“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” -Martin Luther
Well, Martin Luther’s world, and the entire theological world of the sixteenth century, did go to pieces, and Luther did plant his apple tree amid the debacle.
In light of the 507th anniversary of Martin’s revolutionary ideas being made public to the citizens of Wittenberg, it seems fitting that we reflect on the beginnings of the Reformed Church movement. Many of you, having grown up in one of the reformed Christian churches, may take all of this for granted, knowing vaguely that Martin Luther started it all by hammering something to a church door several hundred years ago and later writing “Away in a Manger” and “A Mighty Fortress…” I, on the other hand, grew up in the church that he took issue with, and was taught to consider him a heretic. Now, when I think about Martin Luther, I am astounded by his bravery.
Europe in 1517 was ripe for a religious revolution. The dust was settling after the Hundred Years War. Kings everywhere were trying to wrest power from the clergy hierarchy, which was an increasingly irritating thorn in their side. There was the Henry VIII dispute with the Pope about divorce, which contributed to the success of the English Reformation. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about an annulment to his marriage to Catherine of Aragon led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority.. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope. Today, King Charles III is the official head of the Church of England. Another major factor contributing to the Reformation was the earlier development of the printing press, which, with its moveable type, enabled many identical volumes of the same text to be printed easily and quickly, instead of being painstakingly copied by hand. Suddenly The Bible was available to more and more people in their own language, and a general increase in literacy enabled them to read it for themselves. The church was not pleased. And then along came Martin Luther, monk, priest, and Doctor of Theology…
He never intended to start a new church. He merely wanted to get rid of some of the objectionable practices of the old one. Remember, before the Reformation there was only one Christian church in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church. A Christian was a Christian, and Luther had the audacity to question some of the accepted practices of the Christian church. In 1516, a papal commissioner was sent to Germany to sell indulgences and raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Luther objected to the “indulgence salesmen”, those who claimed that one could purchase one’s release from Purgatory or Hell with money. In 1517, he posted his (celebrated or notorious, depending on your point of view) 95 theses against indulgences, and launched his career as a reformer.
Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God’s grace through the believer’s faith in Jesus Christ, who is the sole redeemer from sin. Luther’s theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge.
I looked up Luther’s 95 theses on the very handy internet and read them all. Believe me, they make for very tedious reading. But elsewhere Google was kind enough to provide a summary, which gives the gist of what he had to say. There were three main points:
1. Selling indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter’s is wrong.
2. The pope has no power over Purgatory.
3. Buying indulgences gives people a false sense of security and endangers their salvation.
Imagine his courage! Taught since childhood that he would go to hell if he didn’t get along with the hierarchy of clergy, all the way up to the Pope, that ruled his life, he took on the most powerful institution in the world to try to right a wrong.
He was well aware of potential consequences – and sure enough, his refusal to retract all his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1521, resulted in his excommunication by the Pope.
Emperor Charles, not to be outdone, declared him an outlaw and a heretic, whereby his literature was banned, his arrest was required, it became an offence for anyone to provide him with food or shelter, and anyone was permitted to kill him without legal consequence. This didn’t happen, however – he was protected at Wartburg Castle by Frederick III of Saxony until the furor died down and he was able to return to
Wittenberg and reinvent himself as a conservative force behind the Reformation.
I sense that my efforts to rekindle our appreciation for this brilliant, devout, truly brave man are, like his theses, getting tedious, so I will bring this to a merciful close by mentioning some of the legacies of Martin Luther which have directly affected our lives as Presbyterians in the 21st century:
His marriage in 1525 to Katharina von Bora set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.
By 1526, he found himself busily organizing a new church, laying down a new order of service based on the Catholic service but omitting everything that referred to sacrifice, optionally retaining the use of such trappings as vestments, altars, and candles, and including congregational singing of hymns and psalms.
He wrote two Catechisms, the Large Catechism,a manual for pastors and teachers, and the SmallCatechism, to be memorized by the people themselves.
He translated the Bible into German (slanted toward his own beliefs), which played a major role in the spreading of his doctrine throughout Germany and which greatly influenced other vernacular translations, including the King James Bible.
He was a prolific hymn-writer of both lyrics and music, and by using congregational singing in his order of service, opened the way for the bringing together of all classes, clergy and laity, men, women, and children. He believed in music as “…one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.”
He wasn’t perfect, however – he had some nasty things to say about the followers of the other two monotheistic religions, Islam and Judaism, but in the sixteenth century political correctness hadn’t yet been invented. His statements against the Jews were repudiated by the Lutherans in the 1980`s.
I ran across this remark of Martin Luther’s, and I can’t resist closing with it: “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope, Self. “