Why read about the Reformation?

Sunday is the 493rd anniversary of Martin Luther nailing 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. So why should we care? And more particularly why should we bother reading about the events of the Reformation and the writings of the Reformers?

1. It is OUR history

The church historian, Owen Chadwick once said: "Nothing is sadder than someone who has lost his memory, and the church which has lost its memory is in the same state of senility."

Reading about the Reformation is an act of remembering our history, and particularly the history of God's works in us. We can see the Reformation is OUR history because it shaped the church we are today more than anything else. For example:

• Songs we've sung - congregational singing because the Reformers taught every Christian is a priest
• Language we speak - English rather than Latin because they taught we cannot exercise faith in something we don't understand
• Prominence of the sermon in our service - because they taught faith comes by hearing the Word of God
• Our prayers addressed to our Father directly - because they taught we can approach him directly through Christ.

All these developments were based on a conviction about what the Gospel was, and it was this conviction that drove the Reformation.

But this wasn't ivory tower thinking. The Reformers were also working in a period of enormous political turmoil, which was often reflected in their personal lives.  Wars were fought because of the teachings and practices of the church.  Almost all the major Reformers were exiled from their homes, many lived under the shadow of death, and a considerable number paid the ultimate price for confessing the 'discoveries' they had made.  Most lost children and many suffered with long-standing and painful medical conditions.  It is not surprising that many believed they were living in the very last days.

Interesting times demanded characters to match, and there was no one type of Reformer.  Luther brewed his own beer and Calvin restricted himself to little more than one meal a day.

By any standards it is one of the most fascinating times to read about, packed with wonderful characters.

But the Reformation is not just history.  The actions and writings of the Reformers speak powerfully to us now, and we need to hear their voice.

2. Radical criticism for us

The German theologian Bonhoeffer was executed by Nazis supported by many people within the church.  He once famously commented that American Christianity was “Protestantism without the Reformation” - a phrase calculated to cause some head-scratching!  What the American church was missing in his eyes was a grounding in Jesus Christ who brought “radical judgment” and “radical forgiveness” to the church. He thought the Reformation was what offered that.

So what is the “radical judgment” that the Reformation offers us?

The US company Enron, and more recently the UK banks have shown the need for us to question whether things are always as good as we think they are.  When the shiny facade was stripped away in the financial crisis, what was left behind was not a pretty sight.  At the midweek meeting this week we looked at Ezekiel where God revealed that behind Israel's religiosity was idolatry.  In this evening’s reading from Galatians 2, Peter’s sensitivity to the concerns of the Circumcision Party are revealed to be motivated by fear of man.

Bonhoeffer believed that in the Reformation we learn “that God’s ‘criticism’ touches even religion, the Christianity of the churches and the sanctification of Christians, and that God has founded his church beyond religion and beyond ethics”.

The Reformers believed that God’s word calls into question the church itself and called the church itself to repent even of it’s ‘good works’.  They had a penetrating vision able to see things for what they were which, if we want to avoid being an individuals and a church that is beyond criticism, we would do well to appropriate for ourselves. 

3. Radical forgiveness and joy to share with us

When Luther plumbed the depths of his own sin in the monastery he found that it went so deep that he had to spend hours a day confessing to his mentor, but he still knew he hadn’t reached the bottom.

But almost like the Psalmist in Psalm 139 he found that Jesus Christ could be found even there! In fact, that was the only place that the one who died the shameful death of a condemned man could be found.

That is why it would be wrong to read the Reformers and stop with their blistering condemnations of sin, because the destination they had in mind was never hell, but heaven with Jesus.

The people of Geneva re-minted their coins following the Reformation of their city with the motto “After darkness, light”, such was the contrast they saw between their former faith and that which they now enjoyed. CS Lewis compared the Reformers' experience to waking from a “nightmare into ecstasy” and Martin Luther described his experience as “entering paradise itself through open gates”.

To read about their lives, and read their words is a little window into a kind of weighty joy that I long to taste more of. In knowing that they are utterly free from any hold over them by the devil or the penalty of sin, they had a confidence in the face of persecution, but more than that, a confidence in the face of God.

Once Luther, along with many others, feared to approach God directly and only prayed to saints to intercede on his behalf. But having rediscovered the doctrine of justification by faith, he and those that followed after him boldly lived lives of familiarity with God through Christ.

So ultimately we should read about the Reformation to share in their joy by knowing more deeply the grace of the Gospel God and our Lord Jesus Christ as it is found in the Scriptures.