The Ongoing Reformation
It’s Reformation weekend! Given that this is one of the most important unique celebrations for protestants, I think it is appropriate to take some time to think about what it means to be a protestant, and perhaps more specifically a Lutheran. The Lutheran reformers saw themselves as Catholics who had corrected some mistakes of the church in Rome. The Catholics saw them as rebels in it for themselves. Obviously, I prefer the former view, but protestantism has changed since then. We are quite a broad category of Christians, ranging from traditional Lutherans all the way to the much more recent Evangelical Free churches. Some hold to old church practices and regularly use the creeds and see Baptism and Communion as sacraments. Some protestants rarely use the creeds, if ever at all, and see Baptism and Communion as nothing more than symbols. Some see the Bible as the inerrant Word of God with no contradictions and no mistakes. Some see the Bible as the inspired Word of God where we can hear God speaking to us, but we shouldn’t see it as a science or history textbook. Some want to ally with authority, whether that be church tradition or state power. Others want to rebel against all authority, being all independent free actors under God. So, where do we stand in all this?
Well, to start, Lutherans are not rebels without a cause. We have one simple but profound cause to our reforming spirit: the Gospel. As Luther understood it, the Gospel message that the church ought to preach is that Christ saved us from our sins through the cross and opens the door to salvation for us to receive by faith through God’s grace. This is the starting point of Lutheranism. A lot of what follows is about judging church practices and policies by this simple criterion: if it supports the Gospel, it is good; if it hinders or obscures the Gospel it must be either rejected or reformed.
Does buying your way into heaven quicker through indulgences support the Gospel? Luther thought not. Frankly, I think he’s got a pretty good argument there. It would be pretty contradictory for us to say that salvation is a totally free gift, and also say that you can get faster shipping by getting the express deal for an extra $19.95, or whatever the equivalent of three florins was. Luther took aim at this attempt at a cash grab and got in a lot of trouble with those in power who were trying to use indulgences to pay off debt. This was the origin of the 95 theses, but Luther didn’t stop there.
The Lutheran reformers took aim at five out of seven sacraments, the notion of free will allowing one to choose salvation, and even the papacy itself. Anything that could possibly get in the way of God’s gift being totally free and not earned was removed. Anything that elevated people or human traditions or rules to a status closer to God than they deserved was rejected. Leadership within the church came to be something of human origin. Authority to lead in church was not by divine right, but by human consent. No leader could call themselves divinely appointed in such a way that they were beyond the need for repentance and grace in their office.
Luther believed that the life of a Christian was one of constant repentance beneath the cross. We are always dying to sin and rising again in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit to be children of God. We should always recognize our own weakness, moral frailty, and finitude. We can’t see everything. We can’t know everything. We are blinded by the boundaries of our own perspectives. We have to do our best with what we have, trusting God to forgive us so that we can forgive ourselves when we fail. This means that we are always ready to change. We are always willing to admit that we may be wrong. We are always receptive to what others may bring to the table.
Unfortunately, the truth is that we aren’t always like that. I know that I often become pretty sure of my own way of thinking and find myself hesitant to change. Inflexible. Arrogant. Unrepentant. There are beliefs that I hold now that are probably simply wrong. There are values I hold now that are less developed than they should be. There are things I do that I should see as sin. I’m not being a good Lutheran in that sense. But then again, neither was Luther.
Luther said and did things that he was confident of at the time that he later either rejected himself or that we have firmly rejected since then. As much as we may want Luther to be our hero, the truth is that he was only human. He made mistakes. He was sinful. And sometimes that sin came out in his writings. This may make us a bit uncomfortable to call ourselves Lutherans, but I think it is actually a reassuring thought. We don’t have to be like Luther. Not even Luther wanted that.
The project of Lutheranism is not for our thoughts to trend toward Luther or Melanchthon. Our project is to learn to judge everything by that one critical criterion: does it serve the Gospel, or does it obscure it? To some extent, this can become a spiritual practice for us. The more we make decisions in theology and church policy with this guiding question, the closer we come to an understanding of regular personal repentance. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether my values, beliefs, and actions are right or wrong and in my arrogance, I am unwilling to change from something I am currently doing. However, if I judge myself first and foremost by how well I convey the Gospel, these decisions become easier.
Being a Lutheran in daily life isn’t about being a rebel without a cause, nor is it about making small changes from a tradition without changing much to pretend to be new without being too radical. Being Lutheran in practice all comes down to a bold but simple question. Do I and the institutions I participate in serve the Gospel message or not? Do I tell the world that God loves them freely and they are saved from sin without working for it, or do I put grace behind a barrier? Do I believe that the status quo will exist unchallenged with its tendency to consolidate power in just a few people at the top at the expense of the poor, or do I believe that God is changing the world?
