Reformation-y Things

Faith alone and pumpkin spice

Two days in a row! I wanted to get this to you all before Reformation Sunday. -PrBW

Tomorrow the Lutheran Churches will celebrate Reformation Sunday. This is a great reminder that the Lord Jesus continues to work through history to keep the preaching of His glorious gospel clear and comforting for sinners.

1/ The Quiet Reformation Story

I think the most important story of the history is not the nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses to the castle church door, but instead, Luther’s discovery of passive righteousness in his work with Romans 1:16-17.

I tell that story here:

Searching for this I see that I’ve done a lot of Reformation Themed videos. You can browse around and see if any of them catch your fancy here. (Apparently I grew a go-tee for Reformation 2019.)

2/ On the Name “Lutheran”

Reformation time also brings up the question, “Should we be called ‘Lutheran’?”

I found three places where Luther himself talks about it. Read those here.

The conclusion: We wish we had a better name, but “Lutheran” will have to do.

3/ Church History and Three Waves of Persecution

Reformation Sunday reminds us that the church has a history. This is a reminder that the Lord Jesus continues to govern the world according to His will and good pleasure (see Ephesians 1:21-23) in spite of humanity’s sinful attempts to shape our own destiny.

Luther had a very interesting understanding of church history as three successive waves of persecution. The early church was the wave of violence. The second wave was error and heresy. The third wave was indifference.

This is different form our normal understanding of church history, and especially of the time of the Reformation. The idea of the Middle Ages that has captured our imagination is of people anxious and troubled over the wrath of God. The real trouble, Luther says, is that nobody cares is God frowns or smiles.

I think we are still suffering from this third wave: the assault of indifference.

Once more these three birds can be understood to signify the threefold persecution of the church and of any soul, namely, on the part of tyrants, heretics, and false brothers or hypocrites. The first persecution was of the martyrs, the second of the teachers, and the third in a general way of all estates. And the first took place through force, the second through wisdom, the third through the goodness of the world. The first was against force, the second against wisdom, and the third against the goodness and holiness of God. The first charged the church with weakness, the second with ignorance, and the third with corruption and blasphemy. (LW 11:308)

Read more about what Luther says about this here.

4/ Cheerfulness as Spiritual Warfare

I had a great time with the pastors of Alberta this week. We were looking at this Luther quotation about the martyrs and how our faith-filled cheerfulness taunts the demons. Great stuff!

Dear world, you are not persecuting me; you are persecuting Christ, my Lord. Since I am aware of this, I challenge you to do your worst. Here I stand in God’s name and let you, together with all the devils from hell, fume in their name. You can persecute, exile, yes, even kill me, if my Lord Christ so wills; but you will not deprive me of my courage and my comfort, nor will you bring me to the point of being grieved in my heart. For since I am experiencing this for the sake of Christ, I shall cheerfully risk it in His name and only sing and exult joyfully in the face of the devil’s raging. In this way the devil discovers that he is losing his power and that he cannot dig his sword and spear in as far as he would like. For he is not concerned about tormenting us bodily; but he is a spirit who incessantly thirsts for our tears and our heart’s blood, to make us despair and languish with sadness. This would be his joy and delight. Yet he will not succeed in this; we will turn the tables on him and learn to mock both the devil and the world.

Then we will laugh gleefully at them, not they at us. The skill with which they want to make us sad, angry, and impatient will fail them; and they will consume themselves, together with their hatred and wrath; and when they see us, they will suffer great agony. They will see that we remain cheerful through it all and scorn them when they attempt to vent their anger on us so vehemently.

This is what the holy martyrs, also young maidens such as Agnes and Agatha, did in times past. The more angrily their tyrannical judges raged, the more defiant the maidens were. (LW 24:277, emphasis added, On John 15:19, c. 1537)

Or this:

When the heart is cheerful, everything looks happy, even the cross and persecution. Thus St. Agnes, led to the sacrifice, was in her heart being escorted to the dance. Thus all the godly regard all things as happy in inner peace and happiness and rejoicing in the Spirit. Here you see that all Christians are joyful because peace is a fruit of the Spirit, and so is joy. (LW 17:258, On Isaiah 55:12)

Glory! God grant us this joy!

(These quotations are found in the little book I wrote, And Take They Our Life: Martin Luther’s Theology of Martyrdom, which you can download for free here. The audio book is also free, and available at the same link.)

Happy Reformation Day!

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Christ is Risen! Pastor Wolfmueller

Psalm 27:4

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