The Festival of the Reformation
KJV Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
KJV Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. 15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The Festival of the Reformation
The Hymn #261
The Invocation p. 15
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual Rev. 14:6-7
The Gospel Matthew 11:12-15
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #262
The Sermon
The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace
The Offertory p. 22
The Hymn #269
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn vss. 1-3 #292
The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace
KJV Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
This passage from Revelation is appointed for Reformation because Lutheran see it as fulfilled by Martin Luther. In one stained glass window, Luther is an angel with wings, holding the Scriptures in his hands.
All Protestants and many Catholics see the Reformation and Martin Luther as the central figure in rescuing the visible church from centuries of abuse, ignorance, greed, and corruption.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
A legal system took over the Christian Church in the West. When the last vestiges of the Roman Empire fell away in the 400’s, the Bishop of Rome and his priests became the most important force uniting the old empire. They had a common religion and language. Their territory stretched from England to Italy, into Germany, including all of Spain and France.
Wealth and Power of the Eastern Roman Empire
The eternal city of Rome had a new suburb, far away in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). Constantine built his New Rome to be the new capital of an empire that would be literate, Christian, and Greek-speaking for 1100 years (313-1453). So the Rome of the Middle ages (410-1453) was a broken-down and rather insignificant city. The Bishop of Rome asserted his power and increasingly sought to dominate all other bishops, including the Eastern Orthodox ones. The Bishop of Rome called himself “first among equals” then assumed the role of number one.
God Spoke to the World in Greek and Latin
God chose to speak His Gospel in ordinary (koine) Greek. The Greek of the New Testament is close to the English of newspapers today: simple, basic, not classical. Alexander the Great conquered the known world for the Greek culture (300 BC), so the New Testament was in the language of the world. The Old Testament was also translated into Greek (Septuagint), so the entire cultured world could have possession of the complete Bible. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (Latin – the common language of the day) completed the process of giving God’s Word to all people.
One of my greatest joys in teaching was showing our son how to read John’s Gospel from the Vulgate. Together we read the entire Gospel in Latin and translated it. The helpers we used were a German Schluessel (key) and Lenski. This led to such Lensi-isms as “Be thou continually brushing thine teeth” and so forth. We repeated the process in Greek with John’s Gospel.
One thing lacking in today’s theology student is total immersion in the Word of God. The Scriptures are unlike any literature, even religious literature, in the world. So much time is spent talking about theories of the Bible today, or worse, synodical opinions voted upon by political assemblies, that most Lutheran ministers ask today:
What has the synod said on this? rather than
It would be easy to discuss Luther’s life, his 95 Theses, his later marriage and children, the Diet of Worms, his captre to avoid death, his time at the Wartburg, the Augsburg Confession of 1530. Luther wrote persuasively that sermons about anyone else than Christ are not proper sermons. (Gimmicky congregations like to have a series of Lenten sermons about characters in the Bible. I heard that one WELS pastor dressed as a woman to give one such sermon. Yes, I spoke to the pastor involved. He had nearly-fatal memory failure about the whole incident. At least he/she did not distribute communion!)
Two Basic Errors
God chose Luther as His instrument to free the Medieval Church of its bondage to a corrupt system of salvation through the law. The two focal points for this error were Purgatory and the Virgin Mary. Purgatory came from Plato’s thought, which is rather natural since all the intellectuals of the Medieval Church (like Augustine) knew Plato’s philosophy well. Plato expressed the ancient view of passing through a purging fire after death, to cleanse people for eternal life. Roman Catholics cheerfully admit their Purgatory is from Plato.
One Catholic priest tried to distance himself from Purgatory by saying it was not central to Roman Catholicism, as I portrayed it in Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. His assistant said, “It is not de fide, is it?” (We don’t have to believe it do we?) The senior pastor said, “It is de fide.” (Yes, we must believe it as official doctrine.)
Purgatory is a system of punishments and obligations. Those in Purgatory must suffer for centuries. To reduce their suffering, Masses may be endowed to help them along. Money given is called reparation (repayment) for sins. Family and friends are encouraged to pray for those in Purgatory (to relieve their suffering), to given money, and to pay for Masses. The original meaning of the Suffrages, still used in Lutheran churches, is Prayers for Those Suffering in Purgatory.
Purgatory was well established in the Medieval Church when Luther became a priest, monk, and professor. Part of God’s design was making him a Professor of the Bible as well. Ease and comfort do not make people study the Word of God. Trials and difficulties do. Luther was hyper-sensitive to all spiritual matters, so he was tormented by his sins and the constant drumbeat of God’s Law accusing him. The Law always condemns and never comforts. Like any good Pharisee, Luther tried to purge himself with good works, confessions, prayers, a pilgrimage to Rome. Anyone could have told Luther, the last thing to build up one’s faith is to visit the capital city of that denomination. The worst apostates are in Milwaukee (WELS), Mankato (Little Sect on the Prairie), and St. Louis (ELCA wannabees).
Luther’s confessor saw that his young charge had no experience of the Gospel and told Luther, “You hate God.” Luther studied the Word of God for comfort and found the system of works-to-earn-God’s-favor falling apart.
The Virgin Mary
Purgatory remains the keystone in the Roman system. Once that is removed, the other pieces collapse. The role of the pope as dispenser of God’s grace can only be seen as blasphemy.
The Virgin Mary was the Comforter of the Middle Ages, the one who visits the souls in Purgatory. Christ was portrayed as the avenging Judge, although the proper words were often used, twisting them to make them more terrifying. For instance, Martin Jugie (a famous scholar in Catholicism) wrote that God forgave all sins in baptism, but the second stream of God’s grace (penance) would not be so generous. “Outraged love will raise the avenging arm of justice.”
I was listening to some Catholic songs on a CD. One line was “The Father turns His face away,” referring to God’s response to sin. That is quite different from the portrait of the Father in the Prodigal Son, where he runs to greet and embrace the penitent. With so many of the faithful scared by the Father and Son, it is no wonder that they turned to the Virgin Mary for love and comfort.
Luther and the Reformers gave up their false views of Mary over time. Chemnitz said wisely that we should not give Mary more titles and honors than are given in the Scriptures. Luther began the Reformation still praying to Mary (Magnificat commentary) but preached that Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior. That was a remarkable change. The sinless life of Mary (Immaculate Conception) has been emphasized in Roman Catholicism for the last 150 years.
Christianity is not properly a Mary religion but a Christ religion. The Savior is central to the unified message of the Bible. Sometimes we talk about doctrines, as if there are many, but that is our human way of categorizing the many aspects of the One Truth that is God’s Word. My respect for Luther constantly grows because he absorbed all of the Scriptures and spoke from this immersion in the Word and from his grasp of its unity.
System of Works Destroyed
“The Gospel shows the Father’s grace” – that is the title of a great Lutheran hymn, by M. Loy, who served as pastor in Delaware, Ohio, just north of Columbus. I used to visit the retired pastor of that church, a man who studied under Lenski and had all Lenski’s books.
"The Gospel Shows the Father's Grace"
by Matthias Loy, 1828-1915
Text From:
THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)
1. The Gospel shows the Father's grace,
Who sent His Son to save our race,
Proclaims how Jesus lived and died
That man might thus be justified.
2. It sets the Lamb before our eyes,
Who made the atoning sacrifice,
And call the souls with guilt opprest
To come and find eternal rest.
3. It brings the Savior's righteousness
Our souls to robe in royal dress;
From all our guilt it brings release
And gives the troubled conscience peace.
4. It is the power of God to save
From sin and Satan and the grave;
It works the faith, which firmly clings
To all the treasures which it brings.
5. It bears to all the tidings glad
And bids their hearts no more be sad;
The heavy-laden souls it cheers
And banishes their guilty fears.
6. May we in faith its tidings learn
Nor thanklessly its blessings spurn;
May we in faith its truth confess
And praise the Lord our Righteousness!
The Holy Spirit works through the Law to show us that we do not trust God completely, do not love Him completely, and do not thank Him for His blessings. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin because we do not trust in our Savior. This lack of trust shows itself in many ways. One is excessive worry or anxiety. Christians make plans as if God has nothing to do with our lives. I have materials from WELS (probably Fuller in origin) where the congregation is encouraged to study its culture to make the Word effective. Rationalism is a way of back-stopping the Gospel. At first just a little of it is used. Finally it is the only thing trusted. The more people trust their own methods, the more they scorn worship as boring and irrelevant.
The Gospel is like shade in the desert. Even now in October, when I park the car, I look for the shady side of the building. The dermatologist said to me, “What are you doing about sun protection?” I said, since I had a basal cell carcinoma once, “I stay inside.” The sun is so bright and intense that stepping into the shade brings immediate relief. Christ as Savior brings healing and comfort to all sinners. The world is full of law, full of condemnation. Our own conscience condemns us for breaking the Ten Commandments.
The Gospel is our only comfort because God established forgiveness through Christ. The Atonement of Christ means that no one can claim any part in earning forgiveness of sin. No individual can be the medium (instrument) of God’s grace because the Gospel alone is the Means of Grace, whether the Gospel is visible in the Sacraments or invisible in teaching and preaching.
People look for comfort in every possible form except the one way God has provided – the Gospel message of forgiveness.
The Gospel is also our only power to conquer sin. More law will not bear fruit in conquering sin. Countries have proven that fact with the death penalty (which is valid and good when properly administered). No matter how much people fear death and no matter how many are given the death penalty, the law cannot terrify people enough to keep them from committing capital offenses.
The law can keep us from outward evil by its threats and condemnation, but then we are like the prisoner who is wrapped up in chains in a prison cell. He cannot move to do anything wrong, but he is raging in his mind. This is how coveting works. Nothing done is outwardly bad. People have an evil desire for something. They may use polite-sounding words and genteel action to get what they covet, so the thought turns into the action, which is made to look virtuous but is not.
"Half the sins which the world has learned of its lord and master, the devil, consist in lying and deceiving, and that in the name and appearance of truth. The other half, which is easier to recognize, consists in wrath and its fruits. And this class is usually the result of the other. The world, for its own advantage, lies and deceives; and when it sees mankind acting in opposition to its wishes, or beholds its lies exposed and its schemes thwarted, it begins to rage in wrath against God, endeavoring to avenge itself and inflict harm, but fraudulently disguising its wicked motive under the plea of having good and abundant reasons for its action."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker,
Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 312.
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Ephesians 4:22-28.
The most grievous side of the new anti-Christian fads is the return to law-mongering. The law salesmen have two different but similar portfolios. The Church Growth (Becoming Missional) leaders have a long list of requirements to meet their exacting standards. For instance, they are dead set against pipe organs, but they promote pop music orchestras. They hate hymns but they love emotional, manipulative songs. They think “sermon” is a bad term, so they coach. When they coach, they sound just like the traveling experts at business seminars. Do this and you will prosper. Do that and you will be happy.
The law salesmen are the frontmen for Eastern Orthodoxy instead of Fuller Seminary/Willow Creek. Their law list involves the right clothing, the right smoke and aromas, and the right rites (infant communion). The church got it right in Syria in 500 AD but got it wrong during the Lutheran Reformation. It’s easy to fool people when most people have never heard of Eastern Orthodoxy or the Byzantine Empire. (One popular adjective for anything overly complex, bureaucratic, and tricky is – Byzantine.)
The law weighs people down. When the liberals no longer believed in the Ten Commandments, they flogged people with “get America out of ________” and “boycott Wal-Mart.” Aging hippies love their left-wing causes.
The Gospel absolves believers of their sin and gives them the power to conquer sin. We will always be frail, weak, foolish sinners, but the Gospel gives us the righteousness of Christ.
3. It brings the Savior's righteousness
Our souls to robe in royal dress;
From all our guilt it brings release
And gives the troubled conscience peace.
Christ makes us royalty. According to God’s Word, we are God’s children and royalty. That moves us to speak and conduct ourselves with the same grace the Father has shown us in the Gospel. Living our lives thankful to God puts everything in a different light.
Those who want comfort can find God’s comfort and healing throughout the Scriptures, in Lutheran theology, Lutheran hymns, and Lutheran sermons. The sacrament of Holy Communion is God’s individualized and visible instrument of grace. Christ comes to us in both natures, human and divine, to forgive our sins and prepare us for eternal life. In this way the Gospel of Christ is a yeast growing in our lives, making us more loving, more forgiving, more patient, more thankful to God.
Purgatory Quotations
"It is 'de fide' that we can help the souls in Purgatory by our prayers and our works, by the Mass and by Indulgences." Martin Jugie, Purgatory and the Means to Avoid It, New York: Spiritual Book Associates, 1950, p. 59. 381 Fourth Ave, NY 16, NY
"The most excellent and most efficacious of all the suffrages for the dead, is the Holy Mass...It is certain that every soul in Purgatory receives some diminution of its debt by the celebration of any Mass, even though we cannot measure that diminution precisely. This is very consoling for us all." Martin Jugie, Purgatory and the Means to Avoid It, New York: Spiritual Book Associates, 1959, p. 96.
"We read in the Life of St. Elizabeth of Portugal that after the death of her daughter Constance she learned the pitiful state of the deceased in Purgatory and the price which God exacted for her ransom...that she was condemned to long and terrible suffering, but that she would be delivered if for the space of a year the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated for her every day." Rev. F. X. Schouppe, S.J., Purgatory, Illustrated by the Lives and Legends of the Saints, Rockford: Tan Books, 1973, p. 158.
"No false dogma has ever been spread in the church which was not put forth with some plausible show, for sheep's clothing is the show of false religion (says Chrysostom). Indeed, the weaker and more ruinous the cause is, the more arguments it needs, sought everywhere and in every way possible, as though to cover it over with paint or to swathe it with medicine. For Pindar [famous Greek lyric poet, 518-438 B.C.] says, 'For a just cause three words are sufficient.' Therefore the papalists have gathered very many and varied arguments in order to establish purgatory." Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, III, p. 325.
