Reformation…reformation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big day for Lutherans in the church year is Reformation Sunday.  We celebrate the almost 500 years since an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther broke from the Roman Catholic church over an effort to reform that church.   Through reading, study and a few Martin Luther movies, I have had the sense that Martin Luther was feeling the effects of a church that had gone overboard in using its financial resources, garnered from across the Roman Empire, to build churches in Rome that reflected an extravagant tribute to early church leaders.  One of the modes of fundraising was to sell indulgences to people  – official papers that would assure its owner of entry into heaven when they died.  This practice cut out any sense of God’s love bridging the gap we call sin–and it buried any understanding of God’s grace.

I didn’t fully get the pressure that the Pope and Rome was putting on all its churches for funding to build St. Peter’s Church in the Vatican until I visited Rome this November.  Martin Luther made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1510 , arriving in the city through the North Gate and staying at the Augustinian monastery  there.  He visited St. Peter’s in person — across the river the church structure loomed large.  The financial commitment to a structure so vast must have been astounding to Brother Martin.  It was to Pastor Karen!  In the 16th Century, faith in Jesus Christ had become a money generating business beyond compare — and to the German, Martin Luther, this reality had to change.  In order to make his case public, Luther nailed  a long list of his arguments (95 Thesis) to the front door of  the church  in Wittenberg,  Germany.     It was not Luther’s intention to make a new church, particularly  one named for him, yet through a movement sparked by his protest, the  Lutheran Church was born anyhow.

So, half a century later, are there things about the “church,” that need to be changed?  Funny thing is that now there is no one big church institution to reform — there are dozens and dozens of different kinds of churches, all claiming to be Christian.  And a whole other blog is about how there are some very different takes on what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  So I will take on the institution that rosters me as an ordained leader, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the church body to which Luther Place Church belongs.  We are not worrying about fighting with the Pope these days, in fact the fighting we do is more with ourselves.  One of the notions brought forth by Martin Luther was the “Priesthood of all Believers.”  This has to do with the flattening out of a very high hierarchy so that all the people are part of what it means to be the church.

At Luther Place, in early October, we went to the priesthood of all believers, the congregation,  and asked them to begin listing all the things that need to be reformed according to them in our present day.  We compiled the list on big paper, laminated all of our thesis,  and hung them from the base of the Martin Luther that stands in front of Luther Place church looking out on Thomas Circle.  We blessed our words on Oct 28, 2011, and prayed that God would continue to reform the ELCA so that it would reflect Gods’ desire for a church in our challenging and exciting days.

Here is our list, what do you think priesthood?

Speak out in public
Encourage balance
Manifest peace
Shed violence
Support the unemployed
Spread hope
Delight in diversity
Respond to injustice
Act with Courage
Organize inter-generational connections
Serve regularly
Nurture imagination
Delight in Grace
Utilize social media
Listen to the youth
Explore social entrepreneurship
Honor sacred earth
Pray ceaselessly
Radically welcome
Delight in same sex marriage
Let go of pride
Be more accepting
Channel holy rage
Smile more
Practice joy
Affirm transparency
Seek wisdom
Streamline church meetings
Do justice
Welcome the stranger
Love our neighbors
Receive ancient wisdom
Love, not judge
Face modern society
Challenge systems of injustice
Learn from artists
Reckon with poverty
Face privilege
Be creative
Channel the Spirit
Create analysis
Shift old paradigms
Honor mystery
Have audacious visions
Eat together more
Remove our walls
Include all
Reclaim radical Jesus
Honor varied music
Create new worship
Use soulful music
Experience God
Rejoice in interracial marriage
Build community
Dream what’s possible
What would you add?

Peace, Pastor Karen Brau

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