Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther read and studied the New Testament, and began the Protestant Reformation of the church on October 31, 1517 – five hundred years and four days ago.
Luther’s reformation was deep and the beginning of a series of new churches. When he began, there were the Roman Catholic Church – and in the east, the Orthodox Church. The churches that chose to break away from Rome were initially known by two names: Evangelishe (Evangelical) for the churches who followed Luther, and Reformed for the churches who followed another reformer, Jean Calvin.
Today, Luther’s ideas are largely followed by literally hundreds of different denominations of churches, all Christian, all related. The United Methodist Church follows many of Luther’s ideas, but we’ve made some modifications of our own after John Wesley also read the Bible.
Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 Peter 2:1-10; Matthew 23:1-12
But what were the most important ideas of Luther?
First, he rediscovered that our salvation comes by our faith in Jesus Christ – not by our faith in the works of the priesthood or our own good works.
Second, he realized that the Bible should be available to the average person in his or her own language. The new printing press meant that the cost of the Bible could fall to where it might be expensive, but every church and many ordinary people could afford one.
Third, he realized that there were only two sacraments, works of the church, which brought grace to people from Jesus Christ – Baptism and Holy Communion.
And fourth, he understood that the idea of a priesthood composed of men who had received special powers from God through ordination was limiting the church. Instead, Luther found in the Bible support from no less than the Apostle Peter that all baptized Christians belong to the priesthood of all believers, and are able to lead people into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In our reading from First Peter, we see this, as Peter speaks of Jesus as the living Stone:
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. "
Peter wasn’t speaking to the original 12 disciples, but to all the disciples of Jesus, which numbered in the thousands by the time Peter wrote this letter. All people who have been baptized are included in this holy priesthood. You and I are included in this holy priesthood of Christ. All of these children are included in this holy priesthood. Both married people and single people are welcome to this priesthood.
It is as though we are in the army’s boot camp – basic training for this priesthood. Perhaps you’ve been through this basic training…perhaps you are in the reserves. Perhaps you are being called to active duty. Perhaps you are being put onto the front lines. Do not rest too deeply – we all are called to duty sometime…and we all have our part of the spiritual warfare front to watch and fight upon.
Recently, Saundra and I went to a funeral visitation of someone we didn’t know. We have a close friend who is a relative of the one who passed on. But while we were there, we suddenly found ourselves on the front line, helping a woman who was in spiritual crises because of this death. Always be ready. Always be ready to rescue someone from the forces of evil, to speak of the love of Christ, to take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and use it to expand the Kingdom.
So what do we have to do? We must offer spiritual sacrifices – we must give up our desires and do the will of Christ, for giving up something is the heart of sacrifice. Yet we don’t just “give up” something – we give it to Christ. Our time, our talents, our treasure, our regular presence and prayers, our witness – these are what we give up to Christ. We simply stand ready to serve. We speak the prayer of readiness: Lord, send me someone to lead to you.” And He will grant that prayer.
But we have been chosen to praise God also. So many people like to complain about life, but when we do that we are complaining about God’s judgement in this life. Shouldn’t we praise God instead? As Peter said,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. "
Do you like sitting in the dark, talking about how bad the darkness is, or would you prefer to stand in the light? Wouldn’t you like to flip the light switch on?
Our world, like in the time of Luther, is becoming a dark place. Terrible things are happening in the world, in our country. It is only the light of Christ that will bring goodness and joy into this world. And so, when we praise God, we switch on the light switch, we stand as beacons of light, shining goodness into the world by proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the answer and leading people to the light, like lighthouses on the seashore lead ships through the darkness and the fog safely to shore.
And it is not only us, but it is also, like old lightbulbs, the slowly fading light from those saints of the past who have gone before us to be with Christ that we should proclaim. We are to speak of those people who have passed on and honor their memory by trying, as they did, to become Christ-like in our actions and in our words. In doing so, we hold up mirrors for their lights.
And so we honor men like Martin Luther, like Jean Calvin, like John and Charles Wesley, men who reformed the church hundreds of years ago. And we also honor those who kept the church going in our time.
Today, as we celebrate All Saints Day as the church has throughout the centuries, we remember those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, those people who await the sure and certain hope of the resurrection one day, that they and we may gather around the throne of God and praise God for ever and ever.
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