Reformation Sunday
John 8:31-36
Romans 3:19-28
’Smile"
19 ¶ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction;
23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;
26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith.
28 For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
I do not know the author of the following story, but I think the following story can begin to explain to us the major point of the Reformation as Paul says in our second lesson: they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called "Smile." The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway, so, I thought, this would be a piece of cake, literally.
Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special play time with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.
I did not move an inch...an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God’s Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally deficient and the blue eyed gentleman was his salvation.
I held my tears as I stood there with them. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).
Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue eyed gentleman’s cold hand. He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Thank you."
I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope." I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, "That is why God gave you to me, Honey. To give me hope." We held hands for a moment and at that time we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give. That day showed me the pure Light of God’s sweet love.
I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand. I turned in "my project" and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, "Can I share this?" I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class. She began to read and that is when I knew that we, as human beings and being part of God, share this need to heal people and be healed.
In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s, my husband, son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student. I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE. 1
Because of the grace that we have been given as a free gift from God through Christ, we in turn can share that grace with others around us.
But we share that grace not as a reward for heaven, but as a consequence of it. Because we have been saved, because Christ died on the cross of us, because salvation is a free gift from God, we can share with others.
That story in the McDonald’s restaurant shows us the power of the grace in our lives.
We need to let that grace work. But sadly, many times we cannot do what we know is right because as Luther says, "We are saint and sinner at the same time." We want to will what is right, but we cannot.
Paul says in Romans 8: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is which I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me." No matter how good we perceive ourselves to be, no matter how arrogantly proud we are of our actions, when we look squarely in the mirror and look honestly at ourselves, we see someone who sins.
We want to pretend we don’t sin, we want to show off to others our piety, but when the chips are down our sin of pride, our sin of looking out for me, myself and I comes out front and center as seen in the following:
"Dostoyeusky tells a story of a woman who found herself in hell and felt she did not belong there. She could not bear the suffering and cried out in agony for the mercy of God. God listened and was moved with pity. "If you can remember one good deed that you did in your lifetime, I will help you," said God. Wracking her brain, she remembered that once she had given a starving neighboran onion. God produced the onion complete with stem. The woman grabbed the onion, and God began to pull her up and out of hell. But others, damned with her, began to grab hold of the woman’s skirts to be lifted out, too. The stem of the onion held and would have saved them all, but the woman began to kick and scream for them to let go. Thrashing about, trying to dislodge her friends was too much for the onion and the stem snapped, plunging them all back into the depths of hell."
No one is good enough to deserve heaven. Even our best deeds are tainted by elements of selfishness and vanity. Salvation can come to us only as a gift of God’s grace. This is good news, but it offends our pride.
Bill Walker, a character in George Bernard Shaw’s play Major Barbara, portrays this well. He is angry and drunk when he enters a Salvation Army shelter. He seeks out a young worker there who has introduced his ex-girlfriend to Christ. Bill finds the worker and hits her in the face.
When bystanders taunt him for this cowardly act, Bill becomes remorseful. He attempts to "make things square" by spitting in the eye of a wrestler who is present, hoping the man will strike him. But the wrestler is also a Christian, and he and the girl are willing to forgive Bill. Enraged, he leaves. Pride prevents Bill from accepting forgiveness.
We can no more make things square with God than Bill Walker could atone for hitting that girl. But we don’t have to even the score. God freely offers forgiveness and eternal life.
Don’t let foolish pride keep you from receiving the greatest of all gifts! Acknowledge your sin and helplessness. Believe what God has said. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. He has already made things square for us. 2
they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
Grace is a free gift from god through Christ. It is not earned for we can never make ourselves good enough for God. For the moment we think we are good enough for god, the sin of pride comes in. No, we are never good enough for God, but only through the death and resurrection of Christ am I make good enough for God, only through Christ.
So as you go about your day, be as the lady in our first story, go about with a smile, not because of something you did, but because God through Christ has saved you then you can bring a measure of that grace into some else’s life.
A seminary professor always told us that God acts and we respond. God acted through Christ to save us and then we respond with our own act of kindness toward someone else.
Once you have felt that God given free salvation in your life, then you cannot help to act, to reach out those those around you .
A closing story sums this all up for us.
Listen:
" A man who didn’t believe in God was giving a lecture telling of his reasons why he thought Christians were weak people who were dependent on God and used him as a crutch in life. The man went on and on about how he didn’t need anyone but himself and he was making a pretty good living doing just that relying on himself. After his speech, he asked anyone who had questions to come up front to the platform. After a short while, a man who had been well known as the town drunk came forward. He had just had a conversion experience and had completely changed his life. He came forward, reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange and coolly and slowly began to peel it.
The lecturer became impatient with this man, and asked him to ask the question he came forward to ask. But without saying anything, the former town drunk finished peeling the orange and began to eat it right there in front of everyone. When he had eaten the last of the orange, he turned to the lecturer and asked him, "Was the orange I ate sweet or sour?’’
Angrily, the lecturer shouted, " Idiot, how can I know whether it was sweet or sour when I never tasted it?’’
To this the former drunk replied, "And how can you know anything about Christ if you have not tried Him?"
God acted in that man’s life and he responded by sharing that saving grace with another in a vary unique way.
they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale October 24, 2005
1 Author Unknown found in illustrations@yahoogroups.com
2 from Our Daily Bread
