Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

“Do you promise to ... be diligent in the use of the means of grace and of prayer?”
This, dear sisters and brothers, is one of the questions we ask of every new member who joins Christ the King Church. After the creed the first question is, “Do you promise to abide in this faith and in the covenant of your baptism?”, then: “(Do you promise to) be diligent in the use of the means of grace and of prayer?”, and lastly, “accept as your own the mission of Christ's church in the world?”

Be diligent in the use of the means of grace.
On this Reformation Sunday we remember Martin Luther, the great reformer, who helped unearth the means of grace again and made them available to be used by the people of God.
The means of grace are the Proclamation of the Word, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The entire church for its outreach and mission in the world depends on these three being proclaimed, administered, and participated in: Word, Baptism and Communion. The Word needs to be proclaimed, it needs to be heard from the pulpit, proclaimed in the word of forgiveness, responded to with the creed, sung as a hymn, studied and discussed diligently. Holy Communion needs to be celebrated. Baptism needs to be remembered by attending the baptisms of the church and in thanksgiving for one’s own baptism.

The means of grace are the great treasures of the Gospel - the gift of God for the people of God: treasures wanting to be claimed, to be used because at their heart is the presence of Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit.

When the 23 year old monk Martin Luther read his first mass as an ordained priest in 1507 in Erfurt, Germany, he almost ran away in the middle of it. It wasn’t stage-fright that made him want to run for his life, no, it was an onset of fear of the Lord, trembling because the majesty of God was coming toward him while celebrating mass.
Martin Luther himself remembers this incident years later in an academic lecture on the book of Genesis. He relates his memory of the moment in connection when explaining a prayer Isaac speaks on behalf of his wife Rebecca: “Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. (Genesis 25:21) Luther says, “Such a prayer that breaks through the clouds and reaches the majesty of God, is not easy. I, a being of ashes, dust and full of sin, talk to the living, eternal, true God. One can only tremble just like I did when I read my first mass. ... It is the cheerful faith which trusts in the mercy and the word of God that boldly overcomes the fear of the majesty.”

Martin Luther’s awareness of God’s holy, majestic presence was there from the beginning and remains one of the fundamental experiences of his life lived in the faith. Although he grew up in times when God was proclaimed an angry God who needed to be appeased by the sacrifice of his own son, Luther prevailed in his search for God’s grace and mercy for which he had an unquenchable thirst. Luther’s great achievement is that he unearthed again the great treasure of God’s grace and mercy as attested in the Holy Scriptures so that we are able to claim them for our lives of service and care and mission.

Of course grace was attainable also in the medieval church through the means of grace, especially through the sacraments of Holy Baptism, Communion and Penance, however only as prescribed and regulated by the church. For the individual, the path to salvation was open following specific rules of confession, contrition, deeds of penance.

Luther’s search for grace and mercy began with the Biblical word. He was first and foremost biblical scholar who spent much time studying the Holy Scriptures, trying to find the living God in the written word.

His re-discovery of the God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, began with his first lecture on the Book of Psalms in 1513. The Reformation event did not happen with a big bang on October 31, 1517. It was in its beginning stages a slow process. Just as our own processes of learning to see something new in the midst of the old are often slow and not straight forward. Luther’s learning happened through the study of Scripture which is a rich, multilayered process of reading, translating, studying the meaning of single words and whole phrases, comparing, connecting, trying out different perspectives, and all this accompanied by prayer and meditation. Luther indeed used the means of grace as given to us in the written Word of the Bible diligently.

It is important to know that he read the Book of Psalms according to medieval tradition as the prayers of Christ. If these ancient prayers were the prayers of Christ, then it must mean that Christ went through every conceivable human experience and emotion on earth, for in the Psalms the entire span of the human experience is spelled out. What happened to Luther was that for the first time he saw Christ, the son of God, as human with all questions, all fears, all joys, the deepest hope, the greatest sadness, the most far reaching trust, as he had never seen Christ before. This was a revelation for Luther. It changed his view of Christ as the atoning sacrifice for sin to Christ as the one who vicariously, for us, in our place went through the whole range of what we are going through.
To see Christ vicariously suffering for us in the Psalms, but also rejoicing, thanking and praising for us was for Luther the key that opened to him the door to God’s long sought grace and mercy. Years later Luther writes in the preface to the Book of Psalms, “(The Psalter) promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly - and pictures his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom - that it might well be called a little Bible.”

“Do you promise to abide in this faith and in the covenant of your baptism, be diligent in the use of the means of grace and of prayer, and accept as your own the mission of Christ's church in the world?”

Dear congregation, the means of grace in Word, Baptism and Communion, want to be claimed and used, for the sake of the mission of Christ’s church in the world. As we continue to learn, study, grow and develop, we may put our whole trust in the same God in whom Martin Luther trusted about 500 years ago: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” (Psalm 46:4)

(May the peace of God which surpasses all our understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.)
Amen.