The Reformation Continues
As you know, I’m not an historian. And since I know that many of you have come from traditions
other than Lutheranism, today is an opportunity to share a little history about why and how the
Lutheran Church exists.
Let’s travel back in time to the 16th Century. In the West, there was one church – the Roman
Catholic Church. And the Church was led and ruled by one man, the Pope. We live in a world
where one man or woman acts as Bishop or President or CEO, so we know that in-and-of-itself,
having one person at the helm is not a bad thing. But the church took it one step further,
understanding the Pope as being the “Vicar of Christ” which meant that the Pope was Christ’s
stand-in. And when the Pope sat on the Throne of Peter (a special chair) whatever he said was
infallible. (These days, we have denominational fights over whether the Bible is infallible, but we
would never say that a person – not even a Bishop, President, or Pope – was infallible.)
A man named Leo the 10th was Pope at this time in history. And Pope Leo had a vision of
building a beautiful basilica in Rome. (We don’t need to imagine that basilica today, because
Pope Leo was successful and the elegant Saint Peter’s Basilica stands today.)
As this congregation knows so well, building a church of that size (or even this size) was going
to take a lot of money. So Pope Leo sat on the Throne of Peter and, acting as the infallible
Vicar of Christ, he authorized the sale of indulgences – that is “get out of purgatory” cards. They
could be purchased for yourself or your loved ones, dead or alive. And, just to make sure the
message was conveyed and money was collected, several bright and charismatic church
leaders were given the task of selling these indulgences.
One of the foremost indulgence sellers was a monk named John Tetzel. Tetzel traveled from
village to village, preaching in the churches, and selling indulgences. People flocked from all
over to hear him preach and to have the chance to buy an indulgence, either for themselves, or
for a deceased loved one.
Tetzel made his way to Wittenberg, Germany, where a certain Martin Luther was the parish
priest of Saint Mary’s Church. When Tetzel came to town, the excitement spread through the
city. Imagine, being able to spend a little money to limit someone’s time in purgatory! But
Father Luther was not at all excited about this. In fact, he was concerned. He was concerned
because of where his faith journey had led him.
Earlier in his life, Luther struggled with his inability to last even 5 minutes without sinning. And
he confessed and confessed and confessed, and he whipped himself again and again and
again. He fasted from food and sleep. At his lowest, he wrote,
“God is righteous, I am not. Because of that, God will judge me to eternal damnation.”
The very desperate Martin Luther began studying the Scriptures – not just reading them but
really studying them. In Romans 3, he read, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” Okay, he knew that all too well. But the words that followed that changed everything.
“And (all) are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Finally Martin Luther got it! God’s righteousness wasn’t something to be earned through prayer,
confession, penance, works, or indulgences, it was a FREE GIFT from Christ for all who believe!
In summary, it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus.
So the presence of Brother Tetzel and the indulgences really concerned Luther, and he called
for a debate. Which was what you did at that time and place in history. (And how you did that
was to post your concerns on the church door which served as bulletin board.) But Luther didn’t
just bring up indulgences, he brought up 95 things. This was a very big deal, and printing
presses were in vogue, so those 95 statements spread like wildfire across Germany and even to
Rome.
The authorities of the Roman Catholic Church told Luther to recant. He refused, was
excommunicated, and labeled an “outlaw.” In Germany at that time, anyone labeled “outlaw”
could be killed at any time without penalty.
Luther didn’t set out to start out a new church; he had wanted to reform his beloved church. But
at that time, that just couldn’t happen. So a church formed based on “the three solas” – Sola
Scriptura (Scripture or Word Alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), and Sola Gratia (Grace Alone).
Those three remain at the heart of Lutheranism.
Now since that time, the Reformation continued leading to other denominations often labeled as
“Protestant” (Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Baptist, etc.) And the Lutheran Church
continued reforming, too. We change policy by vote. We don’t have a throne of Peter, and we
don’t have a Pope. It seems every time we vote about anything, the church splits. And so today
there are 170 different kinds of Lutherans. We get along very well with some of them – like the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. But others, like the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran
Synod, are not even allowed to pray with us.
Within our flavor of Lutheranism, we gather as the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America every three years. And we gather every year as the Grand Canyon Synod which is
Arizona, the Las Vegas area, and one congregation in Utah. And at those meetings, we elect
people to positions and committees, we learn and discuss and listen, we vote on policies, and
we pray – a lot – because very few decisions are unanimous. We also are divided into
conferences, and the pastors of each conference gather for support and study. We are part of
the High Country Conference which includes Clarkdale, Flagstaff, Payson, Prescott Valley, Rock
Point, Sedona.
Martin Luther was very concerned about something called “good order” so the church has
structure and policies about many things, but we’re also free as a congregation to do some of
our own things. As you probably know, our congregation has a sabbatical policy – not all
congregations do. (Thank you for having a sabbatical policy!) And we will be voting at our
Annual Meeting this year about a new by-law. By-laws vary by congregation across our
denomination. Some of you may remember when Spirit of Joy functioned without any by-laws!
Our Annual Meeting, in two weeks, is also an opportunity to elect new leaders in the
congregation and approve our Mission Spending Plan which is more commonly known as the
budget.
All of this reminds us that, what happened in Wittenberg, Germany, 500 years ago, is
continuing. And that’s a good thing, in fact it’s a very good thing because, as Jesus said, “If the
Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
Amen