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Sermon on the Augsburg Confession

© Rev. Verlyn Dobberstein (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin)

This fearless Lutheran layman read the Confession so distinctly and loudly that everyone in the courtyard of the palace could hear it. The men and princes and imperial cities who signed this document also risked facing martyrdom. But they held fast to their belief of salvation in Jesus Christ and were not afraid to confess this in the Augsburg Confession. What about us today? Are we willing to confess with our mouths just as Moses did before Pharaoh in Egypt that God heard the cries of His people in slavery and was going to set them free? Are we like Stephen ready to confess with our mouths that Jesus died and arose again, even if it means being stoned to death? Or are we more like Peter ready to deny the Savior when someone asks us about our Christian faith for fear that we might be ridiculed and rejected? For those times when we have denied our Savior or remained silent we ask for God's forgiveness and that He empower us through the Holy Spirit to follow the confessional examples of those who have gone before us. There is so little confessionalism being given today, to take a stand on God's Word even as Luther did at the Diet of Worms when he said, "Unless you can prove from the Bible that I have made wrong statements, I cannot and I will not take back anything. My conscience is bound by the Word of God. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me." So many today are more concerned about being politically correct. The merger of some church bodies are taking place by downplaying their differences and saying they don't matter. All the while God's Word gets watered-down. What is needed is Biblical confessionalism. It's looking to Scripture and asking the question as Paul did, "What does the Bible say?"

We know what God says and it is centered in Jesus Christ. We want His Word to be such a part of our lives that we are ready to share it with others. Many centuries ago God came to Ezekiel, handed him a scroll which had God's message on it to the Israelites, and then told him, "Eat the scroll." Well, how could Ezekiel eat a book, a leather scroll? What the Lord meant, of course, was that God's message was to enter the prophet's innermost life, even as the food we eat is digested and becomes a part of us. The Word of God was to be the nourishment of his soul. He was to live, not by bread alone, but by every word that came out of the mouth of God.