Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

On this date in 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church as an invitation to debate the sale of indulgences for forgiveness. That event sparked a reform movement that eventually led to a Lutheran church and separate denominations. While there is much sorrow in the disunity which the Reformation caused, Luther did establish the idea that the Church is always in need of reform in the light of the gospel. Luther's primary principle that Christians are justified by God's grace through faith in Christ has also found universal acceptance among denominations. Today we pray for church unity, for the honoring of God's word, and for a church that is always open to reform and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Reformation has formed us, as it has formed many aspects of the culture we have inherited and built over the past 500 years. And it all stems from that fundamental insight inspired in Martin Luther while pondering this third chapter of Romans.

The thrust of his insight is framed in a wonderfully simple scene. It's an image I've spoken of many times in bible studies, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it from the pulpit.It comes from the movie called "Martin Luther: Heretic." In one of the scenes, Dr. Luther is depicted instructing his students at Wittenberg. The subject is salvation and repentance.

Luther shows them the Latin, which means "do penance." This seems to require action on our part. Luther points out, however, that the Greek says "change your mind." Repentance is not our action, he says, but an inward transformation of mind and heart worked by the Holy Spirit.

A student objects. "You mean we don't have to do anything to be a Christian, just believe in our hearts?"

"That's right," says Luther.

"Then we can do whatever we want," presses yet another student.

"Yes," agrees Luther. "But now the question is, what do you want to do?"

So what shall we do? The new covenant is tattooed on our hearts, as Jeremiah said it would be. The righteousness of God is established apart from the law, as Paul says. We are declared righteous by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We continue in Jesus' word by faith and are set free from sin. We have a place in God's household. So, what do we want to do now? How shall we live?

A good outline for how we should live is provided in the rite of Affirmation of Baptism in our book of worship. We declare our intent to continue in the covenant God made with us in baptism by:

- living among God's faithful people,

- hearing God's word and sharing Christ's holy supper,

- proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,

- serving all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and

- striving for justice and peace in all the earth.

That's what we want to do.

You see, Luther has rightly helped us to understand at least two things here.

First, we have no righteousness of our own. Paul puts it succinctly: "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." The righteousness we have is alone by God's act of love through the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. Again, Paul puts it in those brief and memorable terms: "they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" This amazing gift is God's love that comes to us even though we are unworthy. God's love for us is what we call grace.

But there is more. The second part is equally important, and it is that part that Luther is calling to the attention of his students. "They are justified by (God's) grace", Paul writes, "effective through faith."

Who wants an ineffective grace? No one—of course! So, if grace has done its work in us-if God's love is truly written upon our hearts—if we have received it not as cheap grace that touches no more deeply than the skin of the finger, but we have received it as the rich and costly grace that sinks deeply into the core of our being, then it becomes effective through faith.

And what is faith, but our love for God and one another?

So, when Martin taunts his students with that simple question, he is cutting to their hearts and to ours. "So, now that you have the free gift of grace, for which you can do nothing, indeed for which there is nothing that you are able to do that makes you in any way, fashion, or form worthy—so, now what will you do?

Don't you see? The question forces us to look into ourselves. Yes, grace is free, unmerited, unearned; it is a gift. But how precious is this gift? Is it a gift that has value to me? Shall I think of it merely as something I receive and place on the shelf, or shall I open it, examine it, and see what it might do to my heart? Shall I now live in a way befitting the gift or not? Shall I act now with all of my heart, soul, body, strength, mind, and possessions in a way that honors the giver and the giver's intentions for my way of life?

So, what now shall I do?

Grace is about God. Faith is about us. Now that we know what God has done for us in the great story of our salvation through Jesus Christ, what shall we do in response? Now that grace is our most blessed, holy, and precious gift, what will we do with it?

There are at least three fundamental misconceptions of faith at work in our society.

First, faith is not assent to doctrines about God, creation, Jesus Christ, etc. This does not mean that faith has nothing to do with "beliefs" or cherished "truths" of the tradition; it has. But faith isn't to be equated with giving credence to these teachings. Neither of the two most important historic creeds of the church (Apostles and Nicene) begins, "I believe that God is the Father Almighty," They begin, "I believe in God."

Second, faith is not accepting "on authority" (the authority of the church, the tradition, the Bible, parents and teachers, etc.) what one cannot personally experience or feel to be true. There is a necessary personal dimension in faith; you have to "do it yourself."

Third, faith is not a vague spirituality, a believing attitude towards life. In reaction against the sort of faith referred to in the first two misunderstandings, some folks think that faith is chiefly an emotion, a positive outlook, a readiness to "believe." It doesn't much matter what you believe, or perhaps even what kind of behavior your belief leads to—they seem to think. The main thing is to be a believing person. Not so.

Like most of the primary concepts of biblical religion (love, hope, grace, compassion, forgiveness, wrath, repentance,) faith is a category of relationship. It presupposes relationship with God. God has become present to one in such a way that one `has faith in' God, i.e. one trusts God. In the act of trusting someone, you go beyond what you know of him or her. Trust involves decision and risk. And the decision is not just once and for all; it has to be renewed regularly, if it is to be authentic.

Faith is response-in-relationship; it is an ongoing thing, a process. You can never say that you "have" it as if it were a possession! Christians sometimes affirm that faith is "a gift." This is true if it means that the faith-response is a consequence of God's grace. But the statement is misleading if it implies that the "gift" is something one is allowed to keep, or as I said earlier, "put on a shelf".

One has to continue receiving it like the manna of the wilderness or the "daily bread" of Jesus' prayer. When the Protestant Reformers, following St. Paul (e.g. Rom. 4:16 f.), used the slogan, "justification by faith," they did not mean that we are considered righteous by God because we give assent to theological truths, or accept the teachings of the tradition on the church's authority, or cultivate a positive outlook; all such things the Reformers would have consigned to "works righteousness"! Rather, they meant that we are acceptable to God because we respond to grace with a faith that trusts God and seeks to live in that trust. It is as simple and as profound as that. (Douglas John Hall, The Living Pulpit, 2000, adapted)

And so, God does not judge us on the basis of who we are, or on the basis of how much we know about God, but rather on the basis of what we do with what we know.

"So," as Luther might phrase it, "now what shall we do?"

So far as divine judgment is concerned, God judges us on the basis of our response to God's revelation, not just our receiving it. Revelation cries out for our response; it pleads for our obedience. That is why Paul didn't say that he was called as an apostle to bring people to a profession of faith, but to the practice of their faith, to the "obedience of faith," as he says earlier in this book of Romans (1:5).

And so on this Reformation Sunday I must ask you this question, my friends. What have you done with what you have heard? It is not enough to know that you are a sinner, and that your deeds render you guilty of sin before a holy God. It is not enough to know and to believe that Christ died for your sins, bearing your punishment and offering you His righteousness. You are being called personally to receive the gift of salvation honorably through a life of faithfulness to God.

Now that you are saved, what is it that, in your heart, you want to do?

Yes, I know you've already answered the question, as have I. But Luther would have us remember that it is a question that we are called to answer daily—because God is ever calling us to new ventures of faith and ways of being faithful.

So, today, what will you do?

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto eternal life. Amen.