Preparing for Worship - October 29, 2023

This Sunday is celebrated in many of our Lutheran churches as Reformation Sunday. The Scriptures focus on key passages that were important for Martin Luther in discovering and emphasizing what he saw as at the center of our Christian faith. I will list each passage for you to read, with only a brief comment.

The first lesson is from Revelation 14:6-7. The eternal Gospel (the good news of Jesus as Savior) is a message to be shared with all people everywhere. God created all things, and He will come again in judgment, but we are ready by faith in Christ Jesus.

The Psalm is Psalm 46, the inspiration for Luther’s hymn: “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” “God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble… Therefore we will not fear… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.”

The Epistle is Romans 3:19-28, describing the central teaching of the Scriptures. The Law of God shows that we are all sinners, and that no one can be justified in God’s sight by keeping the Law well enough. The righteousness of and from God is received only by faith in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ for us. “We are justified by faith apart from the works of the Law… through God’s grace as a gift.”

The Gospel reading is John 8:31-36, where Jesus reminds us to “abide in belief in Him and in His Word,” for only then will we know the truth, the truth that sets us free from “the slavery of sin.” Jesus, the Son of God, sets us free by His saving work for us, and we remain forever as God’s children, now and to eternity.

(Some churches may use a different set of readings, if they do not celebrate the Reformation. Here are those readings:

• Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
• Psalm 1
• 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13
• Matthew 22:34-46

I will comment only on the Epistle, since 1 Thessalonians 2 is part of a series of readings from this letter of Paul, and Paul also talks here of key Reformation teachings, in Chapter 2. Paul and others had “declared the Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” They had been “entrusted with the Gospel, not to please man but to please God.” They acted “gently, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” and at times, “like a father with his children, exhorting and encouraging." Finally Paul speaks of the Scripture alone as the source and norm for what we believe. In 2:13 he wrote, “We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.”