“Humility & Justification” Colchester Federated Church, October 26, 2025, Reformation Sunday (Luke 18:9-14)

Today is Reformation Sunday!  In our tradition, we are invited to celebrate the Protestant Reformation on the last Sunday of October each year.  Today we remember the historical moment of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Castle Church on October 31, 1517.  Though we also celebrate that the Reformation ushered in a movement within the Christian Church that we have inherited. 

Here’s the thing (and we have talked about some of this before), when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to that church door he did not know that this defiant action would lead to a split within Christianity and the formation of hundreds of Protestant denominations.  He vehemently opposed what the Roman Catholic Church was doing—selling indulgences for the forgiveness of sins.  People would give what little money they had to the Church so that their sins would be forgiven.  This act would supposedly guarantee the redeemed faithful a place in heaven.  Meanwhile the poor got poorer, and the Church got richer. 

Eventually the Protestant Reformers taught certain beliefs that shaped our stream of Christianity—beliefs that we still hold to be true whether we think of them consciously or not.  The first was Sola Fide: by faith alone.  The idea that salvation came through faith, not works or the sale of indulgences. Sola Scriptura: by Scripture alone.  Protestants argued that the Bible is the sole source of authority for Christians, not tradition or the Pope.  Solus Christus: through Christ alone.  Jesus is the one who offers access to God, not any human authority like priests.  Sola Gratia, by grace alone.  Salvation comes from what God has done, and there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s grace.  Finally, Soli Deo Gloria: glory to God alone.  Our goal as Christians is not to please church leaders, check off a list of rules and regulations, or look after our own self-interests.  We live as Christians to glorify God. 

Some of these beliefs were especially challenging to people in power.  Martin Luther had a rough go.  He was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1521 and made many enemies.  At one point, Luther shuttered himself away in a castle to translate the Bible into German.  We have the ability to read the Bible in our spoken language.  This was one of the greatest gifts of the Protestant Reformation—to empower regular people to be able to read and interpret the Bible for ourselves.  When Luther was holed up in that castle translating the Bible he struggled with fear and discouragement.  We can hear this when we sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God:”

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, 
we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. 
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.[1]

One can imagine that the stress and the upheavals were hard to handle just from a psychological perspective.  Martin Luther suffered from many health issues one can imagine were exacerbated by what he faced after taking his stand.  Scholars think that he suffered from kidney stones, vertigo, heart problems, arthritis, a cataract in his eye, and a digestive disorder.  Luther was known to throw inkpots to scare away demons.  He would shout around the castle during his period of Biblical translation, “I am baptized!”[2]  Basically saying I am named and claimed by God.  Yet he was far from a perfect saint.  Some of Luther’s writings are anti-Semitic and he can be partly blamed for the slaughter of innocent peasants during revolts in Germany in the 1520s.  Martin Luther certainly dealt with his fair share of demons—self-doubt, the pain from his health conditions, and the stress from constant theological battles when he was doing his best to reform the Church and change the way it had always been done. 

Though his complex story is worth remembering because Martin Luther helped establish the idea that Christ’s Church must always be open to reform and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  It is hard work (but often necessary work) to question the way we’ve always done things in the church universal as well as local churches like ours right here in Colchester.  We are invited to approach inherited traditions with humility knowing that we may not have all the answers.  We are invited to be open to how the Spirit is moving now and in the generations who will come after us. 

Change is a good thing.  Because change is life.  To live is to change.  Reformation Sunday helps us remember and reclaim this reality.  The Spirit is still moving us forward.  For as we hear in John’s Gospel, “God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes.  You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.  It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[3]

Though change can also be hard.  Because sometimes the old ways we have inherited are not just familiar and comfortable, it can be less challenging to continue with the status quo.  Today we can also take to heart that parable that Jesus told to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous.  And in convincing themselves that they were righteous, they looked upon everyone else with disgust.  Jesus talks about two people who went to the temple to pray.  One was a Pharisee.  The other was a tax collector.  The Pharisees were often viewed as righteous whereas tax collectors were almost universally despised.  These were commonly-held viewpoints.

In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector the Pharisee stood and prayed by saying, “God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week.  I give a tenth of everything I receive.”[4]  All of that is great on its own as the Pharisee is performing spiritual practices intended to inspire faithfulness and deepen one’s relationship with God.  Though did the Pharisee have to be disparaging of the tax collector and all those “crooks” and “evildoers” in his prayer?  Do we have to tear other people down in order to build ourselves up? 

Because at the same time the Pharisee is praying in the temple in this way there is that tax collector standing at a distance.  Jesus tells us that the tax collector would not even lift up his eyes to look toward heaven.  Instead, the tax collector would strike his chest and pray, “God, show mercy to me, a sinner.”[5]  One can imagine this as a whispered prayer uttered from a broken heart.  Jesus says that the tax collector went home justified and not the Pharisee.  Because everyone who lifts themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.

Jesus is using this parable to get at the virtue of humility and the danger of pride.  Humility shows an understanding of the greatness of God.  As those earliest Protestant Reformers taught and we have come to believe, salvation comes from what God has done.  There is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace. 

Jesus is also challenging commonly-held assumptions as he often liked to do in his parables (and in his life and ministry in general).  The Good Samaritan.  The Grateful Samaritan Leper.  Lazarus and the Rich Man.  The Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow.  All of these parables we have been exploring this Fall from the Gospel according to Luke are revolutionary because they challenge the way it had always been.  These stories challenged commonly-held points of view.  Jesus challenged the status quo—who is humble and who is righteous?  Who is lifted up?  Who is brought low?  The last will be first and the first will be last after all. 

In the end, we are not perfect and perfection does not seem achievable as human beings.  Our church is not perfect.  Our denominations are not perfect.  We are ever in need of reform and being open to the Spirit’s movements in our lives.  But God is after our humility and our sincerity and our trust.  We are justified by our humility.  For God is God, and we are not.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Verse 3 of Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” as found in Worship & Rejoice, #507.
[2] Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, 141.
[3] John 3:8, CEB.
[4] Luke 18:11-12, CEB.
[5] Luke 18:13, CEB.

Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash