500 Years of the Reformation -- What This Means to Me

Today is the day!  I've got my special t-shirt on that commemorates the anniversary.  The kids and I have been playing CDs of Martin Luther's hymns on and off all day.  I've been skulking around Facebook liking people's posts.  I've been reading all kinds of posts about the Reformation and Luther.  And, most of all, I've been giving thanks to God for all the brave people who have stood firm on his Word throughout the ages.  Martin Luther was one of them, but certainly not the only one.

However, today I want to share just a little of why this anniversary is such a big deal for me personally.  I've talked before about why I'm a Lutheran.  But I haven't really talked here about why Martin Luther is a personal hero of mine.  So today, I will.

Imagine you're a well-educated man, dedicated to serving God and the church.  You come to realize that the people you've been listening to and believing all your life are teaching things that don't come from God's Word.  In fact, they contradict them.  This bothers you.  So you try to show them that they're wrong because you don't want them to languish in error.  You're sure they'll see the problems and resolve them.

But they don't.  In fact, they get mad at you, they put you and your words on trial, and eventually they declare you an outlaw.  In fact, they throw you out of the very church you were trying to serve and help.

Scary.  So, so scary.  Can you imagine being Martin Luther, just a professor, standing before the Emperor to defend his writing?  Being told by the head of the entire church that you were wrong?  How much easier it would be to say, "Oh, you're so right -- I messed up.  I'm sorry I bothered you.  Let's go back to how things were and I'll be quiet.  Oops."

Think of him standing at the Diet of Worms, knowing he's basically going to be condemned to death if he doesn't recant.  And then not recanting.  Not even a little bit.  Not even kind of amending his statement of faith, or kind of fudging it a little. 

Can you imagine having that much faith in God?  That strength of faith, that conviction.  Wow.

And then to live out those convictions for the rest of your life.  On your deathbed, to have someone ask if you still stand by what you've preached, and to answer with a resounding "Ja."  (That's German for "yes," just FYI.)  Wow again. 

Yes, Luther was imperfect, a sinner like you and I.  He made mistakes.  He got angry.  He sometimes used language I would not.  All of which is why I don't worship Luther, though I do admire him.  I simply want to be like him when it comes to stubbornly clinging to God's Word, God's love, God's grace and mercy.

God used Martin Luther to shine a light on the truths in the Bible that had been hidden and misused and neglected.  God gave Luther the faith, the courage, the voice.  To God alone be the glory.

This is probably my last post about this topic, unless I manage to do another couple book reviews on The Edge of the Precipice.  So I want to finish off by linking to some really great articles about this anniversary that I've read elsewhere.  I definitely encourage you to read them if you're interested in learning more about Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation, etc.

"That's What the Reformation is All About, Charlie Brown" by Heather Smith on Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife.

"How Lutherans View the Reformation Differently" by Gene Veith on Cranach: the Blog of Veith

"Whose Reformation is it?" by Matthew Fenn on The Gospel Coalition: Canada

"We Still Need the Reformation" by Rev. Paul Fries from ELS.org

A Reformation-themed devotion from WELS.net

The Five Solas of the Reformation

In preparation for Tuesday, it's time to sit down and discuss this little slogan thing we've got going on in certain Lutheran circles.  Some people just mention the three solas, some do five -- kind of just depends on how much space and time you're working with.

What are the five solas?  What in the world am I talking about?  What do they have to do with that cranky German monk nailing stuff on the church door?  Time to dig into it.

Sola Gratia -- Grace alone.
Sola Fide -- Faith alone.
Sola Scriptura -- Scripture alone.
Solus Christus -- Christ alone.
Soli Deo gloria -- To God alone be the glory.

Basically, these fit together in a little sentence really easily.  We are saved from our sins only by grace, which is ours only by faith in no one but Christ, who is revealed to us only in Scripture, and only God deserves the glory for this.

They're kind of an elegant way to remind us of Ephesians 2:8-9, which says "by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves -- it is a gift of God, not of works, so that no man can boast."  Those verses are a big part of what got Luther thinking.  He realized the people of his day were taught to rely on their own good works and the works of the saints to be saved from eternal damnation, but the Bible said the complete opposite.  The Bible said that people can't do anything at all to save themselves, only God can do that.  And that salvation is a gift of his, a gracious and undeserved gift, not something you can earn.

Okay, now you know.  If someone mentions the five solas (or the three), now you'll know what they're talking about!

Why am I a Lutheran?

I had these big plans to do a post every month for all of 2017 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg church.  And then I kept letting those plans slide, and now here we are in October, and the Big Day is just a few weeks away (it's October 31st, if you don't know), and I've done one post.

Time to change that.  Over on my book blog, I've started reviewing some Reformation-related books for different ages.  And I have some things I want to write about over here too, starting with... what are Lutherans, and why am I one?

I'll start with the second question.  When I was a kid, the answer would have been easy.  My dad is a Lutheran pastor, so of course, that's where I went to church.  Obvious.

As I grew up and learned more about the Bible, about various different Christian denominations and what they taught, and specifically what different Lutheran synods taught, that answer started to change.  When I was in my teens and knew that I wanted to be a wife and mom some day, I realized that I might possibly meet my future husband in college.  And if being a Lutheran, marrying a Lutheran, and raising my kids to be Lutherans was important to me, it might be a really good idea to go to a Lutheran college.  So I did.  I went to college hundreds and hundreds of miles away from home because I found a college that fit me personally but that I also was pretty sure would attract the sort of guy I might want to marry.

Which, as you probably know, it totally did.  Cowboy and I met in college, got married a month after I graduated with my BA, and so on.

But why was I so focused on finding a Lutheran husband?  And not just any brand of Lutheran (there are several), but what is called a "confessional" Lutheran husband?  What is a Lutheran, anyway?

Well, I'll tell you what a Lutheran isn't.  It's not somebody who worships Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was just a human being.  A sinner like you and me.  A brilliant, brave, flawed, stubborn, weird, angst-ridden, unhealthy, outspoken, generous, angry, loud German who loved beer and sausage and probably told fart jokes.

Martin Luther does not save sinners.  Only God does that.  Martin Luther did not die for my sins.  Only God did that.  Martin Luther did not create faith in my heart.  Only God did that.

In fact, Martin Luther did NOT want people to call themselves Lutherans.  He wanted them to call themselves Christians.  But a lot of their detractors would call them Lutherans, and eventually, those who followed his ideas adopted the name.

So anyway.  Lutherans are Protestant Christians who follow the ideas of Martin Luther and his cohorts.  Confessional Lutherans are a particular branch of conservative ones who are kind of... I don't want to say militant, so maybe I'll just say stubborn... they're stubborn about adhering to these things called the Lutheran Confessions that are basically statements of belief about various doctrines that were drawn up by Martin Luther and his fellow reformers -- they're collected in something called The Book of Concord, which is not about tasty grapes (Concord grapes are my fave, just so you know), but about agreement -- "concord" can mean "agreement," you see.  If you want to learn more about it, this website has lots of amazing information as well as the full text.

And basically, the Lutheran Confessions are just all about how the Bible is the basis of our faith, not people's ideas.  If someone has an idea about God and it doesn't agree with what the Bible says, then it's a wrong idea.  That's kind of a simplistic explanation, I know, but this is a blog post, not a thesis or something.

So, yeah.  I'm a Confessional Lutheran because I believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God; that I (like all people) was born a sinner and cannot save myself from my sins; that the only thing that can save me from my sins is the loving grace of God; and that the Bible is the only place I can learn about God and his forgiveness.

Okay, that's enough for today.  More about the Reformation and Luther later.

Kicking off my "500 Years of Reformation" Celebration with a Femnista Article

This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses, or arguments, to the door of a church in Wittenburg and inadvertently igniting a revolution we now call the Protestant Reformation.  While he wasn't the only church reformer, his boldness and tenacity put him at the forefront of the movement for the rest of his life.  For the rest of 2017, I am going to be doing a series of posts, both on this blog and my book blog, about topics relating to the Reformation.  Everything from posts about the history of the movement to book reviews, maybe some hymn analysis, maybe even a movie review at some point.  

And it all kicks off today with my latest article for Femnista, called "He Didn't Expect to Change the World."  You can read it right here.

I know not all my blog readers are Protestants.  In fact, not all my blogging friends are even Christians.  So let me assure you that I'm not going to be going all Militant Lutheran on you (though I have to say that, now that I've coined the phrase "Militant Lutheran," it's kinda cracking me up -- would I be armed with cans of sauerkraut?  Bowls of Jell-o?  Tubs of hot coffee?  Old hymnals?).  My intention is simply to celebrate the ways that God blessed his church on earth through the work of Martin Luther and his fellow reformers.

I grew up Lutheran, and have spent a lot of time learning about Martin Luther, his wife Katherina von Bora, and the struggles they and others went through.  Their courage inspires me.  Their devotion to God humbles me.  God used sinful human beings to do amazing things five hundred years ago, like he has so many times throughout the history of the world, and I want to spend some time talking about them.  In a loving way!