Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

There they were, one Saturday afternoon in Germany: seven laymen, leaders of their communities, a university professor, representatives from the councils of two major cities. All of them were gathered at 3 o’clock on June 25, 1530, together with a massive, standing-room-only crowd that filled the Great Room of the Bishop’s palace. Even more stood outside in the courtyard, their ears bent intently toward every word that emanated out from the open windows.

The Holy Roman Emperor had commanded them to travel to Augsburg in Bavaria to submit their statement of faith and offer their support for defending their land from an imminent Muslim invasion. Emperor Charles wanted to hear what they had to say in Latin, but they boldly and fearlessly replied, “If it please Your Highness to consider that since He is hearing us on German soil, we would be grateful to Your Highness if he would allow for our Confession to be read aloud in the German language.”

Then every Lutheran prince stood up and their speaker stepped forward to the middle of the room. In clear and loud voice Chancellor Beyer read the German document he was holding, and the reading, the proclamation, you could say, took about two hours from start to finish.

Martin Luther wasn’t there because he would have been killed on the spot, but that still didn’t make a difference; everyone knew who had made these ideas from the Bible popular once again. One Catholic bishop who attended the meeting said privately that he could find nothing wrong with the statements of faith that he heard, but he could never say so in public because it was one, lonely monk who had the audacity to say that the rest of the Church had it wrong.

But Martin Luther, safe inside the Coburg castle, waiting for the next messenger to arrive from Augsburg, as well as the brave laymen who stood up in that Hall in front of the Emperor, they knew in their very heart the words we heard from Jesus today in our Gospel: “Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

They were fully aware that now was the time for them to acknowledge Jesus Christ and His true message of forgiveness in front of the most powerful man in the land. If they were to shrink back now, then they would be turning their back on their Lord, and that was not going to happen; their eternal salvation meant too much to them to put it at risk.

They also heard the very comforting word of Jesus: Have no fear of them. That means, those things the world throws at you to scare you—don’t allow them to steer you off course even one degree. Be bold! Be courageous! It will not be popular at times to believe in Jesus—so what? You have Him at your side; there’s nothing else that could be better. The hairs of your head are all numbered, which means that God’s careful watch and loving concern cover every last detail of your life, how much more will He be concerned over the greater, more significant problems you will have to face!

As easy as this is to say and to believe, especially since you are sitting here and listening to it as a very familiar statement you might’ve heard many times, it is immensely challenging to keep reminding yourself about this truth. What happens to you when you get rocked with difficulty? What happens when the temptations of this world lure you away from what our Lord has clearly said? Do you fear that you will not have enough of what you are told that you need? Life will certainly be much easier for you if you were to say: you live the way you want, I will live the way I want. Later on, God will sort all this stuff out. Keep me out of it. I’ll just worry about myself.

Think about this: No matter what political party you like, I’m certain there has been a time or two when you have thought, or perhaps even shouted to the TV at one of our elected representatives in government, saying something like this: Just do the right thing! Stop worrying about where this is going to get you in the polls or the next election! Forget about pleasing the people who had nothing to do with electing you! I’m tired of these men and women of principles throwing those values out the window once they get elected to office!

You may think yourself the last person to get affected by politics, but I must point out to you—those things that drive you crazy about politicians—that’s inside your own human nature too. You have acted as if you and your needs and desires were more important than what God has given you. Your moments of worry and anxiety, however momentarily that they were, still they shook up your total reliance on Jesus your Savior and you let fear of men cancel out your love for Him. A mere moment where you might feel uncomfortable in this life seemed worse to you than an eternity without the Lord your Life giver. You know that whenever you did, thought, or spoke that way, you sinned against God in thought, word, or deed. Just like that frustrating politician, you deserve a shakeup of your senses in which God’s Law shouts at you: Do the right thing!

But fear not, nor fret! When you could not do the right thing out of fear of this world, Jesus did, and He did it all for you. He gave you the calm and patient assurance that spoke deep to your soul: you are of more value to Him than many sparrows. He has rescued you from the utter Divine wrath that had every right to destroy your soul and body in hell. Jesus suffered that destruction for you when He was on the cross dying for you. As we read today in Romans, you are not slaves to sin and fear anymore. You are slaves of righteousness, meaning you now have the freedom to love God perfectly because Jesus, who is in you, He already loves God perfectly. By the free gift that your Savior earned for you, you have eternal life and it will be your highest joy to give yourself in love for the good of your neighbor.

You will have no love for the world and its empty promises. There is no longer a tug at your heart to try to please the people and things that try to be your God, but are nothing like Him. Yes, it will still be tough in these last days before Jesus returns at the End of the world. Brother will hand over brother into death, and father his child, children will rise up against parents and put them to death. Even the closest earthly relationships will try to get in the way of you and Jesus, but evil will not win this victory over you.

Instead, you have delivered one another, including children and parents, into a different kind of death. You are all killed in your sinful nature through Baptism! Sin doesn’t reign in your mortal bodies, because it was crucified with Christ. Parents, you have brought your children to the font to drown the sinner in them and they have been brought back to life as fellow believers. Brothers and sisters in Christ, here in the sight of God and one another, we have through confession of our sins handed our sinful selves into destruction, so that Christ our Lord will then make us a mighty Church, bold with the same faith that they had at the beginning of the Reformation 500 years ago. It means too much to you to think otherwise.

Here we are, one Sunday morning in California in the year 2017. Muslim invaders are still making the news, but as for us, we’re pastor and people, a group of hearers of the Word with various callings all gathered together, with our ears bent intently toward every Word of life that comes from our gracious God. Whether it’s a standing-room-only crowd or a few faithful, whether it’s a fifteen-minute sermon in English or a two-hour Confession in German, it’s the same faith, the same liberating freedom in Christ that they had, and that you have.

One lowly monk may have started it all, but it was the Bible’s Word that he preached that made the difference. As is true with our Lutheran forefathers of long ago, Christ will also acknowledge you before the Father who is in heaven. Why? Because you believe the Gospel Word that has forgiven you all your sins. When you say Amen to that forgiveness, when you trust that all Divine gifts are yours as an inheritance, you are also confessing that Jesus is your Lord, and nothing else evil that happens to you in this world measures up in any way or form to what good lies in store for you. Now is the time to be brave and bold! In Christ you will do the right thing without regard for the hatred of the world, because Christ did the saving thing for you that would secure your everlasting life.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.