Grace, peace and love is yours though our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

On this day remembering the Reformation, we reflect on Paul’s letter to the Romans: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rom 3:21-24)

 

When I was a kid, I loved to read. Every month mum would drive us down to the local library, to browse the collection and to pick up our next load of books to devour in the coming weeks. I loved library Friday.

And what a collection of books I’d get – my eclectic tastes meant I ended up with all sorts. Looking back, there are many that were quickly read and quickly forgotten, there are some that introduced me to authors that I loved and who would travel with me for life as I bought up their whole collections to own for myself. And then there were some books that I only read once, but which left a lasting impression on me, books that I remember even after 35 years.

This week I was remembering one such book as I considered this text from Romans. I can’t remember the title of this book, but it may have been something like “How to be perfect”. I really resonated with the main character of this book – a young boy who had found this “self-help” style book from his library. He was keenly aware of all the ways that he stuffed up in his daily life, and he was hopeful that by strictly following to the letter the various activities suggested by the book he would find his way towards perfection.

And so, he went through the following weeks, trying…and inevitably failing, often humorously, sometimes miserably, but often stuffing up even worse just because he was trying so hard to get it right. The activities ramped up…and he tried. He tried, and he tried, until eventually the book directed him that perhaps the only way to achieve perfection, to not get things wrong, was to sit up straight in a chair in a darkened room, facing away from the world and trying not to move, trying not to do anything…only then would he not get anything wrong and he would be perfect.

And as he sat there and reflected, he realised that in actual fact perfection was not something that he could attain. And as he finally turned to the last page of the book, he realised that this is in fact what the book was trying to teach him…that in reality perfection is not something that any human being can actually reach. I think the final message of the book was just that what’s important is that we try our best…and that our best is just fine…or at least I think that was the final message of the book. I’d love to read it again and see if that really was the final message…that our best is good enough. Because I don’t know how you feel about that message, but for me it left me feeling a little empty…is my best really good enough?

See, even as a pre-teen I was coming to realise that even what I thought of as “my best” wasn’t easy to achieve all the time. I would stupidly blurt stuff out that made my sister cry. I would want my own way and that would get a friend offside. I would have to admit to my mum or dad that I was indeed the one that broke something precious by doing something I shouldn’t have been doing. I found myself having to say sorry…a lot. And truth is, even having grown up from the youngster I was then, not a lot has changed. I still try my best…and I still stuff up. I hear those words from Paul, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and I think…yup…that’s me.

And certainly, I reckon Martin Luther knew exactly how I felt…because he too would have been the first to say “yep, that’s me too”. Luther understood the fear of not meeting up to a high standard. He understood the difficulty to fulfil all the law’s demands. Listen to his words: “I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in my way but that one expression, ‘the justice (righteousness) of God,’ because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.”

For Luther, as he studied the text in Romans, verse 21 of our reading today signalled a turning point, not only to Paul’s letter to the Romans, but to understanding Paul’s meaning behind “The righteousness of God” – what is it, and how this righteousness applies to all people.

What is “God’s righteousness”? Is his level of righteousness only a standard that we must attain? Well, if it is, we’re out of luck. Paul reminds us that we lack the power of will to follow the law and make ourselves completely and utterly perfect. If this was a courtroom scene, we would be standing in the docks, the finger of accusation being pointed at us, the long list of laws unfulfilled. Paul rubs it in – no excuse, no escape…none, no matter how hard we try, can be perfect enough to be justified before God. And as we stand in the courtroom and we hear that list, when we recognise the truth, when we feel the bite in our hearts, our heads hang in shame…and like Luther, it is hard to feel love for a just and angry judge. With trepidation we stand in the docks and wait to hear the judgement and condemnation…as Paul says, we stand mute and accountable before God.

And then we hear the “but now”! “BUT NOW” says Paul, God is doing something new. A glimmer of hope as we rail against our own imperfections our own lack of righteousness. BUT NOW – here and now, not just sometime in the past…here and now God is declaring something that we need to hear. Despite all the law says…Here and now, we are justified by God’s free grace…by God’s own righteousness. Now we come to learn that God’s righteousness isn’t just a standard that we must attain; God’s righteousness is something that is given to us, through faith in Christ. Christ, who was not guilty of sin, who should not have been in the courtroom docks, took that finger of accusation and pointed it towards himself. He took the consequences upon himself, consequences that led him to the cross and grave.

And that’s not even the end, because we know that death could not hold him, that he overcame death and the grave in his resurrection. He has given us hope. Hope in being made a new people, hope in being made right with God. Hope that we are indeed free.

And so, it is in that hope that he calls us again, saints and sinners though both we are. It’s in that hope that he forms and reforms our hearts to hear his law and walk in his path. It’s in that hope that he reminds us when our conscience pricks us again and again that his love was poured out for us on the cross. It’s in that hope that he speaks his words of absolution when we come to him confessing our lack of righteousness. It’s in that hope that he strengthens us for our journey as his flawed and perfect people, as we share in his body and blood in the bread and wine.

That’s the hope and the promise that we have right now…this is what we boast on this day of reformation.