Being followers of Jesus is by no means the guarantee that we won’t fall short of the glory, sin, lie, cheat, steal, gossip, unfriend, or malign, not to mention moments of sheer cussedness and cynicism.  Whether Lutheran, Methodist, or Baptist [all in so many different guises these days!], Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant [do these once tidy categories really tell us anything anymore?], spiritual but not religious [a more recent but also vague label], St. Paul reminds us: For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous, and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus [Romans 3:22b-26].  Prithee note, it’s not our personal branded versions of faith, often philosophical or theological pipedreams, nor hairbrained ideas about faith and grace thought up on a Saturday night and soon forgotten – it is “…the faith OF Jesus.”

            In the religious culture of sixteenth-century Europe, penance [a.k.a. confession and forgiveness] was popularly discussed in the language of payment and satisfaction.  We [the penitent sinners] could pay a set penalty, thus satisfying in part or in whole [plenary absolution] our spiritual and moral, personal as well as communal misdeeds and failures. Satisfaction, or to put it crassly, the price of forgiveness, could be fulfilled by praying specific prayers or doing acts of charity and mercy with the promise of amending our shoddy living practices, actually not bad advice for intentional, holy living.  However, the questionable role of indulgences assigned and paid with cold, hard cash finally brought biblical scholars and out-of-control church leaders into outright conflict.  Luther’s Ninety-five Theses were simply the most articulate and public challenge to an otherwise quite lucrative business [for example, indulgences paid for the initial building stage of the new St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, the largest church in Christendom].  As a recent Roman Catholic scholar observed, “Whether or not Luther had ever been born and become the determined reformer that he was, someone would ultimately have thrown down the gauntlet.  Paul’s words regarding sin, forgiveness, and redemption were clear in this case: For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. Forgiveness, righteousness [the fulfillment of God’s justice], and freedom to live as God’s redeemed people was first and last pure gift.  Nothing we could do would result in God’s bestowal of redemption through Jesus Christ.  Luther clearly understood Paul’s argument in Romans 3.  In fact, he considered it a breakthrough moment in his life as a Christian, the glorious “spiritual Ah-haaa!!!” for which any of us should pray most fervently.

            Nonetheless, Luther was often a religious zealot, hammering home what he considered the really significant issue to be understood.  In fact, he could become quite bullheaded and stubborn in the process, brooking no insights or arguments that might be thought to challenge whatever point he was making – even when it came to an actual scriptural text or specific writings in the Bible.  He went so far as to insert a word that does not appear in the continuation of the passage just cited [Romans 3:21-31].  Verse 28 in an accurate translation of Romans 3 reads: For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. Luther had the audacity to paraphrase in his Bible translation of the verse in order to hammer home his point: “…For we hold that a person is justified by faith alone apart from works prescribed by the law…” Sure, we can claim that is what Paul “probably meant” but Paul isn’t available to be asked, and thus Luther’s bullheaded insertion is an afront to decent scholarship.  The doughty, foolhardy reformer inadvertently created disastrous religious dissent lasting until the Joint Roman Catholic-Lutheran Declaration on Justification was signed on 31 October 1999, demonstrating that “…loose lips can also sink churches!”

            In essence, Luther had opened his mouth and blatantly stuck in his foot by the insertion of that five-letter word “alone.”  To further shove the editorial comment down our theological throats, he further insisted that among other writings of scripture, Hebrews and the Letter of James we presently are reading for a three-week period should be considered problematic. James was dismissed as a “straw epistle,” as discardable as chaff in the wind.  Key to Luther’s own questionable conclusions is a passage from James 2:14-17 we will hear this Sunday: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ….  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

With Luther on a tear, James’ assertion was kerosene on the fire of faith.  His stubbornness and tendency to explode in anger even calls to mind a French recipe for trout, truite en colère [i.e., an angry trout] with its startling presentation on a platter.  [The recipe: a trout is gutted but otherwise left whole. Before it is poached, bend the tail up through the belly and then out through the mouth. Season, poach, and plate. The fish appears to the daring diner as if it has just devoured itself. I, in fact, have made it – once.]  Paul also discussed people who endlessly bicker about matters of faith: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another [Galatians 5:13-15].  Luther’s own close friend and fellow reformer Philipp Melanchthon wrote on his deathbed a list of reasons why he was not afraid to die, chiefly that he would be freed “from the rabies of theologians.”

            Let us be clear; Luther was correct [along with many others throughout the centuries] that we cannot “work our way into heaven,” “get ourselves right with God,” or any other misguided ideas about our salvific self-sufficiency, so get over it!!! Paul himself and the Gospels are clear on this point.  Nonetheless, Paul’s assertion about God’s gracious gift of forgiveness, redemption, and justification is by no means negated nor in conflict with James’ comment that insists that faith not lived out in blessed and godly acts is NOT the faith of Jesus or any other form.

            Perhaps it is helpful to consider a prayer we pray each week and many pray every day, the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer straight from the mouth and faith of Jesus.  It’s first line is to the point: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name… While there isn’t any dispute that God is holy, Jesus asks us to be acting, doing, and living what we pray in faith in order to hallow the sacred Name just as he does.  It is not just a passive acknowledgment of God’s primal holiness; it is rather faith embodied and enacted in order to hallow the power and majesty of God in Christ.  Luther’s Large Catechism further explores this absolutely important assertion regarding a “living faith.” Luther writes: “Note, then, that the power and force of this commandment [“You are to hallow the day of rest…”] consists not in the resting but in the hallowing, so that this day may have its special holy function.  Other work and business are really not designated holy activities unless the person doing them is first holy.  In this case, however, a work must take place through which a person becomes holy.  This work, as we have heard, takes place through God’s Word.  Places, times, persons, and the entire outward order of worship have therefore been instituted and appointed in order that God’s Word may exert its power publicly [Book of Concord, The Ten Commandments, Commandment Three, #94, p. 399, Kolb and Wengert, Fortress: Minneapolis, 2000].

            One of the most important ways we can “hallow the Name” is alluded to next Sunday’s gospel from Mark.  Jesus is making the rounds and healing folks who seem to have no hope nor advocate. His “living the faith” is marked by his kindness and welcome to the lost, the forgotten, and the despised.  The first healing account is bazaar among such passages in the gospels.  Jesus appears to refuse and reject a woman’s plea to heal her daughter.  He even argues with her and, to be blunt, is rude to her.  She is an outsider, …a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.  However, she is desperate that her daughter be healed and because she has heard of his power to heal, has sought him out.  She gives as good as she gets, rebuffing Jesus’ dismissal and insisting that she herself should have access to him because she is simply accepting the offer he had made more clearly in Matthew’s gospel: Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest [Matthew 18:28].  As Jesus’ parable makes clear about the generous wages the Lord gives whether one came at the break of day or just before the foreman yells “Quittin’ time!!!,” the Syrophoenician woman fervently trusts his capacity to heal.  She demonstrates her faith by insisting that a relationship with Jesus exists. This, brothers and sisters, is what learning to “hallow” the name of God in Christ looks like.  It is living into the relationship God already has offered, the context for hallowed healing.  That same invitation remains in effect for you and me, too, and can soothe even the rage, fear, suspicion, and stubbornness of the angriest trout, or even people.  Imagine!