"500 Years of Reformation" October 29, 2017

Deuteronomy 34 Matthew 16:1-20 Romans 1:8 Velcro-ing six computer printed pages to the doors of the Skaneateles Presbyterian Church, does not have the same sound or impact as Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 Theses to the Doors of the Cathedral at Wittenberg as invitations to Debate! The Sunday prior to All Saints’ Day 1517, at All Saints’ Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, Rev. Martin Luther was committing a bold act of defiance, challenging the Orthodoxy of the Holy Roman Empire, challenging the authority of Church Law, challenging the Infallibility of the Pope, challenging a very lucrative money-making scheme, challenges for which others had recently been burned at the stake! 500 years later, that we remember what he did, that the Catholic Church has undergone radical reformation, that Evangelical Lutheran, Missouri Lutheran, Wisconsin Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational Churches all exist spread throughout the whole world, is like Moses looking out over the plains of Moab, witnessing the fulfillment of all that God had promised, and yet in his human existence Martin Luther, like Moses, did not have opportunity to enter into it. The actions and ideas of Martin Luther inspired: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, use and expansion of the Printing Press, our having Bibles in every Pew and for every Believer, our being able as Christians to worship God in our native Languages; HOWEVER, none of this was what Rev. Martin Luther set out to do. A moment ago, we read Matthew’s account of Simon Peter’s Confession, that” the Son of Man in Jesus, who is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” We read accounts of this in each of the Gospels, emphasizing the leap of faith Affirming Jesus as being the Christ which sets Jesus on the road to the Crucifixion… but the early Church grabbed hold of two different elements of this story. The Disciple Simon, Andrew’s brother, was renamed Peter, Petrified, meaning The Rock foundation of the Church, identifying Peter as the First Pope. And Jesus gave to Peter “The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” We hear the next part of Matthew as explanation of what those Keys might be: “That what you bind on earth is bound in Heaven, whatever you loose is loosed in heaven” meaning that the Keys to Heaven are about Forgiveness. As human beings we have awesome power and responsibility, that we choose to Not forgive, we prevent others from being forgiven, and we possess the power to Free ourselves and one another in forgiveness. Instead, as the Holy Roman Empire developed, the Church developed a Caste system that Human Beings fall short of the glory of God. People are not perfect, are Sinners. In the Old Testament, Judaism had practiced that forgiveness required atonement, paying the debt for the sin committed, which was done by making an offering. The passing of time = grain offering, the birth of a first-born two doves, Passover a Lamb. However 36 years after Jesus Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Temple of Solomon, the Temple at Jerusalem, was the most holy place where Offerings could be made, built on the site where Abraham offered his own Son to God as an Offering, that Temple was destroyed. So how do you repent, how can you be forgiven? The Church created 4 Laws: First, the Church is the only authority that can forgive, possessing The Keys; Second, that Church Teaching was the Rule of Life, Holy, like the Bible and Worship were in Latin, as Illiterate Sinners you could not understand God’s Wisdom; Third, that Repentance happened by Confession of your sins to your Priest, recalling the Caste System that Priests by being Ordained were over people yet less that God; Fourth, as a means of Atonement, believers could reduce the time and severity of a loved ones’ experience in Purgatory, by ownership of sacred relics/indulgences. Go on a pilgrimage to the Jordan River and get Holy Water, go to the Sea and pick up a shell used by Andrew in Baptism, purchase a Cross made from Olivewood of Bethlehem, a Hair from John the Baptist’s Head, the Robe of Jesus, find the Holy Grail. All of which became the issues Luther Protested, for Reform of the Church. Two historic events undermined the authority of the Church: At the Wed Bible Study, I described the Church fighting for authority on 3 Fronts, that is because for 70 years instead of the Center of the Church being at Jerusalem or at Rome, the home of the Pope was at Avignon, France. Pope Gregory XI finally succeeded in moving the Vatican to Rome, then died. Many of the Bishops were afraid that a French Pope would be elected. However, the Cardinals elected an Italian Pope, named Urban VI whom the Bishops then feared and others questioned his sanity. In retaliation, the French kidnapped the new Pope! Assuming the Pope to be dead, the Cardinals elected a new Pope, named Clement VII, at which time the French sent the first Pope back alive! Then to make matters even more complicated, a Third Pope was elected! The Great Western Schism made people question who actually spoke with authority. Finally the Council of Constance, was one of the largest attended and most brief Councils of the Church. At the Council of Constance all three Popes were repudiated, and a new Pope Martin V was elected as the one true Pope. The Council of Constance was brief because, The Black Plague was sweeping across Europe, killing 25 Million people in 4 years and continuing throughout that Century. So the Cardinals gathered, and almost immediately left for their homes. The Church was powerless, sin/death/purgatory seemed to dominate peoples’ fears. Martin Luther was not attempting to challenge that authority, or to inspire growth of denominations. As a pastor Luther sought an authority greater than the Pope, greater than Church Teaching, so politicized and divisive during the Dark Ages. Reading the Letter to the Romans, he came upon the phrase from today’s Assurance of Pardon: “In the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith.” Luther recognized that each of us are on a lifelong journey of repentance. Luther preached that we do not need Church Law to interpret the Bible, we need to be able to read Scripture ourselves and let Scripture and only Scripture speak to us. We do not need a Priest as your intermediary with God, Christ already is that. The Choir sang “Let All Mortal Flesh” this morning, which is about the vital importance of the Incarnation of Christ, as opposed to the Crucifixion. This is not about Suffering, but about God being ONE WITH Humanity. What I love is that Martin Luther was not a Theologian off in a Monastery, he was a Pastor of a local Church with real people. His 95 Theses were not an attack on the Pope as derogatory, he demonstrated respect, but did not violate the Commandment by making the Pope into a God, or the Church into an Idol. Because of this, just prior to Pope Benedict’s Announcement of his Retirement as Pope, he declared that for the Catholic Church the Lutheran Reformation is over, all the Theses of Luther calling for reform have been addressed and have reformed the Church. For which, the Baptism of those of us in churches of the Lutheran Tradition, are acceptable in the Catholic Church.