Lutherans talk a lot about grace. It is the best way to apprehend the reconciling love of God, especially as demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Among the inexhaustible riches of this concept, Lutherans hold up two key understandings. First, grace presupposes that we need it. Second, by definition, grace is a gift. If we can achieve our own marvelousness apart from God, who needs grace? If we can achieve our own justification apart from grace, who needs God? If we cannot accept grace as a gift, then we spend our lives in the relentless and futile effort to justify ourselves, to be good enough.
To be Lutheran 500 years after the Reformation means to live in freedom. It means to live in this, as Martin Luther wrote, “living, daring faith.” It means that we are free to serve our neighbor as a person in his or her own right, not as a means to an end. It is the possibility of being open and genuine and honest because we are loved completely by God, who knows us completely.
This message is excerpted from “’Where’s Lutheran?’” by Elizabeth A. Eaton in the January/February 2017 Gather magazine. Today is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost and Reformation Sunday.
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