There are a few surprises in the Gospel for today and also a little confusion. As we heard, Jesus was speaking to the Jews who believed in Him. Most of us were under the impression that no Jews believed in Jesus, that they were all always His enemies. It certainly sounds like that when you read through the Gospels. It seems like everyone was against Jesus and sometimes it seems like even His disciples did not get it right or believed in Jesus.
We would be wrong. There were many who went out when John the Baptist took up the call to repent and be forgiven of your sins. All Jerusalem and all the country side was abuzz with the news of Jesus. The people had heard the voice of John and wanted to be near Jesus. We are not talking about the religious leaders but even there you could find a Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimethea. There were thousands who ate the bread mysteriously multiplied and thousands who listened to Him preach and teach.
Most modern translations, however, give us another false impression. When they say these were the Jews who had believed in Him, it gives the idea that they may have once believed but they fell away. Scripture certainly tells of many who did fall away from Jesus and our Lord even asks the twelve if they are ready to give up but the real problem here is how to translate the perfect tense of that verb. We think of had as meaning they once did but no longer. Instead it means just the opposite. It means they did indeed believe in Jesus and they still believed in Him – they had been and continued to believe in Jesus.
That does not mean that believing is easy. They struggled as you and I struggle. They wrestled with faith and life amid all the challenges, enemies, trials, and troubles of this mortal life. But they had not departed from Jesus. So our Lord encourages them in the faith. Abide in My Word and you will be set free from challenge, fear of enemies, trials, and troubles. You will be free. But what does that mean, they wonder? After all, they have a heritage and history as the people of God and they carried this history with pride. But Jesus points them away from their history and to Him. He is the Son of the Father and He can set you truly free.
On Reformation Sunday we remember our own legacy in the people and faith God used to reform His moribund Church. We as Lutherans love to claim what we had. The problem is the tense of this verb. Ours is not a legacy or a heritage. Ours is not a faith that lives in the past. Ours is a confession and a faith born in a moment but living still and will live until Christ returns or it is nothing worth having. Yet this only happens by being in the Word of God, remembering the water of God that gave us birth, and rejoicing in the Bread of God that sustains us through the pace of change, the busy-ness of life and brings us to the goal of being ready for Christ when He comes.
On Reformation we confirm youth sort of in the middle of things. They are not quite children anymore but they are not yet adults. But they are baptized and they believe. We know where things began with them, but if we are honest, we do not know where things will end. It is not a question with Christ. He insists that if we abide in Him, He will abide in us. We will be free if we live in Him by faith and in the grace of forgiveness for all the sins that bind us. Today we bid those confirmed with equal vigor for those at a much different stage of their lives to find in Jesus the same place. Abide in Me and in My Word and you will be free.
The genius of the perfect tense is that reminder that what was begun is continued and will not end until Christ brings it to its perfect consummation. It is like marriage. It begins at a point in time but it does not end until death. It is like being a parent – it begins with a child placed in your arms but it does not end when they move out to live on their own. You remain a parent until you die or until they die. That is the shape of Christian vocation. It begins and does not end until God ends it.
The Jews who had believed in Jesus still believed. They had questions and worries and doubts and fears. Of course, they did. But that did not steal their faith away or kill it dead. As long as that faith is on the vine of Christ and nourished by His Word, that faith will live. We Christians do not simply have a past; we have a future. The future that we have flows from Christ.
This year our church body celebrates 175 years – not much in comparison to the beginning of the world but a whole lot more than those fly by night churches that flower like the grass and wither and die in the heat. We are a church body in search of that perfect tense – a beginning that continues and does not end until our Lord brings it to its perfect consummation. Our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is like the Jews of old who believed and you and me and those confirmed today. The point is this: it is not enough to have a heritage, to live in celebration of something once begun. We are to continue to live in Christ. We live in Him amid trials and troubles, through sorrows and struggles, in doubt and fear. We believed once, by the power of the Spirit, but the Spirit is at work in us right now continuing that which He began in us.
In our confession, the pastor ends the rite by saying “May He who began this work within you, bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus is talking to you and all who believe in Him. He is also issuing you and all believers a warning. It is possible to fall away. In fact, there are many forces working against your faith. You can too easily become enamored with the world and be rules by the desires of your flesh and to neglect the Lord’s Word until it becomes an alien voice. There are many who once believed but do not anymore. It could be the biggest church of all – those who used to believe. But His disciples are those who weather the storm, who are called to repentance, and who are restored in Christ’s Word. For a church body, a past is no consolation but neither is only a past a comfort for us now. We live in His Word and His Word sets us free but we are only free as long as we are in His Word.
It is our prayer that you live in the perfect tense – that what Christ began in You by baptism and faith, continues in you. We know this when you gather around His word and when remember your baptism and when you kneel to receive the Eucharist. We know this by a life of prayer and the fruit of the Spirit in the good works you do. We know this by the witness you give to those near and far – within your home and even among strangers.
Abide in Christ and in His Word. Only then are you free from ends to live the beginning that God has made possible. This was the cause that the marshaled the Reformation into being. This is the cause that gathers middle schoolers in a class room teaching them the catechism. This is the cause that brings them forward to be confirmed today. This is the cause that fills the pews to celebrate our history while working to keep what was once begun with the vigor of the Spirit through the means of grace. Happy Reformation, people of God. Abide in Christ and you will be free. Amen.
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