{"id":459,"date":"2019-10-27T13:57:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T13:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=459"},"modified":"2019-10-28T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T13:59:08","slug":"reformation-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/27\/reformation-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Reformation Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romans 3:19-28<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncelebration we call the Reformation, changed the Christian perspective on life.\nFor those who bought into the Reformation, life would no longer be seen as a burden,\nwith the goal for human life limited to living a pure life, obeying God\u2019s Law\nand the laws of the Church, all to avoid God\u2019s punishment. You see, the\nReformation helped us to see that God was not the tyrant, as proclaimed by the\nRoman Catholic Church of that day, the tyrant who demanded continual confession\nand penance, ever threatening purgatory and hell. For those of you who are not\nfamiliar with the word penance, penance is an act designed, so that the sinner,\ncan show God his\/her desire for forgiveness; some looked at it as a way of\nearning God\u2019s forgiveness (adoration of relics and pilgrimages fell into this\nsame mind set).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin\nLuther revived the understanding of faith that said, and I summarize, we are\nnot saved by what we say, do or even believe, but by Christ crucified. He emphasized\nthe belief that we can\u2019t earn a single moment of relief from God\u2019s punishment\nfor ourselves or for someone else. We don\u2019t need to; Jesus did it all for us. What\nthat meant for his parishioners was that they, as good Christians, could actually\nenjoy life; they could go to the local pub, and have a pint or two or three,\nand they could share in the conversation and singing that was a part of the\nGerman pub experience of that day, without feeling like they were doing\nsomething wrong, without feeling guilty. Martin Luther, as scared and as\nuptight as he was early on in his life, fearing God\u2019s punishment and afraid he\nwould fail Jesus, got past that fear, and he in fact spent a bit of time\nhimself in the pubs, he even made use of some of the, then current, tunes that he\nlearned in the pubs for his hymns, wanting to popularize and make contemporary the\nWord of God in hymnody. Luther embraced the freedom offered within the\nChristian faith and you can read in Luther\u2019s writing called \u201cTable Talks\u201d, how\nhe loved to entertain at his dinner table; he often entertained students and faculty\nand others; and at the table they would have a few beers along with spirited discussions\non everything from theology to politics to everyday life\u2019s needs and wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nas the Renaissance, through art and science, was bringing Europe out of the \u201cDark\nAges\u201d, so too was the Reformation bringing light into the otherwise dark lives\nof the people of faith. Imagine what it would be like to live in a world where\nfun was considered bad. The Amish live lives where fun is limited. Southern\nBaptists also limit the ways that a person can have fun. In Philadelphia and\nmany others municipalities, up thru the 1970\u2019s with their \u201cBlue Laws\u201d put\nlimitations on the things that could be done on Sundays, and enforced those laws.\nBut, today, the \u201cBlue Laws\u201d are mostly ignored, and thanks to the Reformation,\nwe can go to a restaurant or bar on a Sunday, we can shop, we can go to a\nmovie, we can play golf, we can even go to work on a Sunday. I think Luther\nwould protest against any requirement that would demand that a person go to\nwork on Sunday, but he would respect the choice of a person to work and he\nwould accept the choices of those who would seek entertainment or shopping on a\nSunday, he may not like it when the choices interfere with going to church, but\nhe would accept the choices; he definitely would not condemn the people for\ntheir choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthings end, here at church today, I want you to walk away knowing that you are\nfree to enjoy all of the wonders and blessings that the Lord our God has given you.\nAnd you do not have to feel guilty about having a little fun. Granted we do not\nwant to go overboard and we don\u2019t want to do things that cause others harm or that\nmay damage God\u2019s beautiful creation, but God didn\u2019t give us such a wonderful\nworld, so that we would let it go to waste. God wants us to enjoy one another\u2019s\ncompany, conversation and so on. What a wonderful life and world the\nReformation opened back up to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\ncourse, it wasn\u2019t the Reformation that made all this possible; the Reformation\nmerely rediscovered the love of God in Jesus. The Reformation rediscovered the\nfreedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just the words, around which the\nReformation was inspired, the words written by the Apostle Paul to explain what\nJesus did for us, and again I summarize, we are justified by grace, through\nfaith in Jesus Christ, tell us, all we really need to know. There is nothing within\nthose words that says that we should not be loving and caring of one another;\nthere is nothing that says that we should not be faithful to God, and there is\nnothing that says that we cannot have fun. The generosity of God\u2019s love through\nJesus and God\u2019s forgiveness through Jesus and the promise of salvation through\nJesus allow us to live without, as we might say, walking on eggshells, worried about\nGod\u2019s wrath and judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\nmy plan is to go home following our shared potluck dinner, make myself comfortable\nand watch the Eagles game; notice I didn\u2019t say enjoy it, but hopefully I will. Likely\nI\u2019ll also see my kids and grandkids today, but hopefully, after the game. What\nwill you do this afternoon? Please, have some fun, compliments or Martin Luther,\nthe Reformation and of course our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God loves you\nand wants you to be as happy as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:19-28 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ The celebration we call the Reformation, changed the Christian perspective on life. For those who bought into the Reformation, life would no longer be seen as a burden, with the goal for human life Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}