Original sermon given on Reformation Sunday, October 25, 2026 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Therefore”
Psalm 46
Therefore
In the name of the living God, who is our refuge and strength. Amen.
Ein Feste Burg—A Mighty Fortress. Our entrance hymn this morning, written by Martin Luther, has now spread across every Christian Tradition — including Roman Catholic — and has been sung in over 200 different languages. “A Mighty Fortress” is based on Psalm 46, which we sang with the choir a few moments ago: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear...” (Psalm 46.1,2a)
The hymn and the Psalm upon which it is based speak of great faith amid great difficulty. Indeed, the 16th century German Reformers sang these words at a time when it seemed that the world was falling apart. They wouldn’t have been at all surprised had the mountains actually fallen into the sea during the Reformation. It is said that Martin Luther himself sang these words every day when he was hidden in protective custody in Wartburg Castle. You can imagine him repeating these words with his life and soul at risk, while he translates the New Testament. We can relate these words to the struggles of our own lives — times of upheaval, when it feels like our world has been shaken, while waters rage against us. I hope that this morning you too can be bulwarked by the words: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46.10)
We don’t know for sure the original Hebrew setting for Psalm 46. We’re given a dramatic picture of a small, tired, famished army defending homes and loved ones in Jerusalem. It’s possible that Psalm 46 captures a historic moment, when the Assyrian army — the most brutal, dreaded, feared, violent force in the ancient world — storms down from the north and besieges Jerusalem around 700 B.C. The moment is recorded for us in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37. Psalm 46 may be the words the Jews of Jerusalem sung huddled together at their most desperate moment of that siege. Not when the victory was secure, not the post-game celebration, but at their most vulnerable and uncertain. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear…”
If I could ask you to remember one word which summarizes this Psalm this morning, and which best summarizes the Reformation, which word would it be? “Grace, Faith, Scripture” — the three sola’s of the Reformation? How about “Refuge, Strength, Fortress, Bulwark” from the Psalm? Any of these words would do, nicely, but I think, actually, that there is another word which holds the Christian faith perhaps more strongly: that one little adverb… “Therefore.”
Therefore. Now, I brought a dictionary with me this morning. (For those of you who don’t know, a “dictionary” is an old book we used to use to look up words, before this thing called “google.”) This is Vol II of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (I’m glad I brought the “compact” version and not the full sedan). It reads: “Therefore: for this or that reason, on account of this, accordingly, consequently, hence…”
This seems a simple enough definition. For example, if someone says, “Da Bears have a healthy quarterback, dearefore they’ll win da Superbowl,” you know what they mean. Because they’ve got a healthy Caleb Williams, for this reason, on account of this, hence they will win. On the other hand, if I say the Vikings have a great defense, therefore they will win… you might not agree with me, but you know what I mean. You see, the “therefore” is only as good as that which it is based upon. The proposition that Williams is healthy enough, or a defense great enough, makes winning the Superbowl certain. But the therefore of the Reformation, which we observe today, transcends ourselves and this world and our own strength It seizes firmly on something beyond us and outside of us — the promises of God in the grace of Christ Jesus. Our “therefore” shouts that the living Christ has conquered death once and for all. Our “therefore” lives in hope even amid strife and struggle because it hopes in something greater. Our “therefore” sings that because God is with us, since he is our refuge and strength, because he will not desert us, since he is Yahweh Sabaoth, hence, therefore we will not fear. Because of who God is, and his grace for us, and what he has promised us in Jesus, therefore we know who we are — not the other way around.
The church of the gospel, our church, confesses the therefore of God. We have heard it in Christ: the powerful Christ who has defeated the greatest enemies of sin, death and hell once and for all; the loving Christ who has forged a new covenant in his blood and has written his law on our hearts; the forgiving Christ who had declared us to be righteous because of what he has done for us. This is the truth that sets us free.
Martin Luther — in spite of his faults, which were many — understood the “therefore of God.” But I do not refer here to Martin Luther the scholar, the world changer, or even Martin Luther, one of the most important figures in western history. No, the man that best understood the therefore of God was Martin Luther, the Christian father.
In September of 1542 the Luther home was besieged by a horrible and powerful enemy — the last, greatest enemy: death. In an upper room of the house the cries of a mother can be heard above the autumn wind. Luther’s wife Katy, because of her great grief, cannot even draw near the sick bed of their dying child. There, on his knees we find not the scholar, reformer, or world-changer, but Luther the father weeping and praying and pleading over his dying little girl, Magdalena. The time is short. The cross is heavy. The will of God is hard. And as his daughter breathes her last breath of life, he takes her in his arms and says: “Oh my little Lena. I love her very much. Oh, how I would like to keep her. But she is the Lord’s and he wants her now. Therefore, therefore I give her into his hands.”
What’s your “therefore” based upon? What is it that you’re sure of, no matter what comes? The Psalmist says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High Dwells. God is within her; she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” From the walls of a besieged city to the wails of a grief-stricken home, to the waters poured this morning over baby Aurora — the forgiven, justified, freed people of God understand the “therefore.” Because God is faithful, because he has spoken to us by his son, because his grace has been gifted to us at the cross, therefore we have peace. Though the earth gives way, though the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, we will not fear for the Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress… therefore.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
Image Source: Paton, J. Noël (Joseph Noël), Sir, 1821-1901. Dawn: Luther at Erfurt, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/55541 [retrieved October 26, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther_at_Erfurt_-_Justification_by_Faith.jpg.
