Pastor Scott Jonas
10/22/17
Scripture Alone
I want you to be a
part of a thought experiment. This may
seem fanciful but it actually was a real experiment commissioned by the Office
of Nuclear Waste in the 1980s. Here is the
situation. Nuclear waste is being stored
hundreds of meters below the Nevada desert.
That location will be radioactive and dangerous for ten thousand
years. How do you warn someone ten
thousand years from now that this land is deadly?
Any ideas? A warning sign, perhaps? What language? English may be a dead language by then. All of the world’s languages may be
indistinguishable by then. Future
generations may look the words “Warning Nuclear Waste” the way we look at cave
drawings. You could try to protect the
site by setting booby traps like in Indiana Jones. Moats and darts and falling boulders will
dissuade those who are casually interested in what’s behind the door. But that
also entices treasure hunters. The
Egyptians booby trapped their tombs and modern man totally disregarded the
hieroglyphics outside the entrance. What
can you do to warn people over a hundred generations from now of a vital truth?
A linguist Thomas
Sebeok came up with a solution. It is
low tech, in fact, a primitive society could pull it off. You don’t need electricity or computers. You only need the most basic of human
resources. You need people. You need community. You need families.
The key is to
ensure that the words of warning are passed down from parent to child
forever. The best way to do that is to
create a text that describes the reality of the situation. That text must be treated as holy. No one should ever add to the text or take
away from the text. There should be a
position made in which the individual studies the text and ensures its
authenticity. But this requires more
than individuals. It requires a whole
community whose life is centered around the text. Families live as near as possible to the
nuclear site. The family unit regularly
reads the text together so that father can pass down the dangerous reality to
his kids. Songs can be created so that
adults and kids remember the words of the text.
The text should be translated into the families’ mother tongue and every
member should have a copy. But it also
must be memorized because catastrophies occur.
Floods, Fires and wars destroy paper, computer and even stone. But a memorized text can always be passed
on. Families should get together once a
week on a day set aside for speaking and embracing the text. If a community was set up like this, the
words of warning could last until the end of the earth. Do you think that could really be possible?
We are that
community. God entrusted us with a
message that goes back to the beginning of time. It has survived a world-wide flood, the rise
and fall of Rome, the black plague, Two world wars and Pokemon Go. A warning has been passed down to you and
through confirmation you have parts memorized.
But you certainly can pass on this message. Beware of sin, death, and the devil. They are located everywhere. God breathed his words into the first two
people. But they ignored those
words. They kept breathing but
eventually they couldn’t any longer.
Their sin has led to the death of every known person. Even before people died, sin had already
taken a devastating toll. They were
separated from their creator. They could
not love others the way they wanted. Sin
caused them to be self centered and disconnected from all of the good things
from above.
So God sent
prophets to warn people. He spoke his
message into their hearts and the prophets wrote down the words. Some listened, most did not. God used the family of the first prophet
Abraham to remember the bad news, that through sin all people die. But he also added new words. Through the grace of God, all things can be
made new. God’s words can actually
create life. Abraham passed these words
down to Isaac. Isaac passed it down to
his son, Jacob. Jacob gave the words to
his twelve sons. They were passed down
for hundreds of years. Then a special
day was set aside to remember the words.
The text was written down by Moses.
Songs were created. Mother’s
whispered the words to their kids at night.
It continued for thousands of years until something even more amazing
happen. The words of God came to
life. Jesus was the Word and the word
was God.
Jesus was a living
breathing word from the Father.
Everything he said was a message from above. Most did not listen, some did. The Romans tried to erase the word on good
Friday. They shoved a spear in his lungs
to stop his breathing, stop his words. They
thought this would silence the message forever. But the word was quiet for only three
days. First an angel said, “He is not
here, He is Risen!” And then the word
spoke for himself, saying “Hello. All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.”
His friends wrote
down those words. They met together in
homes to repeat and celebrate those words.
They received more words from above and shared those as well, writing the
words down and sending them as letters.
More and more people heard the story and passed them down to their
kids. The message lasted for centuries.
Nations rose and
fell. Languages came and went. The words of Jesus were translated from the
original greek to German by a monk named Martin. He discovered that the church had added to
God’s words which confused the original message. Martin read God’s words and was awed by the
responsibility that came with them.
Martin Luther said, “I began to understand
that “the justice of God” meant that justice by which the just man lives
through God’s gift, namely faith. This is what it means: the justice of God is
revealed by the gospel, a passive justice with which the merciful God justifies
us by faith, as it is written: ‘He who through faith is just shall live.’ Here
I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through
open gates.”
Luther took the
holy text and reproduced it so every family can center their lives around
it. He made a little book called the
catechism that outlined the dangers of sin, death and the devil. But more than that it contained the
Gospel. Jesus has overcome all of the
worst things of the world through the cross and the resurrection.
That was 500 years
ago. German mothers prayed this truth
around the dinner table. Fathers
brought their babies to be baptized into the words of Jesus. Pastors and theologians made sure that
nothing was added to or taken away from the bible again. The message must stay pure because the
message saves lives.
In the mid 1800s,
Lutherans came to America. The church in
Germany was threatening to change the message.
So churches were formed in Missouri and beyond so that they could do their
part. By now the message was on every
continent and in every country. Families
continued to pass it on. 75 years ago
next year, Glendale Lutheran was established.
The message has been faithfully given to us today.
The question is
What are you going to do with this message?
You are here which is a good sign, because in this church during this
hour you know that the Gospel message is going to be proclaimed. We sing it in our hymns. We repeat it in our
confession/absolution. We pass it on to
our kids in the children’s message. We
center the sermon on God’s grace. We
tell the story in the creeds and we show the story in the Lord’s supper. Our opening hymn said it best,” Lo, the
apostles holy train, Join the sacred name to hallow. Prophets swell the glad refrain and white
robbed martyrs follow, and from the morn to set of sun through the church the
song goes on.”
It is sacred
scripture where we get this message. It
is only through scripture in which we really know the message. You can commune with nature on a mountain top
but the vital message of Christ overcoming Sin will not be evident on that
mountaintop. It is only evident in the
pages of your Bible.
2 Timothy 3:16
says “All Scripture is breathed out by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training
in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every
good work.”
Scripture alone is
one of the key themes of the reformation.
It’s summarized in our Lutheran writings. “The Holy scriptures alone remain the judge,
rule and norm. According to them- as the
only touchstone- all teachings shall and must be discerned and judges to see
whether they are good or evil, right or wrong.”
We have something
more than a message. Danger Nuclear
Fallout is a message. But it is only
words. Important words, but still mere
words. The Bible are words breathed out
by God. The Holy Spirit is in with and
under the words of scripture. You can’t
separate them. When you open your Bible
the Holy Spirit is talking to you in here.
A nulclear sign can’t do that.
God can change you from the inside through these words. The words of God are a promise spoken from
the Father to you and the holy Spirit empowers you to receive them.
Pass them on to
your household. Pass them on to your
fellow Glendale family. Pass them on to
your neighbors. They are the most
important words they will ever hear and they have been passed on since the
beginning of time.