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sfdeparted03
Saints Now and Forever
Text:
John 5:24-29
Date: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
11/2/03 d2edit.net
How does a sinner, deserving only of God’s judgment
and wrath, gain God’s acceptance and the hope of salvation and entrance
into heaven?
It was the Eve of All Saints’ Day in Wittenberg, Germany,
1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the door of the
Castle Church. Very troubled over the church’s teaching that a person’s
sins could be forgiven simply by buying a piece of paper called
an indulgence, Luther invited any scholars interested to debate
this issue. Picture it: while these statements, written in Latin,
seriously questioning the whole concept of forgiveness of sins based
on human works hung silently on the door, the faithful, nevertheless,
passed right by them to enter the church, many to view the supposed
relics of various saints in hopes that their devotions and prayers
in connection with the saints would gain them favor before God.
“Saints” means “holy ones,” and it was believed that they had more
holiness or grace than they needed themselves. Therefore, by prayers
and acts of devotion before them—and now even by purchasing forgiveness
on the easy-payment plan—it was thought that an unholy sinner could
be helped to gain a measure of holiness from them. The whole point
was that salvation depended upon your becoming holy or good enough
for God to accept you. Since it was admitted that no one could achieve
perfect holiness or sinlessness in this life, the idea of purgatory
was logically (but falsely) invented and promulgated by two Church
Councils in the 1500s [Council of Florence in the 1530s and the
Council of Trent (1545-1563)].
Now lest you think this is an old aberration easily
advanced on the ignorant masses of the middle, dark ages, indulgences
are still issued by the Roman Catholic Church today. But the theology
of works-righteousness is not the possession of Rome alone. The
whole concept that I must cooperate or do some good work to be a
Christian is so “natural” to the fallen and blind sinful nature
that it has also infected churches that ostensibly had their beginnings
in the Reformation. What else is it than falling into the same old
works-righteousness when modern “evangelicals” insist that a person
must “make a decision” for Christ, or live a certain moral and behavioral
life-style in order to be considered “Christian”? What else is it—the
creation of so-called Christian book stores or Christian television—than
a new “monasticism” of retreating from the outside world in hopes
of creating a little heaven on earth with an exclusive membership
of only those who “belong”? What else is it when supposedly preaching
that salvation is by grace alone they nevertheless turn the sacraments
of Christ into “ordinances”—baptism and holy communion no longer
something God does to and for me, but something I must do to show
my faith, my piety, my achievement of holiness?
The latest fad going on right now is called “The Purpose
Driven Life” by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California.
Though he begins his pitch by saying, “It’s not about you,” the
whole book ends up putting the emphasis on no one else but you.
“Worship is not for your benefit, but for God’s,” he boldly proclaims.
“God will smile upon you if” you will believe and worship him with
enough purity and perfection of motive. It doesn’t just sound like
the old works-righteous trap again, it is! And as for Luther’s boldness
to seriously question the false teachings of the church of his day,
where are today’s Luthers when this sort of market-driven malarkey
is being used and taught even among some of our own churches in
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod? It’s shocking to hear that said,
I know. Maybe we can better appreciate the angst with which Luther
confessed the truth.
Now the true and original Evangelicals (the Lutherans!)
were very conservative. That is, in the hopes of reforming the Holy
Catholic Church, they insisted only that the pure Gospel of the
forgiveness of sins for the sake of faith in Christ alone, the objective
justification of the sinner by God’s grace alone for the sake of
Christ, should be center stage and clearly reflected in the Church’s
worship, teaching and theology. “Conservative” means that everything
inherited from the ages of the Holy Christian Church should be “conserved,”
maintained but “reformed” by the Gospel. Look at us! We not only
retain the historic form of the Mass, the lectionary of readings,
vestments and the like, but we also continue to remember the saints
on their days. The difference is that such commemoration is not
from the point-of-view of gaining spiritual reward, but that through
the example of the saints we might find encouragement to remain
faithful to the claims of the Gospel, by which alone we hope to
be saved.
We retain with more earnestness and faithfulness than
our adversaries the tradition of All Saints Day as well as those
days that dot our liturgical calendar with the traditional commemorations
of the Apostles, Evangelists, Martyrs and angels of the Lord. We
retain also this day in which we remember our more local and humble
saints—those from among us who have gone before us with the sign
of faith.
For many of us, we remember the dearly departed more
than just one or two days a year. It is a daily thing as we bear
the sense of loss, the void left at the removal of a once familiar
presence of a mother or father, a grandparent or a child, or other
relative or Christian friend. This remembrance or commemoration,
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