"But now..."

 

St Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Thompson, ND/Reformation Sunday/October 25, 2020 (online)

Affirmation of Baptism & Installation of Pastor Tawanda Murinda

Romans 3:19-28

 In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 This morning I have three different kinds of news for you.

 First, the bad news…but then the good news….and finally—wait for it!—I’ll share the best news of all!

     1.     First the bad news:   we’re stuck and we can’t get ourselves unstuck.

 We’re stuck—oh boy are we stuck!   This morning, as if we need to be reminded, most of us are stuck at home or wherever else we’re catching this online worship service.

 And the reason we’re stuck somewhere else than in our  beloved church home in Thompson, ND, is that we and everyone else in this world are stuck in a viral pandemic, the likes of which  we haven’t seen in a century!

 This coronavirus that has snaked its way across the whole globe is the freshest proof  that we live in a world that’s simply not what its Creator intended it to be….proof that the creation itself is groaning in pain and anticipation of the new creation God is preparing for us all.

 But for now, we’re stuck,  and we can’t get ourselves unstuck….and as if the pandemic itself wasn’t awful enough—our inability to come together, agree with one another, and take  some fairly easy steps that could defeat this virus—the fact that we human beings haven’t gotten our act together globally places the responsibility for our “stuckness” squarely on our own shoulders…

 …while also exposing all sorts of other ways we’re stuck and cannot get ourselves unstuck, like:

·       Being stuck in age-old prejudices over race, ethnicity, language and culture;

·       Or being stuck in economic systems that don’t give everyone a fair shake;

·       Or being stuck on a planet experiencing climate change at a frightening pace, marked by “extreme weather events”—wild fires and hurricanes, for example, that keep hitting us with astonishing frequency and force.

 And why are we stuck in all these ways?   It’s because we and the whole human race are stuck in sin:  sin, understood not just in terms of  unlawful or hurtful things we say or do, but in terms of a condition, a force with a life of its own, causing us to be “curved in on ourselves”  (as Martin Luther liked to say).

 Today’s bad news is that we’re stuck in sin and all the disastrous effects of sin—and we can’t get ourselves unstuck…which is why we hope for and cry out for a path out of this wretched situation.  It’s why we’re starving to hear even a shred of good news.

 2.     And--thanks be to God!--there is good news:   God has already opened up for us a path, a solution, a way forward to get unstuck!

 And you already know, I’m guessing, where this is leading:  which is to  Jesus, of course!

This good news has nothing to do with what you and I think or say or do.  It is, rather, simply bestowed on us—out of the clear blue.  It descends like gentle rain on parched earth.  It “happens” to us when we least expect it.

That certainly is how it happened for our Lutheran church’s namesake, Martin Luther, who was born in 1483.

Growing up in Germany during the Middle Ages, Martin Luther wrestled with his own brand of stuckness.   He was stuck in a feverish, desperate attempt to make himself acceptable to a God whom he feared more than he loved—a God whose church in that time offered 101 ways to “get right” with the Almighty.

If anyone could have pulled that off—it was Martin Luther.  Day after day he labored—performing good works, confessing all his sins, making amends for those sins. 

 Luther became so obsessed with “going to confession,” that one day his frustrated priest-confessor turned him away at the door into the confessional—commanding Luther not to come back until he had some real, serious sins to confess!

So instead, at the end of his rope, Luther dove deeply into the Word of God…searching, seeking, trying to find a way out of his stuckness in sin…

….until one fine day “that way out” found Luther!--right here in the words of today’s Second Lesson from Romans chapter three. 

God’s good news burst into Luther’s life through just two words:    “but now!”

Those might be the two sweetest words in the whole Bible:  “But now”—something new bursts forth, a turning point arrives…something other than “trying just a bit harder” to live our lives well.

But now—a path opened up that Martin Luther wasn’t even looking for.  It just appeared—taking Luther completely by surprise.

“But now,” sings St. Paul here in Romans chapter 3, “but now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

Here Luther thought that being right with God, being aligned with God’s Kingdom, was something he had to pursue with every fiber of his being….

…”but now”—lo and behold!—it dawned on Luther that God’s righteousness had been pursuing him, all along.

Following in Luther’s footsteps, we 21^st century Lutherans, have come to know and trust that God’s righteousness—that is, God’s way of making the world right again--is never our do-it-yourself project.  It is God’s good work, from start to finish.   It is God rescuing us—completely “free of charge.”

And here’s the best thing:  God delights in simply forking it over, letting it wash over us, covering all our sinfulness and waywardness with the saving water of our baptism into Christ Jesus.

This gracious water of Baptism into Christ sweeps away all obstacles in our path, pulls us out of our stuckness, and catches us up in the gracious current, the glorious under-tow of God’s Good News.

3.     Which brings us to the best news of all!   God’s way of making us and the whole world right again in Jesus Christ, isn’t just a bright idea or a  “live option”—an alternative God cooked up for us in the spur of the moment—a rescue plan that just might do the trick, if we’re smart enough to choose it.

No, the best news of all is that this way, Jesus’ way is what God has had in mind all along.  

As Paul puts it in our text, Jesus “disclosed” what God has always been about.   Jesus discloses that God’s righteousness isn’t God’s possession—but rather, it is God’s modus operandi—God’s way of  being God for us, played out in real time in this world. 

God is, always has been, and always will be in the business of setting things to right—making you and me and the whole creation NEW once again!

God doesn’t come to us, hat in hand, to make us an offer he hopes we’ll accept.

No, but rather:  God rolls up his sleeves and goes to work in us, in order to open us up to this goodness.   God chooses to accomplish  this way in our lives.  It is our destiny!

Before the first star began to twinkle, God was thinking of you.  Before God created anything, God was already envisioning a Cross and an Empty Grave at the very center of human history.   Before the first sunrise ever took place, God had designs on you--to name you and claim you and never let you go.

That, my dear young friends—Ava, Reese, Kate, Zakary, Drew and Zane—it’s what the six of you are affirming today.   You’re saying your own Yes to the Yes God said to you when you were baptized.

And because all of this is God’s gift to you—you are free from everything that makes you stuck.  

In Jesus Christ, we’re simply set free:  free to float in God’s mercy.  

Years ago I got to know Raymond Lucker the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm MN until cancer stole him away.  In his last days Ray often visited a little farm place he owned near Renville, MN. 

One day a friend found Ray, sitting in a lawn chair in the bright sunshine of a Minnesota summer morning.  “What are you doing?” a friend asked.   “Nothing,” Bishop Lucker replied.  “I’m just sitting here, letting God hold me.”

Reformation Day is about floating on the sheer grace of God, living in the confidence that before you and I ever lifted a finger to do one good thing for God, God had already done all good things for us, in Christ Jesus. 

And where does that leave us? 

It leaves us free from all our “stuckness”…free to say thank you….and free to  live the life we were created for:  trusting God, loving our neighbors, and caring for this good earth. 

It doesn’t get any better than that.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen