Reformation

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Romans 3:19-28.

A little over 500 years ago an university professor went to the community bulletin board and tacked up a proposal for a debate. The debate never took place. And as a consequence, the world changed. The professor was Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg, and the debate proposal was a list of 95 propositions or theses he felt passionate about. The theses were not debated because they undermined the idea that the church had the authority to issue indulgences, or indeed the authority to dictate a person's destiny after death or their relationship with God in the present. This was not something the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and especially the Pope, wished to explore. Luther simply wanted to reform the church. By refusing to even discuss these issues, the church forced the very principled Luther to do what he had not wanted to do: break with the only church he, and just about all Europeans, had ever known. He felt he had to set up another church. Other scholars and theologians followed his example, the church splintered, and we call this whole process the Reformation.

Luther's words and eventually his actions, as well as those of Calvin, Zwingli and others, were a reaction to a church that they saw as having drifted very far from the movement Jesus began 1500 years prior. Although Luther would not have said it drifted but that the church had become corrupted. He saw this when he was sent to Rome to represent his monastery. He went expecting to be inspired and uplifted by the “Eternal City.” Instead, he was dismayed by the luxuries popes, bishops and clergy indulged in. He saw how, even in a time when there was no such thing as separation of church and state, local Roman politics could dictate church leadership. Popes went to war. Bishops were treated like royalty. Priests and monks were morally lax and abused their positions and their parishioners. Relics, the remains of saints or objects that supposedly came into contact with Christ or the apostles, were venerated as if they were magical. People were told the way to avoid time in purgatory was to buy an indulgence from the church. And the average person thought this is just the way things are because the corrective to all this, the Bible, was only available in Latin, which could only be read by those who were highly educated and could only be interpreted by the church.

7 years later, when Luther put his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door, he did not deal with every one of these issues. But as the church refused to debate him, they all came up. And they were no longer regarded by the average person as standard operating procedures for the church. Because Luther questioned them, showed how they differed from what scripture said and eventually translated the Bible into German so that people other than the elites could judge for themselves. Though the Roman Catholic church excommunicated Luther, his criticisms led to the Counter-Reformation, in which the church dealt with some of its most egregious practices.

But that was 500 years ago. The churches that came out of the Reformation have evolved. Some of the changes have been necessary, some have been improvements, but some of the changes have brought us back to the things Luther objected to.

In Luther's day certain clergy, especially popes and bishops, lived like kings. Not only did they have lavish lifestyles, but their word was law. And we see the same thing today, especially in megachurches. People who view the pope with suspicion will nevertheless treat the utterances of their megachurch pastor and favorite televangelist as the word of God. They accept his interpretation of the Bible as the only correct one and do not research or seriously consider other possible interpretations. They regard him as infallible.

And if he misbehaves, they will excuse his bad behavior, even when it contradicts what the Bible explicitly says about how a Christian, let alone a leader, should behave. In 1^st Timothy and in Titus, Paul lays down the qualifications for those who oversee or work in a church. Among those qualities are that they have self-control, that they not be violent or quarrelsome or lovers of money and they have a good reputation with those outside the church. (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1) He lists other characteristics but we can see already how many church pastors don't meet the qualifications I pointed out, be they Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, nondenominational or belong to other church bodies, even, alas, our own. And their highly visible falls from grace make people outside the faith disparage the gospel.

While today we officially have a wall of separation between church and state, people keep trying to tear it down. They don't realize that James Madison, one of the people behind the writing of our constitution, said a major reason for this separation was to preserve the churches from corruption. Yet some people who supposedly revere the constitution don't see the danger. They think the state will become an arm of the church. History shows us instead that the church becomes an arm of the state. It blesses whatever the government says and does, the way the tame prophets working for the king of Israel proclaimed what the monarch wanted to hear. (1 Kings 22:6-8) And so people today might think the Ten Commandments mention homosexuality, abortion, guns and taxes. And we have preachers cozying up to those with secular power and saying, “You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.” They forget that the prophets whose works are preserved in the Bible were those who went against the status quo and spoke truth to power. They championed those who were without power and were oppressed, because God does. The result was that Jeremiah wasn't put on a pedestal; he was pilloried. He wasn't invited to the palace; he was thrown into a pit.

We don't see a lot of traffic in relics these days but we do see televangelists selling things that are apparently magical. Jim Bakker, who tried to make his theme park a pilgrimage site for Christians, was sued by the Missouri Attorney General for selling a fake cure called Silver Solution that was supposed to “totally eliminate” coronavirus and HIV in 12 hours. This prompted comedian John Oliver to point out that silver doesn't kill coronavirus; it kills werewolves. Other televangelists have sold prayer cloths and holy water that were supposed to cure disease. And this not only invites people to ridicule the faith, it endangers the lives of sick people, who spend money on snake oil and magic trinkets.

And while these religious hucksters may not sell indulgences, many of them promise that if their followers want to prosper financially they need to give to their ministries sacrificially. These “prosperity gospel” preachers call it “seed faith” and bilk struggling people out of money that they need to pay their mortgages or for car payments or for medical care.

The sad thing is that, unlike Luther's day, it is not hard to get hold of and read the Bible. I have several translations on my phone, as well as the original Hebrew and Greek, which I downloaded for free. There are books and even apps that will help you understand the Bible, including the hard passages. And there is a lot in the Bible about false prophets, bad shepherds and wolves in sheep's clothing. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22; Isaiah 56:11; Ezekiel 34:1-5; Matthew 7:15) God knows that bad people will pass themselves off as his servants. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!'” (Matthew 7:21-23)

There is one thing to keep in mind, which Paul says in today's passage from Romans: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All! Therefore we should not elevate any mere human above all criticism or slavishly follow everything they say. Even my favorite author C.S. Lewis was wrong on some things. In the book of Acts the Jews of Berea were commended because “...they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) Even after hearing Paul preach, they double-checked to see if he what he said was backed up by the word of God. And yet people will follow a David Koresh or a Jim Jones or any one of a number of preachers and false messiahs who teach novel doctrines and bizarre interpretations of the Bible. And they also teach, often in secret to their innermost circle, that the rules of the Bible concerning proper behavior don't apply to them. And folks will rally to the defense of leaders who, even if their job wasn't about teaching people how to live a moral life, would normally be fired.

The true prophets denounced such things. In that spirit Luther did the same when he saw corruption in the church of his day. He noticed that the gospel, the good news of Jesus, had gotten lost and buried and even contradicted by all the junk that had accumulated in the church's teachings and practices over 1500 years. Reform was long overdue. And I think that now, 500 years later, it is time for another Reformation.

Once again people have been led to believe that our relationship with God is transactional. We need to do things—listen to a particular preacher, buy his merchandise, vote as he says—to be saved. If you don't, you are not a real Christian. But as Paul says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) This was revolutionary in Paul's day because people thought you have to continually appease the gods through sacrifices, offerings, festivals and the like. Because the gods did not love mortals and did nothing for them for free. Nor were they particularly moral. They really were like Zeus and his ilk are portrayed in Thor: Love and Thunder. But in Jesus we see that the real God loves us and is willing to die for us and offers us eternal life if we just trust him. And he doesn't do this because we are worthy. “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

But just because we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus and not through our deeds it doesn't mean God doesn't care about what we do. He wants us to act out of love and justice and mercy. But he knows we cannot do it alone. We need his help in the form of his Holy Spirit. That's why he tells Jeremiah in today's passage that the new covenant will be internal and the law will be written in our hearts. In Ezekiel he says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) Notice that the Spirit doesn't allow you to operate outside the moral rules set down in the Bible; they give you the ability to live by them.

Speaking of trying to do this alone, we were never meant to operate as separate units, each one independent and on our own. We are to act together as the body of Christ. The body has various parts that look different and have different functions but all work together, following the instructions they get from the head, which is Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) So any church hierarchy should exist for functional reasons—planning, direction and coordination—and not because some persons matter more than others. Nor should anyone be unaccountable to others. We are all sinners; none of us, however intelligent or wise or holy, is infallible. We need to listen to each other and when in doubt, check things against scripture.

Luther was fortunate that his prince supported him or he would have been martyred like Jan Huss had been 100 years earlier. And though today we have greater political power, through the vote, and more independence than Luther had, we must be careful and not buy wholly into any political leader or party. Though they may pretend to be on God's side, they are always ultimately about making political gains for themselves, even if they have to trade away some of their principles. As the psalmist says, “ Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, who cannot deliver!” (Psalm 146:3) We should be like Lincoln, who said to one of his advisers, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” Again, no human is always right or without sin. Not even King David, as the prophet Nathan pointed out. (2 Samuel 12:1-13)

In addition, we see that personality cults and the thirst for power and the love of money have arisen within the church. Some see the church not as a channel of God's love and grace but as a business or even as a shadow government. And rather than being denounced, many in the church have embraced these things. People are adding qualifications to being a Christian and are pointing to them as badges of faith and marks of the true believers, the same way Paul's opponents did with circumcision and dietary laws. Forgetting the good news that our salvation depends on God's grace alone, churchgoers are also neglecting things like humility, mercy, forgiveness and repentance. Some have appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner of those they see as sinners, forgetting that Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it. (John 3:17; 12:47) When the time comes to pass judgment, that will be Jesus' job, not ours. (John 5:22) Instead he said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)

We cannot condemn others but we can judge whether things are true or false and whether actions are right or wrong, the same way a doctor or nurse cannot tell a patient that he or she is a bad person but can and should tell them if what they doing is harmful to their health. And there are many things people in the church are doing and many ideas they are spreading that are harmful not only to their spiritual health but to the spiritual health of those who see and follow them in such beliefs and behaviors. Such as worshiping or showing blind loyalty to any mere human (1 Corinthians 1:10-13), trying to marry the church to any party or politician (Luke 20:25), turning the church into a marketplace or a den of thieves (John 2:16; Mark 11:17), and either adding to or subtracting from what God clearly commands us to do. (Deuteronomy 12:32) Like love him and love people above all the other commandments. (Mark 12:30-31)

We need to get back to the gospel, the good news of what God has done for us and is doing in us through Jesus Christ, God's Son and our incarnate, crucified and risen Lord. We need to emphasize God's love, his grace, his forgiveness and the transforming power of his Spirit, freely given to all who put their trust in him. That is what changed the world starting in the 1^st century. That's what reformed the church beginning in the 16^th century. And it's what the church and the world need right now in the 21^st century.