Today is reformation Sunday – so what will that mean for you tomorrow? Why will it matter? Well one thing about it could be that we are reminded to take God at His word. That’s really the heart of the reformation. Take / God / at / His /Word. But what effect will taking God at His word have on your day tomorrow? Look at the reading from the book of Romans today, look at verse 20. It says there that through observing the law no one will become righteous, but that the law makes us conscious of sin in our lives.
Ok, now let me ask you, do you think that at some point tomorrow you will become conscious of sin in your life? For most of us I think that’s a safe bet. Most of us at some point tomorrow (and maybe even yet today) will know that we have sinned. So what do you do then? Well, when you do become aware of sin remember to take God at His word and thank Him for the law that He has given you to bring that awareness to mind. The law does a good thing when it reminds us of our sin, because that’s a warning to us. The law is an alarm bell that serves to remind us that we’re out of bounds with God; we’ve crossed a line we shouldn’t have crossed.
When that happens, today or tomorrow, we’re given a wakeup call to return to the end of this same lesson from Romans. Read with me please the last verse, verse 28, it says: For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. That word justified is the word that’s used to describe a right relationship to God. When we are justified that’s saying that we’re restored to God. We are again brought ‘in bounds’ so to speak, with God. We are again on speaking terms with Him.
But that can only be true if we take God at His word. It can only affect our lives today and tomorrow and the next day, if we trust in it. And that’s what this verse is about. We are justified by faith, by trust, not in how we keep the law, but in God's word of grace and mercy. We are justified by trusting in the action of Christ who has kept the law perfectly and then died on the cross in our place and rising to new life again. We can be justified, not by what we do, but only by trusting, by having faith, in Jesus and His work as we are told in verse 25, which says, God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
Taking God at His word is what will make a difference in your life and my life tomorrow. Being aware of taking God at His word can make your life different. It’s like this guy named John Currier.
In 1949 John Currier was sentenced to life in prison. He couldn’t read or write. He was later transferred from prison and paroled to work for a wealthy farmer. Twenty years later, in 1969, Currier's sentence ended. The records of the Department of Corrections show that a letter was written to the convict and to the farmer informing them that the sentence had been satisfied, but Currier never saw the letter or knew that it existed. The farmer had disposed of it.
A year went by, then two, five, and finally 10. Then the farmer died, but Currier kept working, serving out his sentence on an allowance of $5 per week, living in a dilapidated trailer with a horse trough for a bath and a garden hose for a shower. Not until 1980 did a state parole officer learn of Currier's situation and tell him of the missing letter. Currier lost more than 12 years of his life because he failed to get the message that he had been freed. He wasn’t aware of the word of freedom that was his. How many people around us are losing years of life to despair and worry because they haven't heard that they can trust in Christ, as you do, and that they can take God at His word that they have been restored to Him.
It makes a difference in your life to know that you don’t need to earn God's love or that it’s your responsibility to re–form a right relationship with Him. You can’t earn it, remember the 20th verse today about no one being made righteous by how well they observe the law. Being made righteous, being justified, is God's gift, free to us, because it’s been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. Again verse 25, and that’s why your day tomorrow will be affected by today being Reformation Sunday. You’ve been given awareness of that gift, unlike Mr. Currier who was unaware of his freedom.
We’ve just finished the initial process of Strategic Ministry Planning, you might say our own reformation of sorts, right here. And one of the things to come from this reformation is our aspirational goals. Our aspirational goals are defined as the values we will stand for, without compromise regardless of the challenges placed before us. These are our guiding principles. There were 6 that were identified; we stand for baptism, for God's word as our foundation, for growing in our faith through bible study, for hospitality to visitors, to living and sharing the gospel and for worshipping God.
Now we will be talking about these more, later today as they relate to other aspects of our congregational life, but I wanted to bring them up here because today being reformation Sunday, our goal of standing for God's word as our foundation says that we do take God at His word. And that means that our lives, today and tomorrow and the rest of the week are changed because we know, we know that God has given us faith. For most of us our life of faith began when we were baptized, another of our aspirational goals that’s vital. In baptism we’re made spiritually alive and washed in the water of renewal and regeneration in the Holy Spirit.
That is life changing. But we’re so often throughout our days, unmindful of that gift. We’re unmindful of it, that is until we sin, and then we want to shy away from it. But again, even that is a gift of God. That’s law reminding us, its that alarm bell that tells us to return to trust in God and His word. That’s a good thing in life. And its a good thing to share with others. And again that’s another of our aspirational goals, sharing the gospel. But we can easily let that slip by in our day.
Perhaps that’s because of the ‘glasses’ we wear in our everyday lives. We take off our Sunday ministry-type glasses on Monday morning. We may think we have opportunity for ministry only on Sunday morning when we’re at church, but then set the idea aside the rest of the week that we have opportunity for living out the ministry of the gospel in our daily lives. Maybe a change of thought is in order.
If you haven't thought of your whole life as an opportunity for ministry before, I invite you to try this. Think of your area of ministry as your daily activity. Wherever it is that you spend the most time. For the next week, as you go through the day, simply be aware that wherever you are, this is a place for ministry. You don't have to stand up on a desk and preach (unless that’s what God leads you to do), but simply be aware that this place is, for you, an opportunity for ministry.
What will that mean? Well, you could tell me better than I could tell you. But that viewpoint will affect the way you do your work. It will affect the quality of your work. It will affect the way you treat people. It will affect the way you react to people. You will see people who are hurting, folks who are having a tough time in a different way. You’ll see that because you’ve been treated by God in a way that your sin makes you aware of, that you don’t deserve. You’ve been treated by God with His ministry of grace, through the gift of Christ.
This type of challenge may affect your understanding of just what your daily occupation is all about. But I invite you to think about your work, and the way you spend your time, this next week, and I'm just betting you'll see a reformation in your own life.
Maybe even today, tomorrow and the rest of the week, you’ll see that reformation because of what Jesus Christ has done by His making you righteous and His justifying you. Be aware of that gift that is yours by grace through faith alone. And remember as we have said in our aspirational goals, that we’re committed to living and sharing that good news, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray, Amen.