It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm in that freedom. Amen. (Galatians 5:1)

O Lord of the Church, today as we gratefully remember the many blessings you have showered upon your church through Dr. Martin Luther, we know that he would protest if he were given any of the glory that belongs to you, O God. You began a great reformation of your church by revealing to your chosen servant that freedom is won through Christ, and not through penance or indulgences or good deeds. In the same way, remind us today that Jesus Christ has set us free from sin, from death, and from the power of the devil. Help us to stand firm in this faith and live in your freedom so that we may boldly proclaim you to be our Mighty Fortress. Amen.

October 31^st is a day that many people observe simply as Halloween. It has become a day for ghosts and goblins, jack-o-lanterns, and treat or treating. I remember that last year I saw some pretty scary costumes – witches, vampires, two-headed monsters. The scariest of all, though, was probably my daughter, Miriam’s costume. She was dressed up as a star princess. That wasn’t scary. The scary part was her makeup. My four-year-old looked like a teenager – a two-and-a-half foot tall teenager, but still a teenager. She’s not allowed to wear makeup again until she’s twenty-five and married.

Halloween is also a time of scary stories. So here is a scary story. There was once a woman who was serving a life sentence in prison. Over the years she became good friends with one of the prison caretakers. His job, among others, was to bury those prisoners who died, in a graveyard just outside the prison walls. When a prisoner died, the caretaker rang a bell, which everyone heard; got the body and put it in a casket; entered his office to fill out the death certificate; and then returned to nail the casket lid shut. Finally, he put the casket on a wagon and took it to the graveyard and buried it. Knowing this routine, the woman devised an escape plan and shared it with the caretaker. The next time the bell rang, the woman would leave her cell and sneak into the dark room where the coffins were kept. In the darkness she would slip into the coffin with the dead body while the caretaker was filling out the death certificate. When the caretaker returned, he would nail the lid shut and take the coffin outside the prison with the woman in the coffin along with the body. He would then bury the coffin in the graveyard and return later in the evening under the cover of darkness, dig up the coffin, open it, and set her free. The caretaker was reluctant to go along with this plan, but since he and the woman had become good friends over the years, he agreed to do it.

The woman waited several weeks before someone in the prison died. She was asleep in her cell when she heard the death bell ring. She got up, picked the lock of her cell and walked through the darkness to the room where the coffins where kept. Quietly in the dark, she found the coffin that contained the body and carefully climbed in and pulled the lid shut to wait for the caretaker. Soon she heard footsteps and the pounding of the hammer and nails into the lid. Even though she was very uncomfortable in the coffin with the dead body, she knew that with each nail she was one step closer to freedom. The coffin was lifted onto the wagon and taken outside to the graveyard. She could feel the coffin being lowered into the ground and hit the bottom of the grave. She heard the dirt dropping onto the top of the wooden coffin, and she knew that it was only a matter of time until she would be free at last. After several minutes of absolute silence, she began to laugh.

She was free! She was free at last! Feeling curious, she decided to light a match to find out who the dead person was beside her and to her horror, she discovered she was lying next to … the dead caretaker.

It's a scary story isn’t it? Imagine being buried alive, trapped in a coffin with no way out. You have to save yourself - and you can't. You thought you had it all figured out – but you didn't. It strikes at our worst fears – and that's what Halloween is all about.

But October 31^st has a much deeper and more wonderful meaning to us. We call it Reformation. While Halloween is intended to scare, Reformation brings relief. It, too, begins as a scary story about being buried alive – buried under the weight of sin, facing certain death and damnation with seemingly no way out. This is how Martin Luther felt for much of his life until he learned that wonderful truth that we don’t have to save ourselves nor can we. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ, and through Jesus we have forgiveness that gives us freedom, happiness, and salvation. The Bible says, "If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed".

Don’t let sin take you to the grave! By yourself there is no escape once the dirt is tossed on top of the coffin. The only escape from sin and death is Jesus. Only he gives us freedom.

Today we are going to discuss a scary story – that we are trapped by sin. However, there is a happy ending to this story – we have been set free by Christ.

In 1483, nine years before Columbus discovered America, Martin Luther was born in the small town of Eisleben, Germany. Luther grew up to become a monk, then a priest, and then a professor. During the early part of his life, Luther was much like every other Christian in Europe. He tried to remain faithful to God, yet his sins troubled him very much. He knew that God was angry with man because of sin. So he lived in constant fear that death would mean that he must face the terrible punishment of God for his sins. He even resorted to torturing himself by sleeping on a hard floor and by beating his body to try to make himself more pleasing to God.

Luther wasn’t alone in his feelings of hopelessness. The other people in Luther’s day also felt trapped by their sins. And the church of that time didn’t help them much. The church was full of false teachings. The church taught that the people could pray to Mary or the saints for help. It taught that people could purchase God’s forgiveness by paying for it with money. It taught that people could earn God’s love by worshiping supposed relics like a splinter of Jesus’ cross or a bone from St. Peter.

The people were living in Dark Ages. The church kept them there. The people were burdened by their sins. Their consciences plagued them. The only way they thought they could receive God’s forgiveness was if they did something to earn it – prayers, money, even punishing themselves with starvation or beatings.

The church of Luther’s day had little use for Jesus.

The people of today are also living in Dark Ages. I firmly believe that many of the churches of our day here in America are keeping people there. Today many churches teach: "I’m okay. You’re okay. Let’s all get along." They teach that there really aren’t any sins anymore – only mistakes in judgment. They teach: "It doesn’t matter what you believe or what kind of lifestyle you live, God still loves you." There is no hell. No judgment. Therefore no need to believe in Jesus as Savior.

Today people aren’t burdened by their sins. Their consciences don’t bother them. They don’t feel that they really need forgiveness.

There is little use for Jesus.

A small boy watched as his father used a hatchet to remove the head of a chicken. After the head was removed, the chicken began to run about. The boy said, "Look Daddy, he’s dead and doesn’t know it." Jesus said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin." Sin is not just a doing of wrong deeds. It is a wrong condition of the heart. People disobey God because they have an affinity toward evil that enslaves them. There are countless people who are dead, trapped, enslaved by their sins, but they just don’t know it.

I read that the Eskimos of Canada and Greenland have an interesting, if rather cruel, way of hunting bear. They will take a bone, preferably a wolf bone, and they will sharpen it at both ends. Then they will coil it through a process, freeze it in blubber and lay it across one of the paths the bears travel. As the bear comes along he smells the blubber and in one gulp he takes it and swallows it, not knowing that it’s just blubber on the outside, but on the inside there’s this twisted, sharpened bone. And the minute he swallows it he’s dead. He doesn’t drop down just yet, but every move he makes, every step he takes, causes that bone to twist and to slash and to tear and the internal bleeding starts and the Eskimos just follow the tracks of that bear until it dies. It’s the same way as a person who says, "I’m going to save my life, I’m going to keep my life for myself, I’m going to do what I want to do." The minute you do that you are already in the process of dying and destroying your life.

Sin kills. Sin damns. Sin is dangerous – whether we are overburdened by it like the people in Luther’s day or whether it doesn’t bother us enough. We are trapped by our sins. There is no way out on our own. We find ourselves trapped like that woman trying to escape prison.

As hopeless as this sounds, there is hope. That hope is found in Christ Jesus. Money, prayers to saints, visiting relics don’t work. Ignoring our sins, disregarding our conscience, discounting hell definitely doesn’t work. God’s Word works. Only Christ can set us free.

Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Americans prize their freedom. Our country was built upon this noble pursuit. We expect it, we’ll fight for it, and we’ll even die for it. We place the highest value on freedom. So does Jesus.

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!"

"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other. How to hate and abuse each other. How to drink and smoke and curse. How to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!" "And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked. Oh, I'll kill 'em."

"How much do you want for them?" "Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you!! You don't want those people!!" "How much?" Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your tears, and all your blood." Jesus paid the price. He went to the cross. He rose from the grave. He reigns victorious in heaven.

We aren’t forgiven because we pay for our forgiveness with money or prayers. We aren’t forgiven because we feel sorry for our sins. The only explanation for the forgiveness of God is the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you have done. As high as the heavens are above the earth, that is how great God’s love for you is. As far as the east is from the west, that is how far Jesus has removed your sins from you. (Psalm 103:11-12)

You have been set free. Sin and the devil don’t have to control you any longer. Guilt, doubt, the inability to please God, indifference toward his laws – they all trap you. Jesus frees you. He gives you forgiveness, faith, hope, and peace with God He brings love for God, joy, repentance, and the desire to give glory to God. Sin brings death. Jesus gives life.

This is freedom. This freedom is not earned by you, but accepted. You can’t get into heaven by battering down the gates. Jesus has unlocked the gates of heaven. You are free to enter.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

We praise God that he used a man like Martin Luther to reintroduce the Savior to the world. As Lutheran Christians we continue to come to Jesus as our Savior.

October 31^st is more than just Halloween. It is Reformation Day. And it is all about setting sinners free who are trapped by sin and death. Setting sinners free for life. All through Jesus. Amen.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is a gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) What a wonderful freedom of faith you enjoy. Amen.