Do or Done

One of my favorite hymns is one that a lot of people don’t care for, but it’s usually only sung once a year so I make the most of it with gusto. Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is particularly rousing when sung with a lot of male voices, as it was at my grandfather the Rev. Dr. Herbert J.A. Bouman’s funeral in 1981. I don’t choke up as much as I used to, but the hymn never fails to make me think of him.

I like the observance of The Reformation of the Church, which falls on the last Sunday in October. It can be a majestic worship service, especially if the parish is lucky enough to have a pipe organ and a skilled organist. This past Sunday one of our two pastors preached on Sola Fide (Faith Alone), which Luther felt was the doctrine by which the Church will fall or stand. I really enjoy Pastor Rick’s messages as he has a style and sense of humor that reminds me very much of my father and grandfather. Pastor Rick has a gentle “tell it like it is” approach that provokes thought even while making you squirm. I usually get a lot of notes from his homilies and this Sunday was no different. 

I want to share some of his points because I care about you, the reader of this blog. (Disclosure: If you don’t believe there’s a heaven and a hell and that you’ll be in one place or the other eventually, then you probably don’t need to bother reading further.)

Did you know that basically we human beings are “good works” people? Despite what seems to be a lot of bad news and evil in the world, most people prefer to try to treat others fairly, with kindness, and to be helpful. Unfortunately, all those good works can’t save us.

Good works cannot save us because:

* Good works can’t cancel our sin, but sin will ruin our good works. Rottenness ruins goodness every time. Any farmer will tell you about that one bad apple…

* God doesn’t grade on the curve. He demands absolute perfection. Because our sins are so many, no amount of good works will cancel that sin to make us perfect in God’s sight. Let’s say we each only commit three sins a day and live to 75. That’s over 82,000 sins per person jotted down in the Book of Life. We could, perhaps, try to cancel that liability with an equivalent of three good works every day but a) we already know we sin much more than three times a day and b) it’s far harder to consciously do a good work than it is to commit a sin.

* We can never be good enough long enough. It’s physically and mentally impossible to never, ever think, say or do something mean or wrong. Refer back to the point above.

* We can never be sure we’ve done enough or are good enough. Because God’s holiness is the standard, we will always fall short of meeting it. Because we’re human.

* We wouldn’t have needed Jesus to die on the cross. Salvation is either won all by Jesus or all by ourselves, there is no in-between. Refer back to points one through four if you think you can do it by yourself.

So, are you pretty depressed right now? Or have you simply rolled your eyes and thought “your truth is not my truth, Kate”?

The good news…no, the Good News… is that our salvation is completely outside of our doing. As Pastor Rick said, “we’re going to heaven on the back of a crucified man.” Christ’s suffering and death, and resurrection, changed our F grade to an A grade forever. When Martin Luther realized this, it became a game changer for him. He was so passionate about sharing this news that he posted a list of 95 statements on the cathedral doors in Wittenburg, Germany on All Hallows’ Eve to let people know that they didn’t need to buy their way into heaven.

Sidebar: There is a published thought about why Luther chose to make the posting on October 31^st. He did so for maximum exposure when crowds would come to the city to worship and observe All Saints Day the next day and to purchase indulgences from the church to guarantee a place in heaven.

Anyway, one last take-away from Sunday’s sermon. The difference between religion and Christianity is just two letters. Religion is D-O – things we think we have to do to be saved. But Christianity is D-O-N-E – salvation is based on what was already done for us. We just have to believe and trust in what Jesus did for us.

God is fully satisfied with what Jesus has done for us, even if we doubt. When we believe, He takes us just the way we are – washed clean by Jesus’ blood – and given an A. It’s that simple.