Sermonstudio

"Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

In the mid-1920s there was a successful, young, stockbroker who made it big on Wall Street. Really big! He had it all, materially speaking; money, country club membership, wealthy friends. He also drank. A lot! When the crash hit in 1929 and lasted for several years, he lost everything ... except his bottle of gin. His wife had to go to work only to come home day after day exhausted to find her husband drunk on the couch again.

He tried many times to stop drinking but couldn't until, with the help of a friend who had himself overcome the bottle with strong spiritual guidance, this young stockbroker, Bill W., began a process known today as the 12-step approach. Today, millions have found sobriety through this organization co-founded by Bill W. known as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Though it is not a blatantly religious movement, AA is grounded in some very basic spiritual or religious tenets beginning with a strong belief that God is the only help to achieve sobriety.

Step one begins the process by admitting that you are powerless over alcohol and that God is your only strength. This first step is critical and one of the most difficult. What you are saying is that alcohol has taken control of your life, and you cannot fix this problem yourself. After this, additional steps include making an honest inventory of your life and confessing these sins to another person.

I have had the opportunity to attend a few AA meetings as I have accompanied parishioners to meetings for the first time for support and encouragement. You will never find a more honest group of people because, as they told me, an alcoholic is a great liar but one drunk cannot lie to another. They know all the lies, all the excuses, all the lines. Honesty is the only alternative.

The meetings begin with introductions. First names only, like Bill W., and with the same lines. "Hello, I'm Susan and I'm an alcoholic. I have been sober since May 3, 1988."

Did you catch that? She hasn't had a drink in over twenty years -- dry, sober, alcohol-free. And yet, what did she say? "I'm Susan, I used to be an alcoholic? I'm a recovering or recovered alcoholic?" No, the reality is, "I'm Susan and I am an alcoholic."

Is Susan free from alcohol or is she still in its grips? On the one hand, Susan is 100% free from the grips of alcohol. She is sober, dry, and alcohol-free. By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, she has been transformed. On the other hand, she is still in bondage to the condition of alcoholism because one drink will start the downward spiral all over again.

The answer is both. She is free and she is enslaved.

Our modern-day understanding of alcoholism is the best example I know to explain an important teaching that flowed from the Reformation called, "Saint and Sinner." Indeed, this teaching is a cornerstone on which is built our entire teaching of grace and faith. Basically, the question is this: Are we free from sin, released from its grips by the power of Christ's death and resurrection, or are we still in bondage to sin and under its demise?

Like the struggle with alcoholism, the answer is both. We are, at the same time, saints and sinners.

Luther spoke and wrote often about this paradoxical condition of the believer. On the one hand, we are 100% saints -- the shackles of death have been destroyed by the blood of Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians, "For freedom Christ has set you free; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." In Romans, Paul writes, "... you have been set free from sin" (6:22). "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death" (8:2). We are born again through faith. Death has no power over us. The law no longer rules us. We are 100% saints through our faith in Jesus.

Yet, at the same time, we are 100% sinners in bondage to this condition called sin. Look closely at the reading for today, "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22b-23). In Romans 3:9-10, "All people ... are under the power of sin. None is righteous -- not even one." Unable to completely cast off our sinful nature, we are, in our heart of hearts, a rebel, fleeing from God, spitting apple into his face and declaring, "I am the captain of my own vessel. I am accountable to no one. Just let me be."

When it comes to the condition of sin, we all are addicted. We are all rebels in our hearts. Luther said that it was like the birds of winter. Those that do not fly south try to gather up morsels here and there to survive until spring. Luther went out to feed the birds in his backyard once and instead of coming to him and receive the food, what did they do? They flew away. Pointing at the birds, Luther said, "That's me! God comes to me with goodness, life, and blessings to give and instead of eagerly accepting what God has, I fly away. I'll die without God's help but I am filled with doubt, overcome with fear and wickedly stubborn. God only wants to help and save and I flutter away."

In the Lutheran Book of Worship, the confession has these striking words that capture our addiction to sin. I confess that I am in bondage to sin and cannot free myself. Bondage -- that word refers to that rebellious side that joins Adam and Eve in taking that bite of apple and wanting desperately to become like God. Though we are a saint through our faith in Jesus, that sinner inside keeps us in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves.

Is there any hope for us? Any hope at all? I think our best hope is to follow the steps laid out by Alcoholics Anonymous. It has saved millions of people. It works. But do you know what? Just between you and me, it's not new. Even in 1935 when it was founded, they actually stole the idea. It's from the Bible. It is the simple plan of salvation reduced to some easy-to-follow steps. It works for alcohol and, more importantly, it works for this bondage we call sin.

Step One: Admit that you are powerless over sin. Let's take off the mask. Let's stop playing games. Let's no longer pretend we are actually nice people and God is going to grade on a curve. I may not be perfect, I may not be a Mother Teresa, but compared to the other people I know, I am pretty decent. Nonsense! Stop the lies. Each one of us silently jingles in our pockets the nails from the cross. I put him there. I nailed him there. I crucified Jesus. I am powerless over sin.

Step Two: Turn your life over to God. For if there is any hope for me, any hope at all beyond the grave, it will not come from me. I cannot get myself out of this box, this hole, this hell -- I need to be lifted out from a power outside of me. Turn your life over to God.

Step Three: Come clean. In your own heart, in your own quiet time, make an honest inventory of your life -- who you've wronged, what you've done, how you've messed up -- everything. List it all. Don't edit it. Leave in the swear words. After it is completed, add some more.

There is a great story about how Luther dealt with this long list of sins. Evidently, one night he had a nightmare in which the devil took out this huge book full of Luther's sins. They were itemized, numbered, and dated. The sheer size and numbers were overwhelming. The weight of the sins drove Luther to his knees in despair. As the devil completed his evidence against a nervous and contrite Luther, Luther suddenly realized something and said, "You forgot a few." With that he added more and more to the list provided by the devil and then wrote on the bottom, "Paid in full by Jesus Christ."

Step Three is to come clean. Make a list. A long list. Add a couple of more things and then nail it to the cross and walk away. Your debt has been paid in full through the blood of Jesus.

In my last church there was a very active member named Tom. Since he was a member of the council, I made it a point to visit with him in his home. During the course of our talk, he pulled out a coin from his pocket and showed me it. In the center was a big number twenty. He said, "I took my last drink twenty years ago. I'm an alcoholic."

"How did you manage to stay sober?" I asked.

"AA, and by the grace of God," he said.

"Twenty years. That's a long time," I said.

Tom replied, "I don't think of it as twenty years. It is one day at a time. My goal each morning when I get up is to make it through that day without a drink. One day at a time."

That's not only good AA talk but is also good Reformation theology. For Luther knew that this struggle between being a saint and a sinner is a daily battle. He called believers to wage war every morning. Wake up each day with a prayer and the sign of the cross as a means of confessing that sinful nature before God and then, at the same time, receive that forgiveness and recommit yourself that day to walking as a saint in the freedom of the gospel. One day at a time.

When Paul laid out the reality that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, it was not meant to be the final word. These words are only the vehicle that moves us forward to hear what we celebrate on this Reformation Day:

[We] are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins ... for we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works prescribed by the law.
-- Romans 3:24, 25, 28

It all begins today with the very first step. Hello, my name is Scott, and I am a sinner who is in bondage to sin and cannot free myself. But thanks be to God who has called me through the gospel, enlightened me by the Spirit, and who has set me free as a saint through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God! Amen.