Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Exciting, important news came out of the financial industry this past week. I didn’t catch all the details and I am not comfortable announcing an actual company name, but I heard this past week that one – and maybe more – of our troubled home mortgage companies is going to do what I’ve been saying all along they should do: keep people in their homes by re-negotiating the terms of their mortgages. Instead of people losing their homes and the bank ending up with a home it doesn’t want, a home that it then have to try to re-sell, this plan would allow people to pay a fair, affordable monthly mortgage payment. It will cost the bank some money in the short-term to re-negotiate the loan and it will cost the bank in the long-term in terms of that ever-adjusting interest amount, but ultimately it will accomplish the purpose of the mortgage: it will earn the bank some money on money it has loaned and it will allow people to keep their homes. I heard a massive collective sigh of relief from many people this past week, a sigh that indicated freedom from a heavy burden they were facing.

A similar sigh of freedom and relief was heard in Rome in 1512. That was the year that Martin Luther made his pilgrimage to Rome. The German monk was looking for peace in his emotionally tumultuous life. In his mind, where better to find that peace than in the very center of the Church, the place that Peter, the “rock” upon whom Christ said He would build His Church, himself had established? While in Rome, Dr. Luther did what all pilgrims did – he climbed the sacred stairs. To earn even extra points in God’s book, he climbed the stairs on his knees, praying the rosary, the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” on each stair, kissing each stair as he went. That was meant to show God that he was penitent for his sins.
Somewhere in that process, a “God-thing” happened. Somewhere in that process, Luther became distracted. Somewhere in that process, a couple Scripture passages interrupted his meditation – “The just shall live by faith” and “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast” [Ephesians 2:8-9]. As my friend, the now-sainted Dr. David Koch, once said, “Surely Luther thought to himself, ‘What am I a doing here, kissing these stairs?’” That was the sigh of freedom, not just for Luther, but, through Luther, for all the people of God, even for you and for me.

You see, a relationship with God has nothing to do with anything we do. A relationship with God has nothing to do with living a good life. A relationship with God has nothing to do with serving the Lord in church. A relationship with God has nothing to do with contributing money – even great amounts of money – to the Church. I hope you all know that.

That, though, is not what the Church had been teaching. That is not what even the monks of the Church knew and taught people. Instead, everything was mixed up. In the Church of Luther’s day, a relationship with God – yes, even eternal salvation itself – had everything to do with buying indulgences to forgive your sins or the sins of someone who had died. In the Church of Luther’s day, a relationship with God had everything to do with doing things to make God happy, to make God change His mind about damning you to hell. In the Church of Luther’s day, a relationship with God had everything to do with convincing your priest that you had done enough to atone for your sins.

All that put a heavy burden upon people, a deep, spiritual burden not much unlike the deep, emotional burden felt today by many people dealing with troubled mortgages in these troubled economic times. It was a burden that caused many people not to sleep at night. It was a burden that financially bankrupted many people while the Church itself prospered shamelessly, adorning its buildings with gold and statues and stained glass windows and ceilings painted by Michelangelo. It was a burden for which there was no relief – no, not even death because even in death the Church taught that the soul lingered for an indefinite period of time in purgatory, not in the presence of the Living God.

So in 1512 a different pilgrimage began, a pilgrimage that took 5 years and even more, a pilgrimage that led from Rome to Wittenberg to the world, a pilgrimage that led from the official teachings of the Church to the pages of God’s Word, a pilgrimage that led from kissing stairs to nailing papers to the door of the church, saying that what the Church taught was downright wrong. A pilgrimage that, dare I say, continues and must continue to this very day and to the very end of the world.

In 1517, the peace that Martin Luther re-discovered in the Cross of Jesus Christ Himself – for THERE his sins were atoned; THERE his salvation won – became the peace re-discovered by many people in the Church, the peace that hinged on Jesus’ Words, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free” [John 8:31-32]. That’s what Jesus Christ is really all about. Jesus Christ doesn’t want spiritual slaves. Jesus Christ doesn’t need spiritual slaves. Jesus Christ desires disciples who know the Truth, who have experienced freedom, who live at peace with themselves and with God.

My friends in Christ, do you know that peace? Does that peace dwell in your heart? Do you find that peace when you open the pages of your Bible, instead of just viewing Bible reading as a chore you are supposed to do? Do you find that peace when you enter this place, instead of viewing church attendance as a chore you are supposed to do?

My prayer for each of you as your pastor is that you do personally know that peace that comes through the Truth and freedom that Jesus brings when He fixes our eyes not upon ourselves or upon our accomplishments but upon His Cross upon which He suffered and died for you and for me to forgive our sins and to guarantee for us eternal life in His presence. That is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.

If you do not personally know that peace or if it has not yet had the effect upon you that it had upon Luther, the effect Jesus predicted, the effect known as freedom, let me pray for you. Meet me here in the front of church after worship. I will stay as long as I need to today. If you’re too shy for that or don’t want anyone to know, call me or email me this week. I will come to your home or place of business this week day or night and I pray for you so that you will come to become a disciple of Jesus, so that you will come to hold to His teaching and that His teaching will effect in you the spiritual peace and spiritual freedom that Jesus desires for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena