Reformation

 

Reformation

Indulgences were the initial catalyst for the Reformation. They were the ugly face of the corruption and misdirection of the church on October 31, 1517, the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. These 95 Theses were primarily concerned with the practice of selling indulgences, whereby the Catholic Church was raising much needed money for its ambitious building program by selling a “means of remission of the temporal punishment for sins which have already been forgiven but are due to the Christian” mostly in purgatory.

The Catholic Church had lost its focus on Jesus, our Savior. The church had lost its focus on our faith, on God's grace, on the Holy Spirit and his many gifts. It had replaced this right and proper focus with a focus on itself. The church was concerned with money, power, prestige, and its own success and influence. The church had replaced the Truth of the Christian message of faith with contemporary values. Indeed, influence, success, and power have always been among the foremost of contemporary values.

Many saw the ELCA likewise replacing Truth with contemporary values. This Lutheran misdirection began even before the 20 year-old ELCA was formed. It was from these observations of Lutheran misdirection that the NALC was born. The NALC is a result of an attempt at a modern day Reformation.

But many if not most congregations of the NALC are also permeated with contemporary culture. While they see the error of the ordination of homosexuals, they do not see the extent to which they have replaced Truth with contemporary culture. How many congregations are focused on the growth and success of their church institutions to the exclusion of the rightful focus on our Christian faith, Lutheran doctrines, the Gospel's message of grace and love, and our sanctification? How does a congregation of today with a focus on the growth and success of its church institution differ from the Catholic Church of 1517? When we as individuals or as congregations focus on ourselves, we lose our focus on our faith, we lose our focus on God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We even lose our focus on one another.

We need a Reformation not only at the NALC level, but we also need a Reformation at the congregational level. Our people and our congregations need an unapologetic redirection to the Truth of our Christian faith.

Lutherans have historically used Reformation Sunday as a time of celebration. That is good. We should also use our remembrance of the Reformation as a time of reflection.