29-10 Bid Aldus - 2

As God asked. Matthew 6:9-10 But didn’t you already preach on this? Why yes. Yes, I did. I was struck - in preparing for this sermon - by the fact that there is far too much to be preached in this passage. So I decided to preach two sermons and in this second Sunday I would draw out an aspect that I did not cover two weeks ago. Introduction - 500 years of Reformation Protestant Churches everywhere are celebrating the event that kick-started the Reformation today. In January of 1517 Johann Tetzel was officially called to the ministry of selling indulgences for Pope Leo X. He traveled like a pedler through Germany and managed to empty people’s pockets. He who purchased an indulgence was ensured a partial or even complete forgiveness of their Ecclesiastical debt. The indulgence could also be purchased to shorten the length of the stay of a loved one in purgatory. The reasoning was that Christ had accomplished and endless supply of good works and the saints had more good works than they needed to inherit salvation. These works of Christ and the Saints comprised the “treasury of excess good works”, which was owned by the Church and managed by the Pope. Therefore the pope can write an indulgence check to those who have a deficit of good works. Since 1343 this is still official Church doctrine. Tetzel traveled with a big box and preached this doctrine with a diddy that went something like: When the coin dings, a soul from purgatory springs. The proceeds went to various Church building projects, but especially the Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. A story that is told from this time period is of a nobleman that approached and asked Tetzel if these indulgence checks were sold for sins not yet committed. Tetzel explained the affirmative, upon which the man purchased a check signed by the pope. Then he proceeded to mercilessly beat Johann Tetzel and when he was finished returned the indulgence letter and walked away forgiven. Eventually Tetzel ended up in the area of Wittenberg. Parishioners that ended up in Martin Luther’s confessional showed little evidence of sorrow for their sins and appealed to their indulgence letter - purchased from Tetzel and signed by the pope. Their guilt had already been paid. Luther was appalled. This led him to write 95 academic arguments against the sale of indulgences and on October 31, 1517 he nailed his complaint to the door of the castle-Church in Wittenberg. 500 years later the reverberations from Luther’s hammer can still be felt. The Renaissance brought a change in thinking. People longed for the classical period: the politics and wealth of the great Roman era. Their mantra became: “back to the sources” in seeking to discover what the great thinkers of that era taught. This thinking eventually infiltrated into the thinking of theologians, who returned to the sources - Scripture in the original Greek and Hebrew. Many were becoming carefully critical of practices and teachings in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther was one of these monks. The greatest heritage of the Reformation was a simple belief, that we adhere to and was well-voiced by Luther: sola Scriptura - the Scripture alone. The statement: “show me in the Bible” is a belief that we hold dear today. In reading about Luther I came across a letter that he wrote to his barber in Wittenberg - a good friend. He had inquired who one ought to pray and Luther commented on the Lord’s prayer - I would like to share his insights this morning. Luther was appalled by the mindless rehearsing of the Lord’s prayer without the slightest thinking of what is being prayed. He called it abuse and made the corollary between the first three commandments in Exodus 20 to the introduction of Jesus’ prayer. Prayer brings us back to God’s beginning with us The first command implied (9) The first command to Israel is that they worship only Him. As we have learned in our Bible study on Wednesdaynight, the way in which the ten commandments are written and placed after Exodus 19 (read it - God is protecting His people like a father protects his children) teaches us that God is describing the parameters of a relationship more so than prescribing rules for salvation. God saved His people out of Egypt and then gives this saved people ten commandments. The first three set up the relationship. God longs for an exclusive relationship with His people. Much like a marriage ceremony, God asks to be exclusive in their lives. Love me above everything else - and let me be the only one. The second command enacted (9a) The second command regarded their worship, which was to be without icons or idols. They were to worship in spirit. There was no specification of locality in this worship. That was not important… it was to be in spirit - as Jesus explains to the Samaritan woman at the well. You worship without going somewhere or seeing anything. The Lord’s prayer is exactly that - to be done anywhere and at any time, by those to love Him. The third command in action (9b) The third command was relational as well: cherish my name. Make it holy in your thinking and speaking. Our relationship with God is not to be treated as trivial. We are not to approach or worship or think of God like the world with its take-it-or-leave-it mentality. Religion is something I do on Sunday… the rest of the week God is out of my mind. Asking the Father’s name to be hallowed is to re-align your heart with who God is and what He means to you. That’s why “Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done” follow from this heart-alignment. This prayer brings us back to where God wants us to be… it it our delay in this busy world as we wait for God’s direction in life. Luther said: “How shall God’s Name be hallowed among us? When what we believe and live is truly Christian.” Too often what we believe and live does not align. Luther stood up to this blasé Christianity. Much like David he was moved by zeal for God’s Name. Grace was at stake with Tetzel. True repentance had been short-circuited. True forgiveness was no longer sought after. And Luther brought us back to Scripture. Do we have such a zeal?