Dear brothers and sisters in Christ from the West Point Circuit of the Nebraska District of the LCMS and other friends in Christ here today – called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your sister congregation Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, in Shorewood Wisconsin extends warm Reformation greetings to you.  It is by the kind permission and partnership in the Gospel of the members there that I am able to be with you today.

Jesus said - from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force?  The Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write to the church at Rome (Rom 3:23, 24) all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Dear hearers of the Word:  if you had seen Jesus walking in Palestine you would have noticed little difference between Him and the Pharisees.  They were “Bible-believing” teachers who had a following of disciples.  Jesus was a Bible-believing teacher who had a following of disciples.  They were very conservative of good moral values.  Jesus was very conservative of good moral values.  They were concerned with people getting into the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus was concerned with people getting into the kingdom of heaven.

Yet, for all of their outward similarities – for their common searching of the Old Testament – the divide between the Jesus and the Pharisees was as great as the divide between heaven and hell.  This was so because of their immense difference in belief concerning how God’s kingdom is entered, concerning the heart of Scripture’s witness.  Remember Jesus’ words to them, “you search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39).  Jesus taught that the kingdom came as a gift through Himself.  The Pharisees taught that it came by sincere, religious effort in trying to keep God’s Torah – God’s Word.

Fast forward 1500 years - if you had lived in Wittenberg during the Reformation you would have noted little outward difference between Dr. Martin Luther and many other teachers of the church.  Dr. Luther was a Bible-believing pastor who was concerned with people entering the kingdom of heaven.  Many of the teachers of Rome also used the Bible and many of them were also sincerely concerned with people entering the kingdom of heaven.

Yet, for any outward similarities, the contrast between Luther and the teachers of Rome was increasingly linked with the difference that separated Jesus from the Pharisees.  There was an immense divergence in their teaching on how God’s kingdom was received.  Luther taught that the kingdom came as a gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ, apart from works of the law.  The teachings of Rome more and more centered on the works of man as the key to heaven.  There was the sale of indulgences - the assignment of acts of penance to make up for sins confessed - even the tragic perversion of the Holy Supper of Christ into a sacrifice accomplished by man and offered to God. 

As you live in Nebraska in the year of our Lord 2009 what do you think of Luther’s strong stand against Rome’s additions to Scripture?  The basic difference remains between the Lutheran confession and that of Rome.  As the Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write – we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law (Rom3:28).   While we give thanks for the many Christians to be found in Roman Catholicism, we strongly and lovingly disagree with their official teaching that one’s works contribute to salvation.  That belief is a danger to salvation. 

Luther’s second battlefront in the Reformation was against Protestant subtractions from Scripture – especially regarding worship and the Sacraments.  With Luther we still lovingly disagree with heavy Protestant emphases that Christianity is chiefly about how we live our lives.  In many churches sermons predominate on how you can keep God’s Law in order to be a good Christian.  In many Christian bookstores the shelves are lined with similar books.  But to make the law the center of attention in Christian living is a bit like telling a Nebraska farmer to get out and plant beans and corn in the spring or winter wheat in the fall without ongoing concern for fuel in the tractor and seed in the planter. 

While we give thanks for the many Christians who are found in Protestant churches, we strongly disagree that the law strengthens our faith.  The law is the mirror that shows us our festering, ugly sin.  The law demands perfection not approximation.  Rightly heard it stops every mouth and excludes all boasting!  The law directs us and kills us, but in cannot give us life.  Confusing the place and purpose of the Law and the Gospel is a danger to salvation.  That’s why in Article VII of the Augsburg Confession our forefathers trumpeted this simple definition of the church – the church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.   That’s why life in Lutheran congregations centers on and persists in the presence of the crucified and risen Christ among His gathered people and His delivery of His life-giving Gospel gifts to us sinners.  Oh there are works that follow – in the home – in the community – in the congregation – there are merciful and charitable and serving acts aplenty that flow from salvation.  But they contribute nothing to God’s giving of rescue and release for us dying sinners.

The truth is that the kingdom of heaven comes only as a gift and only in the person of Jesus Christ.  The kingdom of heaven suffers violence when His person and His work are opposed.  The kingdom of heaven suffers violence when His person and work become the grand “of course” and are supplanted by our “good works”.  The kingdom of heaven suffers violence when the law is confused with the Gospel.

Dear Christians, this means that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence also in your heart and in mine.  For by nature we sinners want to justify ourselves.  By nature we Lutherans calculate and compare just like everyone else.  It is rotten reasoning that robs us of joy and contentment but like weeds in the garden it just keeps popping up.  By nature we work for approval and worry if we’ve done enough.  By nature we look at external things – easily majoring in statistical sainthood and gauging our well being on how current circumstances make us feel.  By nature hurt feelings and self-pity readily well up inside if our deeds aren’t noticed or sufficiently praised. 

This outlook is extremely dangerous before God.  We are daily tempted to take God off His throne and put ourselves on.  This is true in how we hear His holy law.  Satan deceives by diminishing God’s law and convincing us to excuse our sin and extenuate our actions or lack thereof.  We can actually convince ourselves that we are “really cooking” – doing just fine thank you and quite satisfied with what we’ve done and left undone.  This is not to say we shouldn’t give thanks to God for the help and strength and service He enables us to give to others.  It does mean that if we fail the law at one point we are guilty of all of it.  It does mean that we put no confidence in our works concerning our standing before God.  Contrary thinking does violence to the kingdom of God.  It is a danger to our salvation.

Take careful note that the violence Jesus spoke about was not the violence of those who were seeking to destroy the church.  It was rather the violence of those who believed they were pleasing God and advancing His kingdom.  It is a spiritual violence that causes a heart to believe it can make up for its mistakes and help redeem itself.  This violence of trying to take the kingdom of heaven by force is seen in comments at a funeral such as “if anyone is in heaven he or she certainly is – they were so kind”.  This violence of trying to take the kingdom of heaven by force is seen in the attitude that as long as one has their name on the rolls of a congregation there is no need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to keep on receiving Christ’s promised forgiveness.  This violence of trying to force one’s way into the kingdom of heaven is no stranger to the hearts of pastors.  We can too easily fixate on the challenges of a decaying civic culture and a decaying church culture and think we are earning some currency in God’s army.     

But Satan’s most persistent and pointed deception is to interfere with how the Gospel is proclaimed and heard.  The master deceiver quickly becomes the master accuser - assaulting our conscience with the sin he once redefined and tempted us into – pride, greed, worry, lack of cheer in our giving, apathy in praying, and on and on.  His end game is to lead us into despair – despair of God’s Grace – despair of God’s steadfast love for us sinners in Christ.  He seeks to convince us that we are beyond God’s help – or that we have to make up for our sin in order to merit God’s help.  He is the father of lies!  He masquerades as an angel of light.  On earth is not his equal.

But now - one little Word can fell him – the Word made flesh!  Rejoice in the now of the Reformation!  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  What a blessed separation is set forth here…we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 

That word “justified” is a word borrowed from the Roman courtroom meaning “innocent” or “case dismissed”.  There is no doubt about your guilt but the strange verdict God renders is innocent – innocent by reason of Christ’s forgiveness – case dismissed – Peace be with you!  Not only did God make the sea and springs of water (Rev 14) He made water to be a spring of new life in your baptism.  There God covered you with Christ (Gal 3:27).  He baptized you into His death (Rom 6) – case dismissed!  In the Lord’s Supper He gives you to drink of His blood with this promise – shed for you for the forgiveness of sins – case dismissed!  In answer to sins you confess – His holy absolution spoken by your pastor is not some pious wish - but is as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ your dear Lord dealt with you Himself – case dismissed!  What God forgives He forgets!

You see the only way the kingdom of heaven can be entered is by the violence Jesus Himself endured.  Jesus said “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.  In the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus, a radical shift took place in this world.  Jesus’ person brings a crisis because in His person are united two natures, divine and human.  He is God in the flesh!  The miracle of the ages was His conception in Mary’s womb.  The center of human history is the sacrifice of His body on the cross.  The center of our lives today is the presence of the risen Christ in our midst to teach us and to feed us – to deliver to us the fruits of his cross.  That’s why nothing in all the world even comes close to the importance of our gathering in His presence each week to receive His gifts.

He was handled with violence by those He came to justify.  The hands he used to heal were bound with violence in the garden and driven through with force to the tree.  The feet He used to journey up to Jerusalem were brutally fixed in place with agony and bloodshed.  Yet the greatest violence He endured was from heaven itself – as He suffered the punishment of the damned in hell in our stead.  He was forsaken by God as our substitute.  That sentence has been served!

Can one who suffers such violence ever be the victor!  O yes!  O blessed yes!  “It is finished”!  He cried in total victory.  There was no panic in heaven on Good Friday as if the job was half done or the outcome was unknown!  It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2:24) for He is life itself.  He had to rise again as He said.  But is it possible that God could come down to earth in our flesh and die for us rebels?  Is it possible that He could do so as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?  Is it possible that we could be given peace with God by the blood of his cross?  O yes!  O blessed yes!  “It is finished”.  Case dismissed!  The violence of an earthquake and the open, empty tomb on Easter morning shows the fullness of the payment our Lord made on Calvary!

Dear Children of the Reformation – what Dr. Martin Luther started was not something new but the recovery of that which makes new – the eternal Gospel.  Beloved, that is what you continue to receive in water and word and bread and wine.  It is never yours and mine to grab and hoard and store up.  It is always ours to receive in faith as an ongoing gift as Jesus comes to serve us.  Let Satan howl fierce as he will – he can harm us none.  He’s judged – the deed is done!  He has been cast down by the cross of Christ.  His accusations have no place before God.  Your slate is clean before your Father in heaven.  You have every reason to go from His presence with a clean and a good conscience.  You have every reason to call upon Him in daily prayer with a clean and a good conscience.  You have every reason to bear witness to the hope you have in Him with gentleness and respect to a lost and dying world with a clean and a good conscience.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.