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500 Years Ago, The Protestant Reformation and the Freedom of Galatians · Faith at Work

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  SPEAKER_00: So about 500 years ago,
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  SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther,
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  SPEAKER_00: not Martin Luther King Jr.,
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  SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg,
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  SPEAKER_00: Germany.
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  SPEAKER_00: And his hammer blows echoed across Europe,
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  SPEAKER_00: shattering the spiritual monopoly of a corrupt religious system.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Luther was not alone in his endeavors.
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  The Reformation sparked multiple movements,
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  some much more radical than others.
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  SPEAKER_00: And today,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are going to remember not only Luther,
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  SPEAKER_00: but the Anabaptists,
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  SPEAKER_00: Reformers,
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  SPEAKER_00: and our own radical pietist heritage as the Church of the Brethren.
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  SPEAKER_00: More importantly...
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  we are going to ask ourselves,
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  what reformation does God require of us today?
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  SPEAKER_00: By 1517, the Western Church was once again in crisis.
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  SPEAKER_00: Since the Great Schism that we talked about last week of 1054 had split
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  SPEAKER_00: Christianity into Eastern and Western Christianity,
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  the Roman Catholic Church in the West had grown increasingly
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  powerful and corrupt.
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  SPEAKER_00: The sale of indulgences,
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  SPEAKER_00: which were certificates that,
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  SPEAKER_00: interestingly,
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  could buy your way out of purgatory and usher you into heaven
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  more quickly,
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  SPEAKER_00: had become a very,
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  SPEAKER_00: very lucrative business.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Dominican friar, Tazel,
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  SPEAKER_00: He infamously proclaimed,
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  SPEAKER_00: as soon as the gold in the casket rings,
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  they were putting money into people's caskets that he would
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  then later take out.
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  As soon as the gold goes into the casket and rings,
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  the rescued soul to heaven springs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Catchy.
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  SPEAKER_00: but really corrupt.
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  SPEAKER_00: And meanwhile,
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  SPEAKER_00: the believers had no access to scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they lived in spiritual and economic bondage.
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  Luther's 95 theses challenged,
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  dramatically challenged this system at its core.
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  His first theses declared that Jesus wanted the entire life of
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  the believer to be
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  SPEAKER_00: one of repentance,
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  SPEAKER_00: not an external transaction,
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  SPEAKER_00: but an inward transformation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pope
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  Luther argued,
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  could not remove God's penalties,
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  only the ones that the Pope himself enforced.
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  SPEAKER_00: And within weeks,
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  SPEAKER_00: thanks to the printing press that newly had been created,
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  SPEAKER_00: Luther's theses were translated and spread across Germany like wildfire.
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  SPEAKER_00: The term Protestant actually emerged later,
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  SPEAKER_00: 12 years later,
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  SPEAKER_00: in 1529,
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  SPEAKER_00: at what was called the Diet of Spire,
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  SPEAKER_00: when Lutherans,
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  SPEAKER_00: okay,
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  SPEAKER_00: so just follow the progression,
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  SPEAKER_00: Luther...
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  puts his 95 theses on the door,
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  creates this dramatic reformation of the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Lutheran church becomes much more established in Germany,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then the Lutheran priests and princes gather together,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they present a protestio to protest the
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  SPEAKER_00: the ongoing reformation of other groups, okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: This will make a little bit more sense in a bit.
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  SPEAKER_00: So they labeled the evangelicals Protestants.
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  And these Protestants felt that Luther and Zwingli hadn't gone
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  far enough in the
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  SPEAKER_00: reformation of the church
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  SPEAKER_00: In Zurich,
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  SPEAKER_00: a group of radicals led by Conrad Grable,
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  SPEAKER_00: Felix Manz,
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  SPEAKER_00: and others studied scripture with a guy called Zwingli,
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  SPEAKER_00: who was in charge of the Zwinglian church,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Swiss Reformation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they began to convince,
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  SPEAKER_00: these groups of radicals,
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  that the true reformation meant complete return to the New
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  Testament Christian
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  SPEAKER_00: church.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when Zwingli refused to move faster than the city council allowed,
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  SPEAKER_00: this group of young adults,
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  SPEAKER_00: which I think is super cool,
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  SPEAKER_00: broke away from the Zwinglingen Reformation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in January 21,
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  SPEAKER_00: 1525,
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  SPEAKER_00: Conrad Grable baptized George Blauroch,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then Blauroch baptized the others based on their confession of faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the birth of the Anabaptist movement began.
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  They insisted that the church must be composed only of
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  voluntary believers,
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  SPEAKER_00: separate from the state,
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  SPEAKER_00: and committed to nonviolence.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was a very big thing for them.
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  This was the most revolutionary act of the Reformation in most
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  people's estimation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the cost...
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  of this statement of faith that for us seems normal and
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  understandable was staggering.
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  SPEAKER_00: Felix Matz was drowned in 1527.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was the first Anabaptist martyr killed by
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  SPEAKER_00: the other Protestants of the time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Michael Sattler,
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  SPEAKER_00: who drafted the Schleitheim Confession of Faith in 1527,
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  SPEAKER_00: he had his tongue pulled out.
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  His body was torn with red hot tongs by the Catholics and the
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  Protestants.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then he was martyred.
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  SPEAKER_00: At the very same time,
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  SPEAKER_00: just a couple years later,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Diet of Spire,
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  SPEAKER_00: where Protestants claimed the right of conscience for themselves,
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  SPEAKER_00: they condemned the Anabaptist movement to death.
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  Both the Magisterial Reformers and the Anabaptists drew deeply
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  from the same book
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  SPEAKER_00: of the Bible,
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  SPEAKER_00: however,
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  SPEAKER_00: the book of Galatians,
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  SPEAKER_00: though they emphasized different aspects.
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  SPEAKER_00: For Martin Luther...
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  SPEAKER_00: Galatians was his favorite epistle.
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  SPEAKER_00: He called it my epistle or my Catherine von Bora.
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  SPEAKER_00: Catherine was his wife.
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  I'm not sure how she felt about that,
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  but nonetheless,
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  that's what history tells us.
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  His lectures on Galatians became one of the foundational texts
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  of Protestant theology.
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  SPEAKER_00: Luther found in Galatians the heart of the gospel,
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  SPEAKER_00: justification by faith alone,
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  SPEAKER_00: apart from the works of the law.
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  SPEAKER_00: From Galatians 2.16,
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  SPEAKER_00: a man is not justified by works of the law,
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  SPEAKER_00: but through faith in Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: Luther developed his understanding of passive righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_00: We contribute nothing to our own salvation.
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  SPEAKER_00: We simply receive what Christ has done for us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Luther emphasized the battle between law and
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  and grace between active righteousness our striving and passive
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  righteousness
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  christ's gift to us he wrote if this doctrine justification be
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  once lost then all
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  SPEAKER_00: the christian doctrine is lost
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  SPEAKER_00: In his Galatians commentary,
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  Luther stressed how the law reveals our total depravity and
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  deprives us to despair
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  SPEAKER_00: and drives us to despair so that we might flee to Christ alone.
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  Faith looks away from ourselves entirely to Christ's wounds,
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  according to Luther.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Luther put it, to be dead to the law means to be free of the law.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wake up and believe in Jesus Christ, the conqueror of law and sin.
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  SPEAKER_00: For Luther,
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  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 5.1,
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  SPEAKER_00: for freedom Christ has set us free,
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  SPEAKER_00: meant freedom from the guilt and the condemnation of the law.
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  It meant liberation from the need to earn God's favor through
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  religious works.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this was intensely personal for Luther,
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  who had about destroyed himself trying to become righteous
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  enough for God's love.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that's the Lutheran side of things.
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  The Anabaptists embraced Luther's teaching on the justification
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  by faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: They too affirmed that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they read Galatians with different emphasis,
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  SPEAKER_00: particularly focusing on chapters 5 and 6 of Galatians.
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  SPEAKER_00: Where Luther emphasized freedom from the law's condemnation,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Anabaptists emphasized freedom for obedience.
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  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 5.13 was crucial in this idea.
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  SPEAKER_00: For you were called to freedom,
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  SPEAKER_00: brothers and sisters,
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  SPEAKER_00: I would add,
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  SPEAKER_00: only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,
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  SPEAKER_00: but through love serve one another.
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  So freedom in Christ was not merely individual,
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  but outwardly transformative.
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  SPEAKER_00: for the community, and for the society.
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  It produced fruit,
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  the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5,
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  22,
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  23.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Anabaptists read Galatians 6,
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  SPEAKER_00: verse 2,
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  SPEAKER_00: bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: as a call to visible community and mutual accountability.
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  Faith,
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  working through love,
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  Galatians 5,
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  6,
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  meant practical discipleship.
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  The freedom Christ gave is freedom to live according to the
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  Sermon on the Mount.
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  to love our enemies,
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  to reject violence,
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  and to live simply and serve sacrificially.
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  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a denial of justification by faith.
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  It was an insistence that saving faith produces a changed life,
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  a visibly changed life.
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  As James 2,
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  chapter 2,
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  verse 17 declares,
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  faith by itself,
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  if it does not have works,
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  is dead.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the Anabaptists saw no contradiction between Paul and James.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were two sides, they thought, of the same coin.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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  SPEAKER_00: True faith in Christ necessarily yields the fruits of obedience.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what most of us don't know or don't realize.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Church of the Brethren doesn't descend directly from the Anabaptists.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our roots are in 18th century radical pietism, a movement that balanced
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  that blended the pietist influence on personal conversion and
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  heartfelt faith with
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  SPEAKER_00: the Anabaptist practices of believer's baptism and non-resistance.
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  In 1708,
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  about 200 years after Luther nailed his theses on the church
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  door,
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  SPEAKER_00: In Schwarzenau,
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  SPEAKER_00: Germany,
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  SPEAKER_00: Alexander Mack,
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  SPEAKER_00: who many of you have heard about,
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  led seven other believers into the Etter River on a very cold
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  day to be baptized.
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  SPEAKER_00: What they believed established,
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  SPEAKER_00: they believed that the established churches,
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  SPEAKER_00: so the Lutheran Church,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Reformed Church,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Catholic Church at that time,
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  SPEAKER_00: they believed they were spiritually dead.
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  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to restore New Testament Christianity,
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  SPEAKER_00: personal conversion,
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  SPEAKER_00: believer's baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: the love feast with feet washing,
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  SPEAKER_00: anointing for healing,
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  SPEAKER_00: simple living,
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  SPEAKER_00: and radical peace.
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  SPEAKER_00: But due to persecution,
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  SPEAKER_00: they immigrated to America,
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  SPEAKER_00: establishing the first congregation in Germantown,
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  SPEAKER_00: Pennsylvania on Christmas Day in 1723.
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  SPEAKER_00: This heritage gave us, the Church of the Brethren, distinct emphasis
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  SPEAKER_00: from pietism,
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  SPEAKER_00: experiential faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: and new birth,
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  SPEAKER_00: and from anabaptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: believer's baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: and nonviolence.
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  SPEAKER_00: And uniquely,
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  SPEAKER_00: brethren,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is very,
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  SPEAKER_00: very important to know,
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  the New Testament as our only creed and the restoration of all
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  ordinances as a
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  SPEAKER_00: means of grace.
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  So the Church of the Brethren,
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  we don't hold to any other creed other than the New Testament.
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  SPEAKER_00: We still affirm justification by faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: justification by grace through faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: and we still practice believer's baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: we still maintain our peace testimony today,
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  SPEAKER_00: but honestly,
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  SPEAKER_00: there are some things that we are losing,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think,
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  SPEAKER_00: as well.
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  SPEAKER_00: that in our day and time we need to think a little bit about.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are losing the expectation of conversion.
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  Many grow up among us assuming that they are Christians without
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  experiencing new
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  SPEAKER_00: birth for themselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're losing costly discipleship, membership without transformation.
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  We are losing our distinctive practices,
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  which I think are pretty important.
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  SPEAKER_00: Feet washing, the love feast, anointing for healing.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are losing our separation from the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: We mirror our culture instead of offering a radical alternative.
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  And we're losing our peace witness,
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  keeping the label while losing the reality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every generation needs reformation.
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  I have been talking through this series how it seems like about
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  every 500 years
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  SPEAKER_00: there is a reformation of the people of faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: A rethinking of what is important and which way we might change.
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  The last one that I'm talking about today reminded us of
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  radical faith that trusts
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  SPEAKER_00: completely in Christ,
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  SPEAKER_00: yet produces obedient fruit.
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  SPEAKER_00: A radical love that extends to the enemies and forgives 70 times 70.
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  A radical peace that refuses violence and seeks reconciliations
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  with everyone,
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  including God.
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  SPEAKER_00: our enemies,
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  SPEAKER_00: radical community that bears one another's burdens and practices mutual
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  SPEAKER_00: accountability,
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  and radical simplicity that is content with Christ and free
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  from materialism.
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  SPEAKER_00: That kind of dedication cost Luther his security,
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  SPEAKER_00: It cost Grable and Mance and Sattler their lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: It cost the Mack family their home.
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  SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus always costs something.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus promised us, for freedom, Christ has set us free.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are not called to be successful.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are called to be faithful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not popular, but obedient.
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  Not to preserve an institution,
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  but to follow Jesus wherever he leads and whatever it costs.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I ask you,
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  SPEAKER_00: will you join this new reformation,
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  SPEAKER_00: this new reformation,
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  SPEAKER_00: whatever it might end up being here in our day and in our time?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will you trust Christ's grace completely?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will you take up your cross daily?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will you commit to genuine community?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will you embrace the way of peace?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will you simply, live simply and generously with your neighbor?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will we be the church?
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  SPEAKER_00: The reformers of the past are gone, but their witness remains.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now it is our turn.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now it is our moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Will we be faithful with our day and time as they were?
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.