I read something odd in Martin Luther’s Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. He had been discussing the law, insisting that the law exists to promote love. If law is in conflict with love, the law must be ignored. He gives as an example a man with rigid rules about what should be eaten or drunk each day. Suppose someone in the household should take sick and could not eat any of the food for that day, but the man refuses to give him anything else because of the rule. Luther comments: “One ought to give him sneezewort to purge his brain.”

Sneezewort? I thought sneezewort was something J. K. Rowling made up for Harry Potter books where it is an ingredient for a Befuddlement Draught. Turns out sneezewort is a real thing. Scientifically known as Achillea ptarmica, the dried leaves are used to make a sneezing powder, like snuff.  I’ve never seen the point of taking something to make you sneeze, but I confess I’ve known a few people whom I thought needed their brains purged.

People get strange ideas. One of my clerical acquaintances was reported to her bishop for preaching about God’s love too much instead of God’s vengeance. I’ve run into many people who think the primary purpose of the church is to tell people to straighten out or God will get them. In my opinion they need a good dose of sneezewort.

We are changed by the love of God. That’s grace, not law.  That was Luther’s great discovery in the Reformation.

Gesundheit.

Read Romans 6:14 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne