Can you
hear the hammer?
Listen for
it?
What does
that nailing signify?
That hammer
signifies a stand. Martin Luther took a stand. He took a stand against the
established church authority of his day, and drew his own line in the sand. But
he didn’t do it to be a rebel; he didn’t do it just to be different. The stand
he took when he took a hammer and nailed
95 thesis, or 95 arguments to the Castle Church door in Wittenburg was not a
matter of choice it was a matter of compulsion. Luther was compelled to do what
he did on that fateful day, and was compelled to take the stand that he did in
the face of church authority, and under the threat of bodily harm. What was this stand? Why was it important
then? Why is it important to us here today? What compels a man to put himself
at such risk?
The first
and important thing we have to know about Martin Luther is that he was a
sinner. He was not meek and mild. He could be crude—he could be extraordinarily
rude. He was capable of dismantling his opponents with words and insults. The
story of Martin Luther is very much an “in spite of him“ story rather than “because of him” story. We tend to
hear many “because of “ stories when we hear about heroic deeds. Heroes do
things because of heroic character and bravery, and courage. Not so with Luther. The great work of
Luther came about “in spite” of his great character flaws—and he was the first
to say so. From the perspective of
faith, the story of the Lutheran Reformation, is not the story of what Martin
Luther did or did not do; it was the story of what God did and is doing.
You see,
God did something to Martin Luther. Like many people, Martin Luther was a
driven person. When he entered holy orders as an Augustinian monk, he did so
with great purpose. He was driven by a deep desire for inner peace. You see, he
had not experienced much peace as a young man. His parents were very strict,
very punitive. His mother lacked affection, and his father held high
expectations. So Martin moved forward in life with much fear of punishment,
high expectations of himself, and a desire to please others. It was like he was
walking on a high-wire, and one wrong step would bring him crashing down to his
death. He was constantly plagued by anxiety and depression. That anxiety which burned within was
ready to bubble over on one fateful night as the young man, then a student of
law, was traveling and got caught
in a thunderstorm. To Luther, this meant only one thing—that God was angry,
angry at him. To Luther, God was always angry, angry and fierce, poised to
kill, and eager to punish young Luther. His life mission was, in that instant,
transformed. His mission was now to please God, to be the best monk he could
be. He would do that through prayer, confession, work, pilgrimage. But what
Luther found that, the harder he worked, the worse he felt, the deeper his
despair. And the reason for this despair lay in one question which haunted him
day in and day out: How much is enough?
Have I done enough to appease this angry judge who threatens to destroy my body
and soul in hellfire?
Luther’s superiors were
compassionate men who saw this suffering, this spiritual torment. His mentor,
Johannes Von Staupitz, thought Luther might find an answer to his woes in the
pages of scripture. And this is exactly what happened. It was in the pages of
today’s epistle reading, through
the words of St Paul, where Luther heard it for the first time, where Luther
for the first time heard the gospel—the
good news. For years, Luther struggled to justify himself before God, the
perfectly righteous judge. In this
passage of scripture, he was given the reason. St Paul writes that no human
being will be justified in the sight of God, and that all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. Here
for the for the first time, Luther heard that there was nothing he could do to
save himself—that by his own works and effort, he was a lost and condemned
sinner. Here Luther read that God’s law had pronounced a universal death
sentence upon the sinner. From this passage, Luther proclaimed that we are in
bondage to sin and can not free ourselves. This was the end of Luther’s effort
to please God, to make God happy, to justify himself, because he saw that had
no hope of doing so. He had no choice but to let go, and let himself fall fro
that tightrope he had been walking on all these years.
But fall into what? He read on, and what he
read was simply astounding, amazing, ground shaking, and mind altering. Luther
read that he did not have to justify
himself. There was only one person who ever lived a sinless life. Only that
one person could ever be justified in God’s eyes—and that person is Jesus
Christ. He is the only human being who ever justified himself in God’s court.
To believe in him is to be freed of the death sentence. When we believe in Him, we are justified in the
sight of God. When we believe in Him, God does not look upon our sin, but the
goodness of his son. Through Him, we are made heirs of the promise, and
children of God. Through Christ, we are no longer enemies of God, but beloved children and friends. This
salvation, this wholeness of spirit, Luther came to realize, is the free gift
of God. Works cannot earn us this love; it is God’s doing, not ours. This is the good news. This is the
Gospel. This is the only and
ultimate source of liberation for humanity. As we read in today’s Gospel
lesson, we read Jesus say. “ If the Son makes you free, you will be free
indeed”.
This
Word of life and hope is what motivated Luther to carry on the spiritual battle
because when he looked around he saw—he saw people in chains, in spiritual
chains, in bondage to works righteousness theology, just as he had been. And
when he saw that he could not keep this good news to himself. The Gospel was
the power of liberation for all of humanity, and this Word of Life needed to be
proclaimed. For Luther, this meant
going to war—to spiritual war
against powers and authorities which
loved the old way of doing things. This was an intimidating prospect, but there
would be no backing down, no turning away. Luther’s actions led to his
excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. Before he had heard the gospel,
Luther would have dreaded this fate as the ultimate disaster. He would have
received it as the rejection of God himself. Now, he could care less. He could
care less because he had heard the truth of the gospel. The Son of God had made
him free and he was free indeed. With the pounding hammer, resonated the sound
of liberation.
And
that sound of liberation still reaches us today. Event though we are set apart from the Middle
ages by five hundred years, that hammer, that chain breaking hammer, still has
an impact. It still has an impact, because chains still need to be
broken.—chains of works righteousness, chains of addiction, chains of
oppression—all the chains which prevent human beings from being who they were
made to be. The lessons of Luther must remain in our consciousness, because
that temptation to works-righteousness, to the idea that we are saved by our
own efforts, is a constant temptation. Works righteousness infects our
faith-life whenever we believe that we must do this thing or that thing to earn
God’s favour. Works righteousness is present in any spiritual system which prescribes
a path of enlightenment and demands that it be followed—any stairway to heaven
which must be climbed, or system which must be mastered.
Some might
say that this reformation business is just a religious issue and doesn’t have relevance
to our everyday lives. Think again. Do
you ever define yourself by what you do or don’t do? Do you ever dwell on failures—professional,
personal, financial? Do you worry about the judgment of others? Do you ever
despair at failing to measure up to some external standard? Does your happiness
hinge on the ability to please others? Do you bemoan the fact that you aren’t
the person you think you ought to be? If so, and I think it is safe to say
we all can answer yes to at least one of these questions at some point in our
lives, it means that we have, at one point, or another entered the same
struggle as Luther—the struggle of proving ourselves worthy of being and dreading rejection. We have
walked the same tight-rope.
The good
news is that we need not prove anything. If we believe that God has come down
to earth to free us from the power of bondage and death, we don’t have to prove
anything. The Gospel has, just as it has for Luther, freed us. And when the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed.
But a voice
whispered in Luther’s ear, and it is a voice which whispers in ours—the voice
of doubt, the voice which doubts that God really has made this great and
tremendous decision about us. The voice of the enemy calls us to doubt this wondrous
thing God has done for us. Luther
heard the voice speak: You’re not good
enough, God wouldn’t bother saving you. You have to do something to earn your
salvation; this isn’t a free ride you know. There’s a lot to learn to master
before you can get there. Because of all the things that have happened to you,
God doesn’t care. Maybe he’s forgotten His promise. Christianity is for the
holy people, you’re just too bad.
When that
voice whispered in Martin Luther’s ear, he responded with some very sharp words—words
I wouldn’t feel comfortable using from the pulpit. But, with these words, Luther
told the devil where he could go and what he could do. Luther did so not on the
basis of his own power, but by the power of the gospel. By the power of the
gospel, Luther awoke each morningmade the
sign of the cross upon his forehead and said, “ I am baptized”—God has given me
a sign of His love, God has given me His faith.
Such faith
got Luther through some very difficult times. Don’t forget, he lived in the
late middle ages. Life was short and difficult. Luther was attacked
spiritually, he was beset by personal tragedy, the death of children, he
suffered physical ailments –yet none of that could hide the light of the
gospel. In fact, that light shone brighter the darker his world became.
But humans,
in their sinfulness, want to hide, smother, and extinguish the light of the
Gospel, want to be in control and responsible for their own destinies. This is
why the Gospel must be proclaimed again, again, and again, and be heard afresh
in this time and place. But the
Gospel cannot be suppressed, and the hammer must sound whenever humans attempt
to do so. The message of Liberty through Christ, and only through Christ, must
be proclaimed because it is only the Son who frees humanity, to live as it was
intended by its Creator. The truth
of the Gospel, is the truth which states that God is a God for you—who created
you, who died for you, and has gifted you to be in relationship with God. This
God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. This God is
a mighty fortress. Now, may the peace which surpasses all understanding guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
