This weekend, we commemorate Reformation Sunday by hearing again the good news Paul proclaims in Romans 3:28 “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.”
As we continue talking about stewardship over the next few weeks, remember that God’s love for you does not depend on what you give, or on anything you do. The good news of grace is that everything depends on what God has done for you. Jesus has died for you. Your sins are forgiven, and it’s all a gift. You don’t need to earn it. Have faith and trust in God’s salvation and love for you!
In response to God’s incredible love and amazing grace, we follow what Jesus called the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself—the rest is all fine print. Our call is to share the love God has first given us.
Today’s scripture readings are Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18; Psalm 90:1-6, 13-14; Romans 3:19-28a; and Matthew 22:34-36. I previously used this opening illustration about fine print in a sermon on Matthew 18 on September 6, 2020. I’m also drawing from our fall stewardship theme, You Have Heard It Said, from Church Anew.
Here’s the livestream and sermon podcast audio:
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
How many of you have a cell phone? Ok, how many of you have an insurance policy? Ok, how many of you read everything in the terms and conditions of your cell phone or insurance policy?
Good for you if you have. I’m pretty sure I speak for most people when I say I have not read every detail.
I saved a story shortly before the pandemic about a woman named Donelan Andrews, who actually read all the fine print of a travel insurance policy she bought.
I’m quoting from the Washington Post article now: She was “deep into page seven of the policy when something jumped out at her. ‘Pays to Read,’ read the contract.
It continued: “We estimate that less than 1 percent of travelers that purchase a travel insurance policy actually read all of their policy information — and we’re working to change that.” It said the first person to email the company and mention the fine-print contest would win $10,000. Andrews immediately emailed.”
The next day, the company called her to tell her that she was the first to email, and she would indeed get $10,000. Pretty good for a $454 policy!
Other companies go the other direction and sneak all sorts of things into their fine print. NPR has an article with examples, like 22,000 people in Manchester, England who by using public Wi-Fi inadvertently agreed to 1,000 hours of community service including cleaning public toilets and relieving sewer blockages. I don’t think they followed through on that one.
Or on April Fools’ Day 2010, British retailer GameStation users who didn’t read their license agreement and specifically uncheck a box agreed to grant GameStation “A non-transferable option to claim, for now and forevermore, your immortal soul.”
So with that in mind, how many of you have read the entire Bible all the way through? A poll a few years ago found that 87 percent of American households own a Bible (actually, they own three on average), but only one in five claim to have read through the entire Bible.
Now, I actually don’t think it’s that big of a problem if not very many people have read all the dimensions of the temple in 2nd Chronicles, or all the tribal census lists in Numbers. But in general, reading the Bible is good.
But part of why people don’t read all of the Bible is that there’s a lot in it, especially a lot of laws, and a lot of those laws are not intended for us to follow.
Many of them we can’t follow today. Jewish tradition holds that there are 613 commandments in the Bible, and obviously Jewish tradition doesn’t count anything in the New Testament.
We often narrow it down and focus on the ten commandments – I’m guessing some of you can list all ten commandments. But there’s a lot of fine print that goes with those commandments.
If you want to follow God’s law, there’s a lot of detail you need to pay attention to!
In today’s gospel reading, a Pharisee lawyer asks Jesus a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law—which of all those 613—is the greatest?” Now, this question is meant as test, a trap, just like last week when Jesus’ enemies were asking him about the legality of paying Roman taxes.
But Jesus gives the perfect answer. The first commandment is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And, he continues, a second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In this simple answer, Jesus boils down the entire law. He summarizes everything God has ever commanded down into one command: Love.
The point of all the rules—the point of all the law and the prophets—is love. The point is faith that makes a difference in the world, living God’s way. Not to earn your way to heaven by doing good things because remember, God loves you whether you do good works or not, that’s the whole point of grace—we’ll come back to that; the rules are there because God wants us to experience the goodness of life.
God wants us to live in a world where all people are safe, where all are included, where there is enough for everyone.
In the first reading from Leviticus, God gives Moses some particular instructions, some fine print—don’t render an unjust judgment, don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge, don’t go around slandering people—but the point is the last line: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees isn’t a new idea he’s coming up with, throwing out his Jewish heritage, ignoring centuries of God speaking through the law and the prophets; this is Jesus summarizing everything God’s been commanding since creation.
This our second week in this series of thinking about stewardship, money, and faith, so do you remember our definition of stewardship from last week?
Stewardship is our call to tend everything God has trusted to us.
The key principle for how we engage in stewardship, how we use our time, put our talents to use, and handle our money, the key principle for making decisions about what to do with what God has trusted to us, is love.
For every decision you make, ask yourself: Is this loving God? Of the choices I have, which one shows God’s love to my neighbors? Am I acting out of love?
That’s not a perfect guide for decision-making, of course. There are many things you can do with your time, many ways you can spend your money that will show love. There’s not usually just one right path of action. Life doesn’t work like that. There are some wrong decisions, which is why we have the law and the prophets. We still need to engage in ethical reflection and study. But it’s all fine print under the general principle. Love God; love people.
Maybe it should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: Loving your neighbor as yourself implies you are also loving yourself. Taking care of yourself is important. You are a person whom God loves.
As we talked about last week, you bear the image of God. You are worthy of love. You are God’s beloved child—that’s your baptismal identity. It’s ok to make decisions sometimes that benefit yourself. It’s ok to benefit from the blessings God has trusted to you.
But in all things, in everything you do, in every decision you make, keep a heavenly perspective. Our Psalm says a thousand years in God’s sight are like a day. So much that seems so important right now fades away like grass withering in the night when we shift our perspective.
Of course, none of us can keep that perspective perfectly all the time.
Our namesake, Martin Luther—the one who lived five hundred years ago in Germany, not the 1950’s civil rights leader—that’s Martin Luther King Jr.—our Martin Luther was a monk who struggled with being a sinner. He knew God demanded he follow the law, but no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t able to do it all. He kept finding himself sinning.
Conveniently, the church at the time taught there was stuff he could do to make up for his sin, like confessing and doing penance, or doing enough good works to balance out his sin. Even giving money to the church was a good deed that could make up for some sin.
But Luther was extremely conscientious, acutely aware of his sinfulness, and no matter how much good he did to make up for it, he never knew if it was enough.
His priest complained Luther actually spent too much time confessing, often finishing up his confession and immediately starting over to confess something else.
As Luther tried to do enough to satisfy the demands he thought God was making, he began to lose hope of ever doing enough to get to heaven. He got angry at God for demanding so much, and of course, getting angry at God felt sinful, which just made it worse. And then Luther came across this passage in Romans, the passage we just heard. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;”
Everyone is sinful – Luther was well aware of that part, but here’s the key—since all have sinned, “they are now justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Read verse 28 in the Romans reading with me: “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” God is offering love and grace, not demanding satisfaction. That simple idea of salvation coming from God’s grace through faith changed everything for Luther.
Now he saw that the church had lost its focus. Instead of proclaiming God’s freely given forgiveness, the church had become corrupt, selling indulgences, charging money for grace, and Luther called it to reform.
Understanding God’s grace changes everything for us too. You don’t need to set yourself free. You don’t need to worry if you’re trying hard enough or doing enough to achieve salvation. The burden is not on you. We believe God loves us so much that God always makes the first move, to do what we can’t.
Jesus sets us free from the paralysis of wondering if we’re doing enough, the paralysis of being overwhelmed with all the problems of the world and thinking we need to solve them all. I had a seminary professor who was fond of saying our call as Christians is to be faithful, not necessarily to be right. If you are acting out of love for God and love of neighbor, you’re in a good place.
The point of this stewardship series is to challenge some of our assumptions around faith and finance. You have heard it said God loves those who love God. If we are good and loving, then we expect love in return. That’s the way this world works. Lots of people talk about God’s blessings being a reward for what we do.
But that’s not God’s way. God’s love is reckless. God’s love is amazing grace. God loves you because God loves you, not because you love God, and Jesus entering into our world and dying for us is the proof.
Lutheranism 101 is this: God always comes down to us. We don’t climb up to God.
God is not up there with a grade book taking notes every time we fall short on some part of the law; God is looking at us in love, and calling us to act out of love.
As we talk about stewardship and responding to God, remember God’s love for you does not depend on what you give, or on anything you do. It’s entirely countercultural, but that’s what’s so amazing about God: We don’t get what we deserve, which is really good news!
We are saved by God’s grace, and everything we do with our time, talents, and treasures is in response to the grace given to us.
May we always respond to God’s amazing grace by loving God with all we are and loving our neighbors as ourselves in Jesus’ name. Happy Reformation Day!
Amen