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Friday, October 29, 2021

161 Reform School

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Reform School”, originally shared on October 29, 2021. It was the 161st video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   This coming Sunday is Reformation Day. Today, we’re going to consider the way we get to heaven, how we live as Christians in relation to our government, the meaning of work, and things that are just part of our spiritual environment because of the things God did through Martin Luther 504 years ago. And, we’re even going to find out why beer tastes the way is does today.

   Reformation Day is always October 31st, the day in 1517 when Church reformer Martin Luther began the Reformation by nailing 95 theses, or statements for academic debate, regarding the corruption of the Church of his day to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany.

   This was not an act of vandalism. The church door was a public bulletin board and notices were routinely nailed on it.

   Was there anything significant about October 31st that Luther chose that day to nail the 95 Theses to the church door? Why yes, there was.

    All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day, is on November 1st. It’s a day to celebrate all the Saints. A worship service was scheduled for the night before, or All Hallows Eve, later shortened to Halloween, and Luther knew that the church would be packed.

   When Luther posted the 95 theses, the reaction was way beyond what he expected. It set into motion events that changed the world.

   Reformation Sunday is a celebration of our freedom. We are set free from sin, death and the power of the devil by God. There won’t be any costumes or lawn decorations, no specially themed movies or TV shows or parties.

   But, I don’t think I’m exaggerating or engaging in a bit of Lutheran chauvinism here, when I say that we will celebrate events that changed our lives. All of us.

   A few years ago the History Channel asked its viewers for their opinions of who were the most influential persons of the past 1,000 years. Martin Luther was second. Guttenberg and the invention of the printing press was first, and it’s interesting that they both happened at about the same time.

   Because he protested the abuses of the Roman Catholic church of his day, Martin Luther was called a “protestant”. It wasn’t a very nice thing to call somebody then. He was the first protestant. All other protestant churches followed Luther’s witness.

   Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. was born Michael King, and named his son Michael King, Jr. But when the Senior Rev. King traveled to Germany for a Baptist church conference in 1934, he was so impressed with Martin Luther that he changed his name to Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. and his five year old son’s to Martin Luther King, Jr.

   Martin Luther had been a young man on the move. His father wanted him to be a lawyer and be rich, and that’s where young Martin was heading.

   Then, Luther was walking across a field when he got caught in lightening storm. He prayed to his saint, Saint Ann, as a good Catholic young man would, and said that if she saved him from this storm that he would show his gratitude by becoming a monk.

   He was not hurt and, much to his father’s chagrin, he became an Augustinian monk.

   The more he studied the scriptures, however, the more Luther became absolutely convinced that he was going to hell. Even when he spent an entire day praying, going to Mass and reading to the Bible and coming to the end of the day and feeling good that at least he had spent one day without sinning, he realized that he had committed the sin of Pride.

   His superiors sent him to teach the Bible at the University of Wittenberg. And in his preparation, he discovered a verse where the Latin vulgate had been translated from the original Greek “metanoia”, “to turn around” or “to repent”, into the Latin “poenitentia”, orto do penance”. That is, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church in the West, was teaching that you could get into heaven by doing good works, and not by repentance and faith, a change of heart which then produced good works.

   The Church had been selling indulgences, which Luther believed to be in conflict with the fundamental teaching of scripture that we are put right with God through faith, through a gift of God’s grace. The Church was raising money to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Indulgences were a promise of time off from purgatory, that the Church had figured was a place for those who weren’t bad enough for hell, but not good enough to be in heaven. And, the Church said that   the Church could decide who could get out of purgatory. And the Church had decided that a contribution to its building fund would be such a good work.

   Doing penance meant you could do good stuff in this life to make up for the bad stuff. The Church was selling indulgences. It promised that it would reward a good deed with time off from purgatory for yourself or a loved one (‘cause you wouldn’t want Grandma to be in purgatory, would you?) by buying that time off with a contribution. Luther looked to the witness of scripture and said the whole idea of indulgences was not Biblical and was ridiculous.

   Luther drew his beliefs on the nature of salvation from the Bible and the Bible alone, from texts like Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, in Romans 1:16-17,

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

   And Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians 2:8-9,

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

   And the Gospel of John, chapter 8, starting with the 33rd verse,

33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

   On October 31st, he nailed 95 theses (plural of thesis, as when a Ph.D. Student comes up with an original idea, or thesis, that he/she must successfully defend in order to qualify for his/her degree) to the doors of the church to argue against indulgences. He said that, if the Church was in charge of Purgatory, the pope should let everybody go to heaven out of pure Christian compassion, not for money.

   He didn’t want to leave the Catholic church and he didn’t. He wanted to reform it. He wanted to debate the idea of indulgences. The Church, particularly the pope, who Luther saw as unnecessary, did not want to hear it.

   Under trial for heresy, the punishment could have included excommunication, imprisonment, torture, and death.

   At the end of one of his trials, in Worms, Germany, Luther was being tried before the head of the government, the Holy Roman emperor and was accused of being vague in his defense of his written works. Luther replied,

   “Since then your serene Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."

   “My conscience is captive to the Word of God.” “It is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.” That was Luther’s defense.

   This may seem like a mild argument but to those hearing it, or hearing of it, it was mind-blowing.

   Luther lived when the Church and its teaching were everything and in everything. One of its teachings, in a time when the Church and the State were almost indistinguishable, was that both the pope and the emperor were put in their positions by God. To go against either one was not to enter into a dialogue over a reasonable disagreement, but to go against God.

   It was seen as a revolutionary act.

   I think that we can draw a straight line from Luther’s idea that the individual is responsible for acting on his or her own conscience, not the dictates of those in authority, to the idea of democracy in the West.

   Luther was convicted by the Church and declared a heretic and by the Holy Roman Empire and declared an outlaw and, at one time, the pope declared that anyone who murdered Luther would not be sinning.

   Luther came along at the right time, however. The German princes were promoting nationalism, a breaking-away from the Holy Roman Empire, so they protected Luther. They figured that anything that weakened the Roman church would weaken the Roman empire.

   And, the printing press had just been invented. Luther’s 95 theses were printed in bulk and in two weeks were being read in Spain! That was viral media in those days. Luther later published such a mountain of work that there are now 61 volumes of “Luther’s Works” published in English, with more releases planned through at least 2026

   And, in the course of the Reformation, Luther brought in revolutions.

   Does your congregation sing during worship? Thank Martin Luther. He brought in congregational singing, which had previously been done by monks.

   He declared the freedom of priests to marry, something for which I am grateful.

   Can you read the Bible? Luther translated the Bible into German, the language of the people, and for the first time in 1,000 years, people could read the Bible in their own language, not Latin, the language of the educated which were at the time pretty much only priests. Principles of translation he invented are still in use today.

   Luther recovered the Biblical good news of salvation by faith alone, through grace alone (not by our efforts), revealed by the Bible alone and not by human authority.

   Luther taught that God ruled the world through two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world so that governments are to be measured by what God is calling them to do, and through the Kingdom of God at work in the Church, to be measured by w hat God is calling it to do.

   Luther taught that every form of legitimate work had value and dignity, that every person has a vocation, a calling, and that none is holier or more valued than another.

   Luther even reformed beer. The Roman Catholic church taxed the herbs and botanicals that had been used to brew beer, and some people in Germany had already been using hops in protest. Luther promoted the use of hops as a superior alternative and so contributed to the way beer tastes and is preserved today.

   Today we say that the Church is always reforming. It is in no less need of reformation than it was in 1517. It constantly needs to be called to scripture alone as the only source of our belief and conduct, to teach salvation through faith alone through God’s grace alone.

   This week, I recommend that we spend some time in “Reform School”. This is a good week to read a book or do an online search for something about the Reformation and what has given to us and to the world. Even better, in the spirit of the Reformation, spend some time reading the Bible. And consider what in the Church needs reforming today.

   Consider what it means for us to say, “my conscience is captive to the Word of God” and resolve to live by it.

   Jesus has set us free, so we are free indeed! 



Monday, October 25, 2021

160 All Hallows Eeen

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “All Hallows Eeen”, originally shared on October 25, 2021. It was the 160th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   The Halloween festival is coming-up next Sunday, the same day as Reformation Day. The two celebrations happen on the same day this year and, at least in modern times, they couldn’t be farther apart. Today, we’ll find out why.

   In John chapter 8, starting with the 31st verse, we read

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

   Did Jesus say, “the truth will make you free”? It’s a phrase often thrown up in Christian’s faces to support someone’s personal cause. It’s a way to say that what they believe is the truth and Christians better get with the program because Jesus said, “the truth will make you free”.

   But did Jesus say that? Jesus did say it, but not in the way most people think. He said it in a way that has a lot to do with the way we celebrate Halloween. It’s not what most people think, at least not in its origins.

   The customs of our celebration of Halloween have been rooted in the beliefs of a time in Europe when people who had been saved were moving out of paganism and were seeing the world with a Christian worldview.

   Elements of pagan rites to appease the lord of death and evil spirits at the end of summer were being recast as a festival of life. Dressing up as evil spirits to disguise themselves and hide from them was becoming dressing up as evil spirits to mock them.

   You know those round glowing things above the heads of certain people in Christian art? That’s right, “halo’s”. They are there to show that the person under them is a saint, or holy, or hallowed, as in “hallowed be thy name”.

   All Saints Day was called, therefore, All Hallows Day in those times. The night before this day was All Hallows Eve, shortened over time, to Halloween.

   People during this time in the Middle Ages believed that the forces that defy God were allowed to come out at night to scare Christians.

   Christians would dress up to mock them and to mock-scare each other.

   Those forces were required to return to whatever hole they came from at midnight, because that was the beginning of All Saints Day.

   They were mocked in those days. Today, in our secular society, people celebrate them, pretending that scary things are fun. Yet some people are frightened, especially when left alone.

    Now it has gotten very dark and is way more about what adults want than about what children want. Halloween used to be about candy, carved pumpkins and children in simple costumes. Children have difficulty separating what they see from what they feel or what is true. They don’t enjoy being scared.

   People in our times decorate their lawns, they invest in elaborate costumes, they go to horror movies and torture houses. Terror as entertainment. They spend an enormous amount of money on the decorations, the parties, the costumes, etc. In fact, Americans will spend 10.14 billion dollars on Halloween costumes, decorations, candy and greeting cards this year, a record.

   Christmas season spending is about 10 times that, but very little of Christmas spending is done as a specifically Christian activity anymore.

   Author William Peter Blatty has a character, in The Exorcist say, “God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.”

   God talks, and God’s speaking is revealed by the Holy Spirit. But if your worldview, your filter, says that God is not speaking, you may not hear God. If you regularly listen for the advertisements and commercials of the devil, you may indeed hear them.

   Ironically, I think that many adults in our times are comforted by this devilish terror. They think that if they invent it, it must not be real. If everyone around them seems to be enjoying torture and death, superstition and decay, evil forces and crushing despair, it must be OK to not mock them but to celebrate them as harmless entertainment.

   This is a form of delusion in which our current culture finds itself at both ends of a spectrum of errors. Author C.S. Lewis said, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

   Christians, those who believe and are baptized, have nothing to fear and we also have something to celebrate: our salvation. Without anything to celebrate in terms of our salvation, we have everything to fear.

   Paul writes, in Ephesians 6, beginning at the 10th verse,

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

   Notice that every piece of armor is a defensive piece, except the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That sword can be seen as something both offensive and defensive.

   Notice also that salvation and the Christian life is not something we achieve. We receive it as a gift. We put on the armor of God.

   The saints for whom Paul is encouraging us to pray is us. “Saints” in those days was used to describe church members. We are both saints and sinners.

   Martin Luther, the 16th century church reformer, began the Reformation by nailing 95 theses, or statements for academic debate, regarding the corruption of the Church of his day, on the castle church door in Wittenberg,    Germany, on October 31, 1517.

   Was there anything significant about October 31st that Luther chose that day to nail the 95 Theses to the church door? This was not an act of vandalism. The church door was a public bulletin board, and he knew that a lot of people would see them there on October 31st.

    All Hallows Eve was to be celebrated that evening. It was the night before All Saints Day, a day for the celebration of all the Saints, a big deal in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther chose this day because he knew that the church would be packed.

   Reformation Sunday on October 31st is a celebration of our freedom. We are set free from sin, death and the power of the devil by God. Jesus said, in the text from John 8 that I read at the beginning,

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

   Jesus says, “the truth will make you free”. But that’s the end of what begins as a conditional statement: “If you continue in my word.”

   What will happen then? “you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

   What is the truth? Jesus.

   We see, in John 14:6,

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

   We all receive forgiveness of sin, deliverance from death and the devil, and everlasting salvation to all who believe what God has promised in our baptism.

   Our baptism service actually contains an exorcism. Our sponsors are asked, or we are asked if we are old enough, to renounce all the forces that defy God.

   We do. Those forces now have no power over us. None.

   This is why we celebrate and praise God on All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saints Day, this week and every week, forever.

   The victory of God over everything that hold us back from being free from sin, death, and the powers of all the forces that defy God, to know the abundant life that truly is life, in a living relationship with the one true living God, has been won.  It was won for us by Jesus Christ, God in flesh, on the cross.

   We have nothing to fear. We have several real things to celebrate this week: faith, baptism, and salvation, all gifts from God.

   The Truth that is Jesus has set us free.