reformation sermon. So… here we go…

While I don’t know if Luther actually said this, but it is often attributed to him in academic circles of which I heard often in seminary as a statement to identify humanity… 

“I am Nothing But a Worm.”      

It could also be said, that Luther by posting his 95 thesis on the Wittenberg church door on Oct 31, 1517 was responding to God’s vision for reform of the Roman Catholic Church.

Some 4 yrs later in 1521, Luther who has greater clarity of God’s vision for him, stands before the emperor and church leaders who are demanding him to recant all his writings and ideas. He boldly stands and states, “Unless I am convinced by God’s Word, I’m held captive to it, Here I Stand, I can do no other, I will not re-cant, God help me.”

With these words Luther and the church were “Set Free” from church tyranny and set free to be about “God’s Mission” in the world.

“Set Free” to hear the truth of God’s Word.

Jesus says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

I can’t help but remember the movie “A Few Good Men” with Jack Nicholson screaming at Tom Cruise… Cruise saying…. “I want the truth… Nicholson…You can’t handle the truth.”

And thus the Reformation is set in motion and it’s not only about changing the heart of the church as a much needed endeavor, but also about changing the heart of humanity… ie looking at our sinful selves.

The truth of our humanity is we are most often not true to ourselves or others. The reality… we are worms in the dirty soil of life. As Ps. 22 says, “I am merely a worm, far less than human, and I am hated & rejected everywhere.” Paul spins it a bit less negatively, 

“All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.”

My friends… we all live with the condition called sin and it creates in us a state of insecurity, fear, anxiety that we are not safe, not sufficient, and not worthy of love & respect.

We tend to think about this thru the lens of “Original Sin” but when you look at the Genesis story more closely, before there is original sin there was “Original Insecurity.”

That is, Adam & Eve… (and Eve is doing all the talking, but Adam is right there with her) are really insecure and worried that God has not shared with them all they need to know, thereby being seduced into finding their worth, place, knowledge and power and apart from their relationship with God. In other words… Because of their insecurity, they disobey God’s command and sin.

Let’s look at our sin from a couple of perspectives.

Sin as Plural

When we tend to look at sin most often in the plural – Sins – as in describing bad things we’ve done. 

This could be describes as a force – a power that seeks to rob us of abundant life of God – and a condition in which we are trapped. And there are only two things you can do about sins, that is, those things we do wrong: punish them or forgive them. However, this can be lacking as well and the risk here is often the person involved is unchanged. Because the temptation to continue increases the more we accept this force as a condition.

Sin as Singular

When we look at sin in the singular -  Sin -  we have to deal with our own insecurity which is the root of the bad things we do. We are insecure of our Jobs… Money… Possessions… Life. What are you insecure today about? When we are insecure we seek security at most any cost. We lose freedom when we seek security because it just feels better to us. And there is only one way to deal with insecurity…. and that is with “LOVE”

Love creates a whole person no longer plagued with insecurity. When was the last time you felt completely loved and accepted, worthy of dignity and respect, and still felt tempted to sin? If I’m honest… not enough…this happens few and far between.

In our gospel story today Jesus offers freedom. The people believe they are free because of Abraham. They have a heritage, but Jesus implies they are really not free. And… they have a penchant to self-justify, which of course was what Luther discovered, that self-justification somehow earns they’re way in too God.

We tend to look at this self-justification as something we must do…right! We’re insecure people… RIGHT!

You see… there is nothing we can do… heritage… traditions provide no guarantee for us. The fact is… we don’t have to do anything to grow closer to God. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do things for God… it’s all about motive. If our motive is to earn our way… we will find it hard… if our motive is a response to the graciousness of God… well… we will discover how much God does love us.

So my friends… We are accepted Simply because God LOVES US.
Paul says it plainly in Romans 3:22-24, 28.... “God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law.”

Closing

The Reformation was about changing the heart of the church away from our self-justification or works to salvation. God knows us all to well… even our insecure attempts to justify ourselves through our work, accomplishment, wealth, or status. We are nothing but dirty worms that by faith God loves us more than we can imagine which takes away all our insecurity.

We believe in a God that not only forgives those sins (Plural) we commit, but also promises unconditional love, acceptance, and grace. And God’s gift of grave and love puts to death our attempts to justify our sin (Singular) and raises us to new life so that we might demonstrate God’s love to others.