Feb 26, 2017 Canberra Baptist Church The Text that Changed the World! The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live! Romans 1:17b Page 1 of 9 Introduction Of course, a TEXT does not change the world. PEOPLE do! But people are moved by something! They get insight and courage from somewhere! And TEXTS name that something and somewhere. Some TEXTS are better at this NAMING than others. Some texts are like a drop of rain that gathers up and reflects like a rainbow the many colours of the sun. Such texts gather up the rich beauty of the Gospel of Christ. I would like to invite you to reflect with me about such a text. A text that gathers up the insight and power that we celebrate this year of 500 Years Reformation. The Power of the Gospel 1517 500 years ago! was an important year in the history of Christianity, indeed in the history of the Western world! Legend has it, that on 31 October 1517 the German Monk Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on the river Elbe in Germany. He protested, not against atheists or agnostics, but against the Church of his day! Against the claims of the Church That the church arrogated divinity to itself: that the Church claimed that it can FORGIVE SINS by selling indulgences by saying that you can pay or work your way into God s presence. Luther complained that the Church is more concerned with money and power than with the WORD. Luther asserted That JESUS CHRIST had been domesticated; that the Church considered itself to be the gatekeeper to Jesus Christ. Indeed, that the Church understood itself as dispenser of salvation. This protest started a revolution. First in Germany. But then it spread to other countries in Central Europe and began to encircle the World, at least the Western world.
Page 2 of 9 Where did the power, the insight, the courage for this protest come from? It came from an experience! An experience of divine hospitality. The reality of that experience is gathered into this text: The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live! Not faithfulness, not morality, not work, not discipline, not achievements, not success but FAITH. The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live! I would like to invite you to unpack this text. Let us try to discern the insight and power contained in this text. In doing that I will refer to Luther, to the early Baptists and to John Wesley. These people were intentional Christians who have changed history. Their legacy is an invitation to all of us to tune into the history of that text, Luther did not only protest against the church, but he also translated the Bible into the language that people in the street spoke and thus paved the way for modern German culture. Germany is expecting over a million Reformation tourists this year. In the same castle where Luther translated the Bible the Wartburg in Eisenach there was also a Baptist Fritz Erbe. He was thrown into a 10m deep prison cell because he had followed his conscience and refused to have his infant children baptised. That was illegal in those days. On the same WORD (the Bible, the power of the Gospel) which Luther claimed for his protest against the church, Erbe refused to have his children baptised. But while Luther was protected by his benefactor, Erbe died in his prison cell. His emphasis on Freedom of Conscience lives on and has influenced modern Human Rights more than many people know or acknowledge. The Wesley brothers applied their faith in Christ to speak into their social scene and probably saved England from a bloody revolution; and they sourced the Methodist movement which to the present day seeks to protect the integrity of faith. But I do not want to give a history lesson! We want to feel our way into the dynamic that lays be hind the TEXT that changed history and can change your life. The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live! The Promise of a Flourishing Life Let us start at the end of the saying: The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live.
Page 3 of 9 Shall live! That is the important tenor. The question is: How shall we live if we want a flourishing life. What needs to be the cantus firmus, the core melody, the underlying tune of our life? What makes us tick? Where do we find refuge when the storms of life encroach upon us? To speak in the language of our text: how can our life be right? Our culture has many answers! Work hard and you will succeed. Play hard and you will be happy. Look after yourself first and you will make it. Now, there is nothing wrong with working hard and getting somewhere; there is nothing wrong with playing hard and being the best. They can be important by-products of life! BUT they do not satisfy the soul! They make promises that they cannot fulfil. Hard work is important. Performance is important. But is it of ultimate importance? What happens when I can no longer perform or produce or consume? Is then my worth, my dignity, my core melody gone? Is the decathlon champion a better human being than the person in the wheelchair? Are the old of less value than the young? We all know that you can be a business tycoon, a heavy roller and a powerful operator but at the same time a moral and spiritual nobody. At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Harvard Philosopher Michel J. Sandel gave a talk on What Money Can t Buy the limit of Markets. Faith is one of those things, like friendship, trust and love, that money can t buy. Faith cannot be earned. But it is there! Freely supplied. Generously given. A precious gift that can be accepted as it comes your way. Both Luther and Wesley worked hard. Disciplined, conscientious. Trying to impress the world, themselves and God. Luther was a Theology Professor and Wesley was a Missionary to the Native Americans. They knew their Bible backwards. But their soul remained thirsty! Until they discovered that the flourishing life is a GIFT. A gift that money can t buy but that is freely given. That is the revolutionary legacy of the Reformation. It does not denigrate hard work and achievement, but it tells us that a flourishing life is not the result of hard work but a gift of God which comes and can be received faith. Martin Luther: Justification by Faith Martin Luther was already in divine service when God surprised him with joy. Luther was an Augustinian monk with a deep passion for life. He sought an integrating vision for his life. Easy and comfortable answers were not enough. He disciplined body, mind and soul. He sought his identity in being good and charitable. But his heart remained restless and his conscience was dissatisfied.
Page 4 of 9 And then it struck him probably as he was giving lectures on the Psalms or on Paul s Epistle to the Romans that there is a truth that transcends our ability and willingness to work. Ultimately it is God who alone can fulfil the human passion for life. Not the God of religion, but the God of grace. The God whom we may not seek, but who can be found. The God, who in and with the life of Christ leans into human history and invites us to the banquet of divine hospitality. No entrance fees. An open and unconditional invitation. The human person can hear this good news and thereby become right with God. I felt, Luther said, like being totally born anew, as if I had marched through open doors into paradise. (WA 54, 185f.). This discovery did not only mean the personal discovery of faith, but it marked a decisive break in our Western history. Humanity began to discover its own inherent dignity and rights. Humans began to question that institutions like State or Church can make an ultimate claim upon the human conscience, and thus it began to usher in the democratic way of life. Luther discovered God as the liberator, not as the spoilsport, of the human conscience: The person who through faith is right with God, shall live. John Wesley: Justification and Justice Two centuries later John Wesley was deeply disturbed by the lifelessness of the church. Christians bowed in all directions in order to assure a life of comfort and ease. Wesley sensed that there must be more to the word God ; and so he set out to find this more by becoming a missionary to North America s Indians. But his heart remained restless. Until one day, having returned to England, in a Moravian Chapel in London, he listened to a reading of Martin Luther s preface to Paul s letter to the church in Rome. His heart was strangely warmed, he confessed later, as he discovered awareness! that all along God was closer to him than he was to himself. His renewal of faith could not be contained. It led to an evangelical and social renewal of society and probably saved England from a bloody revolution. Wesley knew that the warmth of the gospel becomes stale if the poor are not fed, children are not protected and the unemployed are not provided for. He knew that you can t sing beautiful hymns and not be concerned for people in need. The person who through faith is right shall live. This then is the legacy of Luther and Wesley. Faith includes Social Concern
Page 5 of 9 Luther: The flourishing life is the gift of God which we can t earn, but which we can receive in faith. Wesley agrees. Both Luther and Wesley experienced the power of the Gospel, the good news reflected in the text: The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live. But Wesley colours in the picture of Faith a little further. He emphasises that faith in Jesus Christ needs to be lived in the Public Arena. Faith comes to individual people like you and me, but it does not individualise us! It needs to reflect God s concern for those who struggling with life, left half-dead on the road of life. Faith in Christ includes a passion for the common good for all people. Now we need to add another dimension! A dimension, related to our baptist tradition. baptists Both Luther and Wesley broke with the established church. So within the wider trajectory of Protestantism we now have Lutheran churches and Methodist churches. But within the colourful rainbow of Protestantism there are not only Lutherans and Methodists. There are also Baptists. They also come from the European Reformation in the 16 th century and then especially from the British discontent in the 17 th century. They agree with Luther and Wesley on the experience of faith as a gift of divine hospitality, but they colour in the picture of faith even more. Here are a couple of emphases that the Baptists added to the colourful picture of Faith. Freedom of Conscience When Baptists insist on Believer s Baptism they are actually concerned about Freedom of Conscience! Just as every person has the wonderful privilege of experiencing the gift of faith, so the same people should have the joy to decide that they want to celebrate that gift of faith in Baptism. So whenever you hear of Freedom of Conscience and Freedom of Religion, they are not the product of the enlightenment, as you hear in University Courses on History. They are the product of the Reformation and especially of the left wing of the Reformation to which the Baptists belong. Community Faith creates community. We believe as individuals and we celebrate our faith in Believer s baptism. But faith does not individualise us. It invigorates our social nature. The church is not in the first place a building or an organisation but a community of the friends of Jesus.
Page 6 of 9 Where two or three are gathered in Jesus name, there Jesus is in the midst of them. Baptists have adopted the apostle Paul s expression of the church as the gathered community. Nonviolence One more colour that Baptists at least some Baptists! insist on as they fill in the picture of faith. Last month (January 2017) the Doomsday Clock was moved forward by 30 seconds to 2 ½ minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock project was created by those scientists that produced the Atom Bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It wants to warn the world of nuclear destruction. It says that we are as close to nuclear annihilation as ever. The United Nations was founded after the barbarism of World War II to ban war for ever. The United Nations Charter begins with the words to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind. But the war machinery is strong and marching on! The weapons trade is booming. The military budgets are rising. There will be no peace in the world until the Religions of the World cease justifying war and opt for peace! It belongs to our historical legacy as baptists to wage nonviolence in all areas of life! Conclusion The gift of faith brings with it the promise of a flourishing life. It sets us free to breathe, to live with open arms in a wide space. It has changed the lives of Luther, the Wesley Brothers, the many baptists on the European continent in the 16 th century and in England in the 17 th century. Its power the power of the Gospel is as real and effective today as it was then. You only need to tune in! The gift of faith is there for you! By receiving Christ through faith, by living that faith in the community and in the public arena, we become part of the soft, the nonviolent revolution that keeps the candle of hope burning in a needy world. The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live TL: Canberra, 2/03/2017.
Feb 26, 2017 Canberra Baptist Church The Text that Changed the World: The person, who through faith is righteous, shall live Romans 1:17b Page 7 of 9 ORDER OF SERVICE Gathering for Worship Prelude Call to Worship Welcome The Hymns we are singing this morning are related to people who have changed history and shaped the Christian Faith through the centuries by word, song and deed: Baptists of the 16 th Century who gave a specific bent to the Reformation. Charles and John Wesley who tuned into the Luther narrative and brought Revival and Social Renewal to England. William Williams who was born 300 years ago and became leader of the Welsh Methodist Revival Hymn 59 O for a thousand tongues to sing (CHARLES WESLEY 1707-88) (Charles Wesley was plagued by doubt and illness. People prayed for him and tended to him. He found encouragement and peace from reading the Scriptures. He composed this hymn in thanksgiving and he and his brother John sang it when John found peace with God through faith in Christ.) The Word Readings: Psalm 25, verses 8-10 and 16-18 Romans 1:13-17 Hymn104 Our Father God, Thy name we praise (BAPTIST HYMN 16 TH CENTURY) Sermon: The WORD that changed History and can change your life! Response Hymn 593 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (WILLIAM WILLIAMS 1717-91)
Prayer Offering Page 8 of 9 (William Williams was born 300 years ago. He followed the Wesleys and fuelled the revival in Wales. He paid a high price for his protest against the establishment. They excluded him. But we sing his hymn today!) Community News Hymn 246 Christ the Lord is risen Today (CHARLES WESLEY) (The Resurrection of Jesus is not only an event that happened 2000 years ago but it is a reality that can interrupt your life now a present you with the gift of fait!) Benediction Postlude
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