The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

The day, Saturday, June 25^th. The year was 1530. The city, Augsburg Germany. During the 15 years prior to June 25^th 1530, the doctrines we now associate with the Lutheran Church had spread throughout German and Scandinavia.

The Emperor had convened a "diet," a general assembly of representatives of church and state to consider the Lutheran "problem." The Confession was read in German by Chancellor Dr. Christian Beyer. He read the Augsburg Confession so distinctly and loudly that those who had gathered in the courtyard outside the palace could understand every word.

It was a large and impressive body which heard the summary of what the Lutherans confessed as the truth of God's Word. Present were the electors, princes, bishops, representatives of the free cities, and ambassadors connected with the empire. After the reading of the Augsburg Confession, the document was handed to the Emperor in both a German and a Latin version.

In the years between 1521 and 1530 Charles V had been urged by the popes to suppress the Lutheran doctrine by military might. But he was hindered in the persecution of the Lutherans by the Turks, the Ottoman Empire - Muslims, who at that time threatened the Christian world. Charles also had to worry about the French who were bent on conquest too. There was one more factor that kept Charles from invading the German territories and wiping out Lutheranism. He had to worry about the intrigue that surrounded the papal office and about a pope who had his own interests in mind.

So if there was a way to bring the Lutherans back into the pale of the Romanist Empire, it was worth the try. So Charles V called for a meeting.

So the Lutherans came as requested and welcomed the opportunity to speak the truth. Dr. Christian Beyer began;

That is how they began their confession. They wanted everyone to know that they sought only one thing, true unity. They wanted a church that would be bound together in one true Christian fellowship. They wanted to live with their fellow Christians in unity and in peace - - in the peace that surpasses all understanding. They wanted that for which our Lord prayed in John chapter 17 - - Sanctification and unity based on the Gospel truth. What they didn’t want was a unity that embrace erring doctrine. They didn’t want unity that was brought about by the threat of force. They didn’t want a unity that meant forsaking the full counsel of God in Holy Scripture.

So there on June 25, 1530, in the city of Augsburg German the Lutheran Reformers were given a great opportunity to speak of the Gospel truth to a waiting world and this was the work to which they had dedicated themselves.

In the years following Martin Luther’s excommunication, (1521), the reformers; pastors, theologians, princes, and laymen alike, threw themselves into the work of reforming their lands. This was not a reformation of shallow cliches. This was not a reformation based on five basic spiritual principles.

This was a complete rethinking of the work of the church and of the Christian’s place in the world.

The reforms that sprang forth from Wittenberg began in the church proper, with the preaching, teaching, liturgy, and use of the sacraments in the Church. But the reforms did not stop there. Everything changed in their world. They began an educational process within their churches and territories so that everyone from the pastors and princes at the ‘top’ on the tradesmen and peasant girls on the ‘bottom’ were taught the truth doctrines of the Word. They went to church to avail themselves of the means of grace. They went to school so that they could learn what the Bible actually taught so that they would know what their Lord Jesus Christ had done for them and what they were expected to give and to do in service of their Lord.

They reformed their court systems, established institutions dedicated to charity. They did away with institutions like "professional begging." They create new hymns that would proclaim the Law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In 1520 Luther wrote an open letter to the Christian Nobility of the German States on the Reform of the State. In this open letter Luther dealt with the court systems, with social reforms, with the proper use of money for the well being of the Christian estate, and he called for and set forth basic curriculum for the Lutheran schools. Along with that he wrote, "I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God’s word, becomes corrupt." (LW vol. 44 p. 207)

Now here is the point that I want you to walk away with this morning. These people, these theologians like Dr. Luther and Rev. Bugenhagen, the politicians like Frederick the Wise of Wittenberg and George Frederick, margrave of Brandenburg, and the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people whose names we will not know until we meet them in heaven, committed themselves to the work of reformation and did so at great risk to themselves.

So thankful were they that the Gospel had been restored to their lands, that they actually went to work reforming and creating institutions that taught their children and their children’s children the truth about God, the way of salvation, the Church, the means of grace, and about the necessity to do their share in confessing the faith. Now don’t misunderstand. There were many of problems, temptations, and plenty of sinning going on in those reformation territories.

But they understood that now that the Gospel had been restored to them, there was not the possibility that life could become better and the reality that their sins were forgiven.

Those first Lutherans raised up two generations that would and did contend for the faith against those who sought to return their lands back into the darkness of works-righteousness and the law from whence they came.

And how were they treated for their work? They considered trouble makers and they were summoned before the Emperor and required to explain themselves. And so they did . . . gladly and happily. And they not only explained themselves gladly and happily, they invited the most powerful people in all the world to join them in their ‘little’ reformation. They not only invited them to join their little reformation, they also told Charles V and the pope that the doctrine they preached and taught was the true teaching of Christianity; the foundation for all that Christians are to think, say, and do. Their doctrine was the right doctrine. Their doctrine was the only doctrine upon which true unity and fellowship was founded. And they ended by saying that there was no room for compromise on the fundamental doctrines set forth in their confession, because their

Now we stand in 2004 and just a few days away from another national convention for our synod. And what are we going to do? We are going to create yet another so called evangelism program with another catchy name. Let me see, we’ve done, "Tell Every What He Has Done," "The 3-10 Emphasis," which turned into "Tell Everyone the Good News About Jesus," and soon the synod is going to spend millions of dollars creating a new program called "One Mission Alaze!" Now we really know it is important because we’ve put an "!" point behind it.

This programs has the goal to reach 100 million people with the Gospel by the year 2017, the 500^th anniversary of the start of the reformation. But I assure you, those who support programs like this have very little in common with those men who stood with Dr. Martin Luther and those men who stood before Charles V on June 25, 1530.

The reformation was not an evangelism program. The reformation was not a stewardship program. The reformation was not a emphasis. The reformation and the Augsburg Confession was not about reducing the doctrines of the Holy Scripture to catchy little slogans. It was about confessing the faith. It was a fight. It was about the Church going forth to teach everything that Christ had commanded and all that has been set forth in the Holy Scripture.

If those reformers had shown up to Augsburg the way many are going to show up in St. Louis in a couple of weeks, they would have stood before Charles V and said, "Look Charles, can’t we just set all this debate over doctrine and practice aside, and just agree that all this fighting and division is harmful to the church’s true mission. Look Charles V, can’t we all just tell each other about the good news about Jesus and set the world ablaze?"

But what did they go and do. They spoke of God’s testimonies before kings. They set before the ruling elite a document in two languages, with 28 articles and sometimes with lengthy explanations, and though they sought unity, their confession divided the world. It divided countries. It divided churches. And it divided families.

Matthew 11:12 "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Matthew 10:34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; 36 and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD."

So happy were they that the true doctrines of the Christian Faith, that the men and women of the reformation, that they gave of themselves, of their wealth, of their status, and everything so that you could sit here in this Lutheran Church, and know that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone for Christ’s sake alone. They gave all so that you would have a statement, the Augsburg Confession, and eventually the entire Book of Concord, that contains a true exposition and summary of the saving doctrines of the Christian Faith.

You are here our Lord called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and sanctified and kept you in true faith, in the true Evangelical Lutheran Church wherein the Law and Gospel is rightly divided, the sacraments rightly administered, and you Gospel freedom is protected.

We are constantly in need of reforming. The church, our synod is too. And praise be to God, that He continues to reform us through His Word and His Sacraments. You are the beneficiaries of the work of God throughout the centuries, from the prophets and apostles, through the Lutheran confessors, to the faithful pastors and teacher who preach and teach you now.

"I will also speak of thy testimonies before kings, and shall not be put to shame." They spoke of God’s before kings and they were not put to shame. Nor will you be put to shame.

AMEN.