Here's my Reformation Day Sermon from last year, a sermon on John
Knox. My email address is jrichardshort@prodigy.net

On Obeying God Alone
Joshua 24:14-15

Acts 5:27-29

Matthew 22:15-20

Dr. J. Richard Short
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Augusta, GA

October 31, 1999
Reformation Sunday
Kirking of the Tartans

Today, on this Reformation Sunday, we travel back through the sands of time all the way back to the middle 1500's. On this day, 480 years ago, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany. Soon, not only Germany, but all the surrounding countries in western Europe were ablaze with the ideas contained in those 95 Theses.

One city which embraced these new ideas totally was Geneva, Switzerland. These ideas:
that salvation was by grace alone,
that we were made right before God by faith alone,
that the Bible alone, not the church, was the final authority
in matters of faith and practice,
that all believers were priests, -
these ideas were not simply opening the window and let a little fresh air
in. This was more like opening the door, and letting a hurricane come in.

It was a heady and a dangerous time. The clergy and town council enthusiastically embraced these reformed ideas, and called a young John Calvin, a legal expert, to help them figure out how Geneva could incorporate these ideas throughout the city.

How does one go about doing that? John Calvin figured he would start by teaching all of its citizens how to be Christian, to act like Christians. So he wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, one of the most influential books about the Christian life that has ever been written, a book that is still referred to many even today for guidance.

Some of John Calvin's writings found their way to Scotland, and heavily influenced a man by the name of John Knox.

When John Knox was born, either in 1505 or 1513, Scotland was the nation of Europe most sunk in ignorance and superstition and the absence of the gospel. And yet, when John Knox died, on November 24, 1572, Scotland had become totally transformed and had become a very model and paragon of Christian knowledge and virtue. "It is probably accurate to say that never in history has one man so altered the life of a nation as did John Knox in Scotland."
(Clyde E. Fant, Jr., William M. Pinson, Jr., editors, Twenty Centuries of
Great Preaching, Volume 2, p. 188)

So who was this man, and what did he do, and what sustained him to do what he did?

He was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1540, but was more of a Christian educator of young people than a priest or preacher.

He discovered some of the writings of John Calvin in 1543, and experienced a spiritual awakening. He became acquainted with a Reformer by the name of George Wishart. George Wishart was very sensitive and godly man,
but was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in St Andrews.

The murder of George Wishart galvanized the people of St. Andrews. Shortly afterward, they took over the castle from the Cardinal of the Roman church who had engineered Wishart's execution.

It was during this time that John Knox was asked to come into the castle to teach the children of those who had taken over the castle and were occupying it. As he taught the children, the others noticed how thoroughly prepared and knowledgeable and persuasive this slightly built, middle aged Christian educator was. They suggested that he take over the preaching, but he politely declined, saying that God had called him to the teaching ministry, not the preaching ministry.
The others were not persuaded, and rigged a preaching service. The sermon was

the necessity of obeying God alone and following God's will for your life. Toward the end of the sermon, the preacher looked directly at John Knox and said, (in effect) "And you, John Knox, are called to preach." The preacher then looked around the room at everyone else there, and continued, "Is this not what we all talked about, and do you not approve of this calling?"

They responded affirmatively.

Knox was so overcome that he fled from the room, weeping, and stayed in isolation for several days before he was strong enough to come out and accept this new call of God upon his life. His concern was to obey God alone, and when the call came like this from God's church, he believed he had to respond.

One of the abiding principles of Presbyterianism came from this incident: that God's call to ministry is never confirmed until it is expressed by a body of God's people. You may feel God's call to be a minister, elder or deacon, but unless it is confirmed with the call of God's people, that interior call can never be trusted. It may be delusional thinking.

Several months later, the French navy arrived in the bay and successfully bombarded the castle into submission.

John Knox was taken prisoner and spent the next two years chained as a galley-slave. A galley-slave's shelter was his bench, his food the barest rations above starvation. There was no question of privacy or sanitation. The stench of the galleys was proverbial, and galley fever prevalent.

At one point during this slave period of his life, Knox became extremely ill. He, as well as all the others, thought he would surely die. In this black well of despair, he cried out words of the Psalmist:

"Have mercy upon me, O Lord: for I am weak:
O Lord, heal me: for my bones are sore vexed.
My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies sake."

From that hour, he began a steady recovery, although his health was shattered and he would live in pain and weakness for the rest of his life. His biographer, Elizabeth Whitley, points to this experience as one which influenced greatly this man's courage in the face of danger and possible death. She writes, "This fellowship of suffering, of those who have passed through the dark valley, is a mystery and a hidden strength. Knox's physical loss, in weakness and in pain, was outweighed by the gain of a rock-bedded faith... This then was the true birth of the Kirk of Scotland, in the stinking hold of the French galley [ship], rolling in the North Sea." (Whitley, Plain Mr. Knox, p. 39)

He was released early in 1549, and was called to serve three churches in England over five years.

One of his sermons during this time was a savage attack on the Mass. The foci of his attack was two-fold:
the superfluous ceremony that had grown up around the Mass, and the people being spectators instead of recipients.
The basis for his criticism was the authority of Scripture:
Jesus didn't have a lot of ceremony about the Last Supper,
and he freely gave it to all who were there.
This is another example of John Knox following the principle
of obeying God alone, as God's will is expressed in the Bible.
The boldness of his sermon made Knox a marked man.

His last assignment during this five year period was to serve as one of six chaplains to the king, who was a young boy, Edward.

A revision of the Prayer Book was just going to press, which demanded compulsory kneeling to receive the sacrament. Knox's first sermon at court was a ringing attack on the compulsory kneeling, again since the first disciples didn't have to do it, why should the church today? Again, another example of obeying God alone, as God's will is recorded in the scriptures.

The sermon caused such a sensation that the printing was suspended to allow for full debate over his objections.
.
One of the things that greatly disheartened Knox during his stay at court was the corruption and treachery among those advisors to the boy king. Knox preached a sermon in Westminster Abbey on the second Sunday of April, 1553. This was to be the last sermon the sickly boy king would hear Knox preach. Surrounding him were all these corrupt advisors, who were just hanging on waiting for the king to die so that they could begin their own maneuvering of power in the transition.

Knox preached from John 8:15: "He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me."
Those words, used by Jesus at the Last Supper, are in turn quoted from Psalm 41:9, in which David laments the treachery of Absalom. Knox then turned back to read again those stories of treachery against King David. His voice rose to a climax:
"Was David and Hezekiah, princes of great and godly gifts and experience,
abused by crafty counsellers and dissembling hypocrites?
What wonder is it then, that a young and innocent king by deceived by
crafty, covetous, wicked and ungodly counsellors?"

In a few days, Knox was called to appear before the Privy Council of England, some of the most powerful people in the kingdom.

Instead of attacking the sermon they brought up the old charges against him:

Knox answered each of their questions, and they dismissed him with fair words, saying only that they were sorry to understand that he was of a contrary mind to the Common Order. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief that further treason charges had not been brought forth, and walking out, this thundering Scot replied:
"I am more sorry to understand that the Common Order
should be contrary to Christ's institution." (Whitley, p. 65)
Again, a devotion to obeying God alone.

On July 6, 1553, King Edward died, to be followed eventually by Mary, whom we know by her nickname, "Bloody Mary." She was a Roman Catholic and was determined to return England to the Church of Rome, often by killing as many Protestants as she could.

As bold as Knox was, he was not stupid. He decided to go into exile in Europe and to wait for God to provide an opportunity to return. He made his way to Geneva and to John Calvin. One of the questions that Knox was wrestling with at the time was "Whether obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry and condemns true religion?"

You can see the direct application of this question to our own country during the civil rights struggle. Yes, one should obey the law, but what should a Christian do when the law is itself unjust, in the case of laws mandating that people of color sit at the back of the bus? The answer is that we should obey God, alone.

Then, after a three year reign, unexpectedly, "Bloody Mary" died, in 1556, bringing an immediate end to the bloodshed, and ushering in the beginning of the return of many Scot Reformers from exile.

When Knox returned to Scotland, he discovered that there had been an underground Reformed movement, and that he had come to have legendary status during his long exile from Scotland. Legend has it that horsemen rode quickly, shouting to all who would hear, fishing boats putting about to call each other, shepherds crossing mountains to pass it on: "John Knox is come!"

When the Regent (Mary of Guise) died on June 10, 1560, the Scottish Parliament was restored. One of the first things the new Parliament did was to ask John Knox to draft a Confession of Faith and a Constitution for the new Church of Scotland. Our Affirmation of Faith this morning is taken from that Scots Confession of Faith. Knox's Kirk was the Kirk of Every person. A layman, not a preacher, was the moderator of many of the first General Assemblies. Elders had equal voting power with the clergy. So much of this sounds like the normal way of doing church today, but in that day, at that time, this was revolutionary. To trust that commoners, poor, powerless, and disarmed, would trust in the promises of God alone, that God's arm alone would be their only defense - must have seemed like madness to many to whom it was proposed.

Knox also wrote about the Crown Rights of the Redeemer. Knox frequently refers to the Lord as "His Majesty." God alone was the only one he was bound wholly to adore and to obey. This was not rebellion. It was not treason against the King or Queen of Scotland nor of England. But it is the Christian response to political authority. God alone deserves a higher and a deeper loyalty from us than does any earthly King, Queen, President, or mayor.

This commitment of John Knox to obeying God alone allowed him to speak his mind and let the chips fall where they may. He was repeatedly summoned to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots, Mary of Guise's daughter, and the way in which he was able to stand up to her objections to his preaching makes for fascinating reading. Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe." The Regent said at John Knox's funeral that "Here lies a man that never feared the faces of men."

100 years later, in the mid 1600's, the British Crown tried to re-impose the Anglican practices on the Church of Scotland. They demanded that ministers be appointed by the Crown, instead of being called by the local congregation, and they mandated using the Anglican Prayer Book. At first many Scottish people simply boycotted going to church, often organizing their own services outdoors. To counter that, the British crown made not going to church a capital offense! Those who could not go along with that were called the Covenanters, and many shed their blood in what is called the Covenanters wars. One of the reasons the founders of this church forty years ago picked the name of Covenant Presbyterian Church was in memory of those Covenanters. The Covenanters were simply following through on what John Knox had written into the Church Constitution, that God alone is the Lord of the individual conscience, and that we are to obey God alone.

Render unto Caesar that the things that are Caesars', but render unto God the things that belong to God. And we and our churches belong to God alone, not to the Crown, and not to the government.

Another 100 years after that, to punish the Scottish people for yet another war against the English, the wearing of the tartans was forbidden, with exile to the colonies for repeated offenses.

Some parents are complaining today about dress codes in the public schools. At least we are today not to be exiled if we break those codes. Those tartans represented a sense of family and kinship and who they were, and they believed that this too was beyond the province of the government.

Understanding that to obey God alone, these wily Scots, primarily Highlanders, simply slipped a piece of their tartans under their outer garments, and the sympathetic ministers would slip a blessing into the services, as a way to remember that God alone is the Lord of our individual conscience, that we obey God alone.

Fortunately, the ban against wearing tartans was lifted after thirty five years, in 1782, and actually enthusiastically embraced by the King of England as a way to lessen tensions between Scotland and England.

Let us thank God for such a witness as John Knox to the strength that comes from trusting in God alone to be our guide and shield as we seek to be more faithful disciples in our own day.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[References made throughout this sermon are taken from Elizabeth Whitley,
Plain Mr. Knox, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1960]