John 8:31-36
During the middle ages, in the centuries before the Reformation, the institutions of the church slipped more and more into a theology that was largely oriented around the status and presumed power of the ordained clergy.
So, for example, the marks of the church were, basically, the clergy. A medieval Christian was expected to have a sense that he was in the church that Jesus instituted because he lived and prayed under the supervision of a priest, who in turn was under the supervision of his bishop, who in turn was under the supervision of the pope.
Also, when people would receive the Lord’s Supper – which unfortunately was not very often back then – they were told that the reason why they could be sure that it was the true body of Christ that was offered to them, was because the officiating priest had been properly ordained by a bonafide bishop. They were taught that the power to cause the body and blood of Jesus to be united to the earthly elements, came from the officiating minister’s ordination.
There were actually seven sacraments, all of which were administered by the clergy. But in most churches sermons were rare.
And when sermons were preached, they often involved stories about the miracles of the saints, the power of relics, and other legends. They seldom had very much to do with the teaching of Holy Scripture.
The Reformation changed this, and reoriented the church away from a theology of the clergy, and toward a theology of the Word of God. This was not a new theology, however, but was the original Christian theology as found in Scripture.
The life and thinking of the church were re-calibrated according to the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. In today’s Gospel from St. John, Jesus says:
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
St. Peter, in his First Epistle, says this about the saving and regenerating power of the Word of the Lord:
“Love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”
And St. Paul declares to the Romans:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…”
The Reformers put God’s Word at the center of everything, and as much as possible brought people into contact with God’s Word, so that the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation could flow from that Word into their hearts and souls.
In places that had come under the influence of the Reformation, the people now believed that they were in the church that Jesus instituted because the marks of the church that Jesus established for his disciples were present: the preaching of the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners, and the administration of the sacraments in accord with the Lord’s institution.
And when people communed – which was now much more often – they were certain that they were receiving the true body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, because the words of Christ which he spoke in the original institution were being recited; and because the command of Christ – to distribute the blessed bread and wine to communicants – was being followed.
Indeed, one of the more noticeable reforms that the Lutherans introduced was to have the officiating pastor sing the Words of Institution out loud from the altar, so that everyone could hear them, and in that hearing to be blessed, and to be prepared for their reception of the sacrament.
Prior to the Reformation, the priest would whisper the words of Jesus, so that no one else could hear them. The hearing of the Word of God by the people was not seen back then as being very important. What was seen as important was that there was a properly-ordained priest at the altar.
The theology of the Reformation, in contrast, was and is a theology of the Word of God. To be sure, the Lutheran Church did not get rid of clergy, and the Lutherans still believed in the doctrine of the divine call. They remembered what St. Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Romans:
“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”
But the nature and character of the pastoral office was now understood in a different way. A minister of the gospel was “a called and ordained servant of the Word.”
He was not a master of the Word, causing the words that he spoke to be powerful and effective through his having been ordained. The Word of God is powerful and effective in itself.
The pastor’s ordination did not bestow upon him a special supernatural ability to confect sacraments that unordained people did not have. His ordination was, rather, his public authorization to make public use of God’s Word in and for the church – in a ministry of spiritual oversight through preaching, teaching, and sacramental administration.
This would be done according to his training in the Scriptures and in Christian theology, and with a proper division and application of law and gospel.
The Lutheran Reformation showcased the Word of God also in other aspects of the worship life of the church.
Scripture lessons were now chanted or read in a language that the people could understand. Sermons based on the appointed readings, which explained their meaning and applied them to the lives of the listeners, were now preached.
Not only was preaching done more often in Lutheran churches than had previously been the case, but Luther went so far as to say:
“A Christian congregation should never gather together without the preaching of God’s Word and prayer, no matter how briefly, as Psalm 102 says, ‘When the kings and the people assemble to serve the Lord, they shall declare the name and the praise of God.’”
Regarding the regular administration of the Lord’s Supper, Luther also said:
“You should celebrate one or two Masses…on Sundays or holy days, depending on whether there are few or many communicants. …you might celebrate Mass during the week on whichever days it would be needful, that is, if any communicants would be present and would ask for and request the Sacrament. This way we should compel no one to receive the Sacrament, and yet everyone would be adequately served in an orderly manner.”
Another noticeable change, was the singing of hymns by the congregation. This had been done in the ancient church, but it was a new thing for the people of the sixteenth century, who had gotten used to choirs doing all the singing, while they watched and listened.
Among the Lutherans, however, hymns for everyone to sing were written, in the language of the people. These Reformation-era hymns were in most cases like sung sermons: drawn from the Word of God, and in their poetry teaching the faith of Scripture to the people.
Some hymns were sung prayers, which taught the people how to pray to the Lord, and what to ask for, as the Scriptures guided the compositions of those hymns as well.
And that’s still the way it is today: in churches that perpetuate the legacy of the Reformation, fully and consistently; and that therefore embrace, fully and consistently, a theology of the Word of God.
You don’t come to church to hear my opinions, but to hear the Word of God: unfolded and applied to your conscience and to your life. You don’t come to church to sing about your own feelings and emotions, but to sing the truth and promises of God into the ears and hearts of your fellow worshipers – as they simultaneously sing the truth and promises of God into your ears and heart.
You don’t come to church to make demands on God, but to learn from God, and to pray with reverence and humility for the kind of things his Word tells you should be prayed for.
It is a wonderful blessing to be heirs of the Reformation, and especially to be heirs of the theology of the Word of God which the Reformation restored to the church. This is a blessing to us, because this is what we so desperately need in the struggles and uncertainties of life in this world.
The ancient prayers of Psalm 119 speak for all believers throughout the centuries, and for us today: as they and we, with penitent hearts, yearn to know God’s truth and promises; and as they and we, in faith, cling to what God reveals to us in Holy Scripture:
“Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. … I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. I pray, let Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live…”
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.”
“Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord – Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word.”
“How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
We truly do need the Word of God in all the many ways in which it comes to us: as warnings and judgments from God in his law; and as mercy and pardon from God in his gospel.
And we have the Word of God in all the many ways in which it comes to us: so that we are brought to conviction regarding our transgressions; and so that our hope and confidence is then directed to Jesus, whose saving work for humanity is made known to us in this Word, and is impressed upon us by this Word.
We hear again from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:
“‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’”
We are indeed able to believe without shame on Jesus – as our Savior from sin and death, and as the righteous Lord who gives us his righteousness – because God, in his mercy, has allowed us to have and to hear his Word.
We are indeed able to believe with confidence on Jesus – as our teacher and guide, and as our protector and companion – because God, in his grace, has allowed us to partake of the means of grace that carry his Word to us, and plant it deeply within us: as that Word is read and proclaimed, and as that Word is sacramentally united to water, and to bread and wine.
We are indeed able to believe with an unswerving hope on Jesus – as the Redeemer who will someday bring us to our eternal home – because God, in his eternal love for us, has assured us in his Word that we belong to him, and will live with him in his kingdom forever.
God’s Word is our great heritage, and shall be ours forever;
To spread its light from age to age shall be our chief endeavor.
Through life it guides our way; in death it is our stay.
Lord, grant, while worlds endure, we keep its teachings pure,
Throughout all generations. Amen.