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The danger with Reformation celebrations and Reformation sermons is that they sometimes forget who needs to be reformed. Today's joy is empty if we use it as a pretense to criticize the Church of Trent or the American churches of Zwingli.

Dr. Luther wrote his 95 Theses in 1517. The public posting of these theological statements is commonly considered the beginning of the Reformation. The Reformation has been going on since your father Adam did what you do---sinned.

The Lord at the beginning Formed. He Formed all; everything. On the sixth day He made man; Adam. Adam and Eve were formed perfectly: "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." [Gen 1. 26] and "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." [Gea 1.31] The Lord Formed. Adam de-formed everything; ruined everything; destroyed and damned everything. You are your father's child. Don't look to the Papist who prays to Mary and point your finger; don't look to the Baptist who denies the Lord's Words about the Sacraments; look at your own marred and diseased visage in the mirror of God's perfect and awe-filled Law. The broken image in you needs to be re-formed. The dead man in you needed to be re-born.

The Reformer knew this. His first Thesis reads: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent', He called for the entire life of believers to be one of penitence."

That sounds a lot like the Baptizer himself doesn't it? John's message was also brief and to the point: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" [St. Mt 3.2]

To repent is to turn, to stop going in the direction of the enemy and to be walking on in the Way of Him who is the Way, Truth and Life. To repent isn't something that is done by the one needing to repent. To turn around isn't something that can be done by will-power and resolve. To be placed back on the paths of righteousness is only by way of gift from a giving God. God the Holy Spirit uses Law to kill, to cause remorse, guilt, culpability and then despair of self. God the Holy Spirit then uses the Good News, the Evangel of Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified, to work faith and restoration. To be Re-formed is something that the Word, Jesus Christ, does to you, in you, for you.

Yes, "from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence..." From the days of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, the Mount Sinai contract, until now---the New Testament, the time of the Christ in the flesh, the kingdom suffers violence. God as God cannot suffer violence. The Kingdom of Heaven as God's "will" cannot be corrupted or thwarted. God's Kingdom as His Church triumphs over all the seemingly impossible earthly threats: "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" [St. Mt 16. 18b]. The Bride "as Bride" is as the Lord has stated through the Apostle: "A glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." [Eph. 5.27] The kingdom suffers violence in that sinners sin against it, and against themselves. You suffer violence when you sin. Your sin is a violent attack upon God's commandments, upon His sheep (the brothers and sisters that you do not love as yourself) and upon His servants. The "Kingdom of Power," God's control of the universe is beyond our understanding and assaults. The "Kingdom of Glory," the heavenly banquet which will come at the end of time is also immune from attack. But here and now, in His "Kingdom of Grace," the Word is daily attacked... not just by the other guy but by you in your sinful thinking, speaking, and acting. The Kingdom is daily attacked when the Word is despised, and when Preaching and the Holy Sacraments are ignored, taken for granted, or perverted into things which the Christ did not institute... not just by community evangelical churches, but even by you and your own "synod."

"And the violent take it by force;" the violent seize it. All sin is a treasonous crime of violence against the loving Father. They seized the forbidden fruit: "my will;" they seized Joseph and threw him in a well; they seized the prophet Jeremiah and threw him in a cesspool; the ungrateful servant debtor seized his fellow debtor by the throat and had him hauled off to prison with his family; they seized the Christ of God like a common criminal, bound Him, beat Him and led Him away to be crucified. They the violent attempted to seize the kingdom by force, them and you, "my will;" That's why there has to be a re-forming, a reformation. Jesus reforms our deformities. St. John's message and ministry give us this good news. John was a "hinge" a "comer" between the old and the new, between the promise to the patriarchs, prophets, kings and faithful old covenant people and the New Testament family of believers who were graced by the Messiah's coming in the flesh. John is like the intersection of the cross itself, the nexus between the horizontal beam and the vertical stake, for at the heart of John's message is Christ Crucified, Law, but also glorious forgiving Gospel. "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come." Elijah the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who told all his hearers of the coming Christ; Elijah the strange dressing odd appearing and utterly fearless mouthpiece of the Lord; Elijah who at the Jordan is carried into the kingdom in a whirlwind of fire; Elijah standing atop the mount of Transfiguration pointing to the light of Christ for the benefit of Peter, James and John. John is the final Elijah, the final God "proclaimer" before the Lord's great act of re-formation. Yes, John thundered out smoke and fire in his uncompromising message of Law: "Repent! Repent you sinners! Repent for...." "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand." The Kingdom of Heaven, that is the King, the Christ of God, is at hand. Now that's good news. John's message of Law is immediately followed by Gospel, and oh what Gospel: "Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world." John the greatest of all prophets, the greatest of men said Jesus, who told all his hearers of lmmanuel, Christ with us; John the strange dressing odd appearing and utterly fearless mouthpiece of the Lord; John who at the Jordan identifies the Lamb of God with his own bony finger of "prophecy completed;" John who instructs his own followers to leave him and follow Jesus; John who begins to recede so that all honor is focused on the Nazarene. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

This Jesus who you follow. Whom you have followed this morning, from your homes, your beds, to this chapel, to this pulpit. This Jesus is your re-former. Being reformed is not easy or painless. The ground cries when it is reformed by the plow prior to seeding. The rock winces when it is reformed by the hammer and chisel as it is reformed into beauty and art. Yes, it is painful when your "old Adam" is daily drowned in repentance, in Christ's daily reformation of you. But this morning hear again about the source of all this re-forming, this re-birthing. Jesus, God in the Flesh, by His perfect obedience to the Law, reformed your status with the Father. Jesus hanging and bleeding on the cross re-formed your death into life, your lost condition into re-union, your fear and sorrow into peace and joy. Your bodies have been re-formed pure and white and spotless and clean by the re-formation wreaked against His innocent body by whips, thorns, backhands and spikes. By His stripes you are healed... re-formed into a thing of beauty; an heir of the Kingdom and son of the Father. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." And you do.

This morning you see another angel flying in the midst of heaven, for here, in this chapel, heaven has come to you. The angel you see is the word preached by Gabriel, by Elijah, by John, by Luther, and now preached again into your ears. This everlasting Gospel is sung and chanted by you and the whole host of Sabaoth. You are re-formed, and with pure lips and hearts you sing: "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost