John Knox: Father of Presbyterianism

 

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

an article posted in the October 2024 Light Magazine 

John Knox, an unlikely Scottish Reformer, is the most influential Scotsman in Scottish history.  Born around 1515, he went to the University of St. Andrew’s before working as a notary priest who drew up and certified contracts.

It was a wild and wooly time in the beginning of the Scottish Reformation. John Knox said that it was merchants and mariners who first brought the Reformation to Scotland, often in the form of books. In 1528, Professor Patrick Hamilton of St. Andrew’s University was burnt at the stake by Cardinal Beaton. John Knox said: “The reek of Master Hamilton’s burning has infected as many as it blew upon.”

Knox’s first reformation appearance was carrying a two-handed sword as he served as a bodyguard for the Scottish Reformation preacher George Wishart. After preaching to the plague-infested people of Dundee, Wishart became a Scottish hero. In December 1545, Wishart at age 33 was taken by the Roman Catholic Cardinal David Beaton to the Castle of St. Andrew’s where he was condemned and three months later was burned at the stake. Beaton as the most powerful person in Scotland was nicknamed ‘the cruel persecutor’.

After the killing of Cardinal Beaton by five Scottish Lairds, 150 people took over his castle for nearly a year.  Knox’s role was teaching the bible to the children in the castle.  The St. Andrew’s Castle Chaplain, during a sermon, prophetically singled out John Knox, commenting that God called John Knox to be a preacher and a leader of this Reformation. All the people at the Castle congregation said ‘yes, we believe it. John Knox, you are our man.’ Bursting into tears, John Knox ran into his chambers. This was Knox’s turning point when he realized God’s call on his life to preach the gospel and change a nation.  He was a modern-day prophet, a man of strong feeling. Knox’s two passions were justification by faith alone and the call to flee idolatry. If the bible did not specifically allow something, Knox’s default was to reject it as idolatry.

St. Andrew’s Castle was untouchable until the Scottish Queen Mary of Guise called on the French Navy to siege it. John Knox ended up spending eighteen months as a slave rowing on a open-air French galley. Few people survived such back-breaking rowing for long, being totally exposed to the worst of the weather.  While sailing past St. Andrew’s Castle, Knox prophesied in chains that one day he would again preach at St. Andrew’s.  It did not look at all likely. 

Unexpectedly King Edward 6^th rescued John Knox, licensing him to serve as a royal chaplain in Westminster Cathedral and in Hampton Court.  During this time of favour, Knox turned down All Hallows Church the most influential pulpit in London, and also the opportunity to be the Anglican bishop of Rochester. Knox was a very fiery preacher, a white-hot firebrand.  The English Ambassador Thomas Randall said: “the voice of that one man is able in one hour to put more life in us than a thousand trumpets continually blustering in our ears.”  There is in John Knox the spirit of an Old Testament Prophet, like Moses at the Burning Bush. The 19^th century Scottish author Thomas Carlyle said that he saw in Knox: “a sympathy, a veiled tenderness of heart, veiled, but deep and of piercing vehemence, and withal even an inward gaiety of soul, alive to the ridicule that dwells in whatever is ridiculous, in fact a fine vein of humour....”

His suffering in the French galley ship left him with many health problems: kidney stones, insomnia, fever, parasites, and perhaps PTSD. In a March 23rd 1553 letter from Newcastle to his mother-in-law, he said: “My old malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my flesh than writing. Think not that I weary to visit you, but unless my pain shall cease, I shall altogether become unprofitable.” Knox's life shows how God often delights to work most powerfully through people who are most weak in themselves.

Knox lived a rollercoaster life with many ups and downs. There were three painful Marys in Knox’s life: Mary of Guise, Bloody Mary, and Mary Queen of Scots, all who resisted the Scottish Reformation. With intense waves of persecution from the new Queen, Bloody Mary, Knox fled in 1553 to Dieppe in the Netherlands before moving to Geneva.  This gave him a chance to be directly mentored by John Calvin.  Historian Philip Schaff held that Knox became more Calvinist than Calvin.  While in Geneva, he preached three sermons a week to English refugees, each message lasting well over two hours. Though he wrote a five-volume series on the History of the Scottish Reformation, Knox saw himself as more of a preacher than a writer: “I consider myself rather called of my God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the sorrowful, to confirm the weak and rebuke the proud by the tongue and lively voice in these corrupt days, rather than compose books for ages to come.” Knox dreamed of turning Scotland into a nationwide version of Geneva.

Knox had a painful time in Frankfurt where he was ousted from the Anglican Church over the Book of Common Prayer. Then he returned to Scotland where he preached the gospel to working class Scots: “God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.”  The Queen mother, Mary of Guise, was a French aristocrat who appealed to the Scottish elite. Knox dared to disagree with Mary of Guise’s inner circle, speaking truth to the powerful. The thundering Scot had a will of steel.  With the sudden death of Mary of Guise in 1560, the Scottish Parliament passed the Scottish Confession of Faith, all within five days. Knox helped put out the first Book of Discipline for the Church of Scotland.

  When Mary Queen of Scots at age 19 returned to Scotland in 1561, John Knox noted, “She brings with her only darkness and impiety.” She was a great charmer, but nothing worked on Knox who was summoned five times by Mary Queen of Scots.  Weeping, flattering and charm did not move John Knox. He taught: “One man with God is always a majority.” Mary Queen of Scots said that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than an army of 10,000 men. Knox is best known for his prayer ‘Give Me Scotland or I die.’  In 1559, Mary Queen of Scots was determined to kill John Knox, ordering her French army to follow John Knox, and fire on Scottish congregations where he was preaching.  Knox fearlessly preached the gospel, hunched over the pulpit, and thousands were converted to faith in Christ: “By God’s grace, I declared Jesus Christ, the strength of his death, and the power of his resurrection.” In one famous painting, he is portrayed as preaching with wild, tortured eyes at St. Giles Cathedral to Mary Queen of Scots. John Knox was arrested in Oct 1563 by Mary Queen of Scots after criticizing her upcoming marriage to the adulterous Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.

John Knox saw education as not the privilege of the few, but the right of all.  Education was vital to a population able to read the bible for themselves. Scotland became one of the most literate societies in the world.

Not everyone loved John Knox. He was burned in effigy and almost assassinated on at least one occasion. One hundred years later, his books were still banned by parliament in England, and one of his books was publicly burned. Even in 1739, the famous Great Awakening leader George Whitefield was condemned for allegedly reflecting the doctrine of John Knox. Recently Edinburgh City Council removed Knox’s gravestone, turning his grave site into a parking lot stall #23. Around 75 million Christians today are Presbyterians. It is better known around the world than in the UK.

When he died in 1572, the testimony was given ‘here lies one who never feared any flesh.’ In Arthur Herman’s book How the Scots Invented the Modern World, he showed how John Knox and the courage of his preaching has had lasting impact on western civilization.  Bruce Gore says that the idea of government by the people, of the people and for the people can be traced to John Knox.  His vision for spiritual freedom led to a passion for freedom from political and cultural oppression.

May John Knox’s passion for freedom in Christ inspire each of us to live more fully alive in Jesus.

Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird, authors of God's Firestarters

 

Carson Pue: Characteristics of a good leader

Light Magazine

September 8, 2024 by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird 

Dr. Carson Pue has been investing in Greater Vancouver leaders and many others for 33 years now.  He was inspired by Billy Graham’s brother-in-law, Leighton Ford, to commit his life to making a difference in the lives of leaders. The result has been seen through Arrow Leadership, and how it has refined the mission and ministry of over 1,200 leaders. Pue notes: “Leadership is lonely. Many leaders find that their “toolbox” is empty. Many of these leaders need to be loved, to be appreciated, and be reconnected in their inner life with Jesus.” As a mentor of leaders, Pue’s passion is for iron to sharpen iron in a community context: “We’re trying to practice our unique calling in our distinctive context, following how Jesus discipled people. It was a combination of actions and teachings happening at the same time.”

Character is at the heart of good leadership. Too often Pue has found that gifted speakers are not always people of integrity.  They get limited support and can be, at the same time, prematurely promoted beyond their level of maturity, resulting in increased potential to fail, dramatically crashing and burning.  

With Brenda, his late wife, he formed Quadrant Leadership, based on the sailing metaphor. Both Brenda and Carson were sailors. His passion is to come alongside leaders as they handle the rigours of the open seas, helping them to be led more by Jesus, lead more like Jesus and to lead more to Jesus.  Pue has spent years developing leaders in a wide variety of businesses and not-for-profit charity entities. His expertise is in high demand locally and internationally by prestigious organizations, enterprises, and institutions. He has served on boards and with executives at World Vision, Kurumbuka Leadership Solutions Foundation (Rwanda), Trueface (Atlanta), Opportunity International, The Billy Graham Center, YesTV (Toronto), and Troyer Industries (Oil and Gas sector).

Recently, Pue produced a year’s worth of Mentored Podcast with the late Dr. Martin Sanders, founder of Global Leadership Inc. These online podcast sessions have become a robust resource, sharing with its listeners many themes that highlight effective mentoring of leaders.

Pue is the bestselling author of Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Calling, Character and Competency. His upcoming book Leading Like a Saint is based on leadership principles from Saint Patrick.  Known for his masterful storytelling and innovative leadership style, Pue exposes and equips audiences with many remarkable and fascinating untold stories and principles behind what it takes to be a leader. His interests include sailing, public speaking, reading, music, writing, family and all things Irish! He lives in Vancouver with his second wife, Glenda, and their dog, Murphy. Carson takes great joy in spending time with his three sons, their wives – who he affectionately refers to as his “daughters” – and his seven grandchildren.

Pastor Scott Anderson, Lead Pastor of Lambrick Park Church, Victoria commented: “Carson has been personally influential in the formation, renewal, and encouragement of an extraordinary number of leaders in many sectors (health care, relief and development, business, finance, govt, etc). I think it’s fair to say that the church of Jesus Christ is seeing significant fruit today because of devoted leaders like Carson Pue.  I know I am.”

Bob Kuhn, a lawyer, consultant, past president of Trinity Western University and Carson’s longtime friend, recognized the tremendous benefits of Pue’s advice and wisdom when Kuhn asked him to serve on Trinity Western University’s executive leadership team as Special Assistant to the President. While Kuhn sought to lead key growth and creative leadership to the University during the six years of particularly challenging conflict, “Carson was not only a fully grounded, wise and an ideal voice of mission-refinement at TWU, he was strong, caring and totally reliable as he took on roles that required a critical, mission-sensitive but caring skill set. I don’t think I could have taken on the leadership demands of Trinity’s president during those years without him.”

Carson Pue will be speaking at the 39th White Rock/South Surrey Leadership Prayer Breakfast on Friday, Oct 25, 2024, 7 to 9 am at Peace Portal Alliance Church in South Surrey. 

About Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God's Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.

View all posts by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird | Website

When Others in Need Come to Mind

This week, as I write, people in the town of Jasper were allowed to “come home” and assess damages. They had a one-hour time frame to be there as the fire still raged some distance away.

Imagine coming back to your town to see your lot empty. No house where it once stood, shiny and clean, but now a grey dusty patch over perhaps a cement foundation. Bare earth where grass once grew. Everything gone! And if you drove as far as the park, the road into it was a charred mess of black sticks, all that’s left of a once beautiful forest.

I watched the online video. Section after section of homes burned to the ground. Some homes and businesses sustained less damage, but the town was rather empty, aside from RCMP and a small contingent of staff.

Interviews with people who’d lived there, or had planned to, showed a mix of people who wanted to come back and start over. Others planned to move somewhere else. One of those people interviewed was a leader in the town, a daughter of a retired writer I know.

Wendy had just started a new job there and her mom wondered how often that kind of job comes around. In our messenger conversation, I said I was glad they got out safely. But what about work? One needs a job in order to live. I promised I would pray for her daughter and family.

My own resources may be limited to a small donation at times like this, but God is bigger. Not diminishing the need for many of these families, I pray that they will get the help they need to get back on their feet and be able to earn a living again. I pray when Wendy and that community come to mind. It certainly isn’t hard, since they are in the news as much as the war in the middle east.

What can we do? Pray! Sometimes it’s all we can do, and let the people know we are praying for them.

 

 

 

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, shaper of the Anglican Way

-an article for the Light Magazine

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

If you have ever been to a wedding service, you can thank Archbishop Thomas Cranmer for his contribution of these new words:  ‘to love and to cherish.’ Cranmer beautifully translated from the Latin Sarum rite these now familiar vows: “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us depart.”  He had a liturgical gift, a poetic ability to develop English-language worship services, marriage services, and funeral services that still speak to people over five hundred years later. 

Cranmer birthed an English Reformation that was not only the via media (middle way) between Catholic and Protestant, but also the via media between Luther and Calvin.  Cranmer was not the first Archbishop of Canterbury, but rather the 67^th and the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. As of today we have had 105 Archbishops of Canterbury. The Anglican Church was not created by Cranmer, but rather reformed and renewed. He has been described as the most mysterious person in the English Reformation.

Born in 1489 at Aslockton Nottinghamshire, he was sent at age 14 to Jesus College, Cambridge after the death of his father.  During his Master's degree, Cranmer studied the Renaissance humanists, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and Erasmus. Shortly after receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1515, he was elected to a Fellowship of Jesus College. Many are unaware that Cranmer had initially been kicked out of Cambridge University in 1515 for the ‘sin’ of getting married.  To support his new wife, he worked as a reader at Buckingham Hall in Cambridge.  After his first wife Joan died in childbirth, all was forgiven and Cranmer was allowed to return as a lecturer at Jesus College in Cambridge.  In 1520, Cranmer was ordained as an Anglican priest.  Continuing his studies, he received his Doctor of Divinity in 1526.  Cranmer was a brilliant scholar who read not only Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but also French, German and Italian.  As one of the most learned men of his age, he had a private library larger than the Cambridge Library, with nearly all the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers.

King Henry 8^th, who needed a divorce in order to marry Anne Boleyn, liked Cranmer’s idea of consulting with leading European university theologians. After unsuccessfully appealing to Rome, Cranmer was appointed the resident ambassador at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.  While negotiating in 1532 with the Lutherans on behalf of King Henry 8^th, Cranmer married his second wife, Margaret, the niece of the famous Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander. Unexpectedly, King Henry 8^th chose Cranmer as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, a position in which he served for twenty-three years.  With the implicit knowledge of Henry 8^th, Margaret was smuggled into England. King Henry 8^th kept changing his mind about whether clergy could be married, so Margaret was smuggled back to Germany when it was too dangerous.  Given King Henry 8^th’s extreme volatility, it was a miracle that Cranmer survived, especially with so many enemies seeking to take him out.  In 1543, Henry 8^th denounced Cranmer as ‘the greatest heretic in Kent’, alluding to his secret marriage, and allowed the opponents to charge Cranmer with heresy. Then he put Cranmer in charge of the investigation, after personally giving him his royal signet ring of protection.  After Edward 6^th became the next King, Margaret was allowed to openly be Cranmer’s wife with their two children Margaret and Thomas. 

Cranmer wrote the English Prayer Book in two versions, 1549 and 1552, the first one more catholic, the second more protestant.  He brought change slowly and cautiously.  The compulsory usage of the new English Prayer Book, however, resulted in a Prayer Book rebellion in Devon and Cornwall where Cornish was spoken rather than English.  Queen Elizabeth, after the death of her sister Queen Mary in 1558, combined her late godfather’s two prayer books into one: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life (1549); Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving (1552).” Cranmer affirmed the presence of Jesus by the Holy Spirit in Holy Communion, which must be fed on in the heart by faith with thanksgiving: “Doth not God’s Word teach a true presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament is a spiritual presence?”

                In the Prayer Book, Cranmer restored the giving of both bread and wine to the congregation, not just the clergy. He also wrote a healing service in the Prayer Book, focused directly in praying to Christ, rather than to the saints. Cranmer wrote 25 of the 70 collect prayers in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. This helped people meditate on the Word of God, ‘to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest his Word.’ Professor Simeon Zahl of Cambridge recently described Cranmer’s Prayer Book as a ‘technology of the heart’ that helps us psychologically experience the consolation of the Holy Spirit. 

Cranmer wrote the preface for the Great Bible, the first English bible ever used in English Churches, an adaptation of William Coverdale’s translation. To protect the bible, it was chained to the lectern desk.

He gave refuge to many European Protestant scholars like Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Bernardino Ochino who were invited to teach at English universities.  In March 1552, Cranmer invited the foremost Continental reformers, Heinrich Bullinger, John Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon to come to England and to participate in an interdenominational council. Sadly, none were able to come.

The death of 15-year-old King Edward 6^th from tuberculosis left a leadership vacuum. First cousin Lady Jane Gray only lasted as a Protestant Queen for nine days.  Then Mary was made Queen, and Imprisoned Cranmer for over two years. He was charged by Mary with sedition, treason, and heresy.  During that time, she burned over 300 protestants at the stake, giving her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’, the same as the drink.  Forced to watch the burning of his two fellow bishops Latimer and Ridley, Cranmer renounced the prayer book six times before he was burned at the stake. 

Was Cranmer a weak-willed, flipflopping, compromiser, or was his real issue his strong allegiance to obey the King/Queen?  Was this what caused him to recant the Prayer Book? Was he much like the Apostle Peter who denied Jesus three times, yet turned back and helped others? (Luke 22:32)

In his final sermon, he renounced his renunciation, before being rushed off to be burnt at the stake at the same location as his fellow Protestant Bishops Ridley and Latimer. As he was being burnt, he intentionally put his right hand in the fire so that it would be burnt first: “And forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, it shall first be burned…”  Cranmer's death was immortalized in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, placed beside the Bible by Queen Elizabeth the First in every English Cathedral. The Anglican Communion commemorates Thomas Cranmer as a Reformation Martyr on 21 March, the anniversary of his death.

As he was being burned at the stake, he prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Cranmer finished well on a fiery stake, faithful to God at the end, despite his vacillating.  Perhaps this is a hopeful metaphor for the struggles of contemporary Anglicanism.  May the rediscovery of Cranmer help both Anglican Christians and the wider Christian community to also finish well.

Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

 

COMMUNICATING THE STORY by Eleanor Shepherd

 Recently I read a FaceTime post from a friend who was reflecting that the removal of all of our Christian influence from the schools. She recognized this means that children are growing up without the stories that were familiar to us and influenced so much of the classic literature we knew.

As I thought about that, I realized that these were the stories that also created the values that are important to us and knit us together in many ways. They gave meaning to our lives. This morning in my private prayer time, I was reminded of one of the stories that I have always appreciated.

It is the story that John recounts about the woman who was getting some water at a well in a town called Sychar, when Jesus stopped there to rest. He asked her for a drink of water, and she was quite surprised that he addressed her, as she was a Samaritan and He was Jewish.  Usually, the two groups kept their distance from one another. Not only that, but she was also a woman, and he was a man who was not part of her community and for him to speak to her was rather unorthodox, let alone ask her to give him a drink.

What I like about this story is that as their conversation continues, she discovers that this is a man that she can talk to, and he listens and answers her questions respectfully. In reading her story, I found that it was easy for me to image the backstory, listening to the conversation she had with Jesus. What I loved most of all was that when he asked her about her husband, she told the truth, and Jesus confirmed it, even if it was not the whole truth.  She said that she did not have a husband. Jesus affirmed that what she said was true, by letting her know that he was aware that she had had five husbands and that the man she was living with now, was not her husband. Knowing all of this about her, he still spoke to her with respect, and this convinced that this was no ordinary man.

I used the backstory that I created about her from what I read in the Bible, in my book, More Questions than Answers to show how Jesus was able to use the questions that people have about faith to help them to discover who God is and how much He loves them. This is the good news of the Bible and why I regret that today people do not have the opportunity to find themselves in such stories.

There are so many people who, like this lady so long ago in Sychar, are searching for love in all the wrong places. We who have been exposed to the powerful message of love know that there is One who loves us unconditionally and His story and His presence have transformed our lives. Often, because we have failed in living out what we have believed and discovered, folks around us do not know the depth of love that they could experience. Since the Bible is not popular, perhaps we will have to be clearer in showing the love that it expresses. We can graciously communicate the message to those we meet. Maybe for us that will be a way that we can offer them a drink of living water that their thirsty souls long for.

Martin Luther: Here I Stand

 

-an article for the Light Magazine denominational founder series

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

In 1934, Hitler tragically became the German Fuhrer. That same year, Mr King, a black preacher from the United States, visited the places of the Reformation in Germany. He was so impressed that he changed his name and that of his eldest son Michael, to Martin Luther. His son Martin Luther King Jr.  is famous for having an anti-racist dream of civil rights for all. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), Martin Luther King defended himself against the charge of extremism by noting the examples of Jesus, Amos, Paul, John Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther himself: ‘Was not Martin Luther an extremist – ‘Here I stand: I can do none other so help me God?”’

The original Martin Luther however was not a King, but rather a copper-smelter’s son.  His dad Hans was always involved in mining conflicts, so decided that he needed his son to become a lawyer.  But after a lightning-filled storm on July 2nd 1505, Martin pledged that he would become an Augustinian monk.  His father, who wanted grandchildren, was so upset that he initially disowned his son Martin.  His dad dismissed Martin’s calling, saying “May it not prove an illusion and deception.” At Martin’s ordination in 1507, his dad suggested that the devil had caused Martin to break the commandment to obey one’s parents. After the death of two of Martin’s brothers, news falsely reached his dad Hans that Martin too had died from the black plague.  This somewhat softened his dad to his ‘wayward’ monastic son. Both Martin’s father and mother were very strict disciplinarians: “For a mere nut, my mother beat me until the blood flowed.” As an Augustinian monk, Martin never felt that he could please his heavenly Father: “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners.” Did Martin have God the Father confused with his often angry and unforgiving earthly father? 

Martin tried very hard to please God through monastic practices.  His day began at 3am with the first of hourly prayers.  He would whip himself and lie outside in the snow in an attempt to be good enough. None of his fellow monks prayed more or fasted longer than him.  Luther would confess his sins for up to six hours at a time.  His tired confessor Staupitz told him “Man, God is not angry with you. You are angry with God. Don’t you know that God commands you to hope? Go away and don’t come back until you have done some real sinning.”

After becoming a theological Professor at the University of Wittenburg, Martin began to teach his students about the book of Romans.  God freed him from guilt through Romans 1:17 which said that the just will live by faith: “This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."  This enabled Luther to bring hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to the guilty, and a born-again experience to those lost in works-religiosity, who were trying to be good enough for God. Luther was so excited about this breakthrough that he changed his family name in 1917 from Luder (cadaver or prostitute) to Luther, based on a Latin & Greek word (Elutherius/eleutheria) for freedom. Because he saw himself as bound and captive to the Word of God, he did not see it safe to go against freedom of his conscience.

You can imagine how upset Luther was when John Tetzel came hawking indulgences in Wittenburg. Indulgences were paper certificates that one purchased to reduce one’s time in purgatory. Tetzel, a Dominican monk, had previously been convicted of adultery, and the Emperor ordered that he be tied in a sack and thrown in a river. Luther’s own parishioners thought that Tetzel’s indulgences were like a ‘get-out-of-purgatory’ card, even if they did not give up their adultery and theft.  The Bible, said Luther, calls us to actually repent and stop sinning, rather than just do acts of penance, like blooding our knees while crawling up stairs.  Indulgences were the bingo of the sixteenth century. At first, indulgences were conferred on those who either went on a crusade or helped pay the Crusade expenses. Indulgences proved so lucrative that it was speedily extended to build churches, monasteries, and hospitals.  Because indulgences were seen as transferable, one could pay money to reduce their relatives’ time in purgatory.  Luther denounced this money-making scheme by nailing his 95 Theses on Oct 31^st 1917 to the now famous Wittenberg Door of the Castle Church.  Where, he asked, is any mention of indulgences or purgatory in the Bible?

Luther never intended to start a new Lutheran denomination, let alone the endless splitting of the 45,000+ Protestant denominations that followed. He just naively wanted to address these financial abuses that needed reforming.  But Tetsel’s indulgences were not just going to pay for Pope Leo’s St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Half of it was going directly to the Fugger banking family in Augsburg, Germany. They were the richest merchant capitalists with a GDP-adjusted net worth of $400 billion. Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz owed the Fuggers money after buying his Archbishopric position. Luther was in a lose/lose situation as he upset the financial security of not just the pope, but also the most powerful politicians in Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who had bought his position with around 3,000 kg of gold from the Fuggers, was determined to capture and execute Luther.  He made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. Luther became Europe’s most ‘wanted, dead or alive’ criminal.

Fortunately for Luther, the Elector Prince Frederick the Wise ‘kidnapped’ him after the 1521 Diet of Worms debate, hiding him away in the Wartburg Castle.  There Luther grew a beard, disguising himself as a knight, Junker Jorg.  During this depressing time of isolation, Luther translated the New Testament into German.  It instantly became Germany’s first runaway bestseller, thanks in part to the new technology of the Gutenberg printing press. 

The Reformation was a back to the Bible movement.  Luther taught that the Bible is over the Church, that the Bible commands and directs the Church, not the other way around. No longer was the Bible only available for the elite who could read Latin, Hebrew or Greek.  It then took Luther twelve years to complete the German Old Testament. The ancient Hebrew of the Book of Job was so difficult that Luther could only translate three lines every four days.  Luther’s Bible had over 100,000 copies purchased by 1525. His bible, like the King James Version for the English, standardized the German language and literature, producing a stronger sense of common identity among those speaking German. Through reading Luther’s bible, German literacy rates skyrocketed. Because literacy is essential to reading the bible, Luther convinced the German nobles to provide schools for all children. Sermons were often not a regular part of medieval worship. Luther’s preaching was based on the Bible and always pointed to Christ Crucified. Because many medieval clergy didn’t know the ten commandments, apostles’ creed, or the Lord’s prayer, Luther taught about these in his German-language Greater Catechism.

How many of our congregations have sung Luther’s A Mighty Fortress, written during the black  plague?  Because he believed in the ‘priesthood of all believers’, Luther as a prolific song-writer restored congregational singing:  “Second only to the Bible, the Word of God, is the importance of music, because music had the singular ability to elevate the soul.” Luther said that he had no use for cranks who despise God’s gift of music: “Music drives away the devil.” He knew that music deeply touches the feelings of the human heart: “My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from dire plagues.”  In classic Luther overstatement, he said: “He who does not find (music) an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod and is not worthy to be called a man.”

Has God ever amazed you when he uses deeply flawed people like David and Luther?  Both stood against the Goliaths of their day; both fell into tragic behaviours.  God used Luther to launch a 16^th century Jesus revolution that is still shaping our world today.  Luther described himself as a rough woodsman whose job it was to ‘dig out stumps and trunks, hack away thorns and briar, fill in puddles and clear a path.’  His weaknesses were hidden in his strengths. Many deeply admire Luther for his courageous willingness to be an underdog standing for his convictions against impossible odds.  This perseverance sometimes translated into intractable stubbornness where he would not allow other reformed Christians to work with him, if they had a different view of Holy Communion.  For those of us who deeply admire Luther, the most troubling area was his later antisemitic comments in 1543. The younger Luther in 1523 said:

If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property.

Did the endless controversy that Luther lived with cause him to embrace the root of bitterness towards God’s Chosen People? (Hebrews 12:15) As a young student, Luther was known as the King of the Hops. He later boasted that he could outdrink other reformers. Luther spoke publicly about alcoholism: “Our Lord God must count the drunkenness of us Germans as an every day sin, for we probably cannot stop and yet it’s such a disgraceful nuisance that injures body, soul, and goods.” Luther even recommended alcohol as a way to fight off depression: “When you are assailed by gloom, despair, or a troubled conscience, you should eat, drink, and talk with others (…) Copious drinking benefits me when I am in this condition.” Might Luther’s drinking problem have influenced his later antisemitic comments? Fortunately, the Lutheran Church has renounced this serious mistake. 

Luther has had a lasting impact, particularly on the western world and rise of democracy’s emphasis on liberty, equality, and individual rights. More books have been written about him than any other man of history except Jesus Christ and possibly Augustine. More than 70 million Christians in 79 countries call themselves Lutherans, a term that Luther didn’t like. The number of Lutherans is now increasing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world.  All of the 900 million Christians who identify as Protestants owe a great debt to Martin Luther.  John Calvin saw Luther as a great man with excellent gifts.  He added: “Would that Luther had studied to curb his restless uneasy temper that is so ready to boil over everywhere??”

May Luther’s courageous stand inspire us to also courageously stand for the Lordship of Jesus and the authority of Scripture in 2024.

            Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird www.edhird.com 

Exercising Caution

 

The Canadian Press reported on Tuesday, May 20^, “A wildfire that forced thousands of people to evacuate several Fort McMurray neighbourhoods last week is no longer classified as out-of-control.”

In May my daughter’s friend Jenn, and her daughter, went to Edmonton waiting out the fire in their home community of Fort McMurray. The following weekend much-needed rain and the steady work of firefighters were able to get the fire under better control. I don’t know whether Jenn and her daughter are back home, but I hope they could go back and be safe.

That much is good news. Where do we go from here?

How do we care for our creation?

What we do matters. Each of us plays a part as a caretaker of creation. While we may not be surrounded by an immediate forest, we do have a say in what we do to nurture and heal the land and air.

In Ontario, we are aware of precious farmland closer to home being demanded for housing and industry. As a girl raised on a farm, understanding good agricultural practices, this concerns me.  As well as concern over the amount of water needed for further development. At the same time, I know a young family in our community who do not have enough resources, with a one-family income, to own or even rent a home and must move away do so.

There’s so much to think about, so many factors at play. How are we to manage it all?

 We are the caretakers, stewards of the land (Genesis 1:26). How we use it matters very much. Acting wisely and learning as much as we can about preserving creation, and understanding the balance between the need to feed people, which farmers do, and the need for jobs and places to live, requires us to educate ourselves and sometimes advocate too. 

Our call is to act wisely and pray where we can for changes that can make a difference.

 

 

 

 Carolyn Wilker

https://www.carolynwilker.ca/