Nothing to Brag About. are celebrating today was Luther s disgust over the sale of indulgences. According to the

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1 Nothing to Brag About Jer.31:31-34; Rom. 3:19-28; John 8:31-36 One of the springboards for the 16 th Century Reformation of the Church that we are celebrating today was Luther s disgust over the sale of indulgences. According to the Roman Church, sins must be accounted for, one by one, but goodness can be pooled. Because the saints, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus himself were better than they needed to be for their own salvation, their merits made up a treasury of virtue for those whose accounts were in arrears. The transfer of credits from the saints to sinners was made through the church and in particular through the pope, who could draw on the account of merits in order to reduce the penalties for sin that he imposed. This credit was called an indulgence. The benefit of indulgences extended to reducing a sinner s sentence in purgatory for sins committed or even to the outright forgiveness of sins. One of the ways to receive such indulgences was to visit relics of the saints, bones and artifacts that were alleged to have come from the heroes of the faith. Rome was the principal site of such relics, possessing everything from a piece of the burning bush of Moses to the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul. The practice of purchasing indulgences grew out of the Crusades. The first indulgences were conferred on those who fought in the Crusades, but in time indulgences were extended to those who could not go to fight in the Crusades or simply didn t want to go but who made financial contributions to the effort in lieu of showing up themselves. Such indulgences proved so lucrative that they were extended further to those who made contributions for the building of churches and monasteries and hospitals.

2 Luther came to think of the system of indulgences as nonsense if not worse. He saw it as diverting the charity of Christians from the needs of the poor and wrote, He who spends his money for indulgences instead of relieving want receives not the indulgence of the pope but the indignation of God. According to Luther, indulgences were not merely venal but were in fact blasphemy against the holiness and mercy of God. As should be obvious, Luther s attack on the system of indulgences struck at the heart of a great source of revenue for the Church and was not, as such, much appreciated. But it was, as far as Luther was concerned, an attack that was necessary for the spiritual wellbeing of believers. When Luther read in the Letter to the Romans, For no human being will be justified in God s sight by deeds prescribed by the law, the law he was thinking about was at least in part the pope s teachings regarding indulgences. The law of God was something else: viz., faith in the grace of God, active in love. In a few minutes, as part of this sermon, I am going to ask you to make pledges of time and talent and money for the support of the church and the ministry we share as members of the body of Christ. These are pledges of faith, and I trust that no one here is under any illusions about the capacity of these pledges to purchase divine favor for us. God s favor has already been extended to us that is a teaching that is at the core of the understanding of the Christian faith that came out of the Reformation in the 16 th Century and we do not, cannot earn or win this favor. You are loved by God. I am loved by God. The only question is how we will respond to this love. The response we make is the practice of our faith, and at least part of this response for most Christians has to do with the church. The giving of time and talent and money to the work of the church is an act of faith that the church is an expression of God s love in the world and thereby a

3 legitimate means for us to express our faith. The time and talent and money we give to the church could be spent elsewhere. To pledge that these will be given here is an affirmation of the church s work. If one does not think the work of the church is worthy, then one should not pledge to support it. But if it is deemed worthy, then it deserves the affirmation that is represented in one s pledge of support. How does one go about determining the worth of the church s work as an expression of one s faith? The Christian standard for determining the worth of the church s work is whether or not the church is an instrument of grace in the world and in one s life. Does the church function in such a way as to decrease one s fear and increase one s love? Does the church represent as true teachings that liberate us as persons from the things that kill the spirit and make us selfish and arrogant and heartless? Does the church bring relief to the poor and the broken? Does the church welcome the stranger and strive to leave no one excluded? If so, then perhaps the church is not merely an institution but may actually be the body of Christ in the world, not perfectly so, to be sure, but at least a recognizable representation of God s Word as it is known in Christ. And if it is this, it deserves the support of its members, a sign of which is the pledge we make to be part of the church s work in the world. The purpose of Christian sermons is to inspire faith in Christ such that we come to see the way and the truth and the life that leads to God in the life of Jesus. For better or for worse, this is what I try to do standing in this pulpit week after week in the hope that this little transaction between us will help all of us, congregation and preacher alike, become more faithful in the living of our lives. If this does occur, it will be shown after the worship hour is over in the response that we make to what has gone on here during

4 that hour. But this morning at least part of our response is to be made here and now, before the amen has been pronounced on this Reformation Sunday sermon. Our pledges to the work of the church, which some of us have already made and which the rest of us are being asked to make at this time, are part of this sermon and part of our worship. Indeed, once completed the pledge forms your are about to receive are an amen, a way of saying yes or so be it, to the work of the church, to the work of Emanuel and the ELCA. Let us pray: Gracious God, we pray our pledges we are about to make are fitting responses to your Word in Christ Jesus and of use in building up the body of Christ in the world. Amen. [Distribute pledge forms and pens.] We will be receiving no indulgences for having made our pledges, no time off from purgatory, no rewards for good behavior. I m sorry, but such things were not promised and are not, in any case, available. The benefit of these pledges is in the love they bring into the world, the grace they reflect, the truth they tell. They re an expression of our faith as much as laughter is an expression of our joy, and are as such, nothing to brag about. It is a privilege to give. Amen. Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2007 Emanuel Lutheran Church

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