In the movie "Gone With the Wind," Scarlett O'Hara's father, Gerald, offers a most profound observation as he confronts his 16-year old daughter on the evening before John Wilkes' famous barbecue. After being rebuffed by Scarlett for wanting to bequeath to her Tara's rich landscape, Gerald tells his ungrateful child that the land "is the only thing that lasts. It's the only thing worth fighting for, worth dying for." Well, it's certain that the land will be here long after we're gone, but there is something that will outlast the land and the people who live on it. When we discover this, we will be free for now and forever.
St. John recalls the words of Jesus in another situation on a day in Jerusalem when Jesus said to those who had believed in him, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." He went on to assure those believers that those who truly are his followers and disciples shall live in the household of the Son of God forever. Well, even the land we walk on won't last forever. It will continue to erode and to change as the climate changes. But the truth will never change! For the truth is that Jesus Christ is Lord!
Ever since the dawn of history, we human beings have been on a quest that never quits-the search for the truth. Yet, even the very word truth defies explanation. Someone once remarked that philosophy seeks the truth, theology finds it, and religion possesses it. This may be so, but if it is, it's because acceptance of the real truth relies solely on faith. When the world's first married couple ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, it was in part because the serpent encouraged Eve to challenge at least one creature's interpretation of truth. The serpent nudged Eve to question God's wisdom and her own faith, thus our first parents discovered that the search for absolute certainty will involve both the curiosity to discover new and sometimes difficult self-revelations and the willingness to risk the time and energy our search may require.
On this last Sunday of October, as we roll over in bed and appreciate the extra hour that setting our clocks back has afforded us, we can also appreciate something else. For this is the Sunday when many Protestant churches celebrate the words and works of Martin Luther, whose search to know what was true and what was not true about the Christian faith hatched the Reformation movement which had been bubbling just under the surface throughout Europe for at least a century before it actually took off. Scholars and theologians desperately sought to place Holy Scripture in the hands and the homes of all who wanted to read and study it. But the holy authorities stifled their efforts. They burned their manuscripts; they imprisoned and executed the translators.
Martin Luther cringed at the very idea of creating a movement or starting some new faith. He wanted the truth that would really set him free, and at the same time he desired to share it to create a healthier, Christian population nurtured and educated in the Word of God from earliest childhood to old age. He realized that Scripture alone would guide believers in the Lord Jesus Christ confidently through all of life's joys and sorrows. All we will ever need is found in God's love and grace which lives in us as we are nourished by the Word. Luther found his greatest comfort throughout his tempestuous life and career as he read and reread the assurances of the Apostle Paul of salvation by faith through grace alone.
Science and technology and the wisdom gained from life itself has taught us many truths. Medical breakthroughs show us how to keep from having strokes and heart attacks and how to prolong life. But the one that will set us free from all our fears of living and of dying has eluded most people. The absolute truth, which liberated Luther and which liberates all who believe it, is that Jesus Christ is Lord. This ultimate and awesome reality doesn't keep us from the fires and trials of our life journey; rather, it strengthens and carries us safely through and beyond them.
Martin Luther's discovery of grace defined as God's love and pardon freely bestowed upon an undeserving humanity reinforced his belief in the Scripture promises of Christ's presence even in the darkest hours of his loneliness and isolation. There is no doubt that he feared for his life. After all, the church authorities wanted not only to excommunicate him but to execute him. But he did not fear for his soul-his very being. He came to know and appreciate the freedom of trusting the Lord Jesus to be in and with him always.
This same truth frees us and motivates us for the chores and the trials of every day from now on. All we have to do is to believe that Jesus is our Lord. Then we can find hope and nourishment from God's Word and from the visible presence of Christ made real to us in sacrament and song. When we come to know in our heart of hearts that Jesus will never abandon us, we may relax because we have discovered the certainty that matters most. The real meaning and impact of this Reformation Sunday is the freedom that believing in Christ gives. You and I are free to allow God to embrace us as we discover the inner peace that is part of our soul which is indeed our real self. Elizabeth Elliot observed that "Plato, three hundred years before Christ, predicted that if ever the truly good man were to appear, the man who would tell the truth, he would have his eyes gouged out and in the end be crucified." That risk was once taken and in its fullest measure. The Man appeared. The Man is Jesus! He told the world the truth about itself and even made the preposterous claim, "I am the Truth." As Plato foresaw, the Man was "crucified."
As long as this life lasts, you and I believe that the man whom Plato predicted would be crucified is Jesus. He really is the Truth that frees and protects us forever. We'll one day live in God's presence in a kingdom, which unlike the fictional Tara of "Gone With the Wind," will last, untarnished by time because time will cease to exist. May we believe this, and, in believing, may we find real freedom because we trust Christ our Savior to be the truth that sets all humanity free. Amen.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, we seek to know the truth that sets us really free. Therefore, help us to know you better. Keep us steadfast in your Word and give us the desire to read and study it every day. Through your Word increase our faith and trust in you so that whenever illness or fear seek to crush us completely, we will be secure in the certainty that we are in your holy and protective embrace. For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.