June 25 2021. Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession.
The Emperor calls a meeting about faith (but he really needs soldiers)
This morning we go back to 1530, to events that happened in the Germany city of Augsburg, where the first Lutheran confession of faith was presented to the Emperor, Charles the Fifth, who ruled over Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, which included Germany, Switzerland, parts of France and the top of Italy. He was much younger than this stylized painting shows. He was only in his 20’s. And he had problems. One, was that there were all sorts of Christian teachings happening. Luther had lifted the lid off all the problems within the Roman Catholic Church and suddenly there were lots of Christian views. Were they all heretical, as the Pope claimed? The Emperor wanted clear, non-heretical teachings. There was another big problem for him.
The Turks had taken over Hungary and were now laying siege to Vienna. The Emperor needed soldiers to fight this external enemy. He certainly couldn’t do what the Pope wanted him to do, which was move in Catholic troops and smash the Lutherans down.
There is a wonderful irony here. God used the forces of Islam to allow Lutheran teachings time to take root. A reminder that our God always promises to bring good out of bad.
Luther was not directly involved. To stay safe, he had to stay home. There was letter writing between him and those present, and they were working off statements that he had put together.
When he heard how everything went, he was so pleased, and say it as a fulfillment of Psalm 119: 46. I will tell of your decrees before kings and will not be ashamed.
Lay people took the lead.
It was lay people who took the lead here, not pastors. Philip Melanchton lived down the street from the Luthers and was a close friend and fellow believer. He was a young lecturer, highly regarded throughout Europe, and he had the responsibility of making any last-minute changes.
It was the political leaders whom the Emperor had invited, and they were the ones who presented the Augsburg Confession and signed their names to it. The equivalent toady would include the State Premier and the Gold Coast City Council. One of the dukes said, ‘Rather than deny my God and suffer the Word of God to be taken from me, I will kneel down and have my head cut off.’ The Emperor quickly assured him his head was safe.
Melanchthon and the others did not want a separate church. They wanted the Emperor and Pope to call an official Council of the whole Church (which hadn’t been done for 400 years) to look at the teachings. They wanted to show that that they weren’t heretics, but were true to the Scriptures and the teachings of the early church.
They also wanted to show that they were not with the groups who were saying that Christ isn’t truly present in the Lord’s Supper, or that only adults could be baptized.
Article 1 God – no disagreements there.
Article 2 Original sin. For the Lutherans there was a big difference here. Lutherans were saying: if we are like a car engine, original sin means the motor is ruined, and has to be replaced. The Catholics were saying: sure, the motor is in bad way, but we just have to replace a few big components, and then it will work.
Since the fall of Adam, all people are born with sin, that is without the fer of God, without trust in God. This disease is truly sin, condemning and bringing eternal death upon all not born again through baptism and the Holy Spirit.
Well, if we are like a ruined motor, how do we get going again?
Article 3: Son of God, basically what it says about Christ in the Apostles Creed.
Article 4 Justification by Faith
This is the big one. If sin is a sickness that is terminal, and we can’t fix it, how do we get new life?
We teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merit or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, though faith, when they believe they are received into favour, and their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who by his death has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God counts as righteousness in his sight. Romans 3 and 4. We can’t fix ourselves, we’re in big trouble. Christ comes to us and fixes us. He says that we are right with God, because he died on the cross for our sins, and he now shares his Easter life and love with us.
The Catholics were teaching the following:
Christ removes eternal punishment, but you must confess your sins to a priest. But there is also a practical cost to your sins, and you’ve got to work that off – if not in this life, then in a time of purgatory. Going back to the car engine picture, Catholics were teaching: God has replaced the dud parts in you, you’ve got to earn your keep now and be a good little motor that runs well to prive that you are worthy of eternal life.
The Lutherans said, don’t mix up what I do in response to grace, with what Christ does for me.
It’s not by my strength, my merits, or my good works. It’s pure gift, pure forgiveness. Faith allows me to grab it and trust it. If my sin means I owe all this money, Jesus clears the debt by transferring his assets into my account. He give me everything I need to clear my impossible to pay back debts and make a new start.
Article 5 The Ministry
How does this pure gift, this engine replacement, this clearing of debt happen for us? The Holy Spirit does that work in us as we hear God’s word (God’s word that helps me see my sin and own it, and even more, helps me see and believe in what Jesus does me through his death on the cross) , and as we bodily receive the gift of forgiveness and new life through baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For Lutherans, the public ministry is vital, because that allows that to happen in the congregation.
Article 6 New Obedience
This gift of forgiveness does work, and it does change us. It’s not the changes that put us right with God. They get the changes started, lay the right foundation.
Church is where the Gospel is preached and the sacraments rightly administered. Interestingly, Lutherans don’t say, like some church do, and it’s where lives are changed and you can see that. Lutherans simply say: where the gospel is, and the sacraments are, God is at work, even if it doesn’t always look like much is happening.
An example: a Lutheran pastor ended up in conversation with an earnest Christian from another church. She believed that God does change us, and if we don’t change, it’s our fault. So he took the risk to tell her, ”Well, I’ve tried to change something in me that I don’t like, and I’ve had people of wonderful faith lay hands on me and pray for me, but I still can’t give up smoking.’ She couldn’t get out of that conversation fast enough. Obviously he wasn’t a true Christian.
There’s that tension. We want to see transformation. Sometimes it takes time.
If we always needed to point to good changes and sins overcome, to prove that the Holy Spirit was alive and well in us, there are times when we would end up in despair. So we keep trusting in Jesus, and not our own successes.
