Genesis 15. 1-6
Not because. Not if. Not when. God just loves!
It was the November Luther turned twenty-seven. He and a fellow monk were traveling from Erfurt to Rome on official business. He’d been a priest for three years. A monk for five. Two years shy of earning his Doctor of Theology. But for now, he was on the road. In between. Seven hundred miles one way. One step at a time. They would be gone for months. In Rome for only a few weeks. But it was enough. To take in the sights. Speak with the scholars. And, of course, doing the goodWorks that could only be done in Rome. Like climbing the holyStairs. Twenty-eight, in all. Presumed to be the ones Christ walked on, when led before Pilate.
Zealous. Enthusiastic. Luther crawled up the stairway – on his hands and knees – like every other pilgrim. Step. By step. Stopping to say a prayer on each. The reward at the top? Less time in Purgatory for a loved one. I remember reading something about Luther having his grandparents in mind, that day. Somewhere along the way, though, a piece of scripture got in the way. Words of the prophet – Habakkuk – came to mind …
The just shall live by faith.
The just shall live by faith.
Luther stood up and walked away. Those words, he would say, were his gate to paradise! “The just shall live by faith.” That was the moment the Reformation began! Not in Wittenberg, seven years later, when a sheet of paper was tacked to a church door. But there, in Rome, when a pilgrim priest stood up and walked away. The just shall live by faith! Shall live by trust! Shall live by believing!
Those are important words, for us. As Christians. As Protestants. Maybe especially, as Lutherans. Words that changed the church, to be sure. But words that changed – that continue changing – our world, as well. And here, this morning, in a passage from Genesis, is the passage that inspired them …
And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Abram bemoans to god that he has no children. No heirs. God promises Abram – seventy-something, at the time – descendants without number. “And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
Justification-by-faith we call it. And for half-a-millennium, it’s what has set us apart. What’s made US different from THEM. We’re saved not by the things we do. Like crawling up those stairs on hands and knees. We’re saved, simply, by believing. Word of God, word of life. Thanks be to God. Only one problem …
Neither the prophet nor the reformer has in mind what, for most of us, passes for faith, nowadays. When we say faith, it’s more a wand we wave to make our dreams come true. Believe it and it is! No matter how meaningless. No matter how absurd. Faith’s a choice. A decision. It sets everything in motion! It makes miracles happen! It’s inviting Jesus into our hearts. It’s receiving him as our personal Savior and Lord. But that’s not how Luther saw it. That’s not what he had in mind.
Faith’s not what saves us. Let me repeat that. Faith’s not what saves us. More than once, he said we don’t. More than once, he said we can’t. But it’s god who makes it happen! It’s not faith that saves us. It’s not believing. It’s god! We’re saved … we’re justified … we’re made righteous … by god! By god’s love! Love for each and every! Love for one and all! Saved! Justified! Made righteous! By god’s commitment and by god’s compassion! By god’s effort and by god’s exertion! And faith, believing, trust happens because of it!
The stairs aren’t there – if there are any – for us to get to god! They’re there for god to come to us! It’s by grace that god saves us! By grace! By charity! By love! Without that there is no faith! Without that there’s nothing to believe in! God loves us and that love determines, that love decides, what god sees when god looks at us! That love makes us what we are! Who we become! And all the bowing, all the scraping, accomplishes absolutely nothing! God loves! Period! God loves! Amen! God loves! This is most certainly true!
That’s what faith, what believing, looks like! What it sounds like! What it feels like! God doesn’t save us because we believe. We believe because god saves us! And we’re not justified, we aren’t made righteous, because of our faith … any more than Abram was! God promised him descendants! As many as the stars! Not IF Abram trusted! Not WHEN he believed! God, simply, promised! God said it would be! God said it was so! And Abram just took god at god’s word!
And that’s what Luther did at the steps, that day! He took god at god’s word! Inerrantly! Infallibly! God said, “I love!” Not I love if … or I love and … or I love but … But I love, period! And Luther believed god! He trusted! Luther had faith! He got up and he walked away! God didn’t want his humiliation! God didn’t need his misery! After all, there was nothing to gain from it! Nothing to earn! Nothing to deserve! There is, instead, only the gift!
We don’t believe in our believing! We don’t trust in our trusting! We believe and we trust in the god who loves us! Loves us without limit! Loves us without measure! Life, for us, doesn’t begin with us! It begins with god! Always! Forever! And we’re just along for the ride! God tells us to look at the stars and we look! God tells us to look at the cross and we see! We look and we see and we know – without a doubt – that creation will never be the same, again.
God says, “I love!” God says, “I’m yours and you’re mine!” And we realize that some things – the important things – are true! True whether we believe them … or not!