Reformed: October 27, About 20 years ago I was doing a children s sermon And there was this one little boy Named Stephen Vasalotti

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Reformed: October 27, About 20 years ago I was doing a children s sermon And there was this one little boy Named Stephen Vasalotti"

Roberta Butler
5 years ago
Views:

1 Reformed: October 27, 2018 About 20 years ago I was doing a children s sermon And there was this one little boy Named Stephen Vasalotti You know how sometimes The names have been changed To protect the innocent His name has not been changed [1 Naughty] Because he was not innocent. Stephen Vasalotti. He was basically good kid But when it came time For the children s sermons He loved to mess me up He loved to interject Inappropriate questions. He loved to run all around me While I was trying to maintain control He generally enjoyed tormenting me. One Sunday It was the Stephen Vasalotti show As usual. However that week I had reached the end of my rope. I had had enough. So I stopped the children s sermon I said ok everybody Let s pray. I said Dear Lord Please if there is any justice in the universe Please let Stephan Vasalotti Grow up to be a pastor And please give him A kid like Stephen Vasalotti While he s trying to do a children s sermon. Amen.

2 I know I was frustrated And it may have been kind of funny But I m pretty sure that was a misuse Of the office of pastor. Wouldn t a better prayer Had been first of all A private prayer Instead of a public prayer But wouldn t it have been better To ask God to love this kid Love this obnoxious irritating kid With the love and grace of God Which is present and powerful Even when we are obnoxious and irritating AND I thank God [2 God is Good] That God has the capacity And the willingness And the tenacity To love obnoxious and irritating kids Or I can tell you Without a doubt I would not be here today. But God IS good. God s love IS tenacious. And God cannot be controlled by people Who pray for the wrong things. Or by people who put out rules About what it means to be loved by God. Or by people Who think they have a corner On God s love and forgiveness. Because God is God. And God is good. All the time. So I ve been seriously thinking [3 Reformation] About the purpose of the Reformation. Not just Martin Luther s purpose Which we know was to stand up Against the corruption of the church But what was God s purpose What was God working to accomplish Through the work of the Reformers?

3 What was the message That God wanted us to hear What was the point What IS the point of the Reformation? - Well when Martin Luther wrote The 95 theses The main issue Was that the people of God Were given the clear impression By the leaders of the church And the salesmen of the church That they were somehow Responsible For buying God s forgiveness. [4 Purgatory] If they paid the church The right amount of money God would forgive their sins. Then the Pope would open up The Treasury of the Saints. If they paid just enough The Pope would give them Some of the credits From the saints from the past To use against their sins For their future SO that they would not have to spend as much time In purgatory the cosmic waiting room Not heaven. Not hell. Somewhere in between. Just a place where you had to sit And wait And work off your sin In order to be clean enough And pure enough To be loved by God. - Which of course Is not biblical. Is not honest. Is not God s will For God s people. So Luther wrote: [5 Theses #36]

4 36. Any truly repentant Christian Has a right to full remission Of penalty and guilt, Even without indulgence letters. [6 Theses #37] 37. Any true Christian, Whether living or dead, Participates in all the blessings Of Christ and the church; And this is granted by God, Even without indulgence letters. And the thing that was so maddening Is that it was the Church The institution that is responsible For the Means of Grace. [7 Means of Grace] For the right administration of God s Word And God s Sacraments Baptism and Communion All the tools we have To proclaim of God s love For the entire world. We weren t given these things To control the people of God And to get their money It was a complete betrayal of the mission of Jesus Christ. - Right? You know the mission. It s written in the book of John Jesus said to Nicodemus God so loved the world That he gave his only Son, So that everyone who believes in him May not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son Into the world To condemn the world, But in order that the world Might be saved through him. That s what we are called to proclaim Jesus came to save us. And for anyone Absolutely anyone Who has a contrite heart There is nothing that can separate

5 That individual From the love of God. Ever. Nothing. Ever. See the Reformation Is really at it s core A battle about God s love It s about God s forgiveness In and through Jesus Christ. Now FORGIVENESS means [8 Forgiveness] That you don t owe me anything anymore. It s like a financial transaction I look at the books The bottom line The balance due On your life And I decide What you owe me. Forgiveness is saying.. Yes there is a debt here Yes you have not lived up To your obligation Yes according to my records You have fallen short And deserve Well you deserve whatever someone Who doesn t pay their debts Deserves. But because of Christ You don t owe God anything. Your debt has been paid in FULL By Jesus Christ. It s done. Jesus is our advocate He has died for us And our sins are completely forgiven! In addition because of Christ We don t owe other people anything. They can stand outside of us

6 And judge us And say you re obnoxious And pray that you become a pastor And all that. But the truth is You don t owe anyone anything. But as a corollary They don t owe you anything either. So you might want to let go of your need to control others. - Anyway because of Christ There is nothing That has the power To stand between you and God. Not me. Not the 10 commandments. Not your failures. Not your successes Not your ego. Nothing. Nothing is there. Between you and God. Nothing can be there anymore. Because Jesus occupies that space. No matter what anyone tells you. You are broken. You are loved. You are free. In Christ. That s all. You are perfectly free. However. If you believe in Christ. You know one more thing. In the small book Christian Liberty [9 Free Servant] Martin Luther wrote: A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one. We owe Christ everything. He saved us. He loves us.

7 Therefore we want to serve him. By serving other people. We want to be like him. We want other people to feel the same freedom We feel in Christ. We want to proclaim God s love From the tops of the mountain To the darkest valley. We want everyone to know. We are free And they can be too. They don t have to live in bondage To their sins anymore. It s funny. We are two things We are both totally free And out of love and thankfulness For that freedom. We are totally bound To Christ and his work. It s like the stained glass window I have in my office. [10 Luther's Rose] I don t know if you all know. But I make stained glass. And if you choose to work with glass First of all you are going to bleed. Just a fact of life. Glass makes you bleed. But the end result is worth it.. The sun shines through the glass And the colors And the light And the end product Is so good. But if you look closely IN every piece of work I have made There is a crack In the glass. Some people Would take the broken pieces out. I don t. I like the cracks the broken places.

8 They remind me That it s not perfect. There is a brokenness It s there. It cannot be denied. Just like us. We are like that window We have been created and forgiven Through the blood of Christ. Because whenever you deal with sin There is blood. There is loss of life. There is pain. And it s a fact that we are broken. AND we are beautiful. Because we are loved by God. And made whole. And when the light of Christ shines through us It can be glorious. But that s us. Both things. We know that we have been set free In Christ. But the brokenness reminds us Of who we have been Where we have come from AND there are others like us Who hunger and thirst for the grace of God. The Reformation reminds us That no one No Pope No Pastors No person or institution No one Can ever stop The light of Christ From shining On us and in us and through us Because we are The People of God. Now and forever. Thanks be to God. Amen!

Ministering to Catholics Forgiveness Gerry Andersen Valley Bible Church, Lancaster, California July 30, 2017

Ministering to Catholics Forgiveness Gerry Andersen Valley Bible Church, Lancaster, California www.valleybible.net July 30, 2017 The most important issue regarding our subject of ministering to Catholics