Feast of the Reformation

Text: Romans 3:19-28

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Our text is from Jeremiah 23:29. “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

Dear Saints of God,

What can you do with a hammer? A hammer can be used to build. A hammer can be used to destroy.

Case in point: A few years ago, you all were of the opinion that the parsonage was a bit outdated and needed some changes. It was proposed and approved that some money be allocated for new flooring throughout as well as updated kitchen cabinets and countertops. It was a lovely change.

If you will recall, there was a half wall in the parsonage with wooden spindles going the rest of the way to the ceiling. Having lived in the house for a decade or so, Julie and I felt that the wall was unnecessary. It wasn’t load-bearing and it broke up the flow of traffic through the house so I asked if I could remove the wall. And remove it I did. With a sledgehammer. I put that five-pound steel head right through the wallboard all the way through to the other side. I broke through 2x4’s and tore them apart from their nails. The hammer was a tool of destruction to break down the walls. What can you do with a hammer? You can destroy!

Yet after the demolition was done, there was a secondary use for a hammer. A hammer was used to build. Not the reckless smashing of demolition, rather the more precisely placed taps needed for construction and then for the work of finishing. Hammers can be used to destroy, and hammers can be used to build.

I wonder how brother Martin envisioned his hammer blows as he nailed the Ninety-Five Thesis to the walls of Castle Church in Wittenberg all those years ago. I wonder if he thought he was building with his hammer or destroying.

I think he was hoping to build. He was pointing out errors in doctrine, and false practices that grew out of false teaching. That’s always the way it goes. False teachings are never just abstract ideas that live somewhere tucked away in the halls of academia or church hierarchy. Those ideas always have consequences. And those consequences always filter down to the common folks in the pews by way of expectations for things that are to be done.

The things to be done that were informed by the false teachings included prayers to saints, prayer and devotion to God as a good work that merited forgiveness, and the purchase of indulgences to release souls into heaven. These false teachings were horrible. They gave Christian consciences false security based on their own efforts. They stole away certainty founded in the death and resurrection of Jesus!  They falsely taught sinners that their sins could be overcome by their own efforts when salvation had already been earned and won for free by the blood of Jesus on the cross.

And what of Luther’s hammer? While he was not intending to smash or destroy, while he was hoping to mend and to build, he came in like a handyman who sees that a portion of the wall has caved in and needs to be shored up. Luther brought a hammer, and in nailing his paper to the door of the church, he was hoping to use that hammer to build.

But Luther’s hammer wound up doing some smashing and breaking. You know the way repair projects go. When you start to dig into them it’s never just what you can see. There are always further issues lurking below the surface. Your delicate attempts at removing only what is needed soon turn into large-scale destruction as the caved-in wall turns out to be rot below the surface and a simple patch job turns into major reconstruction. Similarly, Luther’s simple patch job struck a blow through to the foundation that revealed rot all the way through. And some of that rot was the greed and vanity of the established church – the pope, the bishops, the lazy priests. But much of it was the false belief that had crept through the entire structure of the church from the very highest down to the low. The inattentiveness to the word of God had run rampant from the preachers in the pulpits to people in the pews. All together the use and knowledge of the word of God had faltered. The people had taken God’s Word for granted. And because of the inattentiveness to the word, the rot of unbelief and false teaching had crept in and needed to be torn out. So, when Luther got to tapping, the whole structure started to crack and crumble.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah wrote in chapter 23, verse 29 of his prophetic book, “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” The word of God is like a hammer that breaks and destroys. The word of God smashes false teaching and those false practices that result from false teaching. When the word of God had been neglected for so long during the time of the Middle Ages, when the hammer of God’s word finally got to doing its work there was some major renovation that needed to be done. There was some demolition needed to break down and tear out things that had fallen into disrepair.

But, thanks be to God, while hammers can be used for demolition, they can also be used to rebuild. Therefore, in the case of the Reformation, after the word of God had done its work of breaking down, the reconstruction could begin. In fact, because of the rebuilding that was done during the Reformation, we have our Lutheran Confessions (the Book of Concord), we have the Small Catechism. When we use these documents, they point us into the Word and help us to learn it and know it better. God’s gift of the Catechism teaches us to know the Bible and it has helped to ensure that we have a foundation and indeed an entire structure that is firm and sure, even some 500 years later.

But construction projects always involve hammers. And anytime you show up with a hammer, people start to get nervous. In terms of renovation projects that are needed for our souls, and when it comes to our own false beliefs and practices, rather than a full-scale renovation, we would rather just slap a coat of paint on things and hope for the best. We tend to want to cover over the rot and put off dealing with it until another day. We tend to want to act like it isn’t there at all and all we need are a few cosmetic changes to spruce things up. When the hammer comes out and gets to tapping, we tend to resist.

I wonder what rot do we have that needs to be rooted out. I wonder where are our needs for renovation? I will tell you, it is usually where people complain the loudest that there are the greatest needs for change. It’s like a dentist probing around with her pointy metal stick. When she gets near an exposed nerve or a rotted tooth, we wince and draw back. She gets the biggest reaction where there is the greatest problem. Similarly when we put up a fuss because of something the pastor has said, it’s because he has touched a nerve.

It would be silly for the patient in the dentist chair to blame the dentist for the rotted tooth that he got because he neglected to brush his teeth and ate lots of sugary snacks. The dentist was just doing her job. The same is true with the pastor, yet Christians with rot in their souls are quick to blame the person with the word of God in his hands and they will tell themselves it is his fault when that word smarts and causes shame. “It’s the pastor’s fault. He should have left well enough alone.”

The word of God is like a hammer, says Jeremiah. Do you know what happened to Jeremiah? He was arrested and throw in a cistern (a deep watery hole) and left there to die simply because he wielded that hammer to tap, tap, tap on the hearts and the souls of God’s people who had begun to wander from their commitment to his word. Do you know what happened to Martin Luther as he used his hammer to nail challenges to the wall of the church in Wittenberg? He was tried for heresy and condemned so that he had to be taken into protective custody and hide away for fear for his life. Faithful preachers with hammer in hand are often hated and despised.

Yet thanks be to God for men like Jeremiah and Martin Luther. Thanks be to God for faithful preachers. Thanks be to God for men who will take up the hammer of God’s word and do the work that nobody wants them to do.

A few months ago, my mother came home from a few days away to find that a water line had burst and water was spilling over into her kitchen. It got into the carpet, under the laminate floor, into the cabinets and walls. It had started the wood to rot and had grown into black mold. It created quite a mess.

I will tell you, it would have been easier for my mother to simply cover that up. And it would have spared her the trouble of having her house and her life torn apart and upended. But to leave it alone would have been worse in the long run. The rotten boards would have weakened the strength of the floorboards. The black mold would spread and caused her to become sick. And the whole issue would still have needed to be dealt with anyway. To invite the handman with his hammer into her home to find and fix the problems was the best order of business.

And likewise with you. Yes the word of God is like a hammer that breaks rocks; it pulls down your false idols and smashes through your false belief. It exposes the rot in your soul. Rot that you need to clean up and clear out. Just like my mother needed to have the rotten boards and black mold removed from her kitchen. You need the hammer of God’s word to get to work inside of you.

And yes the hammer breaks and destroys. But let’s not forget that other hammer. The most important hammer found in the Bible. Yes, there is the hammer that breaks, but there is also a hammer that builds. It was a hammer, after all, that was held in the hands of the Roman guards as they held Jesus’ hands to the wooden cross beams of the scaffold that would hold his body as he hung there to die for the sins of the world. It was the hammer that struck a blow for God’s justice because of your sin. A blow for God’s justice that drove the nails that pierced the hands and feet of Jesus. Each blow went further into his flesh. Each blow tore further through his skin. Each blow was met with a flow of blood that fell from his hands, his feet, his side. The blood of Jesus fell to the ground, but it did not fall idly. Each drop spilled out his forgiveness for you. Each drop poured out to wash away your sin. Each drop was given to cleanse your soul from its false belief and your hands from your false practices. The blood of Jesus has washed you clean.

And therefore, even though that hammer that drove the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet was a hammer of judgement and destruction, it was not your judgment. It was not your destruction. Jesus took it all for you. And therefor, that hammer was a hammer that builds. It was a hammer that restores. It was a hammer that brings life. Because of the hammer that nailed Jesus to the cross, you have been healed. Your soul has become a renovation project for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God has come to you to move, into your heart, into your soul, to be your constant companion and friend. Your leader, your comforter, your guide, your sanctifier. The Holy Spirit comes to you and he makes your heart his holy temple.

And so now, because of the hammer and the nails, your heart is clean. The renovation of your soul is fulfilled in Jesus. That renovation has come about because God himself has come to you with the hammer of his Holy Word. That Word points out your sin and takes away the damage and the rot. But then it delivers to you the truth that your sin is forgiven for the sake of Jesus.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

And now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen.