Yesterday was Reformation Day. Every year for the last 7 years or so I've been deliberate in celebrating this day, the day when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Church Door (the communal bulletin board for that time). In that list Luther pointed out uncharitable excesses and doctrinal errors in the Catholic Church (of which he was a monk and teacher). [If you want a nice summary you can go to: http://www.stpaulskingsville.org/reformation.htm
or http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/10/daily-10-31-2003.shtml]
It isn't that I just want to celebrate one of the critical "catalytic points" of the Protestant Church (Doug Wilson says it is more like the church as a whole was at a boiling point and Luther was one of the first bubbles to reach the surface and pop). It's more that I want to remember and celebrate what fired Luther up -- namely the justification of our souls by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone and that faith itself being a gift from a holy and merciful God. On October 31st I usually read chapters 6-8 of Romans and play and sing a few hymns -- beginning with "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" (written by Luther), followed by old gospel favorites about Christ's sufficient, atoning blood like "There is Power in the Blood" and "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood".
This year October 31st came and ended, and I did nothing to "mark" it. I didn't even hum the hymn. I used to have that entire Romans section memorized and would recite it to myself. I didn't even remember to read it. I was somewhere in Zechariah in my Bible reading and just lazily slid over a couple chapters there and read a page of Oswald Chambers' devotional book. Then my day launched into a blur with a storytime at a local kids' bookstore with Atticus and a couple friends. Then grocery shopping and home for Atticus' nap and some computer work and cleaning for me. Dinner making ensued to greet Brad's return home around 6 pm followed by trick-or-treaters showing up. Brad, Atticus, and Victor took care of the candy-fest while I "did the treadmill" and then nursed Atticus before putting him to bed for the night. That left an hour or so of "I have no idea what". And then it was bedtime for me. That was my entire day.
Today on my walk with Atticus I remembered that it was All Saints' Day and that I missed even thinking about yesterday. I decided to go ahead and sing " A Mighty Fortress" and pray for a little bit. Did you know that our pastor didn't even mention the day on Sunday? I wonder why -- I mean, it isn't like he's required to in Scripture or anything. But I must say, I was longing for some kind of "high church" celebration. If I couldn't have a nice solemn rite with candles, I would have settled for a five minute teaching on the Five Solas of the Reformation or even a rousing communal cry of "A Mighty Fortress is our God".
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_solas]
[http://www.answers.com/topic/five-solas]
Sigh.
Well, life is so much less contemplative married and with a baby. Even when I have time to think my mind is crouched nervously waiting to be interrupted and derailed onto something else. Strangely, I'm not upset about this. I don't even feel as if I'm ready to slip down the enbankment into some schmurky sludge. I'm just sorta in awe how I am the same person and yet seem to be running on a different operating system. I do not feel less pious than I have been. In fact, there is a peace and stability in my faith that I have never experienced before. Questions and blurry spots still sit in boxes on some shelves. But I don't feel haunted by them, nor threatened in critical, vital places. What about ardor -- you know, real bona fide passion for God? His Truth? His Beauty? His Kingship? His Glory? Well, I think that's still here in me. Maybe not that adolescent burning kind of zeal, but I never much trusted that anyway. Too much flame and not enough -- I don't know -- "cut wood" stacked and ready? ("Deep embers" sounds better for a metaphor, but I can't in clear conscience say that since I really think there's plenty of adolescent zeal out there with a real furnace under-girding it.) Hmm...well, a white, blank sky and "bracing" knife wind is beating on our house today. I am refusing to let it breach my fortress this afternoon. I will close writing to work on a drawing waiting here patiently. As I wrote this Atticus woke from 10 minutes of sleep which was the meager fruit of 45 minutes of intermittant fight-crying.
Thursday November 2nd
I've re-read through some of my notes on Luther this afternoon.
"Luther was shaped by nominalism, the prevalent school of thought in Erfurt [city of central Germany]. This school of thought held that if one strives with all one's might, God will not deny His grace."
"The lax piety and secularization of the papal court did not particularly irritate [Luther]".. it was more a battle for Truth -- truth about how a man may clear his conscience before God. How do we escape this crushing weight of our own sin, corruption, depravity before a burning holy and glorious God? Humanism was seeping through the culture and with it came blessings and curses. Theologians were urged to study the Bible itself for themselves. Original texts in original languages; to search meanings out at the roots and lay bare what God had declared to man -- cutting off layers of man-made deductions and didaction (which can be useful tools but must not replace or usurp the Word of God). "In [Luther's] lectures on Galatians he arrived at the important distiction between law and gospel as the two ways in which God is revealed. Theologically, [he] had drawn this important conclusion:...humans must declare themselves sinners before God". "In addition to this theology of humility he began to understand that God offers righteousness through Christ." "In struggling to understand Romans 1:17, Luther realized that God's justice did not consist of a demand but a gift given by God to humans out of grace which must be received through faith. Therein lay the message of the Reformation."
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it -- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:21-25a
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...Ephesians 2:8-10a
Friday November 3rd
Luther was also an advocate of schools for the masses. To be able to read the Bible, to know what it said was a first step to right thinking (right theology) and from that, right action. He translated the entire Bible in vernacular German in order to make it accessible to every Christian, the "Lay People". He "linked all Christian behavior to faith and redefined the ordinary vocation as a 'new' way of rendering godly service to one's neighbor." This reminds me of an essay by Elisabeth Elliot in Love Has a Price Tag entitled "On Motherhood and Profanity". In it, she refers to the 'Altar of the Kitchen Sink' -- the altar of the kitchen sink. Isn't that fantastic? I mean here I stand changing diapers, doing laundry, sweeping floors, cleaning the kitchen, getting groceries, picking up baby blankets and toys and dirty clothes...again and again and again. And I want to work on the essay that's sat untouched for months, work on the painting I've had planned for a year, sit down to work on the wall hanging of my soon and coming niece Lilly; I want to plan a trip to New York City because I've never been, I want to work on binding those books I've got sitting in the corner, I want to, I want to, I want to... Yet what I do now is worship. It is creative. It is eternal -- rooted in utter meaning right now and on into eternity. I serve two immortal souls -- two men have been given me to tend to. I do all this in context of having been released from the prison of my sin, from death. I used to feel the weight of all that darkness and futility. So heavy. I could scarcely breath. Each morning I had to deliberately and numbly lift myself from bed not knowing how I could make it to class let alone get to the end of the day. But it was the severe mercy of God. That suffering was God's tender love toward me -- to burn away idolatry, burn away self-reliance, burn away despair and nihilism To move my hope from the things which cannot withstand the worship of a creature. The God of Hope and Glory prevailed -- He ravished and delivered my soul. And not only so, but long after I really thought I would be given a husband or child, God gives me a lovely and cozy home with a husband who needs me and wants me. And a sweet and consuming little boy. Isn't it wonderful to be given a tangible, blatant task to serve God. "Here you go, Sarah," God says. "Here's Bradley Johannsen. Here's Atticus Johannsen. I give them to you to serve and in doing so you serve Me. Go to it." So clear. So well-suited for all the big-sister and manic-worker and compulsive-organizer in me. Boys howdy, is it alot of work, though. I've never worked so hard in my life -- and I've worked dog hard at just about everything I've ever done. This life is work on every level -- the whole person: body, mind, heart, spirit.
Last night Brad made a fire in the fireplace. He and Atticus and Victor and I sat there watching the beautiful jewel fire drinking hot cider, quietly listening to Brad play the guitar. Later after we put Atticus to bed...we read books together by the fire...until later when...well, we helped the fire keep each other warm (-: Crazy perfect. The Lord is good and He doeth good.
No comments:
Post a Comment