May God bless and inspire our whole Church on this
500th anniversary of the Reformation!
It is early morning. The long-awaited day, marked a year in advance, is dawning – 31 October 2017. The 500th anniversary of the Reformation. While spending time with Martin Luther, that is, rereading his words, a conversation with him arose: “Dear brother in Christ, highly esteemed pastor, Dr. Martin Luther, what would you write this morning to the Church that bears your name?
Would you remind us that on that morning not everything suddenly changed. The Reformation, like the light of dawn in the flames of the Holy Spirit, did not dazzle everyone in a single instant, but gradually awakened hearts and congregations to experience, in a “new translation,” the truth of God’s Word and the liberating power of Christ’s grace. Perhaps you would remind us not to be hasty or to lose hope if everything does not happen at once, as we have prayed? Would you urge us to keep on serving in hope, faith and love, bearing witness to the truth of Christ, increasing peace and justice, preaching the gospel to those who are still oppressed, downtrodden or lost. This is no small task, but the most essential one.
This morning I think about how much was transformed in your life when the truth of God’s Word once seized you and would not let go! Freed by the power of grace, you preached the gospel in a new spirit and in the language of the people! It still resounds and changes lives. Recently someone wrote that, on truly discovering Christ’s grace for the first time, he suddenly felt like a pocket that God had pulled out of life and turned inside out. Everything that was covered in dust, untested, was shaken out of the pocket and made room for everything that God wished to give! May we, in the spirit of the Reformation, not be afraid to examine what lies in the pockets of our Church and our souls.
You examined much that had defined your life, also experiencing great changes. You married Katharina von Bora, and God gave you a family. Little children chattered around you while you read the Holy Scriptures. Would you remind us to examine what our children think about God, or what they ask? The Small Catechism was your answer to them. You considered this work your most important theological writing. Thank you for it, and for how, from the very beginning, you teach us to see in each commandment not only the prohibition ‘you shall not,’ but the opportunity to fulfil Christ’s golden commandment: “.. whatever you wish that people would do to you, do also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 7:12) Still there is the opportunity to learn, to be renewed in faith and to reform what must be transformed.
Pastor, in the introduction to the Large Catechism, you admonished the clergy not to imagine that they already know everything, that they need learn no more: “.. I too am a doctor and preacher, as experienced and learned as all these presumptuous men, yet I do as a child does who is learning the catechism – I read and recite it word for word every morning, and, when I have time, the holy prayer, the commandments, the creed, a psalm, and so on, and yet I must still continue to read and study every day, and even so I have not mastered it as I would wish, and I must remain a child and pupil of the catechism, which I gladly remain.” Did you sense that the Reformation would bring consequences you would not have foreseen? Would you say the same today: that only God knows what tomorrow will be, but we know the Saviour, by following whom we are secure in this time and in eternity.”
Outside it is light, but it is still 31 October. The Consistory of LELBAL, together with you, gives thanks to God for the Reformation and for Pastor Dr. Martin Luther. Five hundred years ago a movement began that still continues to transform the world, as one after another a child of God opens His Words, encounters Christ and, freed by the power of His grace, sets out freely under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to serve their fellow human beings and to honour the most holy, triune God. Let us rejoice in this day, for because of the Reformation our Church too marks its 500th birthday!
From the heart, let us greet one another, be united in prayer and serve ever with joy!
Lauma Zusevica, Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad
Photo: lelba.org archive