10 Seconds

First Lesson: Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Responsive Reading: Psalm 46
Second Lesson: Romans 3: 19-28
​Gospel Lesson: John 8: 31-36

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
​
The date was January 14th, 2018.  The place was U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.  The Minnesota Vikings were playing the New Orleans Saints in the NFL Playoffs.  The Vikings were in their 57th year of existence with zero World Championships to their name in twenty-eight previous playoff appearances[1] (including four Super Bowl losses). You could describe the Vikings losses as either 0-4, 0-28, or 0-56 as their marks of futility.  Now the Vikings were playing with their best team in some years heading into the game at 13-3, only three wins from a Championship.  66,000 plus seemingly all purple faithful were in attendance. 

Nearly three of the four quarters were played, and the Vikings were seemingly in control leading 17-0.  The Saints though rallied: touchdown, Vikings interception, another Saints touchdown, and with 25 seconds left the Saints had seemingly taken the lead for good at 24-23.  The Vikings season seemed destined to be over. 

I started looking around our section.  Shoulders were slumped! People were saying here we go again.  I probably heard a cuss word or two.  Viking fans are often by nature cynics on account of what might seem like decades of losing.   People like my fellow Viking fans aren’t unique in our life[2]. 

*You might know a man or woman that has been disappointed so many times in love that they believe they’re just not destined for happy relationships.

*You might have a friend who gives you all sorts of reasons as to why you can never trust people.

*You might know people that shoot down every new idea they hear as unpractical or infeasible and doomed to failure[3]. 

*You might hear all the reasons why the church’s only future is an inevitable decline into death.

Now here’s the thing about cynics.  They’re generally not wrong.  They are continually able to cite all sorts of good examples from the past about why things seem destined to remain the way they are. 

Now I want to tell you the story of one of history’s greatest cynics.  Martin Luther was born in Eiselben, Germany in 1483.  He was the son of Hans and Margarethe Luther. Hans Luther had a dream of young Martin becoming a lawyer. Martin eventually enrolls in law school at the age of 22, after working for years to achieve this goal.  Martin couldn’t help be influenced by years of study in its pursuit.  Luther’s big problem with studying the law was the uncertainty over the true meaning of human nature.

To illustrate what I mean, let me tell another story. Carey Nieuwhof was a young law student working in Canada’s largest city of Toronto[4].  He dreamed of practicing constitutional law before Canada’s Supreme Court. He was newly married and had recently become a Dad. Nieuwhof had a good work ethic, a good intellect, and seemed destined to smash through barriers within the legal profession quickly.  He quickly noticed something about his fellow lawyers, none of them were happy.

 One day a colleague who was in his mid-30’s wildly successful both financially and professionally came in waving a lottery ticket, proclaiming if he won that no one would ever see him again.  Nieuwhof soon proclaimed to his colleagues: “If you can find a happy lawyer in this city, I’ll pay you a million dollars.” They would all go silent. 

Nieuwhof would soon leave the legal profession to enter the ministry; he realized what Luther had that the law represents despair because the judgments it makes confront all sorts of here and now realities.  I say this as someone whose sister is an attorney, who describes sitting in her parking lot during her lunch hour in similar despair because of the hardships within her client’s lives.  The law showcases how tough a place the world can be seemingly without escape.

So cynicism about the future sets in. Luther came to believe that no matter how much learning he could do, he could not understand God’s plan for his life

This struggle would forever change his life on the night of July 2nd, 1505[5].  Luther was traveling from the family home back to the University.  A great thunderstorm came out of the sky.  Luther was able to see lightening nearly strike him.  Luther proceeded to make a desperate plea to God: “Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk.”

So Luther became a monk and he became as good a monk as one could be.  He would spend hours in prayer, he would fast to build discipline, he would take religious pilgrimages to holy shrines, and he would try to confess every sin both big and small that he committed.  The better that Luther became as a Monk-like Carey Nieuwhof became as a lawyer, the more that they could only see cynicism and despair.  God for Luther couldn’t be a God of love if Luther kept feeling terrible about himself day after day despite his best efforts.

Luther’s mentor seeking a solution suggested that he become a Bible professor.  Luther went all out studying the Psalms, Hebrews, Galatians and the Book of Romans.  Luther kept continually trying to make sense of the world around him through his study, to remove his negative nature from his life once and for all. 

Martin Luther one night when studying in his tower comes across Romans 1:17: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Luther’s study of this verse was the start of the Lutheran Reformation.  Luther came to realize that he was indeed truly a sinner. The following was not his ten-second life-changing revelation though as he already believed this.   More importantly, Luther came to believe that the only thing that he needed to bring to his salvation was his sin in need of saving.  The Cross became his source of hope as he was nearly overwhelmed by his cynicism.

Luther, when he came across these words, had every intention of remaining within the Universal Catholic Church.  Eventually, though the Church politics of the day would cast Luther out for what he believes, the Lutheran Church would soon be born which we celebrate[6].

A similar story takes place within our Gospel lesson from John 8.  Jesus is speaking to a group of Jewish believers who had been cast out of the synagogue for disagreeing with the religious authorities of their day over whom exactly should they follow[7].   They were looking for new life! They like Luther were looking to turn from cynicism to hope!

Jesus spoke of their present condition as one of slavery: “whoever commits sin is a slave to sin[8].”

Freedom was soon to come to their lives so that they will become free indeed.  For a short time after this encounter, Good Friday would take place. 

The Good Friday story in the words of writer Michael Gerson serves as an invitation to cynicism[9].  The government comes off as irresponsible debating who has the authority to put Jesus to death until Pontius Pilate finally throws his hands up.  Religion doesn’t come off in the best light as; the religious authorities are quick to turn to judgment.  The crowd in Jerusalem comes off no different than a mob cheering as thorns are jammed into Jesus’ forehead.  Even Jesus’ closest of friends in the Disciples fall asleep when he asks them to keep watch.  Even God seemed to fail just as he had in Luther’s life when Jesus declared: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me[10].” Jesus is seemingly forced to go to his grave alone[11].

As Good Friday comes to a close, it seemed every possible comfort from friendship to faith had been declared nonsense in the face of death.  The cynics had seemingly been proven right.  Human hope seemed to be extinguished with nothing that could be done in response.

Everything and I mean everything would soon change.   Two days later, word had come that the tomb was now empty! The first ten seconds, people had with their Risen Savior had indeed changed everything. Life had come out of death.  The outcome was unbelievable: The power of Resurrection has outlasted the world’s greatest empire which sentenced Jesus to death[12].  The previous cowardly friends would soon become bold missionaries even unto the point of their death[13].  The same man who had been mocked by a mob was now giving a word of forgiveness to every corner of the globe.  Martin Luther would come to believe that God was on his side, even in the darkest nights of his life.   Hope would eventually win out over cynicism.   

Ten seconds were left between the Saints and Vikings.  Mathematical models gave the Saints a 96% percent chance to win the game[14].  As I’m sitting in the stands on that evening, for some strange reason I wasn’t all that nervous, I couldn’t explain why.  I had seen the Vikings lose all sorts of big games throughout my life, often in the most creative of ways.

I knew that one play could change everything (even if the odds were seemingly small). 

Ten seconds were left when Vikings Quarterback Case Keenum drops back throwing the ball to the sideline on the same end but opposite side of the field from where Dad and I were sitting.  The pass was high; Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs leaps as high in the air as he can to try to bring it down, one Saints defender tries to tackle low missing Diggs and hitting his own guy instead.  Diggs hauls the pass in with no defenders in position to tackle him.  He runs to the end zone, scoring a touchdown untouched as the clock strikes zero. Pandemonium ensues!  People whose shoulders were slumped moments earlier were now complete hugging strangers.

 Vikings win! The play will forever be known as the “Minneapolis Miracle.”  Even though the Vikings would lose the next week to Philadelphia, the narrative had changed, the Vikings were not cursed.  The ten-second play had declared cynicism to be dead in the presence of all sorts of Vikings fan.  The past does not necessarily predict the future.  The great truth about cynicism is that it is ultimately a failure of patience. 

A few weeks ago, I was at a Vikings game when I saw a t-shirt which declared: “Live each day like it’s 23-24 with ten seconds left.”

While the shirt was about a football game, it spoke to the great truth of Martin Luther’s Reformation: no matter the past experiences and present circumstances of your life, things will not remain the way that they currently are.  Good Friday reminds us of this.  Martin Luther believed with every fiber of his being throughout his ministry in the words that Jesus declares within our Gospel lesson “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free[15].”   Amen
 
                 
[1] “Minnesota Vikings.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 20. Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[2] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming. 2018. Waterbrook Mulnomah Publishing. Colorado Springs. Page 11. 
[3] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming.Page 11.
[4] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming. Pages 9-10.
[5] “Martin Luther.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 16.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[6] Luther was formally excommunicated from the Catholic Church on January 3, 1521 when Pope Leo X issued the Exsurge Domine (Papal Bull.)
[7] Hogan, Lucy Lind. “Commentary on John 8:31-36.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 28.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[8] John 8:34. 
[9] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post. 13. Apr.2017. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[10] Matthew 27:46. 
[11] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[12] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[13] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[14] “Minneapolis Miracle.” .” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 21.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[15] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.