History Tours - Summer 2019
One of the real treats I’ve had as a pastor here for the last five years (can you believe it will be five years in September?) has been serving a congregation with such deep historical roots. Often when I speak with visitors, or when we’re hosting folks from the wider ELCA - I get to give a quick tour of our building, and share a bit of our congregation’s history from its roots. But for the last twelve years we’ve had a group coming to the church that we’re particularly grateful to welcome, and share part of our congregation’s story.
Almost a decade ago, Dick Helm and Bill Cammann from Pfaff Elementary had a conversation about Spinnerstown’s local history. Mr. Cammann had a great idea for taking the fourth graders to the Schoolhouse next to Pfaff, but with Dick’s help that idea grew to include a tour of our congregation’s building and the cemetery. I hear they go to the Spinnerstown Hotel as well, and I know I’d sure like to be part of that tour!
Each year since then, the kids have come to St. John’s for a lesson on the history of the church. We’ve all agreed that we shouldn’t go into any particularly deeper religious content since it’s a school activity, and we don’t want the school to face any accusations of endorsing religions. But we do have a lot of history that we get to share. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (often called the Patriarch of American Lutheranism), and Frederick Muhlenberg (one of his sons, and first Speaker of the House of Representatives) both preached and presided at this congregation. The cemetery is of course historic (we keep kids on the church-side of the cemetery so they don’t cross the street into the oldest part - that curve is dangerous!). Our congregation is old enough to have primary texts and artifacts written in German (which can certainly be meaningful to kids in families that immigrated to the U.S. more recently, or who might not speak English at home). There is a great deal to share!
We help kids get a vision of the things that they would have seen if they lived in Spinnerstown and went to the church in the 18th and 19th centuries - baptismal fonts, communion sets, Bibles, theological books, and school books. And after the presentation, the kids are sent outside to the cemetery to take rubbings of some of the graves of those who have gone before us - looking for the oldest graves, for similar names or birthdays, for family members, or sadly for departed friends and mentors. For a few of the kids, it is the first time they have ever set foot in a church. It is a gift that our church can be a welcoming and thoughtful place for them, and that our relationship with Pfaff is as strong as it is! Not every public school would be as comfortable with sending their kids to a church, and we work hard to maintain that trust.
Over the years, we’ve worked to make the tour run a little more smoothly and accessibly. Dick started focusing on the schoolhouse and entrusted the Church’s part of the tour to Randy Felten (so that he would no longer have to worry about leaving the church open). Randy has given his part of the presentation his own flair and content off of the notes Dick gave him. I’ve started setting up the space so that kids can get a closer look at some of our church’s artifacts. And each year we try to find ways to make our presentation more engaging and thought-provoking for kids. And together we’ve kept our eyes and ears open for new information, new age-appropriate stories, and new aspects of our church’s history to share with the community.
So thank you to everyone who has helped and continues to help make these days happen - who’ve helped in research, who’ve helped build good relationships with the school, and who have helped make these things happen. And if you ever want to hear a few of the stories about some of the things that make our church unique - just ask. There’s so much great stuff to share.
Looking forward to a summer of good ministry and good questions together!
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
The Season After Pentecost - June 2019
At this point in our liturgical year together, we’re entering into the Season after Pentecost. Pentecost is the longest season of the Church year - going from the 17th all the way to the first Sunday in Advent on December 1st this year - so a full 23 Sundays this year are part of this season out of the 52 weeks of the year.
Each season of the Church year has its own independent point - a particular and deliberate theme that the Church is meant to focus on, and the readings are meant to uplift. Advent is the season of preparation for the End (which is in turn revealed to be the birth of Christ); the Season of Christmas is about the majesty and humility of the incarnation; the Time after Epiphany is the season of reveling in the light; Lent is the season of obedience and learning; Holy Week and Easter are the seasons of resurrection; and Pentecost is a season of sending and mission. It’s ultimately the season of the Church.
In a lot of ways, this is kind of like the season where we take the training wheels off and start doing the ministry we’ve been called to do. God’s been preparing you with the readings, with the sacraments, and with the liturgy each of those weeks so that you can do something to celebrate and give joy with this season of the year. As the entire world seems to be flowering and blooming (you know, when it’s not raining), so too is the Church - producing good works like fruit from a tree, or like steam from the kettle.
So between now and Advent, I want you to make a single spiritual goal. It can be any sort of thing: donate more blood than usual, invite ten new people to church, give to the Food Pantry every week, mentor a new disciple of Jesus, read or listen to scripture each day, start a book study on a topic that’s really important to us. But I want you to try out one that that you’ve always wanted to do to follow Jesus over these 23 weeks. And on top of that, let me know how I can help you, how I can be your supporter, your cheerleader, and your pastor in the midst of this great time in the Church’s year.
What do you want to try? What experiment at this church would be amazing? What lessons do we want to learn? Whatever you do, know that God is in the midst of it. While the training wheels are off, God is where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going to. Let’s be the Church together!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost - as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be - world without end. Amen, Amen!
Pastor Kaegler
At this point in our liturgical year together, we’re entering into the Season after Pentecost. Pentecost is the longest season of the Church year - going from the 17th all the way to the first Sunday in Advent on December 1st this year - so a full 23 Sundays this year are part of this season out of the 52 weeks of the year.
Each season of the Church year has its own independent point - a particular and deliberate theme that the Church is meant to focus on, and the readings are meant to uplift. Advent is the season of preparation for the End (which is in turn revealed to be the birth of Christ); the Season of Christmas is about the majesty and humility of the incarnation; the Time after Epiphany is the season of reveling in the light; Lent is the season of obedience and learning; Holy Week and Easter are the seasons of resurrection; and Pentecost is a season of sending and mission. It’s ultimately the season of the Church.
In a lot of ways, this is kind of like the season where we take the training wheels off and start doing the ministry we’ve been called to do. God’s been preparing you with the readings, with the sacraments, and with the liturgy each of those weeks so that you can do something to celebrate and give joy with this season of the year. As the entire world seems to be flowering and blooming (you know, when it’s not raining), so too is the Church - producing good works like fruit from a tree, or like steam from the kettle.
So between now and Advent, I want you to make a single spiritual goal. It can be any sort of thing: donate more blood than usual, invite ten new people to church, give to the Food Pantry every week, mentor a new disciple of Jesus, read or listen to scripture each day, start a book study on a topic that’s really important to us. But I want you to try out one that that you’ve always wanted to do to follow Jesus over these 23 weeks. And on top of that, let me know how I can help you, how I can be your supporter, your cheerleader, and your pastor in the midst of this great time in the Church’s year.
What do you want to try? What experiment at this church would be amazing? What lessons do we want to learn? Whatever you do, know that God is in the midst of it. While the training wheels are off, God is where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going to. Let’s be the Church together!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost - as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be - world without end. Amen, Amen!
Pastor Kaegler
May 2019
“We receive (the Sabbath) as a categorical gift, the urge to realize ourselves, not only in our work but also in our actions, even in the act of faith, must die. This is the harsh side of the divine service understood as a festival, a holiday.
This kind of dying, however, makes room for life... It means that God, and God alone, does his work in us...
If it is true that we must rest from our work, die to the old self, to let God do his work, faith is primarily neither theory nor practice, neither a speculative life (vita contemplativa) nor an active life (vita activa), but, to use Luther's term for it, a receptive life (vita passiva)."
- Oswald BayerTheology the Lutheran Way (William B. Eerdman's Press: Grand Rapids, 2007) 92-93
Blessed Eastertide! I hope you have all found time to appreciate this holiday with the rest that God intends for all created and creative peoples. It may be hard for many of us to do this, though. The world as we have set it up for ourselves does not privilege rest as we would wish.
Going to Church in the mornings can become a race to get everyone awake and well-dressed. Even acts of recreation - sports and games that would refresh people in years past - tend to become competitions that make or break our children’s futures. What is meant to be a gift can seem like an insurmountable challenge.
It is an act of faith to simply put these things down - our expectations and demands of perfection, our ways of optimizing our time and passions. It is faith when we resist our demands to prove ourselves, and let ourselves BE. To let God BE. The Sabbath is a gift that we cannot earn. We receive our lack of action, our recovery from social demands, and God’s abundant grace. We die to the demands of the world. We no longer belong to it as we once did. In doing so we might be blessed to realize that our identity does not lie in what we do or what we produce, but in the grace of God - and in God, the resurrection and the life in community with the Church of all ages.
May your rest be made Holy. May it reveal the grace of God.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
“We receive (the Sabbath) as a categorical gift, the urge to realize ourselves, not only in our work but also in our actions, even in the act of faith, must die. This is the harsh side of the divine service understood as a festival, a holiday.
This kind of dying, however, makes room for life... It means that God, and God alone, does his work in us...
If it is true that we must rest from our work, die to the old self, to let God do his work, faith is primarily neither theory nor practice, neither a speculative life (vita contemplativa) nor an active life (vita activa), but, to use Luther's term for it, a receptive life (vita passiva)."
- Oswald BayerTheology the Lutheran Way (William B. Eerdman's Press: Grand Rapids, 2007) 92-93
Blessed Eastertide! I hope you have all found time to appreciate this holiday with the rest that God intends for all created and creative peoples. It may be hard for many of us to do this, though. The world as we have set it up for ourselves does not privilege rest as we would wish.
Going to Church in the mornings can become a race to get everyone awake and well-dressed. Even acts of recreation - sports and games that would refresh people in years past - tend to become competitions that make or break our children’s futures. What is meant to be a gift can seem like an insurmountable challenge.
It is an act of faith to simply put these things down - our expectations and demands of perfection, our ways of optimizing our time and passions. It is faith when we resist our demands to prove ourselves, and let ourselves BE. To let God BE. The Sabbath is a gift that we cannot earn. We receive our lack of action, our recovery from social demands, and God’s abundant grace. We die to the demands of the world. We no longer belong to it as we once did. In doing so we might be blessed to realize that our identity does not lie in what we do or what we produce, but in the grace of God - and in God, the resurrection and the life in community with the Church of all ages.
May your rest be made Holy. May it reveal the grace of God.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Holy Week - April 2019
Greetings and glad tidings!
At this time of year, I’m sure we’re all relieved to see nature waking from her cold and silent sabbath, and see that our Lenten fasts are coming to an end. Easter is coming on the 21st of April this year. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Vernal Equinox. This means that we’re actually having one of the later possible dates for Easter.
But before Easter, we go through the zenith of Lent which we call Holy Week. Each day we’re given the chance to observe the end of Jesus’ ministry. We worship on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil. By now, many of you have come to know the power of these solemn services - seeing praises forecast Jesus’ crucifixion, taking part in Jesus’ meal and washing on Maundy Thursday, listening to the story of his public execution by crucifixion with fright and sorrow, and gathering at the place where fear, memory, and hope intersect on Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil. There is great power in these services, and I really hope you all take a chance in getting involved in all four of them as we lead up to Easter itself.
Isn’t it interesting, though, that we don’t gather on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday? It’s something I always wondered about as a kid - because you’d think something was happening on those days of Jesus’ ministry (or at least in the Church). And while we’ve never worshiped with the solemnity on those other days - I’d encourage you in your own lives to take some time in prayer on those days of Holy Week. In our tradition, we actually do have readings and prayers for those days - Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, and Holy Wednesday.
On Holy Monday, we commemorate Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. This ritual foreshadows the betrayal and death of Jesus (John 12:1-11). On Holy Monday, we pay witness to a God who chooses to spend time with marginalized people, as well as the power of generosity done in love for God.
On Holy Tuesday, we commemorate that when foreigners came to learn from Jesus, he knew his time has come. To the disciples, he observed that his death will bring people of all nations to learn from him - as a grain of wheat can only grow and bear fruit if it is buried. (John 12:20-36). In prayer, consider looking for the ways that Jesus brought you and perhaps your ancestors into himself, and consider your own place the fruit of a grain of wheat that is his life and death.
On Holy Wednesday (once known as Spy Wednesday), we jump ahead just a little bit to the Last Supper. More precisely, we go to Jesus identifying that his betrayer comes from within the fold - Judas Iscariot, the Disciple of Jesus (John 13:21-32). While not in the reading, we usually also commemorate Judas’ seeking out the high priests and receiving silver for his betrayal. It’s a terrifying kind of day, to confront the potential for betrayal among those we love, and those who claim to love us. Amid it all we know that the goodness of God matters more than our ability to betray. As I often say, we cannot stop God from being God - and we cannot stop God from working for the good in the most terrible places and experiences. Pray over these things, and look for the ways that forgiveness has mattered in your life.
There is power throughout Holy Week. As we finish up in Lent, I encourage you to focus on these things, to pray, to love, and to be God’s beloved community in the most powerful time of the Christian year.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings and glad tidings!
At this time of year, I’m sure we’re all relieved to see nature waking from her cold and silent sabbath, and see that our Lenten fasts are coming to an end. Easter is coming on the 21st of April this year. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Vernal Equinox. This means that we’re actually having one of the later possible dates for Easter.
But before Easter, we go through the zenith of Lent which we call Holy Week. Each day we’re given the chance to observe the end of Jesus’ ministry. We worship on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil. By now, many of you have come to know the power of these solemn services - seeing praises forecast Jesus’ crucifixion, taking part in Jesus’ meal and washing on Maundy Thursday, listening to the story of his public execution by crucifixion with fright and sorrow, and gathering at the place where fear, memory, and hope intersect on Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil. There is great power in these services, and I really hope you all take a chance in getting involved in all four of them as we lead up to Easter itself.
Isn’t it interesting, though, that we don’t gather on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday? It’s something I always wondered about as a kid - because you’d think something was happening on those days of Jesus’ ministry (or at least in the Church). And while we’ve never worshiped with the solemnity on those other days - I’d encourage you in your own lives to take some time in prayer on those days of Holy Week. In our tradition, we actually do have readings and prayers for those days - Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, and Holy Wednesday.
On Holy Monday, we commemorate Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. This ritual foreshadows the betrayal and death of Jesus (John 12:1-11). On Holy Monday, we pay witness to a God who chooses to spend time with marginalized people, as well as the power of generosity done in love for God.
On Holy Tuesday, we commemorate that when foreigners came to learn from Jesus, he knew his time has come. To the disciples, he observed that his death will bring people of all nations to learn from him - as a grain of wheat can only grow and bear fruit if it is buried. (John 12:20-36). In prayer, consider looking for the ways that Jesus brought you and perhaps your ancestors into himself, and consider your own place the fruit of a grain of wheat that is his life and death.
On Holy Wednesday (once known as Spy Wednesday), we jump ahead just a little bit to the Last Supper. More precisely, we go to Jesus identifying that his betrayer comes from within the fold - Judas Iscariot, the Disciple of Jesus (John 13:21-32). While not in the reading, we usually also commemorate Judas’ seeking out the high priests and receiving silver for his betrayal. It’s a terrifying kind of day, to confront the potential for betrayal among those we love, and those who claim to love us. Amid it all we know that the goodness of God matters more than our ability to betray. As I often say, we cannot stop God from being God - and we cannot stop God from working for the good in the most terrible places and experiences. Pray over these things, and look for the ways that forgiveness has mattered in your life.
There is power throughout Holy Week. As we finish up in Lent, I encourage you to focus on these things, to pray, to love, and to be God’s beloved community in the most powerful time of the Christian year.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Lenten Worship - March 2019
Greetings, St. John’s,
Lent is right around the corner - a season of discipline, of reflection, and community as we remember Jesus’ path to Jerusalem and prepare for Holy Week. This year will be a little unlike other years - as Trinity Great Swamp continues its leadership transition, we will not be hosting joint mid-week services and exchanging pulpits this year (apart from Ash Wednesday). But even though we’ll miss Pastor Ellis’ preaching, and Great Swamp’s partnership, we’ll still be holding Mid-Week Services.
This year we’ll be holding the Holden Evening Prayer service each week. It’s one of my favorite liturgies of the Lutheran Church, and one of the best liturgical settings created within the last 35 years. It’s a service of light - drawing our eyes to the candles for their beauty, to the font that begins our Christian life together; to some of the neighbors God calls us to, and to the Cross which brings us life. The music breathes between praise and contemplation, and invites us to share in the mysteries of Christian life.
While we’ve done Holden Evening Prayer before, we’ll be doing something a little different with the preaching. Each week we’ll take some time to reflect on the coming Sunday’s scriptures together - wondering what God is doing with these passages, and helping each other explore the faith of the Church. We’ll be getting into that space between Sermon and Bible Study which I hope will help these services be at once what you need as individuals, and what we need as a community of faith that God calls together. It will also help us be ready for worship the following Sunday. I hope you’ll join us for these Midweek services, and find the same life from them that I do.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings, St. John’s,
Lent is right around the corner - a season of discipline, of reflection, and community as we remember Jesus’ path to Jerusalem and prepare for Holy Week. This year will be a little unlike other years - as Trinity Great Swamp continues its leadership transition, we will not be hosting joint mid-week services and exchanging pulpits this year (apart from Ash Wednesday). But even though we’ll miss Pastor Ellis’ preaching, and Great Swamp’s partnership, we’ll still be holding Mid-Week Services.
This year we’ll be holding the Holden Evening Prayer service each week. It’s one of my favorite liturgies of the Lutheran Church, and one of the best liturgical settings created within the last 35 years. It’s a service of light - drawing our eyes to the candles for their beauty, to the font that begins our Christian life together; to some of the neighbors God calls us to, and to the Cross which brings us life. The music breathes between praise and contemplation, and invites us to share in the mysteries of Christian life.
While we’ve done Holden Evening Prayer before, we’ll be doing something a little different with the preaching. Each week we’ll take some time to reflect on the coming Sunday’s scriptures together - wondering what God is doing with these passages, and helping each other explore the faith of the Church. We’ll be getting into that space between Sermon and Bible Study which I hope will help these services be at once what you need as individuals, and what we need as a community of faith that God calls together. It will also help us be ready for worship the following Sunday. I hope you’ll join us for these Midweek services, and find the same life from them that I do.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Lifelong practices - February 2019
Last September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. This is our final month of going over the guide - I hope you’ve found these articles helpful in understanding what we’re asking of you, and I hope that the guide will be a meaningful help in your discipleship here at St. John’s. This month we are exploring the “lifelong” elements of congregational discipleship. Our guide recommends:
“Each member is asked to reflect on how their faith in the congregation affects the wider course of life. We’d like to celebrate and observe the big transitions of our lives together.”
Our tradition is filled with powerful rites and rituals - ways of marking our life and seeking God’s blessings in each season. And I think marking those moments with a Word from God, with the Spirit’s promises, and with the presence of Christ provide courage, hope, closure, and confidence in new beginnings. Every big transition you meet or anticipate, the Church can be here for you - whether you’re expecting a new child in your family and want to be ready to bring them up in a life of faith, or you’re moving to a new house and want it to be marked and sealed by promises of God; whether you’re starting a new job or a new school - there’s a ritual and a rite for it all! Baptisms, confirmations, specialized blessings, prayers for spiritual healing, and confessions, we have no shortage of these things that we want all of you to have access to when taking part in life’s big things.
There are also ways that we can say good-bye to one another. When we prepare to move away, there’s a service of farewell and Godspeed, where our whole congregation blesses and prays for you in worship when you leave us (I can even seek out and recommend good churches for you to check out in many of the places you go). And of course there are funeral services as well. One of the greatest gifts you can provide for your family, I think, is to take away some of the anxiety around funeral planning by meeting with me and getting your funeral wishes on file - what readings you want your family to hear, what songs you want them to sing, and what memories you want to live on.
In every stage of life, you can be blessed, and bless those around you along with your congregation. And in God’s love we are with you each step of the way. Because we are Jesus’ disciples together.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Last September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. This is our final month of going over the guide - I hope you’ve found these articles helpful in understanding what we’re asking of you, and I hope that the guide will be a meaningful help in your discipleship here at St. John’s. This month we are exploring the “lifelong” elements of congregational discipleship. Our guide recommends:
“Each member is asked to reflect on how their faith in the congregation affects the wider course of life. We’d like to celebrate and observe the big transitions of our lives together.”
Our tradition is filled with powerful rites and rituals - ways of marking our life and seeking God’s blessings in each season. And I think marking those moments with a Word from God, with the Spirit’s promises, and with the presence of Christ provide courage, hope, closure, and confidence in new beginnings. Every big transition you meet or anticipate, the Church can be here for you - whether you’re expecting a new child in your family and want to be ready to bring them up in a life of faith, or you’re moving to a new house and want it to be marked and sealed by promises of God; whether you’re starting a new job or a new school - there’s a ritual and a rite for it all! Baptisms, confirmations, specialized blessings, prayers for spiritual healing, and confessions, we have no shortage of these things that we want all of you to have access to when taking part in life’s big things.
There are also ways that we can say good-bye to one another. When we prepare to move away, there’s a service of farewell and Godspeed, where our whole congregation blesses and prays for you in worship when you leave us (I can even seek out and recommend good churches for you to check out in many of the places you go). And of course there are funeral services as well. One of the greatest gifts you can provide for your family, I think, is to take away some of the anxiety around funeral planning by meeting with me and getting your funeral wishes on file - what readings you want your family to hear, what songs you want them to sing, and what memories you want to live on.
In every stage of life, you can be blessed, and bless those around you along with your congregation. And in God’s love we are with you each step of the way. Because we are Jesus’ disciples together.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Seasonal Disciplines and Devotions - January 2019
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in you discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the last few months, I’ve been using our newsletter article to explore the guide, and how I think it can help each of us individually, and our congregation’s life together. This month I’m focusing on the seasonal disciplines I’ve asked you to embrace:
“Each member is asked to further their long term faith formation and intentional community work. New disciples are asked to do so the following once per season. Confident disciples are asked to do so once a month. The pastor does this stuff just about every day like it’s his job or something.”
I don’t know about you all, but sometimes in the day-to-day rush of life, I can lose sight of my long-term goals and agendas. When that happens, I let important dreams and plans fall by the wayside. Soon enough I can wonder where the day, or the week, or in this case, even the season went. Part of our life as disciples of Jesus is to be mindful of these longer-term, intentional developments in our faith life. We can’t always predict where these things will bring us, but they are good for us. Especially during New Year’s Resolution Season.
Our guide gives a few suggestions of ways you can be mindful of your longer-term development as one of Jesus’ followers here on earth. If you take some intentional time each season (or if you’re confident enough, each month or even day or week) to teach in the Sunday School or help in Nursery, you’ll be up to something incredible. You’ll be witness to the amazing developing minds and hearts of our young disciples. You can organize a congregational event (large or small scale) - be it a service event, or a congregational tour, or even host a party - and you’ll be building memories of discipleship and fellowship in lots of people (and perhaps serving the community in ways that are deeply needed). Even the monthly and seasonal committee meetings can have a big effect in our congregation’s overall life - some of our best ideas spring from those meetings!
If all of that feels a little extraverted for you, and you want to develop your faith a bit more individually - then take some time and borrow a book from the congregational, or the pastor’s, library. Set a goal to read and finish a good book about our shared faith - whether you want to better understand the history of our faith, or our theology and philosophy of life, or just need to read something powerful and encouraging. There are lots of resources we have for you to better understand God and the world. Along those lines, you can simply get together with me for a cup of coffee and some conversation about who we are, what we believe, and why we believe it. Another great goal you can set for yourself is to take up the practice of reading a recommended seasonal devotional - a small day-to-day collection of prayers and writings that can better center your life in God’s promises.
If I can be academic for a moment - one of my favorite theologians was a man by the name of Eberhard Jüngel. Jüngel was an amazing theologian for a great many reasons, but to me his most profound teaching was this incredible observation: God is a Mystery. For Jüngel a mystery is not simply a question to be answered. A mystery stands by itself - calling us, in and of itself, to ask questions. The questions we ask drive us more deeply into the truth at the heart of the mystery. God’s chosen, revealing, and confounding mystery was the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Coming to understand the mystery takes time, deliberation, and often a team. Indeed, it relies in part of the great work done by the generations of the church, our preceding investigators. Be part of that team and that community, both today and all days. Build the ground for the next generation to continue exploring. It takes time, but it’s worth it. And sometimes the best work you can do is at this medium to long term faith work. Once a season, once a month, but always with intention.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Kaegler
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in you discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the last few months, I’ve been using our newsletter article to explore the guide, and how I think it can help each of us individually, and our congregation’s life together. This month I’m focusing on the seasonal disciplines I’ve asked you to embrace:
“Each member is asked to further their long term faith formation and intentional community work. New disciples are asked to do so the following once per season. Confident disciples are asked to do so once a month. The pastor does this stuff just about every day like it’s his job or something.”
I don’t know about you all, but sometimes in the day-to-day rush of life, I can lose sight of my long-term goals and agendas. When that happens, I let important dreams and plans fall by the wayside. Soon enough I can wonder where the day, or the week, or in this case, even the season went. Part of our life as disciples of Jesus is to be mindful of these longer-term, intentional developments in our faith life. We can’t always predict where these things will bring us, but they are good for us. Especially during New Year’s Resolution Season.
Our guide gives a few suggestions of ways you can be mindful of your longer-term development as one of Jesus’ followers here on earth. If you take some intentional time each season (or if you’re confident enough, each month or even day or week) to teach in the Sunday School or help in Nursery, you’ll be up to something incredible. You’ll be witness to the amazing developing minds and hearts of our young disciples. You can organize a congregational event (large or small scale) - be it a service event, or a congregational tour, or even host a party - and you’ll be building memories of discipleship and fellowship in lots of people (and perhaps serving the community in ways that are deeply needed). Even the monthly and seasonal committee meetings can have a big effect in our congregation’s overall life - some of our best ideas spring from those meetings!
If all of that feels a little extraverted for you, and you want to develop your faith a bit more individually - then take some time and borrow a book from the congregational, or the pastor’s, library. Set a goal to read and finish a good book about our shared faith - whether you want to better understand the history of our faith, or our theology and philosophy of life, or just need to read something powerful and encouraging. There are lots of resources we have for you to better understand God and the world. Along those lines, you can simply get together with me for a cup of coffee and some conversation about who we are, what we believe, and why we believe it. Another great goal you can set for yourself is to take up the practice of reading a recommended seasonal devotional - a small day-to-day collection of prayers and writings that can better center your life in God’s promises.
If I can be academic for a moment - one of my favorite theologians was a man by the name of Eberhard Jüngel. Jüngel was an amazing theologian for a great many reasons, but to me his most profound teaching was this incredible observation: God is a Mystery. For Jüngel a mystery is not simply a question to be answered. A mystery stands by itself - calling us, in and of itself, to ask questions. The questions we ask drive us more deeply into the truth at the heart of the mystery. God’s chosen, revealing, and confounding mystery was the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Coming to understand the mystery takes time, deliberation, and often a team. Indeed, it relies in part of the great work done by the generations of the church, our preceding investigators. Be part of that team and that community, both today and all days. Build the ground for the next generation to continue exploring. It takes time, but it’s worth it. And sometimes the best work you can do is at this medium to long term faith work. Once a season, once a month, but always with intention.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Kaegler
Monthly Disciplines and Devotions - December 2018
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and in the future. This month I’ll focus on monthly practices for your life in this congregation.
Each member is asked to participate in and develop the community in non-Sunday Morning church activities, fellowship, and ministries. New disciples are asked to attend 1 event per month. Confident disciples are asked to attend between 2 and 4. The Pastor will attend at least 5. Big whoop! He’s there like every day!
One of the real blessings of our congregation is that we’ve always got something in the works - some interesting, or helpful, or communal activity beyond our Sunday morning service that strengthens our sense of discipleship, our congregation, our community, and more. Some of them are led by myself, or members of the congregation, or even the Synod and the Denomination. What makes them special, and what makes them memorable, is your presence in our congregation’s monthly fellowship, action, and planning.
One of our most regular gatherings is Pub(lic) Theology, which we gather for at the Spinnerstown Hotel for a light meal and a drink of celebration (be it beer, or wine, or soda). Members of our church sit down to relax and enjoy lively conversation around a topic that pertains to the Church and our common faith. We always find ourselves getting to the heart of some really deep and important matters that help us better know each other and equip us to greater service within the Church. The meetings are becoming so popular that we’re soon going to need multiple tables, and will want to call the Spinnerstown Hotel to make reservations!
But for those times when you think it’s time for action, come on up - our Social Ministry projects can always use helpers! During multiple points of the year, Bill Slotter faithfully spearheads blood drives and free community meals mostly for food-insecure people (Food for Friends and Loaves and Fishes). And of course there’s our Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner (way to go this year, everyone!) and our Pot Pie dinner. Not to mention all of the good labors of the Willing Workers, and the additional things we do to get ready for special worship services (Advent decorating, seasonal shifts, etc.)
There is also the planning and organizing elements of our time together. Our committees meet about once a month, either in the evening or after worship. Every time you take part in a committee you have a chance to develop the future of our church. Even more, our monthly council meetings are devoted not just to addressing the needs of the day and paying the bills, but preparing for and visioning our future together. And yet we’re not only responsible for our congregation - we have a say in the Synod. Members of St. John’s are always represented at Synod Assembly and Conference Assembly. And if you have any interest in shaping our wider Synod, you let me know and I can get you hooked up with the many incredible ministries that SEPA is up to.
As we stay in tune with our fellowship, our community, and our wider Synod, our spiritual lives are strengthened. As a community we enrich one another’s lives, and God has called our community, this congregation, to be a Church for the sake of the world. I’m honored to do that with you throughout the month.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and in the future. This month I’ll focus on monthly practices for your life in this congregation.
Each member is asked to participate in and develop the community in non-Sunday Morning church activities, fellowship, and ministries. New disciples are asked to attend 1 event per month. Confident disciples are asked to attend between 2 and 4. The Pastor will attend at least 5. Big whoop! He’s there like every day!
One of the real blessings of our congregation is that we’ve always got something in the works - some interesting, or helpful, or communal activity beyond our Sunday morning service that strengthens our sense of discipleship, our congregation, our community, and more. Some of them are led by myself, or members of the congregation, or even the Synod and the Denomination. What makes them special, and what makes them memorable, is your presence in our congregation’s monthly fellowship, action, and planning.
One of our most regular gatherings is Pub(lic) Theology, which we gather for at the Spinnerstown Hotel for a light meal and a drink of celebration (be it beer, or wine, or soda). Members of our church sit down to relax and enjoy lively conversation around a topic that pertains to the Church and our common faith. We always find ourselves getting to the heart of some really deep and important matters that help us better know each other and equip us to greater service within the Church. The meetings are becoming so popular that we’re soon going to need multiple tables, and will want to call the Spinnerstown Hotel to make reservations!
But for those times when you think it’s time for action, come on up - our Social Ministry projects can always use helpers! During multiple points of the year, Bill Slotter faithfully spearheads blood drives and free community meals mostly for food-insecure people (Food for Friends and Loaves and Fishes). And of course there’s our Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner (way to go this year, everyone!) and our Pot Pie dinner. Not to mention all of the good labors of the Willing Workers, and the additional things we do to get ready for special worship services (Advent decorating, seasonal shifts, etc.)
There is also the planning and organizing elements of our time together. Our committees meet about once a month, either in the evening or after worship. Every time you take part in a committee you have a chance to develop the future of our church. Even more, our monthly council meetings are devoted not just to addressing the needs of the day and paying the bills, but preparing for and visioning our future together. And yet we’re not only responsible for our congregation - we have a say in the Synod. Members of St. John’s are always represented at Synod Assembly and Conference Assembly. And if you have any interest in shaping our wider Synod, you let me know and I can get you hooked up with the many incredible ministries that SEPA is up to.
As we stay in tune with our fellowship, our community, and our wider Synod, our spiritual lives are strengthened. As a community we enrich one another’s lives, and God has called our community, this congregation, to be a Church for the sake of the world. I’m honored to do that with you throughout the month.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Weekly Disciplines and Devotions - November 2018
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in you discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and future. This month we’re focusing on weekly practices.
Each member is asked to have conversations about the church with members of their community. Sharing church news on Facebook, Twitter, or another forms of Social Media count too. We’re asking new disciples to have 1 conversation a week. Confident disciples are expected to have between 2 and 4 conversations. The pastor is aiming to have 5. But you can beat that ne’er do well.
This part of our program is pretty broad. A simple thing you could do is invite a friend to the Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner - mentioning that it’s good food to help fund our stained glass windows and why you think that’s important. When the Pot Pie Dinner comes, tell folks it’s good food to help feed kids at Pfaff. Just inviting folks to the Fall Festival and Hayride like you did last month for some shared community fun was a great thing to do.
Another great opportunity is for you to simply have conversations with one another both in and out of the Church. Take time to have conversations about the faith, or the scriptures. Have a conversation about the content of the sermon. Ask kids about Sunday School, or the children’s chat. Wonder about why our liturgy is the way it is, or what goes into how we choose our songs. Even having a conversation at coffee hour with someone you don’t know so well is a great opportunity to expand your sense of community.
Social media, for all its pitfalls, can facilitate this really well - especially when you’re having conversations with people you trust (though the comments section of any major public page probably won’t do you any good). After fact-checking your sources, you can always find interesting news or religiously inclined commentary worth discussion. Even more, you could consider Instagramming or live-Tweeting your time at Church - the good, the bad, and the ugly (though hopefully you’re not experiencing too much of the latter two!).
Honestly - whatever conversation you have that engages in your sense of value and meaning, and shows that part of your life in the Church, is incredible. Have conversations like that at least once a week. That kind of conversation can go a long way in deepening your friendships, your relationships within our congregation, and our shared faith. As the Book of Proverbs relates: Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Keep talking and keep engaging your faith within your wider community, and always out of love and compassion. As you explore these aspects of your faith with the faith community, the hope is that you’ll find yourself becoming more and more accustomed and confident in God’s grace and your own discipleship. You may even discover some of the things that God is calling you to do.
In our faith we confess that the Holy Spirit is actually working through all of you- cultivating your faith, love and hope. This happens through God’s Word in Scripture and Sacrament, but the Holy Spirit also does this through the community itself. God gives you all words that can give others a sense of community that goes beyond families, or clubs, and even beyond life and death. Share these words with others, and hear them yourself.
As you do that, you’ll find that our life together here at St. John’s will continue to be something we all want to be part of.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
This September we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in you discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and future. This month we’re focusing on weekly practices.
Each member is asked to have conversations about the church with members of their community. Sharing church news on Facebook, Twitter, or another forms of Social Media count too. We’re asking new disciples to have 1 conversation a week. Confident disciples are expected to have between 2 and 4 conversations. The pastor is aiming to have 5. But you can beat that ne’er do well.
This part of our program is pretty broad. A simple thing you could do is invite a friend to the Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner - mentioning that it’s good food to help fund our stained glass windows and why you think that’s important. When the Pot Pie Dinner comes, tell folks it’s good food to help feed kids at Pfaff. Just inviting folks to the Fall Festival and Hayride like you did last month for some shared community fun was a great thing to do.
Another great opportunity is for you to simply have conversations with one another both in and out of the Church. Take time to have conversations about the faith, or the scriptures. Have a conversation about the content of the sermon. Ask kids about Sunday School, or the children’s chat. Wonder about why our liturgy is the way it is, or what goes into how we choose our songs. Even having a conversation at coffee hour with someone you don’t know so well is a great opportunity to expand your sense of community.
Social media, for all its pitfalls, can facilitate this really well - especially when you’re having conversations with people you trust (though the comments section of any major public page probably won’t do you any good). After fact-checking your sources, you can always find interesting news or religiously inclined commentary worth discussion. Even more, you could consider Instagramming or live-Tweeting your time at Church - the good, the bad, and the ugly (though hopefully you’re not experiencing too much of the latter two!).
Honestly - whatever conversation you have that engages in your sense of value and meaning, and shows that part of your life in the Church, is incredible. Have conversations like that at least once a week. That kind of conversation can go a long way in deepening your friendships, your relationships within our congregation, and our shared faith. As the Book of Proverbs relates: Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Keep talking and keep engaging your faith within your wider community, and always out of love and compassion. As you explore these aspects of your faith with the faith community, the hope is that you’ll find yourself becoming more and more accustomed and confident in God’s grace and your own discipleship. You may even discover some of the things that God is calling you to do.
In our faith we confess that the Holy Spirit is actually working through all of you- cultivating your faith, love and hope. This happens through God’s Word in Scripture and Sacrament, but the Holy Spirit also does this through the community itself. God gives you all words that can give others a sense of community that goes beyond families, or clubs, and even beyond life and death. Share these words with others, and hear them yourself.
As you do that, you’ll find that our life together here at St. John’s will continue to be something we all want to be part of.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Daily Devotions - October 2018
Greetings, St. John’s!
Last month we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories, and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and future. The first disciplines I’ve asked you all to pick up are daily disciplines:
Each member of the congregation is asked to spend time every day in Prayer, the Scriptures, and the Confessions of the Church (Creeds, Catechisms, and the Book of Concord). New disciples are asked to spend time with one, confident disciples are asked to spend time with two, and the pastor will work with all three. But you’re just as good at this as that guy.
This can be an intimidating task for people - but certainly one that’s well worth it. Setting aside daily time for devotion and formation amid busy schedules can be a very difficult task. And yet - it remains essential for healthy spirituality.
Back in September, Stephen Spry gave a great temple talk where he likened daily prayer to daily conversations with a spouse. If you’re not keeping in touch with your spouse and working on your marriage, you’ll find yourself drifting apart in ways that rob life from you and from them. Think of daily devotions in that kind of way - God is with us day in and day out, but when we just keep doing our own thing and not finding the guidance, challenges, and conversations we need, our own spiritual lives can end up in trouble. Daily work with Prayer, Scripture, and the Confessions help us not only maintain our side of our relationship with God, but also help us find the gifts of life, peace, rest, comfort, and spiritual strength and integrity.
Prayer should be seen as a daily and devoted conversation with God - not zoned out and paying attention to a screen, but honest conversation. Scripture is listening to the stories that God has seen to preserving in the life of the Church - you know your place in the Church better for listening to them regularly. The Confessions are the pieces and gifts of wisdom and guidance for daily life, and struggles that help us to not sweat the small stuff and guide us on wise paths, and helps us better know the specifics and the principles of the faith we hold.
There are ways to put all three of these things into your day, but if this stuff is new to you, then try to focus on just one or two (particularly the ones that are less familiar to you). If you have a long commute and are a good driver, it might be helpful for you to download an audiobook of the Bible and listen to it while driving. If you have a meal together with your family once a day, it might be good to say the Lord’s Prayer all together before the meal, and use the Small Catechism to help cultivate reflective conversation at the dinner table. If you’re an early-bird, it could be helpful to go through a morning blessing with prayer (which you can find in either the Small Catechism or a copy of our hymnal).
Taking time with God is important for our every day life. It blesses, strengthens, and forms us. It need not be “another thing” to schedule into an already over-packed day, but with creativity, conversation, and devotion, you can find ways of infusing your daily life with spiritual wisdom and guidance. Having these things and using them joyfully and daily will deepen your spiritual life, and your sense of meaning and grace in the world. And a whole lot of you working on this together? Well, that’s just the kind of community this world needs.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings, St. John’s!
Last month we unveiled our Congregational Guide “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism.” As each of you go further along in your Christian path, the hope is that you’ll become more confident in your discipleship, and more comfortable in sharing the Christian faith with others. For the next few months, we’ll be exploring the categories, and why I think they’re important for our congregation’s life together and future. The first disciplines I’ve asked you all to pick up are daily disciplines:
Each member of the congregation is asked to spend time every day in Prayer, the Scriptures, and the Confessions of the Church (Creeds, Catechisms, and the Book of Concord). New disciples are asked to spend time with one, confident disciples are asked to spend time with two, and the pastor will work with all three. But you’re just as good at this as that guy.
This can be an intimidating task for people - but certainly one that’s well worth it. Setting aside daily time for devotion and formation amid busy schedules can be a very difficult task. And yet - it remains essential for healthy spirituality.
Back in September, Stephen Spry gave a great temple talk where he likened daily prayer to daily conversations with a spouse. If you’re not keeping in touch with your spouse and working on your marriage, you’ll find yourself drifting apart in ways that rob life from you and from them. Think of daily devotions in that kind of way - God is with us day in and day out, but when we just keep doing our own thing and not finding the guidance, challenges, and conversations we need, our own spiritual lives can end up in trouble. Daily work with Prayer, Scripture, and the Confessions help us not only maintain our side of our relationship with God, but also help us find the gifts of life, peace, rest, comfort, and spiritual strength and integrity.
Prayer should be seen as a daily and devoted conversation with God - not zoned out and paying attention to a screen, but honest conversation. Scripture is listening to the stories that God has seen to preserving in the life of the Church - you know your place in the Church better for listening to them regularly. The Confessions are the pieces and gifts of wisdom and guidance for daily life, and struggles that help us to not sweat the small stuff and guide us on wise paths, and helps us better know the specifics and the principles of the faith we hold.
There are ways to put all three of these things into your day, but if this stuff is new to you, then try to focus on just one or two (particularly the ones that are less familiar to you). If you have a long commute and are a good driver, it might be helpful for you to download an audiobook of the Bible and listen to it while driving. If you have a meal together with your family once a day, it might be good to say the Lord’s Prayer all together before the meal, and use the Small Catechism to help cultivate reflective conversation at the dinner table. If you’re an early-bird, it could be helpful to go through a morning blessing with prayer (which you can find in either the Small Catechism or a copy of our hymnal).
Taking time with God is important for our every day life. It blesses, strengthens, and forms us. It need not be “another thing” to schedule into an already over-packed day, but with creativity, conversation, and devotion, you can find ways of infusing your daily life with spiritual wisdom and guidance. Having these things and using them joyfully and daily will deepen your spiritual life, and your sense of meaning and grace in the world. And a whole lot of you working on this together? Well, that’s just the kind of community this world needs.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings St. John’s!
It’s been four years now since I’ve started being your Pastor here in Spinnerstown. We’ve done so much good together! I cannot help but give thanks to God for all of the work you’ve done and all of the ways we’ve helped not only the congregation, but the community as well. We’ve learned lessons, gained convictions, served food, repaired relationships, and have sought so many of God’s good things. And over these four years we’ve also made new friends and welcomed more disciples of Jesus in our midst. I’m proud of what we’ve done here by God’s help, and I’m excited to see what more is in store for this congregation.
As we move forward, we carry on the Gospel of Jesus. And where Jesus goes, so too come the Father and the Holy Spirit. I’m confident that God will continue to bless us in this path. But even though I’m confident in this, I’m not deaf to some of the worries I’ve heard from you all. I think the most descriptive one I’ve heard from a few of you is “Pastor, we’ve got a lot of grey hairs in our congregation.”
This congregation is definitely not alone in this fear. And I’ve spent a lot of time over the years working on it. I’ve read books on Church growth and Evangelism for people who don’t like knocking on doors or holding up signs. I’ve gone to some of your houses and have heard the story of St. John’s. I’ve sat down for coffee and have set plans for events and ministries with you. I’ve had a beer and dreamed about our congregation’s future with you. I’ve done similar things with members of the community as well, and visitors from out of town who’ve been looking for a good word, for signs of hope, and for a place filled with people who care. But more important than all of this, I’ve been keeping my attention on God’s word, work, and will for the Church. Because God is up to something here and now.
Based on all of this, I’ve developed a plan and guide for us called “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism" (you can download the file below). I’ve based it off of my conversations with you, the history of the congregation, the scriptures, and the theology of the Church. I brought it to Church Council for their insights and feedback as well, and was glad to have their support as well. It’s designed to help you find simple ways to live out your faith day-by-day, month-by-month, season-by-season, and over the course of your entire life - no matter where you are in your faith journey. I hope that as you do so, you’ll find yourself more confident in your faith and more ready to do the ministry of the church. Just like we say in our bulletin, I may be the Pastor, but you all are also the ministers.
I hope that as each of you follow this guide, you’ll find yourselves jumping that proverbial gap between “going to church” and “being the Church.” I hope that as you all follow the guide, you’ll find yourselves modeling lives of faith with integrity, sincerity, and openness. I hope that as you follow this guide, you’ll find yourself welcoming more folks into our congregation’s life through word and deed. And I hope, above all, that God will continue to guide and bless us this Fall, and for the many seasons of the Church’s life to come.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
It’s been four years now since I’ve started being your Pastor here in Spinnerstown. We’ve done so much good together! I cannot help but give thanks to God for all of the work you’ve done and all of the ways we’ve helped not only the congregation, but the community as well. We’ve learned lessons, gained convictions, served food, repaired relationships, and have sought so many of God’s good things. And over these four years we’ve also made new friends and welcomed more disciples of Jesus in our midst. I’m proud of what we’ve done here by God’s help, and I’m excited to see what more is in store for this congregation.
As we move forward, we carry on the Gospel of Jesus. And where Jesus goes, so too come the Father and the Holy Spirit. I’m confident that God will continue to bless us in this path. But even though I’m confident in this, I’m not deaf to some of the worries I’ve heard from you all. I think the most descriptive one I’ve heard from a few of you is “Pastor, we’ve got a lot of grey hairs in our congregation.”
This congregation is definitely not alone in this fear. And I’ve spent a lot of time over the years working on it. I’ve read books on Church growth and Evangelism for people who don’t like knocking on doors or holding up signs. I’ve gone to some of your houses and have heard the story of St. John’s. I’ve sat down for coffee and have set plans for events and ministries with you. I’ve had a beer and dreamed about our congregation’s future with you. I’ve done similar things with members of the community as well, and visitors from out of town who’ve been looking for a good word, for signs of hope, and for a place filled with people who care. But more important than all of this, I’ve been keeping my attention on God’s word, work, and will for the Church. Because God is up to something here and now.
Based on all of this, I’ve developed a plan and guide for us called “A Time for Discipleship and Evangelism" (you can download the file below). I’ve based it off of my conversations with you, the history of the congregation, the scriptures, and the theology of the Church. I brought it to Church Council for their insights and feedback as well, and was glad to have their support as well. It’s designed to help you find simple ways to live out your faith day-by-day, month-by-month, season-by-season, and over the course of your entire life - no matter where you are in your faith journey. I hope that as you do so, you’ll find yourself more confident in your faith and more ready to do the ministry of the church. Just like we say in our bulletin, I may be the Pastor, but you all are also the ministers.
I hope that as each of you follow this guide, you’ll find yourselves jumping that proverbial gap between “going to church” and “being the Church.” I hope that as you all follow the guide, you’ll find yourselves modeling lives of faith with integrity, sincerity, and openness. I hope that as you follow this guide, you’ll find yourself welcoming more folks into our congregation’s life through word and deed. And I hope, above all, that God will continue to guide and bless us this Fall, and for the many seasons of the Church’s life to come.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
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2018 Summer Spire Article
It’s been so good to gather with you outside in the grove this summer! To spend time together in the sun and in the grove is one of the real joys of being pastor here at St. John’s, and I look forward to it each year. I get joy each time I see old friends come together, families relaxing in our grove, and kids feeling free to worship and play at their own level. It’s a way of worship that’s available to us in the summer time, and I hope that each of you take time to look at one another and think about how good it is to see these people in this place for this purpose - the worship of the God who made us, who saves us, and who guides us.
But beyond the traditional liturgy that we have during Fall, Winter, and Spring worship - there is one thing I miss during the summer time: Coffee Hour. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make coffee hour a blessing this past year, and to those of you who are signing up to lead it in the program year to come. Coffee hour during the other seasons always gives us a chance to get to relax and catch up with one another - to take joy in each others’ joys and give comfort to one others’ troubles. That, along with the drinks and treats help us remember that Sunday is meant for celebrating the goodness of God who provides such things for us.
I wonder about the best ways to help maintain that spirit of fellowship in the summer. There have been a few passing ideas - work days together, picnics, midweek services. But they’re all missing something that makes coffee hour special to me - they’re not regular Sunday occurrences. They’re not routine. In such an unstable world, it’s the routine things I think are so necessary and special.
So to maintain part of that joy of coffee hour over the summer - I have a recommendation. Do it if you choose to - don’t if you find it to be a burden. Bring a thermos of coffee, and a snack to share. Lay it out on your picnic blankets, or open your picnic basket. Share with the people who are close by and enjoy your time together during worship. Understand that what we have, we have together to God’s pleasure. Know that the Christ whom we love, we love together. Look around you and see who the Spirit has gathered for listening to and finding God’s way. It’s a special time, and it’s good to share it with you.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Kaegler
It’s been so good to gather with you outside in the grove this summer! To spend time together in the sun and in the grove is one of the real joys of being pastor here at St. John’s, and I look forward to it each year. I get joy each time I see old friends come together, families relaxing in our grove, and kids feeling free to worship and play at their own level. It’s a way of worship that’s available to us in the summer time, and I hope that each of you take time to look at one another and think about how good it is to see these people in this place for this purpose - the worship of the God who made us, who saves us, and who guides us.
But beyond the traditional liturgy that we have during Fall, Winter, and Spring worship - there is one thing I miss during the summer time: Coffee Hour. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make coffee hour a blessing this past year, and to those of you who are signing up to lead it in the program year to come. Coffee hour during the other seasons always gives us a chance to get to relax and catch up with one another - to take joy in each others’ joys and give comfort to one others’ troubles. That, along with the drinks and treats help us remember that Sunday is meant for celebrating the goodness of God who provides such things for us.
I wonder about the best ways to help maintain that spirit of fellowship in the summer. There have been a few passing ideas - work days together, picnics, midweek services. But they’re all missing something that makes coffee hour special to me - they’re not regular Sunday occurrences. They’re not routine. In such an unstable world, it’s the routine things I think are so necessary and special.
So to maintain part of that joy of coffee hour over the summer - I have a recommendation. Do it if you choose to - don’t if you find it to be a burden. Bring a thermos of coffee, and a snack to share. Lay it out on your picnic blankets, or open your picnic basket. Share with the people who are close by and enjoy your time together during worship. Understand that what we have, we have together to God’s pleasure. Know that the Christ whom we love, we love together. Look around you and see who the Spirit has gathered for listening to and finding God’s way. It’s a special time, and it’s good to share it with you.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Kaegler
Church-wide Social Statements and the Church - June 2018
Greetings, St. John’s,
In our church council and at Synod Assembly, members have been encountering an aspect of our wider church that they were previously unfamiliar with - Churchwide Social Statements and Social Messages. These are two distinct ways in which our wider church engages with and answers questions around modern social issues.
The Social Statements are designed to provide the theological framework for our discussions. They demonstrate how to talk faithfully about often divisive issues, as opposed to just talking past (or yelling past) one another. These statements set the ground rules for the conversation we’re having by demonstrating the church’s groundwork on the issue - informed by the Scriptures, the Book of Concord, and the teachings of our theological forbearers (Luther, Augustine, etc.). Social Statements are written by a wide group of church leaders - bishops, pastors, theologians, laypeople, etc. They go into draft form, and are submitted to the wider church (which includes you all) for review, conversation, and feedback. After a time of discernment the draft is revised and submitted to the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly (which happens once every three years). When it is brought to the Assembly, it is reviewed and voted upon. If it passes a two-thirds vote, it is approved. These teachings then inform how we do Church together.
The ELCA has been making Social Statements since 1991 (remember, the modern denomination was formed in 1988). Since then, we’ve made statements on Abortion, Caring for creation, Church in society, Criminal Justice, the Death Penalty, Economic Life, Education, Genetics, Health and Healthcare, Human Sexuality, Peace, and Race, ethnicity and culture.
Social Messages are a little different. While the Social Statements provide the framework, the Social Messages are more like pronouncements from the Presiding Bishop of the Church. They focus on addressing the more pressing, direct and particular matters of church and society, exercising the church’s prophetic authority in consultation with Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, and other authoritative teachings. They are meant to encourage moral discernment, moral action, and moral discussion. These messages come through the Conference of Bishops and the ELCA Churchwide Council. They express the convictions of Church leadership.
Our Social Messages are a little older, and start in 1988. Over the last 30 years, we have made authoritative statements on Human Rights, Gender-based violence, Mental Illness, People living with disabilities, Terrorism, Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Suicide Prevention, Immigration, Sexuality, Community Violence, End of Life decisions, Homelessness, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and AIDS.
The Social Statements/Messages are really good documents. You can find them all on www.elca.org . I’ve used them more than once in sermon preparation (particularly when you all throw your Godly Questions at me). Even though some of them seem a little dated now, they contain good Evangelical Lutheran teaching, conviction and compassion. These are documents of love and care, and are helpful tools for engaging with a world beset by troubles. So spend some time with them, ask questions about them, and as always, you’re welcome to have conversations with me about them. The upcoming Social Statement is called “Women and Justice,” and is currently in draft form. So you can still get a say in it. We’re hoping to get a group together this month to provide feedback on the draft - so listen for invitations during the announcements.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings, St. John’s,
In our church council and at Synod Assembly, members have been encountering an aspect of our wider church that they were previously unfamiliar with - Churchwide Social Statements and Social Messages. These are two distinct ways in which our wider church engages with and answers questions around modern social issues.
The Social Statements are designed to provide the theological framework for our discussions. They demonstrate how to talk faithfully about often divisive issues, as opposed to just talking past (or yelling past) one another. These statements set the ground rules for the conversation we’re having by demonstrating the church’s groundwork on the issue - informed by the Scriptures, the Book of Concord, and the teachings of our theological forbearers (Luther, Augustine, etc.). Social Statements are written by a wide group of church leaders - bishops, pastors, theologians, laypeople, etc. They go into draft form, and are submitted to the wider church (which includes you all) for review, conversation, and feedback. After a time of discernment the draft is revised and submitted to the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly (which happens once every three years). When it is brought to the Assembly, it is reviewed and voted upon. If it passes a two-thirds vote, it is approved. These teachings then inform how we do Church together.
The ELCA has been making Social Statements since 1991 (remember, the modern denomination was formed in 1988). Since then, we’ve made statements on Abortion, Caring for creation, Church in society, Criminal Justice, the Death Penalty, Economic Life, Education, Genetics, Health and Healthcare, Human Sexuality, Peace, and Race, ethnicity and culture.
Social Messages are a little different. While the Social Statements provide the framework, the Social Messages are more like pronouncements from the Presiding Bishop of the Church. They focus on addressing the more pressing, direct and particular matters of church and society, exercising the church’s prophetic authority in consultation with Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, and other authoritative teachings. They are meant to encourage moral discernment, moral action, and moral discussion. These messages come through the Conference of Bishops and the ELCA Churchwide Council. They express the convictions of Church leadership.
Our Social Messages are a little older, and start in 1988. Over the last 30 years, we have made authoritative statements on Human Rights, Gender-based violence, Mental Illness, People living with disabilities, Terrorism, Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Suicide Prevention, Immigration, Sexuality, Community Violence, End of Life decisions, Homelessness, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and AIDS.
The Social Statements/Messages are really good documents. You can find them all on www.elca.org . I’ve used them more than once in sermon preparation (particularly when you all throw your Godly Questions at me). Even though some of them seem a little dated now, they contain good Evangelical Lutheran teaching, conviction and compassion. These are documents of love and care, and are helpful tools for engaging with a world beset by troubles. So spend some time with them, ask questions about them, and as always, you’re welcome to have conversations with me about them. The upcoming Social Statement is called “Women and Justice,” and is currently in draft form. So you can still get a say in it. We’re hoping to get a group together this month to provide feedback on the draft - so listen for invitations during the announcements.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
May 2018
One of the things I try to focus on in my sermons and in the liturgy is Feast Days/Saints Days. I’m not sure how many of you all notice it (apart from the lectors who sometimes have to add strange names to the prayers), but it’s a conscious decision of mine to always observe or celebrate the Saints of the Church. Maybe it’s the old history major in me, or maybe it’s the fact that I really like focusing on the widest possible sense of the church’s community (which extends beyond earthly life and death and into both past and future), or maybe I just like a good story. But in any case, I’m glad to know that our hymnal is with me. When you look in the beginning parts of our hymnals you’ll notice the Calendar we use to commemorate the saints (pages 14-17).
What we believe about saints is that God makes us into saints through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not our obedience that makes us saints, but God’s abiding and effective presence which changes us. We do not believe that God fails at the things God does, and what God does is make a holy community out of sinful nations. Sometimes it is a really hard thing to detect in the lives of people. Looking at the Calendar of the Saints right now, I can see that on May 2 we celebrate the Feast Day of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. He is a clear example of this.
Athanasius was one of the most gifted theologians in the history of the Church and a fearsome defender and architect of Christian Orthodoxy. He was the rallying figure behind our current understanding of the Holy Trinity, one of the architects of the Nicene Creed, and wrote an early biblical canon that largely informs which books we consider to be Holy Scripture today. But even Athanasius’ friends recognized that he could be a contrarian troublemaker. He was exiled on five different occasions in his life - and it wasn’t simply because of his theological positions (though the Roman emperors of the period really did seem to prefer his opponents). He’s one of the saints. In spite of his faults, he held and shared an essential truth: Jesus Christ is God incarnate; he was neither adopted by God, nor was he some sort of demigod who could be opposed to God. This means that the Good News doesn’t come to us second-hand (which is to say, Jesus’ words are trustworthy), that all human life really is valued by God, and that the resurrection really does matter to us. In a time when those very essential bits of Christian theology was up for debate in the churches - Athanasius’ voice was firm, true, and quite stubborn among the people whom (though they exiled him) he would never abandon. Because God never abandoned him. We can be thankful for that.
Ultimately we can look at every figure on that calendar and find a crazy, sometimes unexpected, but ultimately down-to-earth story of people struggling in their times and with their people. While we’re more technologically advanced than we were in the past - people are still people and their stories can give us insight and hope. The conflicts we face today aren’t unprecedented, even if the scale and the consequences sometimes seem greater. But we have a community that we’re a part of - whether we know it or not. But we have faith in the persistence of the Church - that God will continue to consistently gather people together in order to bring them life with and through one another. Past, present, and future. And I think each of us will find ourselves saints in this regard: even with our faults, people will know and remember the presence of God made clear in our lives.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
One of the things I try to focus on in my sermons and in the liturgy is Feast Days/Saints Days. I’m not sure how many of you all notice it (apart from the lectors who sometimes have to add strange names to the prayers), but it’s a conscious decision of mine to always observe or celebrate the Saints of the Church. Maybe it’s the old history major in me, or maybe it’s the fact that I really like focusing on the widest possible sense of the church’s community (which extends beyond earthly life and death and into both past and future), or maybe I just like a good story. But in any case, I’m glad to know that our hymnal is with me. When you look in the beginning parts of our hymnals you’ll notice the Calendar we use to commemorate the saints (pages 14-17).
What we believe about saints is that God makes us into saints through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not our obedience that makes us saints, but God’s abiding and effective presence which changes us. We do not believe that God fails at the things God does, and what God does is make a holy community out of sinful nations. Sometimes it is a really hard thing to detect in the lives of people. Looking at the Calendar of the Saints right now, I can see that on May 2 we celebrate the Feast Day of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. He is a clear example of this.
Athanasius was one of the most gifted theologians in the history of the Church and a fearsome defender and architect of Christian Orthodoxy. He was the rallying figure behind our current understanding of the Holy Trinity, one of the architects of the Nicene Creed, and wrote an early biblical canon that largely informs which books we consider to be Holy Scripture today. But even Athanasius’ friends recognized that he could be a contrarian troublemaker. He was exiled on five different occasions in his life - and it wasn’t simply because of his theological positions (though the Roman emperors of the period really did seem to prefer his opponents). He’s one of the saints. In spite of his faults, he held and shared an essential truth: Jesus Christ is God incarnate; he was neither adopted by God, nor was he some sort of demigod who could be opposed to God. This means that the Good News doesn’t come to us second-hand (which is to say, Jesus’ words are trustworthy), that all human life really is valued by God, and that the resurrection really does matter to us. In a time when those very essential bits of Christian theology was up for debate in the churches - Athanasius’ voice was firm, true, and quite stubborn among the people whom (though they exiled him) he would never abandon. Because God never abandoned him. We can be thankful for that.
Ultimately we can look at every figure on that calendar and find a crazy, sometimes unexpected, but ultimately down-to-earth story of people struggling in their times and with their people. While we’re more technologically advanced than we were in the past - people are still people and their stories can give us insight and hope. The conflicts we face today aren’t unprecedented, even if the scale and the consequences sometimes seem greater. But we have a community that we’re a part of - whether we know it or not. But we have faith in the persistence of the Church - that God will continue to consistently gather people together in order to bring them life with and through one another. Past, present, and future. And I think each of us will find ourselves saints in this regard: even with our faults, people will know and remember the presence of God made clear in our lives.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Welcome to the Season of Easter! Best April Fools’ Day Ever! - April 2018
It’s always funny when the calendar works out like that - Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day and Easter on April Fools’. In the Western Church, Easter falls on the Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Spring Equinox, its earliest possible date is on the 22nd of March, and its latest possible date is April 25th. Lent on the other hand is always the 40 days (excluding Sundays) that precede Easter. Which means you’re right there with me if you feel like this year’s Easter came with a rush. It’s as though Easter is two weeks too early, and the warmth of Spring is coming two weeks too late.
So having Easter on April Fools’ Day kind of feels like a joke. It doesn’t feel like the right time, or the right weather. But isn’t that kind of what Easter is about? Easter wasn’t something we expected, Easter came at what seemed like the wrong time - Jesus was definitely dead, crucified, stabbed, kaput. And he was definitely buried - people had a chance to say their good-byes. He wasn’t saved. No one stopped it from happening. It felt like the wrong time and the wrong place to be happy or joyful.
That’s the surprise. He was risen. When we let that old story become rote memory we forget that it was a surprise against death and sadness. That the Easter story continued to persist for days and days as Jesus appeared to the disciples, that it continued in the Ascension of Christ, to the conversion of St. Paul, and continues to be a factor in our lives today. Amid grim news and cold hearts, there is a surprise that we cannot expect, even if we are familiar with the story.
One great thing about Easter is that it’s not one day. It’s an entire season of the Church year that goes all the way up to Pentecost (May 20th). Each day in the Church season you can shout that favorite, holy phrase “Christ is risen, Alleluia!” as though it’s something totally new, totally unexpected, and totally holy. The surprises of April Fools’ Day lasts for just that, a day. The surprise of Easter - of life rising from the grave, of joy breaking out of abject tragedy, can last a lifetime.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
It’s always funny when the calendar works out like that - Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day and Easter on April Fools’. In the Western Church, Easter falls on the Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Spring Equinox, its earliest possible date is on the 22nd of March, and its latest possible date is April 25th. Lent on the other hand is always the 40 days (excluding Sundays) that precede Easter. Which means you’re right there with me if you feel like this year’s Easter came with a rush. It’s as though Easter is two weeks too early, and the warmth of Spring is coming two weeks too late.
So having Easter on April Fools’ Day kind of feels like a joke. It doesn’t feel like the right time, or the right weather. But isn’t that kind of what Easter is about? Easter wasn’t something we expected, Easter came at what seemed like the wrong time - Jesus was definitely dead, crucified, stabbed, kaput. And he was definitely buried - people had a chance to say their good-byes. He wasn’t saved. No one stopped it from happening. It felt like the wrong time and the wrong place to be happy or joyful.
That’s the surprise. He was risen. When we let that old story become rote memory we forget that it was a surprise against death and sadness. That the Easter story continued to persist for days and days as Jesus appeared to the disciples, that it continued in the Ascension of Christ, to the conversion of St. Paul, and continues to be a factor in our lives today. Amid grim news and cold hearts, there is a surprise that we cannot expect, even if we are familiar with the story.
One great thing about Easter is that it’s not one day. It’s an entire season of the Church year that goes all the way up to Pentecost (May 20th). Each day in the Church season you can shout that favorite, holy phrase “Christ is risen, Alleluia!” as though it’s something totally new, totally unexpected, and totally holy. The surprises of April Fools’ Day lasts for just that, a day. The surprise of Easter - of life rising from the grave, of joy breaking out of abject tragedy, can last a lifetime.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
The Songs of Lent - March 2018
Lenten blessings, St. John’s!
As we’ve entered this season of the Church year, I’m really looking forward to our Midweek Lenten Services. This year we’ll be doing one of my all-time favorite musical settings - Holden Evening Prayer - when we’re at St. John’s (though at Great Swamp we’ll be doing a standard Service of the Word). In my ears, it may be the most beautiful liturgical creations of the last couple of decades. The ELW may be a great hymnal with some great services; it’s fundamentally doing the same thing our hymnals have always done. Holden offers something musically different, with its harmonies, its rounds, and its pacing, that I simply love.
But if that weren’t enough, our midweek services this Lent will have a unique theme. Every Wednesday evening we’ll be diving into our hymnals and looking at some of our favorite shared Lenten hymns. We’ll be exploring the scriptural background of the songs, the stories of hymn writers, and the deep meaning and faith that led to the writing of the hymns that we sing today.
So just as a teaser - the first hymn I’m preaching on is “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” That hymn was written in the 8th century by a man named Theodulf of Orleans. The Emperor Charlemagne was so impressed by Theodulf’s keen and reforming mind that he had him placed as the Bishop of Orleans, and was a key figure in Charlemagne’s court. But after Charlemagne’s death, Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious accused Theodulf of plotting against him with Louis’ nephew Bernard. Theodulf was thrown into prison. The legend is that Louis heard him singing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” shortly after its composition, and Theodulf was released and demanded that it be sung every Palm Sunday. Unfortunately, the legend is a bit nicer than the history - which has Theodulf die in that prison. But it’s also true that Louis the Pious repented greatly for his deeds at great personal cost, and we continue to sing Theodulf’s song to Christ.
It’s simply incredible to me that songs like this continue to be sung centuries after their composers’ deaths. And I’m looking forward to learning more about them, and sharing them with you all. I hope that your faith will be strengthened as you learn more about our hymnody this Lent.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Lenten blessings, St. John’s!
As we’ve entered this season of the Church year, I’m really looking forward to our Midweek Lenten Services. This year we’ll be doing one of my all-time favorite musical settings - Holden Evening Prayer - when we’re at St. John’s (though at Great Swamp we’ll be doing a standard Service of the Word). In my ears, it may be the most beautiful liturgical creations of the last couple of decades. The ELW may be a great hymnal with some great services; it’s fundamentally doing the same thing our hymnals have always done. Holden offers something musically different, with its harmonies, its rounds, and its pacing, that I simply love.
But if that weren’t enough, our midweek services this Lent will have a unique theme. Every Wednesday evening we’ll be diving into our hymnals and looking at some of our favorite shared Lenten hymns. We’ll be exploring the scriptural background of the songs, the stories of hymn writers, and the deep meaning and faith that led to the writing of the hymns that we sing today.
So just as a teaser - the first hymn I’m preaching on is “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” That hymn was written in the 8th century by a man named Theodulf of Orleans. The Emperor Charlemagne was so impressed by Theodulf’s keen and reforming mind that he had him placed as the Bishop of Orleans, and was a key figure in Charlemagne’s court. But after Charlemagne’s death, Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious accused Theodulf of plotting against him with Louis’ nephew Bernard. Theodulf was thrown into prison. The legend is that Louis heard him singing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” shortly after its composition, and Theodulf was released and demanded that it be sung every Palm Sunday. Unfortunately, the legend is a bit nicer than the history - which has Theodulf die in that prison. But it’s also true that Louis the Pious repented greatly for his deeds at great personal cost, and we continue to sing Theodulf’s song to Christ.
It’s simply incredible to me that songs like this continue to be sung centuries after their composers’ deaths. And I’m looking forward to learning more about them, and sharing them with you all. I hope that your faith will be strengthened as you learn more about our hymnody this Lent.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
From the Pastor - February 2018
Grace and peace in the name of Christ.
I like Epiphany. It’s light - it’s kind of breezy. It feels “clean” as far as liturgical seasons go. The Christmas tree may be gone, but the star is still up. We get to use the white vestments a bunch. And we get a lot of great stories - the traveling astrologers/wisemen, the transfiguration, the baptism of Jesus. We even got to read the story of Jonah this year (many thanks to Beth McCartney, Kelly McCartney, and Peg Hudock for your parts in the Jonah play)!
But Lent is… not quite so cheerful. It’s sobering, it has a darker tone. Many of us mark it by abstaining from things that give us joy. It’s rather dreary. Not bad, but dreary. We mark it by saying we’re dust, we pretty much end it by killing Jesus at the Good Friday Service and stripping the altar, with hardly a hint of what’s to come on Easter (and technically, the highlight first “Alleluia” of Easter Vigil only occurs after Sunset, on Easter Eve).
Why the shift? Perhaps the ephemeral qualities of joy and light don’t seem to hold our attention for too long. Perhaps because a life lived basking in the joy of the Eagles’ victory against the Vikings won’t do us a lot of good against the Patriots at Super Bowl LII (why yes, I am writing this article in between the two). Perhaps because the concept of God’s grace doesn’t help us very much when it isn’t contrasted with the destructiveness, sadness, and messiness that we meet day-to-day.
Lent is a season when the Light from above comes down and walks among us - hidden amid earthly things. Our eyes go from the sky for all to see, to being hidden from normal sight - tucked into the lives of the people around us. Our friends, neighbors, strangers, and even enemies become people in whom we might encounter the love of God. Sometimes it takes a lot of faith to see it, and even more to support it. But that doesn’t stop God from being there, working there, and saving there.
As you do your devotions, and join us for worship to hear the stories of Christ in Lent - keep your ears open for Christ’s very earthly work in the nitty gritty parts of complicated human relationships and life on earth. Jesus will be acting in anger, lifting up children, frustrating his disciples, and scandalizing the influential voices of his time and place. Notice how each of these stories, with their complicated relationships, lead up to his final days. And hear yourself in them - in the voices of those people who Jesus showed up for. Are you being comforted? Are you being castigated? And above all - where is he offering a hope that you lost sight of, once it left the sky and found itself on earth.
We’ll be here with you, and hearing with you each stop of the way here at Church.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Grace and peace in the name of Christ.
I like Epiphany. It’s light - it’s kind of breezy. It feels “clean” as far as liturgical seasons go. The Christmas tree may be gone, but the star is still up. We get to use the white vestments a bunch. And we get a lot of great stories - the traveling astrologers/wisemen, the transfiguration, the baptism of Jesus. We even got to read the story of Jonah this year (many thanks to Beth McCartney, Kelly McCartney, and Peg Hudock for your parts in the Jonah play)!
But Lent is… not quite so cheerful. It’s sobering, it has a darker tone. Many of us mark it by abstaining from things that give us joy. It’s rather dreary. Not bad, but dreary. We mark it by saying we’re dust, we pretty much end it by killing Jesus at the Good Friday Service and stripping the altar, with hardly a hint of what’s to come on Easter (and technically, the highlight first “Alleluia” of Easter Vigil only occurs after Sunset, on Easter Eve).
Why the shift? Perhaps the ephemeral qualities of joy and light don’t seem to hold our attention for too long. Perhaps because a life lived basking in the joy of the Eagles’ victory against the Vikings won’t do us a lot of good against the Patriots at Super Bowl LII (why yes, I am writing this article in between the two). Perhaps because the concept of God’s grace doesn’t help us very much when it isn’t contrasted with the destructiveness, sadness, and messiness that we meet day-to-day.
Lent is a season when the Light from above comes down and walks among us - hidden amid earthly things. Our eyes go from the sky for all to see, to being hidden from normal sight - tucked into the lives of the people around us. Our friends, neighbors, strangers, and even enemies become people in whom we might encounter the love of God. Sometimes it takes a lot of faith to see it, and even more to support it. But that doesn’t stop God from being there, working there, and saving there.
As you do your devotions, and join us for worship to hear the stories of Christ in Lent - keep your ears open for Christ’s very earthly work in the nitty gritty parts of complicated human relationships and life on earth. Jesus will be acting in anger, lifting up children, frustrating his disciples, and scandalizing the influential voices of his time and place. Notice how each of these stories, with their complicated relationships, lead up to his final days. And hear yourself in them - in the voices of those people who Jesus showed up for. Are you being comforted? Are you being castigated? And above all - where is he offering a hope that you lost sight of, once it left the sky and found itself on earth.
We’ll be here with you, and hearing with you each stop of the way here at Church.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Stories - January 2018
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
“All of this happened, more or less.”
“Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner from our district, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, well known in his own day (and still remembered among us) because of his dark and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago and which I shall speak of in its proper place.”
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...”
I hope these opening lines to a few of my favorite works of fiction sound familiar to you (that last one is particularly close in my mind as I’m writing this month’s article). I hope so because these stories have each said something really true to me - things that I hold on to, and you knowing them means that you and I share something important. Shared stories and sagas create memories, shape consciences, and form communities. Sharing them again and again re-establishes that connection.
That’s one of the reasons scripture is so important to us - and as we spend this coming year focused on the Gospels of Mark and John, I’d like you to orient yourself around the opening words of John’s Gospel - “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being.” God’s creation of the world is a social, meaningful action. We perceive God’s creation as a story, told to us from God. God becomes something akin to our author in John’s Gospel.
It’s so important for us to have this story together, to hearken back to it and share it regularly. When we lose track of it, we lose something really important not only about ourselves, but something about the Truth itself. Dr. Richard Melheim once reflected on a conversation he had with a man named Reuben ben Yonathan - who asked him “Do you know any Hittites? Do you carpool with an Ammonite? Are you on the PTA with an Amalekite? No? Why? They disappeared. Why did they disappear? They forgot to tell their story to their children, and if your children don’t know their story, you don’t lose your past. You lose your future.”
It is so essential for us to keep telling our stories as siblings of Christ, as people in the Lutheran tradition, and as a family of believers. We might not have the only stories in the world worth sharing, but the ones we have really matter. Our stories of God struggling with us, our scriptures of broken heroes and converted hearts really do matter and they really do shape us. Through them, and through their interpretation, God has chosen to continue creating our future.
The Gospel according to John ends with these fitting words: “… there are many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” As individuals, we only have so many stories to share. As generation after generation, and year after year passes us by, keep giving the good ones that have been given to you. Keep sharing the ones that say something about God’s love for a struggling world. They will matter and make a difference in the year 2018.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
“All of this happened, more or less.”
“Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner from our district, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, well known in his own day (and still remembered among us) because of his dark and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago and which I shall speak of in its proper place.”
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...”
I hope these opening lines to a few of my favorite works of fiction sound familiar to you (that last one is particularly close in my mind as I’m writing this month’s article). I hope so because these stories have each said something really true to me - things that I hold on to, and you knowing them means that you and I share something important. Shared stories and sagas create memories, shape consciences, and form communities. Sharing them again and again re-establishes that connection.
That’s one of the reasons scripture is so important to us - and as we spend this coming year focused on the Gospels of Mark and John, I’d like you to orient yourself around the opening words of John’s Gospel - “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being.” God’s creation of the world is a social, meaningful action. We perceive God’s creation as a story, told to us from God. God becomes something akin to our author in John’s Gospel.
It’s so important for us to have this story together, to hearken back to it and share it regularly. When we lose track of it, we lose something really important not only about ourselves, but something about the Truth itself. Dr. Richard Melheim once reflected on a conversation he had with a man named Reuben ben Yonathan - who asked him “Do you know any Hittites? Do you carpool with an Ammonite? Are you on the PTA with an Amalekite? No? Why? They disappeared. Why did they disappear? They forgot to tell their story to their children, and if your children don’t know their story, you don’t lose your past. You lose your future.”
It is so essential for us to keep telling our stories as siblings of Christ, as people in the Lutheran tradition, and as a family of believers. We might not have the only stories in the world worth sharing, but the ones we have really matter. Our stories of God struggling with us, our scriptures of broken heroes and converted hearts really do matter and they really do shape us. Through them, and through their interpretation, God has chosen to continue creating our future.
The Gospel according to John ends with these fitting words: “… there are many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” As individuals, we only have so many stories to share. As generation after generation, and year after year passes us by, keep giving the good ones that have been given to you. Keep sharing the ones that say something about God’s love for a struggling world. They will matter and make a difference in the year 2018.
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
The Lectionary - December 2017
Greetings St. John’s!
One of the most common questions I get, whenever I talk about preparing sermons, is “How do you choose which passages to read?” A very reasonable question, when there has been so many challenging texts recently! And since we’re about to enter a new church year on the First Sunday of Advent, I figured I would give you some insight into that this week.
In our church, we use a lectionary - that is an appointed cycle of readings for every church service (though if you want to go into the nitty-gritty of it, every day). For what it’s worth - each segment of the scriptures that we read is technically called a “Pericope.” So sometimes, you’ll hear me talk about “pericope study,” a weekly gathering of local pastors who use the same lectionary, where we share insights around the scriptures and how they relate to today.
Churches have used different kinds of lectionaries over history. We began using them in the early church, having inherited the practice from the synagogues as Jews would read through the Torah in a three-year cycle. The current lectionary that we use is called the Revised Common Lectionary. It was designed by an ecumenical team of Christian leaders and released in the year 1994.
The Revised Common Lectionary was designed with a few things in mind. First, it’s designed for the listener to become acquainted with the many different voices of the Bible - Old Testament and New. It’s only through the use of a lectionary that most Christians become familiar with a great deal of the prophetic literature (such as the Book of Nahum or Zephaniah). The lectionary is designed to bring these less-prominent voices to the front, give us a fuller view of scripture, and better show God’s understanding of wrath, justice, and righteousness.
Second, the Revised Common Lectionary is designed to unite churches around the scriptures and cause each church to interpret the wider Bible together. What we would focus on as a Lutheran Church would be different from what a Methodist church would focus on, or Episcopal, or so on. This keeps us united in a subtle and important way.
Third, the Revised Common Lectionary is designed to help listeners get to know Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John particularly well. We read from one of them every week, and focus on one Gospel per year (except in the case of the coming year - since Mark is such a short Gospel, it’s coupled with John). These four different voices are given their own say - in total. By the end of each year you should have heard the entire Gospel according to each evangelist - and not simply jump from one to the next, and can hopefully appreciate how one is different from the other and what unique gifts each brings to the table. Matthew in fulfillment of the Old Testament, Luke in his focus on the good news being for the reader, Mark in finding hope out of desolation, and John in understanding just how cosmically important Jesus is.
There are other lectionaries out there - the Narrative Lectionary tries to bring listeners through the entire Bible week by week. But those usually include some really dry material (genealogies and priestly duties aren’t exactly riveting - especially when you’re doing them for a month or two), sometimes involves telling the Christmas story 2-3 times in a year, and generally don’t follow the spirit of any given church season. Others neglect considerable portions of the Bible in order to bring out only the favorite parts, which leave them kind of anemic. Still others are stylistic, and theme focused - leading one to focus on a particular topic more than on the Gospel itself. Each can have their purpose, their place, and their use. But they are to be used judiciously.
Our lectionary, for better and for worse, keeps us on cycle and unified with other churches, giving us a tremendous overview of God’s promises in scripture - of an end to wickedness, of what the kingdom of God looks like, and the assurance that God’s love will make us part of it both today and in the days to come. But what do you think we’re missing out on? What would you want to look for in a lectionary? What things would you lift up, and how would we go about getting them as a community?
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
On Preaching - November 2017
You may have noticed something in worship over the past month or so. Based on feedback over the past few years, I’ve been trying to change up my preaching style a bit. So for the next few months, I’m trying to do a rotation of four styles of sermons. It’s been a challenge for me, but I enjoy it, and life is all about being challenged. I hope you all have, or will have the same experience. I’m going to take my time here this month to tell you about each of these styles, why I’m doing them, how I think they’ll help, and what the point of preaching is in the first place.
Here’s how I name/understand these four styles: First, there’s the traditional sermon, second, there’s the sketch/skit sermon, third, there’s the interview sermon, and fourth, there’s the seminar/congregational conversation sermon. Each of them offer something different, and I hope something really enriching for you and for your faith. The traditional sermon is, as advertised, a fairly standard sermon. I preach (mostly from the pulpit) around the scriptures, the theme of the scriptures, or the feast day. Nothing stylistically different than normal, though hopefully engaging, educational, and above all faith-forming. In them, I’m hoping to make clear complicated parts of scripture, and offer a meaningful word and a lasting hope. I’m primarily using this style of sermon for texts that I think are challenging, and often interpreted in ways that do more harm than good. For instance, I used this during the parable of the Wedding Feast, where someone gets thrown out in the outer darkness with wailing and gnashing of teeth after a whole bunch of people get slaughtered for not going to a wedding.
The second style you’ll be seeing is a skit sermon. I’m going to be writing skits and sketches in response to the scriptures and the feasts of the church. You’ve seen one already, though more will be coming. In these sermons, I’m hoping to shine a new light on some familiar biblical topics in a more humorous and familiar light. You responded so strongly to the New Spirit service this past summer, that I couldn’t help but notice this was an itch in the congregation that needed scratching. These are going to require some volunteers (and maybe even a little practice before worship), so I really hope that you all will feel comfortable helping our congregation know the meanings of the scriptures.
The third style you’ll be seeing is an interview style. I’m really excited about these, because frankly, I listen to a lot of interview based podcasts and think that a sincere interview around faith and scripture is a great way to explore important aspects of spirituality. As we keep them centered around a scripture, we’re assured in finding a good word from God to each of us - sometimes in a way of seeing it that I myself don’t always catch or see, but can be profoundly meaningful for others. We’ve been really lucky to have people comfortable speaking around the scripture (and we’ll be sure to have a microphone available in all future conversations). In time, I’m hoping to see people of all ages come up and testify about the light of God around the scriptures.
The final style is perhaps going to be the hardest one, at least to prepare for. But I also think it’s perhaps the most enriching one. This is the seminar/conversation style sermon. I’ve tried it a couple of times before - one time it went…okay, and another time it went really quite well. If you remember the Sunday before Rally Day - we answered a question about the duty of a Christian. The verses for the day answered the question directly, so I spent a little time with you all exploring what that looked like. It was a little hard to prepare for, a little slow on the uptake, and I think needed some work. A little later on, we tried the style again with a little help from a seminar prepared by the Rev. Lee Taft on forgiveness and reconciliation. This one went a lot more smoothly, and the kids in the congregation really responded to it. I like this style because it allows for a lot of the good conversations we have when I invite you to “talk among yourselves” during the sermon every now and then, while not putting the burden of the conversation on people who haven’t quite found something they want to say. A happy medium, but it requires some challenging prep work (what questions should I ask? what answers should I prepare for? where does the conversation need to go, while remaining suitably free for you to interact in?), as well as heavy involvement from all of you. But based off of the second one, I think it’s totally worth the risk.
You’ll notice that each time I do this, I still take a little time from the pulpit. No matter what, I want to make sure you are sent home with the faith that scripture attests: God loves you; Jesus Christ came for you, died for you, forgives you your sins, and promises you new life; and the Holy Spirit calls you to good things in a troubled world. You don’t get that message every day. Instead you get a world full of troubles and false hopes. Come to church ready for good things, and let’s make sure you get the real good stuff: the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whose love makes saints out of sinners.
Amen.
You may have noticed something in worship over the past month or so. Based on feedback over the past few years, I’ve been trying to change up my preaching style a bit. So for the next few months, I’m trying to do a rotation of four styles of sermons. It’s been a challenge for me, but I enjoy it, and life is all about being challenged. I hope you all have, or will have the same experience. I’m going to take my time here this month to tell you about each of these styles, why I’m doing them, how I think they’ll help, and what the point of preaching is in the first place.
Here’s how I name/understand these four styles: First, there’s the traditional sermon, second, there’s the sketch/skit sermon, third, there’s the interview sermon, and fourth, there’s the seminar/congregational conversation sermon. Each of them offer something different, and I hope something really enriching for you and for your faith. The traditional sermon is, as advertised, a fairly standard sermon. I preach (mostly from the pulpit) around the scriptures, the theme of the scriptures, or the feast day. Nothing stylistically different than normal, though hopefully engaging, educational, and above all faith-forming. In them, I’m hoping to make clear complicated parts of scripture, and offer a meaningful word and a lasting hope. I’m primarily using this style of sermon for texts that I think are challenging, and often interpreted in ways that do more harm than good. For instance, I used this during the parable of the Wedding Feast, where someone gets thrown out in the outer darkness with wailing and gnashing of teeth after a whole bunch of people get slaughtered for not going to a wedding.
The second style you’ll be seeing is a skit sermon. I’m going to be writing skits and sketches in response to the scriptures and the feasts of the church. You’ve seen one already, though more will be coming. In these sermons, I’m hoping to shine a new light on some familiar biblical topics in a more humorous and familiar light. You responded so strongly to the New Spirit service this past summer, that I couldn’t help but notice this was an itch in the congregation that needed scratching. These are going to require some volunteers (and maybe even a little practice before worship), so I really hope that you all will feel comfortable helping our congregation know the meanings of the scriptures.
The third style you’ll be seeing is an interview style. I’m really excited about these, because frankly, I listen to a lot of interview based podcasts and think that a sincere interview around faith and scripture is a great way to explore important aspects of spirituality. As we keep them centered around a scripture, we’re assured in finding a good word from God to each of us - sometimes in a way of seeing it that I myself don’t always catch or see, but can be profoundly meaningful for others. We’ve been really lucky to have people comfortable speaking around the scripture (and we’ll be sure to have a microphone available in all future conversations). In time, I’m hoping to see people of all ages come up and testify about the light of God around the scriptures.
The final style is perhaps going to be the hardest one, at least to prepare for. But I also think it’s perhaps the most enriching one. This is the seminar/conversation style sermon. I’ve tried it a couple of times before - one time it went…okay, and another time it went really quite well. If you remember the Sunday before Rally Day - we answered a question about the duty of a Christian. The verses for the day answered the question directly, so I spent a little time with you all exploring what that looked like. It was a little hard to prepare for, a little slow on the uptake, and I think needed some work. A little later on, we tried the style again with a little help from a seminar prepared by the Rev. Lee Taft on forgiveness and reconciliation. This one went a lot more smoothly, and the kids in the congregation really responded to it. I like this style because it allows for a lot of the good conversations we have when I invite you to “talk among yourselves” during the sermon every now and then, while not putting the burden of the conversation on people who haven’t quite found something they want to say. A happy medium, but it requires some challenging prep work (what questions should I ask? what answers should I prepare for? where does the conversation need to go, while remaining suitably free for you to interact in?), as well as heavy involvement from all of you. But based off of the second one, I think it’s totally worth the risk.
You’ll notice that each time I do this, I still take a little time from the pulpit. No matter what, I want to make sure you are sent home with the faith that scripture attests: God loves you; Jesus Christ came for you, died for you, forgives you your sins, and promises you new life; and the Holy Spirit calls you to good things in a troubled world. You don’t get that message every day. Instead you get a world full of troubles and false hopes. Come to church ready for good things, and let’s make sure you get the real good stuff: the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whose love makes saints out of sinners.
Amen.
500 Years Later - October 2017
Five hundred years have now come and gone since Martin Luther posted Ninety Five Theses Against the Practice of Plenary Indulgences. Ages have past. Nations, generations, churches, families, and entire ways of life have come and gone - formed in the echo Luther’s hammer, making a racket and nailing the pages of an unassuming academic disputation against the door of Castle Church - Wittenberg.
Each generation has heard ringing of Luther’s hammer, his words, and his convictions to find their own path to reforming their churches and their societies. Some would imitate the Luther himself - bringing his words to new people and to new generations. Others blazed their own path, inspired by one part or another of Luther’s story. Both options have been done beautifully in the hands of some, and have done tremendous damage in the hands of others. But no matter what, the Reformation has never been completed. 500 years later, and we still need reforming. As the world keeps breaking down - we need the sound of the hammer to know that something good is being built up.
Everyone with eyes and ears can see the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage that this world is revolting in. As an old professor of mine once said, “Progress and catastrophe feel the same, at least early on,” and I think he was right. There’s a lot of promise in the world today, a lot of danger, and a real need for wisdom in being good stewards of creation. We all see the need for reform as much as we disagree about how and what reforms need to happen. What do we need to listen for to do this well? What does the ringing of the hammer sound like today?
We could see the Reformation as part of our history that’s now over. That it’s part of our progress that needs to be commemorated. Maybe it’s something we have learned from, but remains in the past. But I don’t think that’s a good solution. The message of God’s grace that Luther preached isn’t simply a historical curiosity, or anomaly. It’s a radical truth that still rings true today. We could seek to return to Luther and his writings directly - but while there’s great strength in them, we have to admit that they were not written for modern eyes and ears. Even if Luther’s writings and teachings deal with the fundamental truths of humanity and God, they do so in a way that has been challenged by time. The Era of the Internet and the Era of the Movable-Type Printing Press are appreciably different - they have different concerns and speak different languages.
To continue reforming isn’t simply to learn from the past and move to the future, nor is it an attempt to return to the glory days. As heirs to God’s promise, we don’t simply listen for the echoes of Luther’s hammer. By the power of the Holy Spirit we make that racket ourselves!
We protest against a world that values things more than people, we give life to those who are caught in systems of death, and we love those who have been stung by shame. Because that’s what God does, and that’s what God did for our sake. In doing so, we make the noise that Martin made at his very best. The world might reject this commotion for a truer, holier way of life. But God finds the sound of that hammer beautiful as we place our own theses for life and confess our love of a God who loves.
This is what the Holy Spirit does. It makes us make noise for God and for our neighbor. It leads us to meaningfully reform ourselves, our church, and our world. The Holy Spirit calls us into freedom from sin, freedom from death, freedom from fear, loss, anxiety, power, pride, nation, culture, or anything less than the life and way of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The hammer doesn’t merely echo, it rings out with the Truth:
“By grace you have been saved,” “The righteous shall live by faith,” “Your sins are forgiven,” “Christ, who was crucified, is now risen to the right hand of God!”
May the Church continue its Reformation until Christ comes again!
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Five hundred years have now come and gone since Martin Luther posted Ninety Five Theses Against the Practice of Plenary Indulgences. Ages have past. Nations, generations, churches, families, and entire ways of life have come and gone - formed in the echo Luther’s hammer, making a racket and nailing the pages of an unassuming academic disputation against the door of Castle Church - Wittenberg.
Each generation has heard ringing of Luther’s hammer, his words, and his convictions to find their own path to reforming their churches and their societies. Some would imitate the Luther himself - bringing his words to new people and to new generations. Others blazed their own path, inspired by one part or another of Luther’s story. Both options have been done beautifully in the hands of some, and have done tremendous damage in the hands of others. But no matter what, the Reformation has never been completed. 500 years later, and we still need reforming. As the world keeps breaking down - we need the sound of the hammer to know that something good is being built up.
Everyone with eyes and ears can see the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage that this world is revolting in. As an old professor of mine once said, “Progress and catastrophe feel the same, at least early on,” and I think he was right. There’s a lot of promise in the world today, a lot of danger, and a real need for wisdom in being good stewards of creation. We all see the need for reform as much as we disagree about how and what reforms need to happen. What do we need to listen for to do this well? What does the ringing of the hammer sound like today?
We could see the Reformation as part of our history that’s now over. That it’s part of our progress that needs to be commemorated. Maybe it’s something we have learned from, but remains in the past. But I don’t think that’s a good solution. The message of God’s grace that Luther preached isn’t simply a historical curiosity, or anomaly. It’s a radical truth that still rings true today. We could seek to return to Luther and his writings directly - but while there’s great strength in them, we have to admit that they were not written for modern eyes and ears. Even if Luther’s writings and teachings deal with the fundamental truths of humanity and God, they do so in a way that has been challenged by time. The Era of the Internet and the Era of the Movable-Type Printing Press are appreciably different - they have different concerns and speak different languages.
To continue reforming isn’t simply to learn from the past and move to the future, nor is it an attempt to return to the glory days. As heirs to God’s promise, we don’t simply listen for the echoes of Luther’s hammer. By the power of the Holy Spirit we make that racket ourselves!
We protest against a world that values things more than people, we give life to those who are caught in systems of death, and we love those who have been stung by shame. Because that’s what God does, and that’s what God did for our sake. In doing so, we make the noise that Martin made at his very best. The world might reject this commotion for a truer, holier way of life. But God finds the sound of that hammer beautiful as we place our own theses for life and confess our love of a God who loves.
This is what the Holy Spirit does. It makes us make noise for God and for our neighbor. It leads us to meaningfully reform ourselves, our church, and our world. The Holy Spirit calls us into freedom from sin, freedom from death, freedom from fear, loss, anxiety, power, pride, nation, culture, or anything less than the life and way of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The hammer doesn’t merely echo, it rings out with the Truth:
“By grace you have been saved,” “The righteous shall live by faith,” “Your sins are forgiven,” “Christ, who was crucified, is now risen to the right hand of God!”
May the Church continue its Reformation until Christ comes again!
In Christ,
Pastor Kaegler
Old Man Luther - September 2017
We’re getting to the end of our year of Luther newsletters — it’s been quite an experiment for me to go through all of this, and I hope you’ve learned as much as I have. This month, the second-to-last newsletter in celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we’ll be exploring Martin Luther’s last years.
Over the months we’ve seen Luther transform from an unsuspecting, self-doubting, and life-fearing monk into the hot-headed leader of the Reformation in Germany and beyond. By his old age, Luther had changed pretty dramatically in considerable ways. He had seen friends and family die by persecution and illness (most famously his young daughter - whose death he never recovered from). He had seen close friendships dissolve over theological controversy, and he had formed meaningful alliances between people. He had preached and taught across Germany - amid princes, kings, emperors and more. Nearly every part of the world that had heard of Christianity, had heard of him. He was a celebrity, and everyone wanted to learn from him.
For that reason, Luther was regularly called on to engage in disputations between other reforming theologians, city councils, and more. He was asked about matters of the Lord’s Supper (Jesus is really there! Just not because of magic or Aristotelian principles!), Works of the Law (They are not involved in your salvation, though they do spring out from your salvation! Do them, they’re good and they help your neighbor!), Salvation (We actually do need to be saved, and we actually are saved!) and many more you can look up.
Unfortunately, Luther’s health wasn’t always up to this role. His lifelong digestive problems had come to a head at this point in his life, likely along with some disorders in his inner ear (Luther did love loud music), and the stress he was constantly under did not do him any favors. And to add tragedy to the list, his beloved daughter Magdalena’s death in 1542 at age 13 left a spiritual wound that never fully healed.
Age, illness, and life did not do well for Luther’s temper. While he was always a fiery writer - in his last years Luther was truly a polemicist. Sometimes, this polemical attitude was quite charming, albeit insulting. In what is perhaps his last truly great creative work On the Councils and the Church, Luther described some of his opponents as “mouse-droppings in the pepper.” Other times, it stoked the fire of evils that Luther himself was unaware of (especially the evil within himself). There is no clearer example of this than his infamous tract On the Jews and Their Lies, a truly wicked anti-Jewish text that recommended the burning of synagogues, the destruction of their texts, the prohibition of their worship, and forbidding them to appeal to God.
The astute reader of Luther will observe that in this text, Luther violates the principles and the method behind just about everything else he had otherwise written - about God, about how to obey the Ten Commandments, the role of temporal government, our relationship to the Jewish people, and more. Mercifully, this text was generally ignored for about 400 years. Then, in the 20th century disciples of Adolf Hitler (and enemies of Jesus disguised as church members) pulled it out from the sewage heap of history and used it to convince Lutherans to support Naziism. They largely succeeded. The world is worse for it. Luther’s defamation of the Jewish people has since been formally disavowed by every significant Lutheran body in the world since the end of the Second World War. We have likewise sought forgiveness from Jewish assemblies, and in spite of not deserving it, have mercifully received it.
Luther died in 1546, following a call to the city of Mansfeld. The Count of Mansfeld was engaged in some sketchy dealings against the miners of his territory - creating tax policies that really punished miners and merchants and ultimately seizing the local mine. Luther had tried to delegate this role to the local pastor, whom Albrecht of Mansfeld accused of sedition for speaking against him. Luther felt particularly drawn to this - his father worked in mining and so did much of his family.
And so, filled with ire and passion, Luther went to advocate for his people. Noticeably, Luther made no spiritual threats against them in writing, and made his way to meet with the Count in early 1546. But he was sick, and only got more sick. Luther managed to resolve the dispute between the count and the mining community, but found himself short-breathed at the end of this sermon. He took to a bed rest that he never left. Though in his last day he wrote a small tract that concluded with the words “This is true. We are all beggars.” Soon, his heart began beating erratically, his friends were called, and he gave a last confession of faith to his long time friend Dr. Justus Jonas who asked him “Do you want to die standing firm on Christ, and the doctrine you have taught?” Luther said “Ja!” as his heart burst, and he died at 3 AM on February 18th, 1546.
Luther’s latter years pose a considerable challenge to Lutherans, and all Protestants. In some ways, his passion was tempered by a wisdom that guided him well as one would hope. Some of his pastoral letters of this period are among his most compassionate and wise. In other ways, Luther’s temper only became worse, his theological writings more questionable, and his legacy became considerably compromised. But still - the method Luther pioneered in his early and middle years, and the works of the brilliant theologians he surrounded himself with and who succeeded him helped maintain the Reformation. It makes us Lutherans today, and as long as the Holy Spirit wills it, will continue creating, sustaining, and redeeming people within the lens of Lutheran theology until our faith becomes sight, and Christ’s kingdom comes. And so next month - in our last month of this year long project - we discuss the legacies and the future of the Lutheran Reformation.
We’re getting to the end of our year of Luther newsletters — it’s been quite an experiment for me to go through all of this, and I hope you’ve learned as much as I have. This month, the second-to-last newsletter in celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we’ll be exploring Martin Luther’s last years.
Over the months we’ve seen Luther transform from an unsuspecting, self-doubting, and life-fearing monk into the hot-headed leader of the Reformation in Germany and beyond. By his old age, Luther had changed pretty dramatically in considerable ways. He had seen friends and family die by persecution and illness (most famously his young daughter - whose death he never recovered from). He had seen close friendships dissolve over theological controversy, and he had formed meaningful alliances between people. He had preached and taught across Germany - amid princes, kings, emperors and more. Nearly every part of the world that had heard of Christianity, had heard of him. He was a celebrity, and everyone wanted to learn from him.
For that reason, Luther was regularly called on to engage in disputations between other reforming theologians, city councils, and more. He was asked about matters of the Lord’s Supper (Jesus is really there! Just not because of magic or Aristotelian principles!), Works of the Law (They are not involved in your salvation, though they do spring out from your salvation! Do them, they’re good and they help your neighbor!), Salvation (We actually do need to be saved, and we actually are saved!) and many more you can look up.
Unfortunately, Luther’s health wasn’t always up to this role. His lifelong digestive problems had come to a head at this point in his life, likely along with some disorders in his inner ear (Luther did love loud music), and the stress he was constantly under did not do him any favors. And to add tragedy to the list, his beloved daughter Magdalena’s death in 1542 at age 13 left a spiritual wound that never fully healed.
Age, illness, and life did not do well for Luther’s temper. While he was always a fiery writer - in his last years Luther was truly a polemicist. Sometimes, this polemical attitude was quite charming, albeit insulting. In what is perhaps his last truly great creative work On the Councils and the Church, Luther described some of his opponents as “mouse-droppings in the pepper.” Other times, it stoked the fire of evils that Luther himself was unaware of (especially the evil within himself). There is no clearer example of this than his infamous tract On the Jews and Their Lies, a truly wicked anti-Jewish text that recommended the burning of synagogues, the destruction of their texts, the prohibition of their worship, and forbidding them to appeal to God.
The astute reader of Luther will observe that in this text, Luther violates the principles and the method behind just about everything else he had otherwise written - about God, about how to obey the Ten Commandments, the role of temporal government, our relationship to the Jewish people, and more. Mercifully, this text was generally ignored for about 400 years. Then, in the 20th century disciples of Adolf Hitler (and enemies of Jesus disguised as church members) pulled it out from the sewage heap of history and used it to convince Lutherans to support Naziism. They largely succeeded. The world is worse for it. Luther’s defamation of the Jewish people has since been formally disavowed by every significant Lutheran body in the world since the end of the Second World War. We have likewise sought forgiveness from Jewish assemblies, and in spite of not deserving it, have mercifully received it.
Luther died in 1546, following a call to the city of Mansfeld. The Count of Mansfeld was engaged in some sketchy dealings against the miners of his territory - creating tax policies that really punished miners and merchants and ultimately seizing the local mine. Luther had tried to delegate this role to the local pastor, whom Albrecht of Mansfeld accused of sedition for speaking against him. Luther felt particularly drawn to this - his father worked in mining and so did much of his family.
And so, filled with ire and passion, Luther went to advocate for his people. Noticeably, Luther made no spiritual threats against them in writing, and made his way to meet with the Count in early 1546. But he was sick, and only got more sick. Luther managed to resolve the dispute between the count and the mining community, but found himself short-breathed at the end of this sermon. He took to a bed rest that he never left. Though in his last day he wrote a small tract that concluded with the words “This is true. We are all beggars.” Soon, his heart began beating erratically, his friends were called, and he gave a last confession of faith to his long time friend Dr. Justus Jonas who asked him “Do you want to die standing firm on Christ, and the doctrine you have taught?” Luther said “Ja!” as his heart burst, and he died at 3 AM on February 18th, 1546.
Luther’s latter years pose a considerable challenge to Lutherans, and all Protestants. In some ways, his passion was tempered by a wisdom that guided him well as one would hope. Some of his pastoral letters of this period are among his most compassionate and wise. In other ways, Luther’s temper only became worse, his theological writings more questionable, and his legacy became considerably compromised. But still - the method Luther pioneered in his early and middle years, and the works of the brilliant theologians he surrounded himself with and who succeeded him helped maintain the Reformation. It makes us Lutherans today, and as long as the Holy Spirit wills it, will continue creating, sustaining, and redeeming people within the lens of Lutheran theology until our faith becomes sight, and Christ’s kingdom comes. And so next month - in our last month of this year long project - we discuss the legacies and the future of the Lutheran Reformation.
Summer 2017 - Schmalkalden
In Thuringia, a historic state in Central/Eastern Germany, there is a little city of about 19,000 people known as Schmalkalden. It’s about as unassuming as you can get. First mentioned in the year 874, it’s an old city, but not especially old by German standards. It has some pretty churches, and has a pretty river. But, no offense to any Thuringians who may be reading this, it doesn’t seem particularly remarkable at first glance. But what happens when we look deeper?
Schmalkalden is the site of some of the most important though less prominent moments of Reformation history. You see, after signing the Augsburg Confession, Philip I, the Landgrave of Hesse and John Frederick I, the Elector of Saxony, recognized how tenuous their reigns actually were. Now, these states weren’t weak by any stretch of the imagination. Hesse in particular had a reputation for its military regiment - they were so well trained and so powerful that a lot of Empires would hire their soldiers as mercenaries. Hessians even became a by-word, or even a brand for mercenaries - in the way you call a tissue a “Kleenex”, you would call a German mercenary a “Hessian” by this period. They were simply the best. Saxony, on the other hand, had a booming economy and a large population which fed into a formidable military of its own. But even if these two states were legitimate regional powers, they would be completely unable be able to handle the force of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. At least - not on their own.
So Philip I and John Frederick, united by their common confession of faith, but deeply worried about what was going to happen to them, realized that a great step forward would be to form a defensive alliance. If Charles V attacked either of them, it would be an attack on both of them. They came to this agreement in the City of Schmalkalden - and called their new alliance Schmalkaldic League. This alliance encouraged a number of other states and cities who were considering their role in the Lutheran, and by now Protestant, Reformation. The League expanded quickly. The requirement to join in on the Alliance was to sign onto the Augsburg Confession (though soon signatories of the Zwinglian/Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession were acceptable). Soon, it was no longer simply a defensive alliance, but a larger cultural entity and trading federation of its own.
This alliance was quickly becoming formidable. And Charles V was getting more uneasy. What should have been an easily quashed rebellion was now a sizable military and economic entity within his own Empire. In the meantime, the Ottoman Turks who had been pushed back at Vienna 3 years ago were still extremely dangerous, and he was at war with both France and Italy. No nation can handle that much war and survive. So in 1532, the League successfully brokered a truce with the Holy Roman Empire - Lutheranism was now legally tolerated in the Empire. Charles V could rest a little more easily on the home front and focus on the international stage. With peace came the spread of Lutheranism and further expansion of the League, which could now provide support for the Empire in its war. The truce within the German states helped cultivate the Reformation throughout Northern and Western Europe in particular. The truce lasted for 14 years.
This decade and a half was Martin Luther’s last - which is probably a mercy considering how disastrously the truce ended. By this point, Pope Paul III (who followed Leo X - Luther’s first papal nemesis, Adrian VI who died before he could institute reforms along the lines of Luther’s close/best enemy Erasmus, and Clement VII who was unable to corral the many factions of Rome) wanted to call a major council among the German Princes in the city of Trent. In response, the Lutheran Princes gathered together at a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League and asked Luther to assemble a group of theologians to write a summary of the faith. This was a needed task - Luther was getting older and sicker, and no one expected him to last much longer. His death, without a clear theological will and testament or successor would be a considerable obstacle.
So Luther gathered his closest colleagues - Melanchthon, Jonas, Cruciger, Bugenhagen, Agricola, and Amsdorf, and they set to work. They started off by writing about the things Lutherans and Catholics could agree on - The Trinity. They hoped this mutual ground could open conversation. They moved on to more contentious topics - the fullness and efficacy of Christ’s work and the concept of Trust - which Luther thought would be irreconcilable due to Roman positions on several abuses. Finally, Luther closed with a series of topics that Catholics and Lutherans could really find common ground on. Even between friends, the writing of the document was fairly heated in some points - especially around the nature of the Papacy, and how to understand the Lord’s Supper. Luther was fairly proud of this document. Though it was perhaps less elegant than his earlier works, it contains some incredible insights into Christian community, sin, grace, and the nature of authority.
The Smalcald Articles were presented to the Princes at their 1537 meeting in Schmalkalden. The Princes, however, struggled with the work and decided that Melanchthon’s earlier works - the Augsburg Confession and the Apologia were better suited to their needs at the time. That didn’t stop the work from being important, though. While they weren’t what the Princes wanted, Luther’s articles were soon printed, attached with one of his favorite writings by Melanchthon, and made their way around Germany.
But by the time the Smalcald Articles were widely accepted, the international stage had changed. It took 14 years for Charles V to strengthen his position in Germany, but he did it. Through cunning diplomacy, he made peace with France, he gained a promise from Rome for financial support in a war against the Schmalkaldic League, and perhaps most importantly and subversively, he convinced Moritz of Saxony to betray his cousin John Frederick, father-in-law Philip, and the entire League. The Lutheran party also began to suffer some major discord when Luther, Melanchthon and Martin Bucer allowed their Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to commit bigamy. With all of his ducks in a row, Charles V declared war on the Schmalkaldic League shortly after Luther’s death in 1546.
The war was an unmitigated disaster against the Protestants. When Moritz (who gained the ignominious name “The Judas of Meissen”) turned his back and waged war on his relatives, the League was lost. Wittenberg itself was overrun. In a display of dignity, Charles V forbade his troops from digging up Luther’s body to burn it, saying “I do not make war against dead men.” The League that had saved the Reformation surrendered within a year. As a condition of the peace, Philip Melanchthon and several Princes signed onto a much loathed document entitled the Augsburg Interim in order to save the Reformation by ending the war. This treaty mandated reintroduction of Roman Catholic practices in Protestant lands.
Many of Melanchthon’s colleagues and friends considered his signing of the Augsburg Interim an unconscionable betrayal - in particular his close friend Nicholas von Amsdorf, and Luther’s close student Matthias Flacius. Lutheranism was split into two deeply divided factions - the Philipists who supported Melanchthon, and the Gnesio- or “True” Lutherans who supported Amsdorf and Flacius. The Gnesio-Lutherans found themselves uniting around one particular document as they waged an intellectual and ecclesial rampage against Melanchthon and his party: Luther’s Smalcald Articles. The city of Schmalkald, and those who gathered there, had made their mark on history.
Big history can be seen in little spaces. We know that here at St. John’s. One of our pastors was the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (Frederick Muhlenberg), and another was one of the early exemplars of the Neo-Lutheranism movement in the U.S. (Frederick Waage - whose grumpy countenance you can find in our music room). Keep your eyes out in little, unassuming places. Just under the surface you may find big things that can inspire you.
In Thuringia, a historic state in Central/Eastern Germany, there is a little city of about 19,000 people known as Schmalkalden. It’s about as unassuming as you can get. First mentioned in the year 874, it’s an old city, but not especially old by German standards. It has some pretty churches, and has a pretty river. But, no offense to any Thuringians who may be reading this, it doesn’t seem particularly remarkable at first glance. But what happens when we look deeper?
Schmalkalden is the site of some of the most important though less prominent moments of Reformation history. You see, after signing the Augsburg Confession, Philip I, the Landgrave of Hesse and John Frederick I, the Elector of Saxony, recognized how tenuous their reigns actually were. Now, these states weren’t weak by any stretch of the imagination. Hesse in particular had a reputation for its military regiment - they were so well trained and so powerful that a lot of Empires would hire their soldiers as mercenaries. Hessians even became a by-word, or even a brand for mercenaries - in the way you call a tissue a “Kleenex”, you would call a German mercenary a “Hessian” by this period. They were simply the best. Saxony, on the other hand, had a booming economy and a large population which fed into a formidable military of its own. But even if these two states were legitimate regional powers, they would be completely unable be able to handle the force of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. At least - not on their own.
So Philip I and John Frederick, united by their common confession of faith, but deeply worried about what was going to happen to them, realized that a great step forward would be to form a defensive alliance. If Charles V attacked either of them, it would be an attack on both of them. They came to this agreement in the City of Schmalkalden - and called their new alliance Schmalkaldic League. This alliance encouraged a number of other states and cities who were considering their role in the Lutheran, and by now Protestant, Reformation. The League expanded quickly. The requirement to join in on the Alliance was to sign onto the Augsburg Confession (though soon signatories of the Zwinglian/Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession were acceptable). Soon, it was no longer simply a defensive alliance, but a larger cultural entity and trading federation of its own.
This alliance was quickly becoming formidable. And Charles V was getting more uneasy. What should have been an easily quashed rebellion was now a sizable military and economic entity within his own Empire. In the meantime, the Ottoman Turks who had been pushed back at Vienna 3 years ago were still extremely dangerous, and he was at war with both France and Italy. No nation can handle that much war and survive. So in 1532, the League successfully brokered a truce with the Holy Roman Empire - Lutheranism was now legally tolerated in the Empire. Charles V could rest a little more easily on the home front and focus on the international stage. With peace came the spread of Lutheranism and further expansion of the League, which could now provide support for the Empire in its war. The truce within the German states helped cultivate the Reformation throughout Northern and Western Europe in particular. The truce lasted for 14 years.
This decade and a half was Martin Luther’s last - which is probably a mercy considering how disastrously the truce ended. By this point, Pope Paul III (who followed Leo X - Luther’s first papal nemesis, Adrian VI who died before he could institute reforms along the lines of Luther’s close/best enemy Erasmus, and Clement VII who was unable to corral the many factions of Rome) wanted to call a major council among the German Princes in the city of Trent. In response, the Lutheran Princes gathered together at a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League and asked Luther to assemble a group of theologians to write a summary of the faith. This was a needed task - Luther was getting older and sicker, and no one expected him to last much longer. His death, without a clear theological will and testament or successor would be a considerable obstacle.
So Luther gathered his closest colleagues - Melanchthon, Jonas, Cruciger, Bugenhagen, Agricola, and Amsdorf, and they set to work. They started off by writing about the things Lutherans and Catholics could agree on - The Trinity. They hoped this mutual ground could open conversation. They moved on to more contentious topics - the fullness and efficacy of Christ’s work and the concept of Trust - which Luther thought would be irreconcilable due to Roman positions on several abuses. Finally, Luther closed with a series of topics that Catholics and Lutherans could really find common ground on. Even between friends, the writing of the document was fairly heated in some points - especially around the nature of the Papacy, and how to understand the Lord’s Supper. Luther was fairly proud of this document. Though it was perhaps less elegant than his earlier works, it contains some incredible insights into Christian community, sin, grace, and the nature of authority.
The Smalcald Articles were presented to the Princes at their 1537 meeting in Schmalkalden. The Princes, however, struggled with the work and decided that Melanchthon’s earlier works - the Augsburg Confession and the Apologia were better suited to their needs at the time. That didn’t stop the work from being important, though. While they weren’t what the Princes wanted, Luther’s articles were soon printed, attached with one of his favorite writings by Melanchthon, and made their way around Germany.
But by the time the Smalcald Articles were widely accepted, the international stage had changed. It took 14 years for Charles V to strengthen his position in Germany, but he did it. Through cunning diplomacy, he made peace with France, he gained a promise from Rome for financial support in a war against the Schmalkaldic League, and perhaps most importantly and subversively, he convinced Moritz of Saxony to betray his cousin John Frederick, father-in-law Philip, and the entire League. The Lutheran party also began to suffer some major discord when Luther, Melanchthon and Martin Bucer allowed their Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to commit bigamy. With all of his ducks in a row, Charles V declared war on the Schmalkaldic League shortly after Luther’s death in 1546.
The war was an unmitigated disaster against the Protestants. When Moritz (who gained the ignominious name “The Judas of Meissen”) turned his back and waged war on his relatives, the League was lost. Wittenberg itself was overrun. In a display of dignity, Charles V forbade his troops from digging up Luther’s body to burn it, saying “I do not make war against dead men.” The League that had saved the Reformation surrendered within a year. As a condition of the peace, Philip Melanchthon and several Princes signed onto a much loathed document entitled the Augsburg Interim in order to save the Reformation by ending the war. This treaty mandated reintroduction of Roman Catholic practices in Protestant lands.
Many of Melanchthon’s colleagues and friends considered his signing of the Augsburg Interim an unconscionable betrayal - in particular his close friend Nicholas von Amsdorf, and Luther’s close student Matthias Flacius. Lutheranism was split into two deeply divided factions - the Philipists who supported Melanchthon, and the Gnesio- or “True” Lutherans who supported Amsdorf and Flacius. The Gnesio-Lutherans found themselves uniting around one particular document as they waged an intellectual and ecclesial rampage against Melanchthon and his party: Luther’s Smalcald Articles. The city of Schmalkald, and those who gathered there, had made their mark on history.
Big history can be seen in little spaces. We know that here at St. John’s. One of our pastors was the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (Frederick Muhlenberg), and another was one of the early exemplars of the Neo-Lutheranism movement in the U.S. (Frederick Waage - whose grumpy countenance you can find in our music room). Keep your eyes out in little, unassuming places. Just under the surface you may find big things that can inspire you.
June 2017 - Luther and Worship
Greetings!
This month in our search for the historical Luther in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we are going to focus on how Luther changed weekly worship. In some ways, Luther’s reformation of Sunday worship was revolutionary and radical, in other ways it was considerably less radical than many of us would expect.
We see Luther’s first radical reform of worship happen at the very beginning of his career, and it was around Holy Communion. As since the beginning of the church, Holy Communion was comprised of Bread and Wine, with the Word of Institution spoken over them for all to hear, making the meal holy. However, over the course of time a practice emerged that restricted the Wine to the clergy. Only the clergy, who received the “sacrament of ordination”, were holy enough to get the real full Jesus. Luther thought this was awful, so he wrote a text entitled On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
Broadly speaking, it was a wider critique of the system of seven sacraments, but Luther focused in particular on Holy Communion. Luther observed that keeping the Cup of Jesus away from people who need it summarized everything wrong he saw wrong with Rome - tyrannical, arbitrary, and more about keeping power than giving Jesus. In addition, Luther critiqued the doctrine of transubstantiation, not because he doubted that God was present in the bread and wine, but because it turned speculative philosophy into a precondition for grace, as opposed to simple faith. Finally, Luther added that the idea of the mass as a sacrifice to God turned what was meant to be a generous gift from God into a human work. In Luther’s model of worship, true to form, the goods were delivered according to God’s love and generosity for all weekly, plus midweek feast days.
Luther also critiqued the Roman Mass for its use of Latin, and so translated the entire service into German. He would have actually liked for the mass to be in several languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, etc.) provided that the people could understand what the Pastor was saying. Effectively, before Luther, worship was generally intended to be a human action given to God. For Luther and for the Lutherans, worship was a gift for people, with the result that people will praise God. You don’t please God from acting holy, you please God because you’re a holy people, and you get holy by the reception of God’s word and promise - being made at one with Jesus.
By late 1523, Luther had written a new worship service, entitled An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg. His chief intention was to make sure that the lessons and the sermon were in German (music could remain in other languages) so that Germans didn’t need to learn Latin before they could understand what was being said. Second, he modified the weekly Communion liturgy - removing all language that indicated that Holy Communion is a good work done by us, or that it is a sacrifice by us to God (for this reason we are very careful with our language around the offertory!). Third, he made sure that local pastors, bishops, and congregations had the ability to modify the service as they saw fit in honoring the Word of God. All reforms and modifications to worship are done in service to the Word of God and nothing else.
But otherwise, the liturgy remained mostly the same. Luther retained the vestments of the Catholic Church. Luther spoke highly of the regular reception of Holy Communion, he commended the hymns, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Creeds, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). He had no interest in changing any of these things. Luther suggested a reduction in festival days - only suggesting extra midweek worship in the case of Biblically based festivals (those around the life of Jesus, the Apostles, the Virgin Mary, and sometimes the doctrines of the Church) - while other important feast days would get moved to Sunday and expanded upon if the stories were worthwhile. Which is to say - no more daily and private communion services. Legendary and superstitious tales like those of St. Christopher, and especially tales of saintly magical powers interceding post mortem (“pray to Anne for riches, Sebastian for healing from the Plague, George for the well being of knights, Valentine for epilepsy,” etc.) were excluded. I’m sure you can imagine, worship was substantially longer than it is today. The sermons alone would go for over an hour! Communion - even with languages of our sacrifices removed, was practiced every week and on extra festivals - and was open to everyone who wanted it and had been examined (that is, had a conversation about faith, sin, life, etc. with the pastor and seek the comfort of the Gospel in bread and wine). Whatever was not wrong, Luther did not try to fix - against more radical reformers who would try to change everything.
The use of music also went through a considerable change. Luther’s rival Ulrich Zwingli saw the use of music as a distraction in worship. Zwingli accused those who sang it and played it as being more interested in themselves, and their listeners being more invested in the songs, than they were in God (and he reserved special venom for organists - Sorry, Paul!). Luther argued in contrast that music is a perfectly biblical method of praise, provided that it is praise that goes to God and in service to nothing else, and the content of the singing makes God’s grace more clear for listeners. Luther’s other prominent rival, John Calvin, was a greater fan of music in worship - but insisted that all music be straight from the Bible - the Psalms, the Magnificat, etc. In contrast, Luther wanted a wide variety of music, so that the praise of God could be varied, taken home, sung in other places, and a steady reminder (sometimes of the ear-worm variety) of God’s grace.
That sums it up for the month’s exploration of the Reformation. Our next newsletter will start our examination of Luther’s later days and struggles.
Greetings!
This month in our search for the historical Luther in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we are going to focus on how Luther changed weekly worship. In some ways, Luther’s reformation of Sunday worship was revolutionary and radical, in other ways it was considerably less radical than many of us would expect.
We see Luther’s first radical reform of worship happen at the very beginning of his career, and it was around Holy Communion. As since the beginning of the church, Holy Communion was comprised of Bread and Wine, with the Word of Institution spoken over them for all to hear, making the meal holy. However, over the course of time a practice emerged that restricted the Wine to the clergy. Only the clergy, who received the “sacrament of ordination”, were holy enough to get the real full Jesus. Luther thought this was awful, so he wrote a text entitled On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
Broadly speaking, it was a wider critique of the system of seven sacraments, but Luther focused in particular on Holy Communion. Luther observed that keeping the Cup of Jesus away from people who need it summarized everything wrong he saw wrong with Rome - tyrannical, arbitrary, and more about keeping power than giving Jesus. In addition, Luther critiqued the doctrine of transubstantiation, not because he doubted that God was present in the bread and wine, but because it turned speculative philosophy into a precondition for grace, as opposed to simple faith. Finally, Luther added that the idea of the mass as a sacrifice to God turned what was meant to be a generous gift from God into a human work. In Luther’s model of worship, true to form, the goods were delivered according to God’s love and generosity for all weekly, plus midweek feast days.
Luther also critiqued the Roman Mass for its use of Latin, and so translated the entire service into German. He would have actually liked for the mass to be in several languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, etc.) provided that the people could understand what the Pastor was saying. Effectively, before Luther, worship was generally intended to be a human action given to God. For Luther and for the Lutherans, worship was a gift for people, with the result that people will praise God. You don’t please God from acting holy, you please God because you’re a holy people, and you get holy by the reception of God’s word and promise - being made at one with Jesus.
By late 1523, Luther had written a new worship service, entitled An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg. His chief intention was to make sure that the lessons and the sermon were in German (music could remain in other languages) so that Germans didn’t need to learn Latin before they could understand what was being said. Second, he modified the weekly Communion liturgy - removing all language that indicated that Holy Communion is a good work done by us, or that it is a sacrifice by us to God (for this reason we are very careful with our language around the offertory!). Third, he made sure that local pastors, bishops, and congregations had the ability to modify the service as they saw fit in honoring the Word of God. All reforms and modifications to worship are done in service to the Word of God and nothing else.
But otherwise, the liturgy remained mostly the same. Luther retained the vestments of the Catholic Church. Luther spoke highly of the regular reception of Holy Communion, he commended the hymns, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Creeds, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). He had no interest in changing any of these things. Luther suggested a reduction in festival days - only suggesting extra midweek worship in the case of Biblically based festivals (those around the life of Jesus, the Apostles, the Virgin Mary, and sometimes the doctrines of the Church) - while other important feast days would get moved to Sunday and expanded upon if the stories were worthwhile. Which is to say - no more daily and private communion services. Legendary and superstitious tales like those of St. Christopher, and especially tales of saintly magical powers interceding post mortem (“pray to Anne for riches, Sebastian for healing from the Plague, George for the well being of knights, Valentine for epilepsy,” etc.) were excluded. I’m sure you can imagine, worship was substantially longer than it is today. The sermons alone would go for over an hour! Communion - even with languages of our sacrifices removed, was practiced every week and on extra festivals - and was open to everyone who wanted it and had been examined (that is, had a conversation about faith, sin, life, etc. with the pastor and seek the comfort of the Gospel in bread and wine). Whatever was not wrong, Luther did not try to fix - against more radical reformers who would try to change everything.
The use of music also went through a considerable change. Luther’s rival Ulrich Zwingli saw the use of music as a distraction in worship. Zwingli accused those who sang it and played it as being more interested in themselves, and their listeners being more invested in the songs, than they were in God (and he reserved special venom for organists - Sorry, Paul!). Luther argued in contrast that music is a perfectly biblical method of praise, provided that it is praise that goes to God and in service to nothing else, and the content of the singing makes God’s grace more clear for listeners. Luther’s other prominent rival, John Calvin, was a greater fan of music in worship - but insisted that all music be straight from the Bible - the Psalms, the Magnificat, etc. In contrast, Luther wanted a wide variety of music, so that the praise of God could be varied, taken home, sung in other places, and a steady reminder (sometimes of the ear-worm variety) of God’s grace.
That sums it up for the month’s exploration of the Reformation. Our next newsletter will start our examination of Luther’s later days and struggles.
May 2017 - The Early Spread of Lutheranism
This month we’re stepping back from Luther’s history and his immediate German surroundings, and instead take a slightly wider look at the early spread of Lutheranism - where they went and how the church spread in its early days. By the 1530s - when the Catechisms were written - Luther’s writings had found wide acceptance in a number of places in Europe. And so, we’ll briefly examine how Lutheranism spread North, South, East, and West in Europe.
North
At the beginning of the 16th century, there was only one Kingdom in Scandinavia - the Kalmar Union of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. But it was not a very happy union. As the Reformation began, the two states were embroiled in the Swedish War of Liberation - which ended the reign of King Christian (the II in Denmark, the Tyrant in Sweden) and enthroned Gustav I Vasa in 1521. In spite of these hostilities, both nations found themselves united under the Lutheran Confessions.
Denmark switched first. King Christian III (then Duke of Schleswig-Holstein) was immediately enamored by Lutheranism, much to the chagrin of his father King Frederick. While he was a Duke, he had heard Luther defend his teachings at the Diet of Worms and immediately knew that he wanted his subjects in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Greenland to become Lutheran. But his ascendency to the throne was not a guarantee. In Denmark, kings were elected through the Council of the Realm - nobles who by and large preferred his devoutly Catholic brother Hans upon their father’s death. Still others preferred his cousin, the exiled King Christian II. Ultimately, this resulted in the Count’s War - won by the Christian III who instituted Lutheranism in all his territories, where previously only a few cities had been Lutheran.
Sweden’s turn to Lutheranism was a little more pragmatic than out of religious fervor. King Gustav needed money and he saw that the Roman Catholic Church owned an awful lot of land and had an awful lot of money in his territory. Gustav I also realized that the Roman Catholic Church had generally preferred Christian II, who was supported by the Archbishop of Uppsala Gustav Trolle. At that same time, the Petri brothers - Laurentius (Lars) and Olaus (Olav) returned to their Swedish homeland, invigorated by their lovely time at the University of Wittenberg. And so, Gustav I seized Roman Catholic property, kicked out the Archbishop, and entrusted the Petri brothers with reforming the church at right about the same time that Henry VIII did the same.
South
Roman Catholic power was, of course, consolidated in the Italian states, and the Reformed movement really found its origin in Switzerland. These competing influences caused the Lutheran church to never take a really prominent role in Southern Europe. All positive mentions of Lutheranism in Italy were outlawed and burnt. Lutheran evangelists were often persecuted, arrested, and killed. A few Italian Lutherans eventually became Calvinist, with a marginally greater legacy, but did not last. The Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent put an end to any major effects of the Reformation on the Mediterranean. The Reformation had even less success in Greece. The Greek Orthodox church congratulated the Lutherans on their break from Rome, and then invited them to give up every other doctrine they held and just become Greek Orthodox. On the other hand, Calvinism made Patriarch Dosethios II so angry he called an entire council in Jerusalem just to condemn it.
However, regions like Croatia became hotbeds of Lutheran thought. Matthias Flacius Illyricus, the leader of a controversial and polemical group called the “Gnesio-” or “True” Lutherans came out of Croatia. And in Slovenia, the Reformer Primož Trubar became the first person in the nation to publish books in the Slovene language - namely the Small Catechism and the Slovene Abecedary. To this day, Trubar is a cornerstone of Slovene culture and identity. However the Habsburg Dynasty’s embrace of the Counter-Reformation prevented Lutheranism from remaining a major religious voice in the state.
East
It may surprise you, but one of the early Lutheran footholds was what is today in Poland, and further East. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - comprised of a number of states led by the Kingdom of Poland - was home to a great number of early Lutherans. Some of the most important Lutheran theologians came from these lands - in particular Martin Luther’s pastor Johannes Bugenhagen of Pomerania. The most interesting part of this story is that of Albert of Prussia. Albert navigated through the difficult political conditions of the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (a crusader state in Lithuania - itself only fully Christianized by 1416), but ultimately disbanded the Order in order to create the secular Duchy of Prussia. He did so in a deal brokered in part by Luther himself - in which Prussia pledged allegiance to Poland (and not the Emperor) in exchange for recognition as a Protestant state.
Otherwise, Lutheranism usually followed the German merchant classes throughout the East. Lutherans made homes for themselves in Austria, Hungary, Romania, and beyond all the way into Russia. Typically, the further east the Lutherans went, the more insular they were.
West
Spain and Portugal all followed roughly the same narrative as Italy. Lutherans were quickly outlawed and killed with zeal. In fact, in the 1560s, the Spanish General Peter Menendez slaughtered a group of French Protestants in Florida for the crime of being Lutherans. Had they been “truly” French, that is, Roman Catholic, he would not have been allowed to kill them. Ironically, these French Protestants were actually Calvinist.
However, Protestantism had a considerable foothold in France in spite of severe repression. Lutheranism was very popular in Alsace and other places particularly near the German border. And most famous among these converts was a young man named John Calvin. However, Calvin’s writings quickly split him away from the Lutheran parties, and his school of thought drifted closer and closer to those of Ulrich Zwingli. When Calvin eventually moved to Geneva, his style of theology became more distinct. His teachings became known as Calvinism, and the wider theological school is called Reformed. Calvinism was embraced in the North of France, and its followers became known as Huguenots. However, the sheer instability and war that France suffered in that period of time - both the Wars of Religion and the Civil Wars typically resulted in death and oppression for French Lutherans and Huguenots. It took until 1789 for Protestants to be considered French citizens, and by that point the majority of them had already emigrated.
Further West, in England, King Henry the VIII infamously began his reign as a staunch Catholic and was called “Defender of the Faith” for his attacks against early Protestants in his Kingdom. But he also wanted sons when his wife would only give birth to daughters. This led to his famous break with Roman Catholicism over whether or not he could get divorced. But really there was a great deal more at work here. The Protestant Reformation in England was a mix of Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed thought. Many brilliant theologians like Bucer, Cranmer, Peter Martyr, and More debated, suffered, and were exiled and killed in the creation of the Anglican Church which we can barely scratch the surface of in this article. It’s worth noting though, that of the world’s distinct Christian denominations - we can probably say that Lutherans and Anglicans are the most closely related at this point in history.
This month we’re stepping back from Luther’s history and his immediate German surroundings, and instead take a slightly wider look at the early spread of Lutheranism - where they went and how the church spread in its early days. By the 1530s - when the Catechisms were written - Luther’s writings had found wide acceptance in a number of places in Europe. And so, we’ll briefly examine how Lutheranism spread North, South, East, and West in Europe.
North
At the beginning of the 16th century, there was only one Kingdom in Scandinavia - the Kalmar Union of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. But it was not a very happy union. As the Reformation began, the two states were embroiled in the Swedish War of Liberation - which ended the reign of King Christian (the II in Denmark, the Tyrant in Sweden) and enthroned Gustav I Vasa in 1521. In spite of these hostilities, both nations found themselves united under the Lutheran Confessions.
Denmark switched first. King Christian III (then Duke of Schleswig-Holstein) was immediately enamored by Lutheranism, much to the chagrin of his father King Frederick. While he was a Duke, he had heard Luther defend his teachings at the Diet of Worms and immediately knew that he wanted his subjects in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Greenland to become Lutheran. But his ascendency to the throne was not a guarantee. In Denmark, kings were elected through the Council of the Realm - nobles who by and large preferred his devoutly Catholic brother Hans upon their father’s death. Still others preferred his cousin, the exiled King Christian II. Ultimately, this resulted in the Count’s War - won by the Christian III who instituted Lutheranism in all his territories, where previously only a few cities had been Lutheran.
Sweden’s turn to Lutheranism was a little more pragmatic than out of religious fervor. King Gustav needed money and he saw that the Roman Catholic Church owned an awful lot of land and had an awful lot of money in his territory. Gustav I also realized that the Roman Catholic Church had generally preferred Christian II, who was supported by the Archbishop of Uppsala Gustav Trolle. At that same time, the Petri brothers - Laurentius (Lars) and Olaus (Olav) returned to their Swedish homeland, invigorated by their lovely time at the University of Wittenberg. And so, Gustav I seized Roman Catholic property, kicked out the Archbishop, and entrusted the Petri brothers with reforming the church at right about the same time that Henry VIII did the same.
South
Roman Catholic power was, of course, consolidated in the Italian states, and the Reformed movement really found its origin in Switzerland. These competing influences caused the Lutheran church to never take a really prominent role in Southern Europe. All positive mentions of Lutheranism in Italy were outlawed and burnt. Lutheran evangelists were often persecuted, arrested, and killed. A few Italian Lutherans eventually became Calvinist, with a marginally greater legacy, but did not last. The Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent put an end to any major effects of the Reformation on the Mediterranean. The Reformation had even less success in Greece. The Greek Orthodox church congratulated the Lutherans on their break from Rome, and then invited them to give up every other doctrine they held and just become Greek Orthodox. On the other hand, Calvinism made Patriarch Dosethios II so angry he called an entire council in Jerusalem just to condemn it.
However, regions like Croatia became hotbeds of Lutheran thought. Matthias Flacius Illyricus, the leader of a controversial and polemical group called the “Gnesio-” or “True” Lutherans came out of Croatia. And in Slovenia, the Reformer Primož Trubar became the first person in the nation to publish books in the Slovene language - namely the Small Catechism and the Slovene Abecedary. To this day, Trubar is a cornerstone of Slovene culture and identity. However the Habsburg Dynasty’s embrace of the Counter-Reformation prevented Lutheranism from remaining a major religious voice in the state.
East
It may surprise you, but one of the early Lutheran footholds was what is today in Poland, and further East. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - comprised of a number of states led by the Kingdom of Poland - was home to a great number of early Lutherans. Some of the most important Lutheran theologians came from these lands - in particular Martin Luther’s pastor Johannes Bugenhagen of Pomerania. The most interesting part of this story is that of Albert of Prussia. Albert navigated through the difficult political conditions of the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (a crusader state in Lithuania - itself only fully Christianized by 1416), but ultimately disbanded the Order in order to create the secular Duchy of Prussia. He did so in a deal brokered in part by Luther himself - in which Prussia pledged allegiance to Poland (and not the Emperor) in exchange for recognition as a Protestant state.
Otherwise, Lutheranism usually followed the German merchant classes throughout the East. Lutherans made homes for themselves in Austria, Hungary, Romania, and beyond all the way into Russia. Typically, the further east the Lutherans went, the more insular they were.
West
Spain and Portugal all followed roughly the same narrative as Italy. Lutherans were quickly outlawed and killed with zeal. In fact, in the 1560s, the Spanish General Peter Menendez slaughtered a group of French Protestants in Florida for the crime of being Lutherans. Had they been “truly” French, that is, Roman Catholic, he would not have been allowed to kill them. Ironically, these French Protestants were actually Calvinist.
However, Protestantism had a considerable foothold in France in spite of severe repression. Lutheranism was very popular in Alsace and other places particularly near the German border. And most famous among these converts was a young man named John Calvin. However, Calvin’s writings quickly split him away from the Lutheran parties, and his school of thought drifted closer and closer to those of Ulrich Zwingli. When Calvin eventually moved to Geneva, his style of theology became more distinct. His teachings became known as Calvinism, and the wider theological school is called Reformed. Calvinism was embraced in the North of France, and its followers became known as Huguenots. However, the sheer instability and war that France suffered in that period of time - both the Wars of Religion and the Civil Wars typically resulted in death and oppression for French Lutherans and Huguenots. It took until 1789 for Protestants to be considered French citizens, and by that point the majority of them had already emigrated.
Further West, in England, King Henry the VIII infamously began his reign as a staunch Catholic and was called “Defender of the Faith” for his attacks against early Protestants in his Kingdom. But he also wanted sons when his wife would only give birth to daughters. This led to his famous break with Roman Catholicism over whether or not he could get divorced. But really there was a great deal more at work here. The Protestant Reformation in England was a mix of Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed thought. Many brilliant theologians like Bucer, Cranmer, Peter Martyr, and More debated, suffered, and were exiled and killed in the creation of the Anglican Church which we can barely scratch the surface of in this article. It’s worth noting though, that of the world’s distinct Christian denominations - we can probably say that Lutherans and Anglicans are the most closely related at this point in history.
April 2017 - The Catechisms
We’re going to be a little more cheerful this month, as we leave behind the Peasant’s War. This month we’re going to talk a little bit about one of the essential marks of the Lutheran Reformation - the Catechisms. The Catechisms (and in particular the Small Catechism), along with his text On the Bondage of the Will were the only texts Luther really wanted to be his theological legacy.
Catechesis, the training of disciples through repetition, has always been a mark of Christian life. Tim Wengert notes that in the early church, catechesis (meaning roughly - “sound again/repeat over”) was the preferred form of instruction. Pastors and other leaders would instruct catechumens for baptism by saying a thing, and having the catechumens give a response time and time again. They learned primarily by repetition. Eventually, the term “Catechism” was invented (likely by St. Augustine) to denote the basics of Christian faith.
These basics were typically the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. However, by Luther’s time, catechetical instruction was less about those things, and more about implementing them into the penitential system. The expectation was that pastors would preach catechetically - that is, they would give instructional sermons on the basics of faith for at least four weeks a year - typically in a row. Catechetical work was also expected in a Christian’s home life. Catechisms were printed for families to instruct themselves daily in the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, a lot of those catechisms ended up being neither terribly basic, nor terribly helpful in forming a faith based on love and trust. The most prominent German catechism of Luther’s time was called A Fruitful Mirror by Dietrich Kolde. This catechism was organized into three parts in 46 sections – first, what you must believe in order to be saved, an explanation of how you must live, and then, shortly, how one ought to prepare for death. All commands, little about God. And mostly, it left people wondering if they had done enough in their lives to be worthy of God’s love. That is, assuming they listened at all, which was by no means a given.
If that kind of insecurity was the intention of A Fruitful Mirror, then it did fine. But if its intention was to help people trust in the love of God and find comfort and assurance in God’s works, allowing them to delve deeper into God’s mysteries and freedom, it failed. As soon as Luther was out of the various university and castle cloisters he had been stuck in by one authority or the other, he went into parish life and was amazed at how few people knew the basics of Christian life. So if any of that stuff reminds you of Christianity today, then read more Luther, because he did quite a bit to address it all! After all, faith for Luther isn’t about musts for the believer, but about the goodness and the grace of God which we might live into, stubborn sinners that we are.
The Lutheran Reformers believed that if they could educate people, issues of distrust and civil lawlessness would resolve themselves. By 1522, Luther had already published a small, personal devotional intended to help families teach themselves about God outside of the church. He also encouraged all local pastors to publish their own catechism booklets, and suggested his own as a kind of template. Few of these documents, however, were up to snuff.
Luther quickly tasked a few of his coworkers with writing a handbook to teach people at home, but that project fell apart as they kept being called to put out theological fires across Germany. In time, Luther and Melanchthon, too, were required to travel around Germany and visit parishes in order to make sure that pastors were preaching, and congregations were treating their pastors with dignity. What the two theologians discovered was that congregations were abusing their freedoms - neglecting confession, the Lord’s Supper, refusing to support or pay their pastors or keep up their churches (because why would they tithe if they were forgiven to begin with?) and in Luther’s own words, disgracing the Evangelical faith. And finally, the most popular catechism among Lutheran churches was a heretical publication by a former student of Luther’s - John Agricola. That was the last straw for Luther.
When Johannes Bugenhagen, the chief pastor of Wittenberg, was called to lead the city of Braunschweig’s Reformation, he left Luther in charge of preaching. Conveniently, this was at just the right time in the Church Year to do catechetical preaching. Luther used this chance to preach, and from his preaching create a better kind of Catechism for the Reformation. Luther boiled each basic down to a couple of sentences, and printed the results as his first edition. The Small Catechism was originally intended to be used in order to a.) help pastors stay on target in their catechetical preaching, and b.) help parents teach their children the faith. Lindberg notes that nothing Luther wrote was intended to be arcane knowledge thrust into a tween’s brain, but as day-to-day essentials to help all believers defy the sorrow of death and take comfort in the gift and responsibilities of life. To keep things as accessible as he could, Luther wrote the catechism to resemble a conversation with children - each section begins with the question “Was ist das?” In English “What’s this?” Just like Martin himself would be asked by his little son Hans pulling on his cassock asking about everything he sees - “What’s this, Dad?” “What’s that?” “Why?” The basics, after all, should be nothing more than that - loving children relating to their Heavenly Father.
The Large Catechism came slightly after the Small Catechism. Luther intended this work to be mostly to aid pastors in preaching. Many pastors of the time had little to no seminary training, and Luther thought that this showed in their preaching - in fact, the preface describes The Large Catechism itself as sermon. The Large Catechism not only provided nutshell explanations, but thorough examinations of the content of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, The Lord’s Supper, and Confession. They’re not put down as abstract doctrines or theories, but extremely practical. In fact, Luther would suggest that parishioners preach from it in the event that their Pastor was out of town, or indisposed. And that stands true today - both catechisms remain totally applicable and relevant with only a little modern translation. Because of
The Large Catechism’s complexity and depth, it remains grounded in the basics of faith, law, gospel, and scripture. People always want to graduate from these things, but they never can! At the heart of every Lutheran teaching is the simplicity of God’s gift made comprehensible for us.
So why do we care about the Catechisms? Because as any confirmation student of mine should be able to tell you (after their second year) - for nearly 500 years these simple text have not only taught Lutherans the basics of the faith for daily use and prayer, but have opened up ears, eyes, and mouths for honest conversations about the world as the world actually is, and God as God actually works. No other product of the Reformation can claim as great an impact on not just what Lutherans believe, but how they believe. They influenced every later Reformer, they became essential documents to the Lutheran Reformation. These are our fundamentals. They are normative, shared teachings in every Lutheran Church, and are accepted by many other denominations (such as the Moravians, and the UCC) as well, and form the base for our agreements, and our differences. God be praised for such a gift! Use these confessions in your daily life! Talk to your kids and grandkids about them, so that their faith might be consistently strengthened, and grown freely in the grace and guidance its words and spirit gives.
We’re going to be a little more cheerful this month, as we leave behind the Peasant’s War. This month we’re going to talk a little bit about one of the essential marks of the Lutheran Reformation - the Catechisms. The Catechisms (and in particular the Small Catechism), along with his text On the Bondage of the Will were the only texts Luther really wanted to be his theological legacy.
Catechesis, the training of disciples through repetition, has always been a mark of Christian life. Tim Wengert notes that in the early church, catechesis (meaning roughly - “sound again/repeat over”) was the preferred form of instruction. Pastors and other leaders would instruct catechumens for baptism by saying a thing, and having the catechumens give a response time and time again. They learned primarily by repetition. Eventually, the term “Catechism” was invented (likely by St. Augustine) to denote the basics of Christian faith.
These basics were typically the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. However, by Luther’s time, catechetical instruction was less about those things, and more about implementing them into the penitential system. The expectation was that pastors would preach catechetically - that is, they would give instructional sermons on the basics of faith for at least four weeks a year - typically in a row. Catechetical work was also expected in a Christian’s home life. Catechisms were printed for families to instruct themselves daily in the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, a lot of those catechisms ended up being neither terribly basic, nor terribly helpful in forming a faith based on love and trust. The most prominent German catechism of Luther’s time was called A Fruitful Mirror by Dietrich Kolde. This catechism was organized into three parts in 46 sections – first, what you must believe in order to be saved, an explanation of how you must live, and then, shortly, how one ought to prepare for death. All commands, little about God. And mostly, it left people wondering if they had done enough in their lives to be worthy of God’s love. That is, assuming they listened at all, which was by no means a given.
If that kind of insecurity was the intention of A Fruitful Mirror, then it did fine. But if its intention was to help people trust in the love of God and find comfort and assurance in God’s works, allowing them to delve deeper into God’s mysteries and freedom, it failed. As soon as Luther was out of the various university and castle cloisters he had been stuck in by one authority or the other, he went into parish life and was amazed at how few people knew the basics of Christian life. So if any of that stuff reminds you of Christianity today, then read more Luther, because he did quite a bit to address it all! After all, faith for Luther isn’t about musts for the believer, but about the goodness and the grace of God which we might live into, stubborn sinners that we are.
The Lutheran Reformers believed that if they could educate people, issues of distrust and civil lawlessness would resolve themselves. By 1522, Luther had already published a small, personal devotional intended to help families teach themselves about God outside of the church. He also encouraged all local pastors to publish their own catechism booklets, and suggested his own as a kind of template. Few of these documents, however, were up to snuff.
Luther quickly tasked a few of his coworkers with writing a handbook to teach people at home, but that project fell apart as they kept being called to put out theological fires across Germany. In time, Luther and Melanchthon, too, were required to travel around Germany and visit parishes in order to make sure that pastors were preaching, and congregations were treating their pastors with dignity. What the two theologians discovered was that congregations were abusing their freedoms - neglecting confession, the Lord’s Supper, refusing to support or pay their pastors or keep up their churches (because why would they tithe if they were forgiven to begin with?) and in Luther’s own words, disgracing the Evangelical faith. And finally, the most popular catechism among Lutheran churches was a heretical publication by a former student of Luther’s - John Agricola. That was the last straw for Luther.
When Johannes Bugenhagen, the chief pastor of Wittenberg, was called to lead the city of Braunschweig’s Reformation, he left Luther in charge of preaching. Conveniently, this was at just the right time in the Church Year to do catechetical preaching. Luther used this chance to preach, and from his preaching create a better kind of Catechism for the Reformation. Luther boiled each basic down to a couple of sentences, and printed the results as his first edition. The Small Catechism was originally intended to be used in order to a.) help pastors stay on target in their catechetical preaching, and b.) help parents teach their children the faith. Lindberg notes that nothing Luther wrote was intended to be arcane knowledge thrust into a tween’s brain, but as day-to-day essentials to help all believers defy the sorrow of death and take comfort in the gift and responsibilities of life. To keep things as accessible as he could, Luther wrote the catechism to resemble a conversation with children - each section begins with the question “Was ist das?” In English “What’s this?” Just like Martin himself would be asked by his little son Hans pulling on his cassock asking about everything he sees - “What’s this, Dad?” “What’s that?” “Why?” The basics, after all, should be nothing more than that - loving children relating to their Heavenly Father.
The Large Catechism came slightly after the Small Catechism. Luther intended this work to be mostly to aid pastors in preaching. Many pastors of the time had little to no seminary training, and Luther thought that this showed in their preaching - in fact, the preface describes The Large Catechism itself as sermon. The Large Catechism not only provided nutshell explanations, but thorough examinations of the content of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, The Lord’s Supper, and Confession. They’re not put down as abstract doctrines or theories, but extremely practical. In fact, Luther would suggest that parishioners preach from it in the event that their Pastor was out of town, or indisposed. And that stands true today - both catechisms remain totally applicable and relevant with only a little modern translation. Because of
The Large Catechism’s complexity and depth, it remains grounded in the basics of faith, law, gospel, and scripture. People always want to graduate from these things, but they never can! At the heart of every Lutheran teaching is the simplicity of God’s gift made comprehensible for us.
So why do we care about the Catechisms? Because as any confirmation student of mine should be able to tell you (after their second year) - for nearly 500 years these simple text have not only taught Lutherans the basics of the faith for daily use and prayer, but have opened up ears, eyes, and mouths for honest conversations about the world as the world actually is, and God as God actually works. No other product of the Reformation can claim as great an impact on not just what Lutherans believe, but how they believe. They influenced every later Reformer, they became essential documents to the Lutheran Reformation. These are our fundamentals. They are normative, shared teachings in every Lutheran Church, and are accepted by many other denominations (such as the Moravians, and the UCC) as well, and form the base for our agreements, and our differences. God be praised for such a gift! Use these confessions in your daily life! Talk to your kids and grandkids about them, so that their faith might be consistently strengthened, and grown freely in the grace and guidance its words and spirit gives.
March 2017 - The Peasant’s War and the Reformation
Today we talk about what used to be known as “The German Peasant’s War,” a name that historians note is not accurate even in a single word. It took place not simply in German territories, but from what is traditionally eastern France, all the way down to Italy and Slovenia, and Kaliningrad (then called Samland, today a Russian exclave near Lithuania). It also wasn’t only peasants who fought against Princes, but people from all classes (such that some prefer calling this war “the Revolution of the Common Man”). And it didn’t take place in 1525 alone, but started considerably earlier and only ended in 1526.
We should get started with Luther’s context. Remember last month we were talking about how Melanchthon was kept busy arguing with the Prophets of Zwickau - and how doing so cost him considerable credibility and grief because Karlstadt wouldn’t help? Well, Luther’s now back in Wittenberg, and when he gets there, he finalizes this fight with their exile, which inspired the prophets to return to the man who first sent them to Wittenberg: Thomas Müntzer.
Between 1521 and 1525, Müntzer was the leader of one of the most violent, excessive, and brutally put down Revolutions in European history to that point. The beginning of Müntzer’s Reformation was mostly concurrent with Luther’s. He had been critical of indulgences at the same time Luther had been. He had originally thought of himself and Luther as up to the same thing. In fact, Luther trusted him enough to recommend him to preach at the city of Zwickau when its pastor Johannes Erganus, simply wasn’t interested in doing his job.
But Müntzer quickly revealed himself as a bit more of a revolutionary than a pastor. His preaching advocated violence and revolution in God’s name, and his work inspired a number of men to go out and do just that - particularly against monks. His preaching became controversial and destructive enough that he was exiled to Prague. But he wasn’t well received there either, and soon found himself exiled again to a city named Allstedt. It takes a lot to get one’s self exiled so often, so eventually Luther’s supporter Duke John went to listen to him preach just to see what was up. This is when Müntzer was revealed as less of a problematic preacher and more of an apocalyptic madman.
Müntzer’s sermon, entitled “The Prince’s Sermon,” argued that Duke John was the new pagan King Nebuchadnezzar, and that he, personally, was the new Prophet Daniel, and that anyone who doesn’t listen to Daniel must be killed by Nebuchadnezzar. In this sermon, Müntzer argued that the scriptures were subservient to him and his personal spiritual experience, and thus scripture can only be used to match his agenda, and anyone who doesn’t listen to him deserves death. Duke John knew right away how messed up this was. Luther heard about it as well, and severed any remaining ties with the man. And Müntzer fled into the Black Forest (what name could be better?) to cultivate new support.
As much as we dislike Müntzer, he was not the only cause of the Peasant’s War. In the Reformation Era he was not alone in his work. While Müntzer was causing trouble - another band was rallying peasants in Swabia (near the Black Forest) around an important pamphlet known as the Twelve Articles - containing grievances, requests for reform, and an overarching idea of how the world should work. Within a year there were around 25,000 copies across the Holy Roman Empire.
While the Twelve Articles claimed in the start that they did not want to instigate any violence, they also did not take violence off the table if their demands were not met. What they wanted was to call their own pastors, an overhaul on the tithe/taxation system that would effectively eliminate what we’d call today state/federal taxation and keep all taxes local, the abolition of serfdom, the right to hunting and fishing, the institution of common ownership of the woods, some labor and lease reform, as well as the end of an inheritance tax and a few other matters. Some of these requests were reasonable in their context, but others would result in anarchy. Put the voices and needs behind Twelve Articles together with the voice of Thomas Müntzer and his ilk, and you get a really dangerous movement that not only advocated society being overthrown, but did so with apocalyptic fervor. But it wasn’t simply poor people who did this. People from all social and economic strata joined this revolution in order to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.
Luther was asked to respond to the articles. He started with The Admonition to Peace. In this letter Luther observed that the Princes were getting what they deserved for their callousness and indifference to the common man. The blame for the anarchy they faced was on their shoulders. He commended them to return to a true faith that enables justice and does not exploit the people they are entrusted to protect. But neither did Luther let the peasants off lightly. If the princes were tyrants, they were in danger of becoming heretics for taking God’s name in vain and claiming special treatment from the state in the name of Christianity. Luther debated the merits of their intended reforms, some of which he affirmed were reasonable and actionable, others he thought were outright robbery, but most of them deserved to be handled by lawyers and instituted through civil government. If war were to break out, Luther concluded, both Princes and Peasants would be punished by God and all of Germany would suffer.
Unfortunately, Luther’s measured words were not enough to keep revolution from breaking out. As Luther traveled south to Thuringia in order to help establish a new school - he saw violence committed by “robbing and murderous hordes.” He found both castles, monasteries, and even cities were conquered by bandits. This wasn’t a sympathetic case of people claiming what belonged to them by right, but anarchy, violence, and robbery, often at the cost of people who truly depended on the established order - the poor. Upon his return to Wittenberg, he wrote a second letter entitled Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, which argued that bandits and heretics had to be stopped by any means necessary.
Soon the Princes did just that. Even though the peasants had amassed considerable equipment and arms, they were no match for professional soldiers and mercenaries. The war was quick, and brutal. In most cases, when Imperial forces were involved, it wasn’t a war, but a massacre. But it wasn’t only the insurrectionists who were killed, but commoners. Violence against civilians and the seizure of land and property didn’t stop, it only changed sources. Such was the case in Frankenhausen and Mühlhausen - the place of Müntzer’s last stand, capture and execution caused the rivers to run red. Luther himself, while consistent in his theology, would express regret for the degree of his support of the Princes in an open letter to his friend Caspar Muller. In his mind, no one won. God would judge all of them harshly for what had happened.
As a result of this war, most “Common Man” religious groups (mostly the Anabaptists - today’s Amish, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, etc.), were associated with Müntzer. This led to them being terribly oppressed by Princes for both real and imagined support. Many innocent people suffered and died without any support from Lutheran, Reformed, or Roman Catholic Christians. In fact, each of these groups quite eagerly persecuted the (often pacifistic) Anabaptists in fear of letting the Müntzerites continue their war. We may have considerable theological differences with our Anabaptist brothers and sisters, but this remains to our tremendous shame.
The German Peasant’s War of 1525 shows us a worst case scenario of social and economic unrest mixed with charismatic and heretical leadership. It shows us how challenging it is for Christians to navigate injustice. It also shows us how fear can mingle with denominational excesses, and cause us to stay silent in the face of real wickedness that hurts our neighbors. We can only pray that we learn from these cases, and be wiser in the future for our ancestors’ sins. The only cure for this, coupled with faith, is an education that makes us confident in God’s love for our sake and the sake of our neighbors - a love which stands against needless violence.
And so next month - we study the Catechisms and the Spread of the Reformation.
Today we talk about what used to be known as “The German Peasant’s War,” a name that historians note is not accurate even in a single word. It took place not simply in German territories, but from what is traditionally eastern France, all the way down to Italy and Slovenia, and Kaliningrad (then called Samland, today a Russian exclave near Lithuania). It also wasn’t only peasants who fought against Princes, but people from all classes (such that some prefer calling this war “the Revolution of the Common Man”). And it didn’t take place in 1525 alone, but started considerably earlier and only ended in 1526.
We should get started with Luther’s context. Remember last month we were talking about how Melanchthon was kept busy arguing with the Prophets of Zwickau - and how doing so cost him considerable credibility and grief because Karlstadt wouldn’t help? Well, Luther’s now back in Wittenberg, and when he gets there, he finalizes this fight with their exile, which inspired the prophets to return to the man who first sent them to Wittenberg: Thomas Müntzer.
Between 1521 and 1525, Müntzer was the leader of one of the most violent, excessive, and brutally put down Revolutions in European history to that point. The beginning of Müntzer’s Reformation was mostly concurrent with Luther’s. He had been critical of indulgences at the same time Luther had been. He had originally thought of himself and Luther as up to the same thing. In fact, Luther trusted him enough to recommend him to preach at the city of Zwickau when its pastor Johannes Erganus, simply wasn’t interested in doing his job.
But Müntzer quickly revealed himself as a bit more of a revolutionary than a pastor. His preaching advocated violence and revolution in God’s name, and his work inspired a number of men to go out and do just that - particularly against monks. His preaching became controversial and destructive enough that he was exiled to Prague. But he wasn’t well received there either, and soon found himself exiled again to a city named Allstedt. It takes a lot to get one’s self exiled so often, so eventually Luther’s supporter Duke John went to listen to him preach just to see what was up. This is when Müntzer was revealed as less of a problematic preacher and more of an apocalyptic madman.
Müntzer’s sermon, entitled “The Prince’s Sermon,” argued that Duke John was the new pagan King Nebuchadnezzar, and that he, personally, was the new Prophet Daniel, and that anyone who doesn’t listen to Daniel must be killed by Nebuchadnezzar. In this sermon, Müntzer argued that the scriptures were subservient to him and his personal spiritual experience, and thus scripture can only be used to match his agenda, and anyone who doesn’t listen to him deserves death. Duke John knew right away how messed up this was. Luther heard about it as well, and severed any remaining ties with the man. And Müntzer fled into the Black Forest (what name could be better?) to cultivate new support.
As much as we dislike Müntzer, he was not the only cause of the Peasant’s War. In the Reformation Era he was not alone in his work. While Müntzer was causing trouble - another band was rallying peasants in Swabia (near the Black Forest) around an important pamphlet known as the Twelve Articles - containing grievances, requests for reform, and an overarching idea of how the world should work. Within a year there were around 25,000 copies across the Holy Roman Empire.
While the Twelve Articles claimed in the start that they did not want to instigate any violence, they also did not take violence off the table if their demands were not met. What they wanted was to call their own pastors, an overhaul on the tithe/taxation system that would effectively eliminate what we’d call today state/federal taxation and keep all taxes local, the abolition of serfdom, the right to hunting and fishing, the institution of common ownership of the woods, some labor and lease reform, as well as the end of an inheritance tax and a few other matters. Some of these requests were reasonable in their context, but others would result in anarchy. Put the voices and needs behind Twelve Articles together with the voice of Thomas Müntzer and his ilk, and you get a really dangerous movement that not only advocated society being overthrown, but did so with apocalyptic fervor. But it wasn’t simply poor people who did this. People from all social and economic strata joined this revolution in order to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.
Luther was asked to respond to the articles. He started with The Admonition to Peace. In this letter Luther observed that the Princes were getting what they deserved for their callousness and indifference to the common man. The blame for the anarchy they faced was on their shoulders. He commended them to return to a true faith that enables justice and does not exploit the people they are entrusted to protect. But neither did Luther let the peasants off lightly. If the princes were tyrants, they were in danger of becoming heretics for taking God’s name in vain and claiming special treatment from the state in the name of Christianity. Luther debated the merits of their intended reforms, some of which he affirmed were reasonable and actionable, others he thought were outright robbery, but most of them deserved to be handled by lawyers and instituted through civil government. If war were to break out, Luther concluded, both Princes and Peasants would be punished by God and all of Germany would suffer.
Unfortunately, Luther’s measured words were not enough to keep revolution from breaking out. As Luther traveled south to Thuringia in order to help establish a new school - he saw violence committed by “robbing and murderous hordes.” He found both castles, monasteries, and even cities were conquered by bandits. This wasn’t a sympathetic case of people claiming what belonged to them by right, but anarchy, violence, and robbery, often at the cost of people who truly depended on the established order - the poor. Upon his return to Wittenberg, he wrote a second letter entitled Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, which argued that bandits and heretics had to be stopped by any means necessary.
Soon the Princes did just that. Even though the peasants had amassed considerable equipment and arms, they were no match for professional soldiers and mercenaries. The war was quick, and brutal. In most cases, when Imperial forces were involved, it wasn’t a war, but a massacre. But it wasn’t only the insurrectionists who were killed, but commoners. Violence against civilians and the seizure of land and property didn’t stop, it only changed sources. Such was the case in Frankenhausen and Mühlhausen - the place of Müntzer’s last stand, capture and execution caused the rivers to run red. Luther himself, while consistent in his theology, would express regret for the degree of his support of the Princes in an open letter to his friend Caspar Muller. In his mind, no one won. God would judge all of them harshly for what had happened.
As a result of this war, most “Common Man” religious groups (mostly the Anabaptists - today’s Amish, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, etc.), were associated with Müntzer. This led to them being terribly oppressed by Princes for both real and imagined support. Many innocent people suffered and died without any support from Lutheran, Reformed, or Roman Catholic Christians. In fact, each of these groups quite eagerly persecuted the (often pacifistic) Anabaptists in fear of letting the Müntzerites continue their war. We may have considerable theological differences with our Anabaptist brothers and sisters, but this remains to our tremendous shame.
The German Peasant’s War of 1525 shows us a worst case scenario of social and economic unrest mixed with charismatic and heretical leadership. It shows us how challenging it is for Christians to navigate injustice. It also shows us how fear can mingle with denominational excesses, and cause us to stay silent in the face of real wickedness that hurts our neighbors. We can only pray that we learn from these cases, and be wiser in the future for our ancestors’ sins. The only cure for this, coupled with faith, is an education that makes us confident in God’s love for our sake and the sake of our neighbors - a love which stands against needless violence.
And so next month - we study the Catechisms and the Spread of the Reformation.
February 2017 - Meanwhile, In Wittenberg
In our last article, we spoke of Luther’s time in Wartburg Castle. Luther was largely kept in isolation, but was able to begin his biblical translation and write some responses to the theological debates of his day. But what was going on in Wittenberg was largely out of reach for him for his year-long absence. He was able to write letters every now and then, but the day to day leadership wasn’t in his control. And what was going on was quickly becoming chaotic under the leadership of Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and Philip Melanchthon.
You’ve probably heard a bit about Melanchthon, I speak of him fairly often. Melanchthon was a highly respected leader of both the church and the academy, given the title “The Teacher of Germany.” He was responsible for the systematization and formalization of Luther’s thought, was the primary author of the Augsburg Confession (the document that makes Lutherans Lutherans), a translator of great repute, and was truly considered a once-in-a-generation theologian who commanded the respect of nearly every Christian theologian regardless of confessional identity (apart from some later Lutherans, but more on that later). But at this point in history, Melanchthon is a 24 years old Greek professor who, having impressed Luther, had recently been transferred to the contentious theology department, was newly married to the Mayor’s daughter, and was struggling to find his voice among louder, angrier voices.
And perhaps the loudest, angriest voice in Wittenberg was fellow reformer Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt. You likely have not heard of him, but at the time he was considered one of the foremost theologians of the Reformation and Luther’s second-in-command (though not for long). In academic position, ecclesial position, and credibility, he was both Luther and Melanchthon’s superior as an archdeacon in the church and the Chancellor of Wittenberg University. In fact, he was central to many of the central early debates of the Reformation (though he did not do particularly well for himself). He also carried with him a volatile temper, habitual scheming, and in all likelihood a massive inferiority complex that at the end of the day found its home against Luther. While he had started off one of Luther’s early adversaries in 1516, by 1517 he had been convinced by Luther and found a home in the Lutheran camp. But he didn’t stay there for long. He began to focus on a particular method of inward and mystical thinking about the nature of grace - which included self-mortification and inner regeneration over and above other things, and began to focus more and more on people being good or evil.
Why does this matter? For Luther and Melanchthon, grace is like receiving a love-letter from someone who truly loves you and finding yourself awestruck, with a foolish smile on your face, and loving that person more and more. For Karlstadt grace is like receiving a love-letter, and thinking it can only be true if you make yourself perfect, and thus somehow worthy of it. One of these things is about trusting the love of the one who loves you. The other adds up to being all about you. That’s why we’re Lutherans, not Karlstadtians.
Karlstadt and Melanchthon are heading up the Reformation in Wittenberg during Luther’s absence - and here are some highlights of how they managed. Karlstadt found himself overwhelmed by the idea that Jesus Christ is God among the common folk. And so, he decided to get rid of all things that kept him from being a “common folk.” He stops wearing academic and religious garments, and favored peasants clothes. He refused to be called a pastor or a doctor, but only would be called what we would best translate as “Brother Andy.” Karlstadt began to force people to have both the bread and the wine at communion. For at least 500 years, laypeople were only allowed to have the bread, here they would be accused of sin if they themselves did not take communion in both bread and wine. They were afraid to take it! Karlstadt then said that he would lead the Christmas Day worship service in German, not Latin, he would not wear vestments, and he would give communion in both kinds. And that would be their only chance for worship. The response was a riot that very Christmas Eve.
If that wasn’t enough, even more salaciously, Karlstadt got betrothed. Marriage was one thing for an academic like Melanchthon, but Karlstadt was a priest. There had been a couple of other clerical marriages since the start of the Reformation, but no one so prominent as Karlstadt. Luther, for instance, would not marry until 1525. Effectively, over a single weekend in 1521 Karlstadt publicly broke roughly a millennium worth of traditions.
The situation in Wittenberg was now volatile - people were panicking. In the middle of this mess, three men known as the “Zwickau Prophets” arrived. They immediately preached against infant baptism, claimed they had divinely inspired dreams of war that were more important than the Bible, the Holy Spirit, or Jesus, and that the only things the people of Wittenberg should be doing were eliminating the priesthood and waiting for the end of the world. This was more than enough for Melanchthon, who became their steadfast opponent, even as others were less concerned. Fortunately, Melanchthon’s voice was strong enough to make them leave, though not without considerably undermining Melanchthon’s authority.
The final controversy of this crucial year without Luther came shortly thereafter. Karlstadt came to the opinion that art, particularly religious art, was evil. He thought they were all idols. And so he preached against them, and put political pressure on the town council until all religious art, statues, symbols, etc. would be removed from Wittenberg. Religious art, he argued, was no better than murder.
This was kind of the last straw. Karlstadt was finally told to be quiet. Melanchthon was asked to silence a few of Karlstadts disciples. But by this point, Melanchthon was simply too weary from the controversies of the preceding year, and too shaken by the Zwickau Prophets. While he was on the same page with Karlstadt in some important regards, he could not rein Karlstadt’s excesses in. He asked for Luther’s return to Wittenberg, hoping that he could restore a semblance of order. The Prince Elector just wanted peace and quiet, so he tried sending Karlstadt to Denmark and be less trouble. It didn’t work, and in two weeks he was back. And finally, Luther was called back to this mess.
For what it’s worth, Luther really had a lot of brotherly love for Karlstadt. But it seemed a little less than clear in what followed. Luther critiqued him heavily upon return, accusing him of turning the Gospel into an even worse Law than before. Though he restrained from calling him out by name early on, Luther had no compunction in accusing Karlstadt of tyranny and undoing the very point of the Reformation: Freedom in Christ.
Karlstadt eventually got himself expelled from Saxony, following a series of heart wrenching fights with Luther. They would attack each other in writing, but Luther feared for his friend’s life and welcomed Karlstadt and his family into his home on the condition that Karlstadt stop causing so much trouble. Tragically, Karlstadt couldn’t, and took his family across Europe from location to location, trying to find a place that wouldn’t expel him. He died of Plague in 1541. For a slightly paranormal component, Karlstadt said he was seeing demons, and after his death he was said to haunt his wife and oldest son. Luther was so moved by the death of his former friend and confidant, he did his best to make sure that his colleague’s family had enough money to live until they could get back on their feet. Thus ends the story of what happened in Wittenberg in Luther’s absence, as well as the story of Karlstadt, but there is much more to be said of Melanchthon at a later date.
Next month - the Peasants’ War.
In our last article, we spoke of Luther’s time in Wartburg Castle. Luther was largely kept in isolation, but was able to begin his biblical translation and write some responses to the theological debates of his day. But what was going on in Wittenberg was largely out of reach for him for his year-long absence. He was able to write letters every now and then, but the day to day leadership wasn’t in his control. And what was going on was quickly becoming chaotic under the leadership of Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and Philip Melanchthon.
You’ve probably heard a bit about Melanchthon, I speak of him fairly often. Melanchthon was a highly respected leader of both the church and the academy, given the title “The Teacher of Germany.” He was responsible for the systematization and formalization of Luther’s thought, was the primary author of the Augsburg Confession (the document that makes Lutherans Lutherans), a translator of great repute, and was truly considered a once-in-a-generation theologian who commanded the respect of nearly every Christian theologian regardless of confessional identity (apart from some later Lutherans, but more on that later). But at this point in history, Melanchthon is a 24 years old Greek professor who, having impressed Luther, had recently been transferred to the contentious theology department, was newly married to the Mayor’s daughter, and was struggling to find his voice among louder, angrier voices.
And perhaps the loudest, angriest voice in Wittenberg was fellow reformer Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt. You likely have not heard of him, but at the time he was considered one of the foremost theologians of the Reformation and Luther’s second-in-command (though not for long). In academic position, ecclesial position, and credibility, he was both Luther and Melanchthon’s superior as an archdeacon in the church and the Chancellor of Wittenberg University. In fact, he was central to many of the central early debates of the Reformation (though he did not do particularly well for himself). He also carried with him a volatile temper, habitual scheming, and in all likelihood a massive inferiority complex that at the end of the day found its home against Luther. While he had started off one of Luther’s early adversaries in 1516, by 1517 he had been convinced by Luther and found a home in the Lutheran camp. But he didn’t stay there for long. He began to focus on a particular method of inward and mystical thinking about the nature of grace - which included self-mortification and inner regeneration over and above other things, and began to focus more and more on people being good or evil.
Why does this matter? For Luther and Melanchthon, grace is like receiving a love-letter from someone who truly loves you and finding yourself awestruck, with a foolish smile on your face, and loving that person more and more. For Karlstadt grace is like receiving a love-letter, and thinking it can only be true if you make yourself perfect, and thus somehow worthy of it. One of these things is about trusting the love of the one who loves you. The other adds up to being all about you. That’s why we’re Lutherans, not Karlstadtians.
Karlstadt and Melanchthon are heading up the Reformation in Wittenberg during Luther’s absence - and here are some highlights of how they managed. Karlstadt found himself overwhelmed by the idea that Jesus Christ is God among the common folk. And so, he decided to get rid of all things that kept him from being a “common folk.” He stops wearing academic and religious garments, and favored peasants clothes. He refused to be called a pastor or a doctor, but only would be called what we would best translate as “Brother Andy.” Karlstadt began to force people to have both the bread and the wine at communion. For at least 500 years, laypeople were only allowed to have the bread, here they would be accused of sin if they themselves did not take communion in both bread and wine. They were afraid to take it! Karlstadt then said that he would lead the Christmas Day worship service in German, not Latin, he would not wear vestments, and he would give communion in both kinds. And that would be their only chance for worship. The response was a riot that very Christmas Eve.
If that wasn’t enough, even more salaciously, Karlstadt got betrothed. Marriage was one thing for an academic like Melanchthon, but Karlstadt was a priest. There had been a couple of other clerical marriages since the start of the Reformation, but no one so prominent as Karlstadt. Luther, for instance, would not marry until 1525. Effectively, over a single weekend in 1521 Karlstadt publicly broke roughly a millennium worth of traditions.
The situation in Wittenberg was now volatile - people were panicking. In the middle of this mess, three men known as the “Zwickau Prophets” arrived. They immediately preached against infant baptism, claimed they had divinely inspired dreams of war that were more important than the Bible, the Holy Spirit, or Jesus, and that the only things the people of Wittenberg should be doing were eliminating the priesthood and waiting for the end of the world. This was more than enough for Melanchthon, who became their steadfast opponent, even as others were less concerned. Fortunately, Melanchthon’s voice was strong enough to make them leave, though not without considerably undermining Melanchthon’s authority.
The final controversy of this crucial year without Luther came shortly thereafter. Karlstadt came to the opinion that art, particularly religious art, was evil. He thought they were all idols. And so he preached against them, and put political pressure on the town council until all religious art, statues, symbols, etc. would be removed from Wittenberg. Religious art, he argued, was no better than murder.
This was kind of the last straw. Karlstadt was finally told to be quiet. Melanchthon was asked to silence a few of Karlstadts disciples. But by this point, Melanchthon was simply too weary from the controversies of the preceding year, and too shaken by the Zwickau Prophets. While he was on the same page with Karlstadt in some important regards, he could not rein Karlstadt’s excesses in. He asked for Luther’s return to Wittenberg, hoping that he could restore a semblance of order. The Prince Elector just wanted peace and quiet, so he tried sending Karlstadt to Denmark and be less trouble. It didn’t work, and in two weeks he was back. And finally, Luther was called back to this mess.
For what it’s worth, Luther really had a lot of brotherly love for Karlstadt. But it seemed a little less than clear in what followed. Luther critiqued him heavily upon return, accusing him of turning the Gospel into an even worse Law than before. Though he restrained from calling him out by name early on, Luther had no compunction in accusing Karlstadt of tyranny and undoing the very point of the Reformation: Freedom in Christ.
Karlstadt eventually got himself expelled from Saxony, following a series of heart wrenching fights with Luther. They would attack each other in writing, but Luther feared for his friend’s life and welcomed Karlstadt and his family into his home on the condition that Karlstadt stop causing so much trouble. Tragically, Karlstadt couldn’t, and took his family across Europe from location to location, trying to find a place that wouldn’t expel him. He died of Plague in 1541. For a slightly paranormal component, Karlstadt said he was seeing demons, and after his death he was said to haunt his wife and oldest son. Luther was so moved by the death of his former friend and confidant, he did his best to make sure that his colleague’s family had enough money to live until they could get back on their feet. Thus ends the story of what happened in Wittenberg in Luther’s absence, as well as the story of Karlstadt, but there is much more to be said of Melanchthon at a later date.
Next month - the Peasants’ War.
January 2017 - From Captivity to Freedom
In honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we’re continuing the story of Martin Luther. As we left off last month, Emperor Charles V outlawed Luther and anyone who was found to aid or abet him - a punishment that would likely end in certain death. Luther’s religious movement had now become a revolution against Imperial authority. On his route back to Wittenberg, Luther was secretly kidnapped by his prince Frederick the Wise.
Frederick the Wise was in something of a pickle. What do you do when you’re housing the most infamous and illegal men in the world against the will of the man you’ve pledged all allegiance to? Well, you hide him away as best you can - so well that not even you know where he is.
Luther’s abductors brought him, without Frederick’s knowledge, to the city of Eisenach in Thuringia, to a long-ignored castle known as Wartburg - an area called “the Land of Birds.” Formerly home to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, by this point it was little more than a hunting lodge. For one year, Luther was disguised as a Knight named Sir George to everyone outside of the well-hidden conspiracy to keep him alive. In the meantime, Frederick could shrug his shoulders whenever someone asked him why Luther hadn’t been found yet.
In Wartburg Castle, Luther produced what may be his most influential work - a complete German translation of the New Testament from its original language manuscripts (still used today in Germany). Unlike previous, often inadequate German editions of the Bible, Luther used his skill in both Hebrew and Greek to translate it himself into a language that the common folk both used and understood. Luther’s translation was so popular, it in fact was a major influence in the standardization of the German language itself!
This was revolutionary - for the first time the common people of Germany now had access to the scriptures themselves and that encouraged not only a growing familiarity and accessibility to the Bible, but it also inspired a lot of people to learn how to read, and empowered a growing call for universal education for boys and girls because everyone should be afforded common and equal access to the Bible. Not by human or natural rights, (that concept was if anything, still in its infancy) but out of a conviction that the Bible was good news for all the baptized. Men and Women both had the equal right to study and find comfort in the scriptures. Luther’s New Testament translation was first published in 1522, and with his colleagues he completed the entire Bible by 1524, complete with commentaries, sermons, and other assisting materials so that everyone could understand the plain meaning of scripture - Jesus Christ was born, died, and rose again for you! He is your salvation!
In spite of this, Luther absolutely hated his time at Wartburg Castle. You can see it in his other writings and letters - among his most crude and insulting! His time in Wartburg was marked not just by prodigious works, but also grave theological struggles, doubts, severe mood swings, and an unceasing, deep depression perhaps both natural to Luther’s temperament and caused by his entire world falling apart over the last five years following the publishing of the 95 Theses. Luther likened his experience in Wartburg to “driving the devil away with ink.” There’s a common legend of Luther in fact encountering the devil nightly in Wittenberg (in the form of flies, black dogs, monks, inexplicable noises, and monstrous figures) and that in one such instance he threw an inkwell at the offending figure.
Modern writers and biographers debate whether or not Luther experienced a literal devil (or hallucinations of one) tormenting him and in response threw an inkwell at him, or if he was being metaphorical - believing that evil and temptation were so close to him and his support networks were so far away he could do nothing apart from delving deeply into scripture, and his work in translating to keep his heart away from torment. Knowing Luther, both are possible. But what is certain is that this legend has led to students going to Wartburg Castle, and marking a particular place on Luther’s study wall with a blotch of black ink - a tradition that continues to this day (sometimes despite the best efforts of museum staff).
It may well have been that Luther would remain disguised and captive at Wartburg for the rest of his life. That might have been the safest thing for him. However, the situation in Wittenberg began to change drastically. As the city struggled with the implications and consequences of Lutheran doctrine, civil unrest began to threaten the survival of both the city and all of Electoral Saxony. Prince Frederick would have to call Luther back to Wittenberg to bring spiritual order to his lands. Next month - we’ll explore what that mess was, and what came of it as we look at two other central figures to the Lutheran Reformation - the Teacher of Germany Philip Melanchthon and the Proto - Puritan Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.
In honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we’re continuing the story of Martin Luther. As we left off last month, Emperor Charles V outlawed Luther and anyone who was found to aid or abet him - a punishment that would likely end in certain death. Luther’s religious movement had now become a revolution against Imperial authority. On his route back to Wittenberg, Luther was secretly kidnapped by his prince Frederick the Wise.
Frederick the Wise was in something of a pickle. What do you do when you’re housing the most infamous and illegal men in the world against the will of the man you’ve pledged all allegiance to? Well, you hide him away as best you can - so well that not even you know where he is.
Luther’s abductors brought him, without Frederick’s knowledge, to the city of Eisenach in Thuringia, to a long-ignored castle known as Wartburg - an area called “the Land of Birds.” Formerly home to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, by this point it was little more than a hunting lodge. For one year, Luther was disguised as a Knight named Sir George to everyone outside of the well-hidden conspiracy to keep him alive. In the meantime, Frederick could shrug his shoulders whenever someone asked him why Luther hadn’t been found yet.
In Wartburg Castle, Luther produced what may be his most influential work - a complete German translation of the New Testament from its original language manuscripts (still used today in Germany). Unlike previous, often inadequate German editions of the Bible, Luther used his skill in both Hebrew and Greek to translate it himself into a language that the common folk both used and understood. Luther’s translation was so popular, it in fact was a major influence in the standardization of the German language itself!
This was revolutionary - for the first time the common people of Germany now had access to the scriptures themselves and that encouraged not only a growing familiarity and accessibility to the Bible, but it also inspired a lot of people to learn how to read, and empowered a growing call for universal education for boys and girls because everyone should be afforded common and equal access to the Bible. Not by human or natural rights, (that concept was if anything, still in its infancy) but out of a conviction that the Bible was good news for all the baptized. Men and Women both had the equal right to study and find comfort in the scriptures. Luther’s New Testament translation was first published in 1522, and with his colleagues he completed the entire Bible by 1524, complete with commentaries, sermons, and other assisting materials so that everyone could understand the plain meaning of scripture - Jesus Christ was born, died, and rose again for you! He is your salvation!
In spite of this, Luther absolutely hated his time at Wartburg Castle. You can see it in his other writings and letters - among his most crude and insulting! His time in Wartburg was marked not just by prodigious works, but also grave theological struggles, doubts, severe mood swings, and an unceasing, deep depression perhaps both natural to Luther’s temperament and caused by his entire world falling apart over the last five years following the publishing of the 95 Theses. Luther likened his experience in Wartburg to “driving the devil away with ink.” There’s a common legend of Luther in fact encountering the devil nightly in Wittenberg (in the form of flies, black dogs, monks, inexplicable noises, and monstrous figures) and that in one such instance he threw an inkwell at the offending figure.
Modern writers and biographers debate whether or not Luther experienced a literal devil (or hallucinations of one) tormenting him and in response threw an inkwell at him, or if he was being metaphorical - believing that evil and temptation were so close to him and his support networks were so far away he could do nothing apart from delving deeply into scripture, and his work in translating to keep his heart away from torment. Knowing Luther, both are possible. But what is certain is that this legend has led to students going to Wartburg Castle, and marking a particular place on Luther’s study wall with a blotch of black ink - a tradition that continues to this day (sometimes despite the best efforts of museum staff).
It may well have been that Luther would remain disguised and captive at Wartburg for the rest of his life. That might have been the safest thing for him. However, the situation in Wittenberg began to change drastically. As the city struggled with the implications and consequences of Lutheran doctrine, civil unrest began to threaten the survival of both the city and all of Electoral Saxony. Prince Frederick would have to call Luther back to Wittenberg to bring spiritual order to his lands. Next month - we’ll explore what that mess was, and what came of it as we look at two other central figures to the Lutheran Reformation - the Teacher of Germany Philip Melanchthon and the Proto - Puritan Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.
December 2016 - From Debates to Diets to Dungeons
Last time we discussed the story of the Protestant Reformation - Luther had just published the 95 Theses, inadvertently starting the Reformation and was rallied against by the Roman Church. This month - we will talk a little bit about the early disputes that formed Martin Luther’s theology, how he grew, and ultimately how he was exiled.
Luther - under the authority of the Prince-Elector (the leader of a kingdom that had the power to elect the Roman Emperor) Frederick - was summoned to the Imperial City of Augsburg to be interviewed by Thomas Cajetan, the Cardinal and Legate in Wittenberg. According to Carter Lindberg, while Cajetan, more than Luther, understood how deeply Luther’s writings undermined Roman authority, he was amenable to not having Luther arrested and executed quickly. Cajetan’s goal as a knowledgeable, Roman, worldly intellectual was to “correct” Luther through a lesson on canon law. He simply assumed that Luther in back-water Wittenberg in back-water Germany had not been familiar with some of its teachings. He was surprised to find Luther not only knew canon law, but Luther was quite savvy, and was more than Cajetan could handle.
What was supposed to be a lesson ended up being an irreconcilable argument. Wenger notes that the “interview” lasted three days - its primary discussion was around Thesis 7: “People must be taught that if they really want to find peace for their consciences they should learn to place their confidence, not in the power of the pope, but in the word of Christ [in the absolution] who gives the promise of forgiveness to the pope." Cajetan noted that this was in direct contradiction to the doctrine of humilitas, that is, spiritual pride. He thought people needed to be truly humble and uncertain about salvation, lest they become lazy in faith. Luther responded that uncertainty does nothing good at the deathbed of believers, and that to actually forgive people, they actually need to be forgiven and trust that they are forgiven. At the end, Luther fled Augsburg under Prince Frederick’s blessing, and Frederick protected him from being exiled or thrown to Rome until Luther could have a proper hearing and conviction. Which he could do, because at right about that time, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian died, throwing all of Europe into a period of political instability.
Shortly following this, a new theologian was sent on the scene - a man named Johann Eck of Ingersoldt. Eck had been a correspondent with Luther for some time, so Luther was quite upset to learn about his challenges to the 95 Theses. One of Eck’s gifts, one that would ultimately betray him, was his gift in understanding history. He looked over Luther’s writings and found that they were in line with the preaching and teaching of an earlier figure - Jan Hus - who was publicly executed 100 years before Luther. Jan Hus. Hus’ biggest “heresies” were allowing laypeople to take both elements of communion, and asking for a return to scripture - both of which Luther would quickly take up and admit that Hus was right all along (it’s worth noting that there are subtle differences between Hussite and Lutheran understandings of the Lord’s Supper, but not so great as to prevent Hus’ successors the Moravians and Lutherans from celebrating the Lord’s Supper together).
While Eck originally challenged a colleague and later bitter enemy of Luther’s - Andreas Karlstadt - he would face the main event soon after. Karlstadt made a public fool of himself in a wagon accident, and spent the majority of his time debating looking for references in books. In time Luther found his way into the debate in place of Karlstadt and debated vigorously. The debate would radicalize Luther as he was forced to confront the consequences of the truth he had proclaimed and find that only in scripture can one find Christ’s authority.
Following the debate - Eck returned to Rome and helped write up a Papal Bull of Excommunication entitled Exsurge Domine - “Arise, O Lord and judge thine own cause.” Luther would be excommunicated, and his works would be burned. Also condemned were a number of Eck’s personal enemies in Germany. Luther treated fire with fire, burning the very document which excommunicated him along with a copy of the Canon Law. The symbolic significance of the act was tremendous - many would consider it a step too far. An oak tree called the “Luther Oak” stands at that very spot today close to Wittenberg’s train station.
While these things were happening, a new figure stepped into the picture on the Roman side - Emperor Charles V. Newly enthroned, Charles V’s first desire was to unify the Holy Roman Empire, and that involved putting this whole Lutheran revolution down. Prince Frederick, once again, came to Luther’s aid and convinced Charles to hold an Imperial Diet at the city of Worms. Luther would be given safe passage. As he traveled to Worms, Germans everywhere praised him and jammed the roads of town after town on the way. His preaching crowded churches. In one, a balcony almost collapsed.
Luther made his way to Worms. His works were presented to him, and he was asked to recant all of them. Luther took a while - and cleverly observed that among the works there were a few that were well received, even by his enemies. He couldn’t recant them because then he would be committing heresy - they were true after all. There was another group of works which were attacks on abuses within the church - if he were to recant them then he would not only be allowing them to be continued, but the door would be open up for even worse abuses. So he couldn’t recant them. Finally, there were a collection of more personal attacks on his opponents (like Cajetan, Eck, Prierias, Tetzel and the rest). Luther apologized that his tone was probably a little too harsh, though he would not back down on the substance of them. If he could be shown how they were in error through the use of scripture alone, he would back down. He finished his speech with the now famous saying “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me, Amen.”
The German princes were impressed, the rest shouted “Into the fire.” The Emperor declared that Luther would not make him a heretic. He was condemned, excommunicated, and outlawed so that he could be killed without hesitation. But before that could happen, good Prince Frederick had him kidnapped and sent to the dingy, lonely, isolated Wartburg Castle. The Reformation was not over.
November 2016 - The Early Reformation
Greetings, St. John’s!
So last month my article was about Luther’s unintended sparking of the Reformation with his posting and later publication of 95 Theses Disputing the Power of Indulgences. As you might recall or look back on - this was intended to be a public, but academic disputation intended to correct what Luther thought was a local error in practice. The poor young monk really didn’t know what he was getting into.
Martin (named after St. Martin of Tours) Luther was the son of Hans Luder and Margarethe Luder (he only changed his name to Luther - a common practice among academics - in adulthood). Hans and Margarethe were in the trading class - comparable to what we call the middle, or perhaps upper middle class, following Hans’ work in the mining industry. Hans wanted nothing more than for Martin to become a lawyer, but Martin was drawn to theology. Martin would later confess to Hans that if he had been a good son, he probably should have listened to his dear old Dad, but that he hoped that things were okay in spite of this. Eventually, the young Luther was caught in a terrible storm, and in a prayer to St. Anne, begged to be saved in exchange for becoming a monk.
Luther indeed made it through the storm - though whether or not this was St. Anne’s doing is a question for heaven. He left law school and became an Augustinian monk immediately. His Father was furious - but Luther stood firm anyway. As a monk, Luther studied and served deeply, under the care of Johann von Staupitz - his superior. While he flourished academically, he was spiritually adrift and was simply terrified of God. Eventually, von Staupitz as a Pastor told him to look at the merits of Christ in opposition to the depth of his sin and in time asked him to teach at the new University of Wittenberg. He was in his mid 20s at this period of history.
Luther found himself in the middle of intense theological discussions regarding the nature of grace and salvation. We can talk more about that very interesting debate at another occasion - but what you need to know is that he began formulating an idea that in contrast to his opponents, Luther came to view grace not as a force in the world, but simply as an unwarranted loving faithfulness of God - as opposed to a power, favor, and holiness infused into people. And so, by 1516 when a man named Johannes Tetzel started coming around the borders of Saxony with a popular ad jingle “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,” Luther became quite irate and wrote the 95 Theses in response.
Utilizing the relatively modern innovation of a moveable-type printing press - Luther printed a number of copies - posting one and distributing the others to people whom he thought would be interested. On that list was the Archbishop of Mainz. Luther assumed that the archbishop would want to be made aware of Tetzel’s errors (as opposed to one of its chief architects - like we discussed last month). The publication spread like wildfire - and became even more widely printed throughout the German territories as a great number of pastors, monastics, and generally educated men and women wanted to hear more about this critique. Wittenberg and its University were soon filled with students and others who wanted to hear more. Luther didn’t know it, but his hammer and nail struck a very delicate nerve.
The Archbishop immediately tried to silence Luther. He tried to prohibit him from preaching, and his writings were attacked harshly by Rome. Pope Leo X accused him as being a drunken German monk. But he quickly dispatched a heresy-hunting theologian named Prierias in order to chastise Luther. Prierias, at the height of the anti-conciliar Catholic tradition (which places the church’s identity in the perpetual seat of Peter) wrote a dialogue in response to Luther’s theses which boiled down to 4 points - that the Pope is the head of the church, that the pope cannot err, that whoever doesn’t hold to the Pope as infallible and above even the Scriptures is a heretic, and finally, that the Church has the authority to create divine law through its participation in Christ. Luther was first terrified that he may have been what they said he was - a heretic, but in the end he stuck to his principles - which will lead him into deeper debate and soon into protective exile, as we will examine next month.
Until then,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings, St. John’s!
So last month my article was about Luther’s unintended sparking of the Reformation with his posting and later publication of 95 Theses Disputing the Power of Indulgences. As you might recall or look back on - this was intended to be a public, but academic disputation intended to correct what Luther thought was a local error in practice. The poor young monk really didn’t know what he was getting into.
Martin (named after St. Martin of Tours) Luther was the son of Hans Luder and Margarethe Luder (he only changed his name to Luther - a common practice among academics - in adulthood). Hans and Margarethe were in the trading class - comparable to what we call the middle, or perhaps upper middle class, following Hans’ work in the mining industry. Hans wanted nothing more than for Martin to become a lawyer, but Martin was drawn to theology. Martin would later confess to Hans that if he had been a good son, he probably should have listened to his dear old Dad, but that he hoped that things were okay in spite of this. Eventually, the young Luther was caught in a terrible storm, and in a prayer to St. Anne, begged to be saved in exchange for becoming a monk.
Luther indeed made it through the storm - though whether or not this was St. Anne’s doing is a question for heaven. He left law school and became an Augustinian monk immediately. His Father was furious - but Luther stood firm anyway. As a monk, Luther studied and served deeply, under the care of Johann von Staupitz - his superior. While he flourished academically, he was spiritually adrift and was simply terrified of God. Eventually, von Staupitz as a Pastor told him to look at the merits of Christ in opposition to the depth of his sin and in time asked him to teach at the new University of Wittenberg. He was in his mid 20s at this period of history.
Luther found himself in the middle of intense theological discussions regarding the nature of grace and salvation. We can talk more about that very interesting debate at another occasion - but what you need to know is that he began formulating an idea that in contrast to his opponents, Luther came to view grace not as a force in the world, but simply as an unwarranted loving faithfulness of God - as opposed to a power, favor, and holiness infused into people. And so, by 1516 when a man named Johannes Tetzel started coming around the borders of Saxony with a popular ad jingle “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,” Luther became quite irate and wrote the 95 Theses in response.
Utilizing the relatively modern innovation of a moveable-type printing press - Luther printed a number of copies - posting one and distributing the others to people whom he thought would be interested. On that list was the Archbishop of Mainz. Luther assumed that the archbishop would want to be made aware of Tetzel’s errors (as opposed to one of its chief architects - like we discussed last month). The publication spread like wildfire - and became even more widely printed throughout the German territories as a great number of pastors, monastics, and generally educated men and women wanted to hear more about this critique. Wittenberg and its University were soon filled with students and others who wanted to hear more. Luther didn’t know it, but his hammer and nail struck a very delicate nerve.
The Archbishop immediately tried to silence Luther. He tried to prohibit him from preaching, and his writings were attacked harshly by Rome. Pope Leo X accused him as being a drunken German monk. But he quickly dispatched a heresy-hunting theologian named Prierias in order to chastise Luther. Prierias, at the height of the anti-conciliar Catholic tradition (which places the church’s identity in the perpetual seat of Peter) wrote a dialogue in response to Luther’s theses which boiled down to 4 points - that the Pope is the head of the church, that the pope cannot err, that whoever doesn’t hold to the Pope as infallible and above even the Scriptures is a heretic, and finally, that the Church has the authority to create divine law through its participation in Christ. Luther was first terrified that he may have been what they said he was - a heretic, but in the end he stuck to his principles - which will lead him into deeper debate and soon into protective exile, as we will examine next month.
Until then,
Pastor Kaegler
October 2016
Greetings, St. John’s!
This month we will be commemorating the 499th anniversary of the Reformation’s beginning! It was on October 31st in 1517 that soon-to-be-famous monk and professor Martin Luther posted 95 Theses Disputing the Power of Indulgences on a church wall in a small university town in Saxony. Luther intended to start an internal, academic debate that would hopefully result in some religious reforms he believed were only necessary in a few wayward German states with tricky preachers, only to find himself on trial with the Holy Spirit in a central moment of Church History. In honor of the 500th, I am planning to use my newsletter articles over the next year to honor this major anniversary.
So how did it start? To begin with - medieval Christianity took idea of eternal hell, purgatory and intercession for the dead for granted. What this means is that Catholic life was oriented entirely from being in a state of sin to being in a state of grace with God. Baptism gets you onto the path, and the other sacraments further you along on it by erasing guilt and infusing grace. One of these was penance - confessing your sins with sorrow, and being given earthly actions to satisfy temporal punishment. When there were venial (less serious) sins left over, there was thought to be a time of purgation - purgatory. Punishment in purgatory was thought to be much worse than the worst punishment on earth, but it gets you ready for heaven and everyone there will end up in heaven some day according to medieval Catholicism.
Kind of makes sense, right? Even if we don’t believe in purgatory? But a time comes in 1095, where Pope Urban II created something called a plenary indulgence given to those who fought in the First Crusade for religious reasons. Urban II said that all the temporal punishment that anyone had to satisfy in purgatory is satisfied through their participation in these wars. Later, Boniface VIII declared a jubilee indulgence for anyone who went on a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome. This jubilee began to occur every 25 years, arguably to keep the Roman economy running. Since the time one would need in purgatory was sometimes astronomical, so too were the indulgences. For instance - viewing the entire collection of relics in Saxony just before the reformation (which you could do twice a year) an indulgence of 127,999 years and 116 days off of purgatory.
But in time, things changed a little bit. Not everyone could go on a crusade, or a pilgrimage, so some degree of indulgence was given for those who participated in the crusades and pilgrimages of another - so by paying for someone’s merits, you get to take part in the merits. In any case, the Roman Church is always looking for cash to fund its massive obligations and projects - churches, artwork, pastors, etc. By 1514, a man named Albrecht of Brandenburg, at the ripe age of 25, had finagled and arranged his way into being an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, and the Archbishop of Mainz all at once - making him the Primate of the German lands. He did so by paying for the position, using massive loans from the infamous banker Jacob Fugger (whose wealth was comparable to people like Rockefeller and Carnegie). And to pay back both his loans and to help fund the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, Pope Leo X granted him the right to grant a plenary indulgence for financial assistance. And Albrecht’s theologians wrote up a few central claims about this Petrine Plenary Indulgence - stating that it could forgive even the most horrible sins for both the living and the dead.
Luther had no idea about this backroom dealing, but was instead struck by how strange it would seem to pay for freedom from purgatory. Shouldn’t that just be in God’s hands? If we had the ability to forgive the sins of the dead, shouldn’t we just always be praying for every dead person all the time forever to get them out of purgatory? And also - isn’t payment for remittance of time from purgatory putting faith in one’s own wallet as opposed to Christ’s greater sacrifice? We must keep in mind, this wasn’t merely an academic concern, he had parishioners coming to him showing him their letters of indulgence, paid for with life-savings for their deceased loved ones. How sinful it is to take advantage of the grieving - and to give them hope apart from the resurrection!
Luther wanted to talk about this in his office as professor and monk. He wanted to be a voice against this, and so, as an academic, he posted his 95 Theses to the wall of Castle Church in Wittenberg, to be publicly debated. While the debate Luther intended did not end up happening, the Theses spread like wildfire. And what happened next, I will talk about in my next article.
Peace and Grace,
Pastor Kaegler
Greetings, St. John’s!
This month we will be commemorating the 499th anniversary of the Reformation’s beginning! It was on October 31st in 1517 that soon-to-be-famous monk and professor Martin Luther posted 95 Theses Disputing the Power of Indulgences on a church wall in a small university town in Saxony. Luther intended to start an internal, academic debate that would hopefully result in some religious reforms he believed were only necessary in a few wayward German states with tricky preachers, only to find himself on trial with the Holy Spirit in a central moment of Church History. In honor of the 500th, I am planning to use my newsletter articles over the next year to honor this major anniversary.
So how did it start? To begin with - medieval Christianity took idea of eternal hell, purgatory and intercession for the dead for granted. What this means is that Catholic life was oriented entirely from being in a state of sin to being in a state of grace with God. Baptism gets you onto the path, and the other sacraments further you along on it by erasing guilt and infusing grace. One of these was penance - confessing your sins with sorrow, and being given earthly actions to satisfy temporal punishment. When there were venial (less serious) sins left over, there was thought to be a time of purgation - purgatory. Punishment in purgatory was thought to be much worse than the worst punishment on earth, but it gets you ready for heaven and everyone there will end up in heaven some day according to medieval Catholicism.
Kind of makes sense, right? Even if we don’t believe in purgatory? But a time comes in 1095, where Pope Urban II created something called a plenary indulgence given to those who fought in the First Crusade for religious reasons. Urban II said that all the temporal punishment that anyone had to satisfy in purgatory is satisfied through their participation in these wars. Later, Boniface VIII declared a jubilee indulgence for anyone who went on a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome. This jubilee began to occur every 25 years, arguably to keep the Roman economy running. Since the time one would need in purgatory was sometimes astronomical, so too were the indulgences. For instance - viewing the entire collection of relics in Saxony just before the reformation (which you could do twice a year) an indulgence of 127,999 years and 116 days off of purgatory.
But in time, things changed a little bit. Not everyone could go on a crusade, or a pilgrimage, so some degree of indulgence was given for those who participated in the crusades and pilgrimages of another - so by paying for someone’s merits, you get to take part in the merits. In any case, the Roman Church is always looking for cash to fund its massive obligations and projects - churches, artwork, pastors, etc. By 1514, a man named Albrecht of Brandenburg, at the ripe age of 25, had finagled and arranged his way into being an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, and the Archbishop of Mainz all at once - making him the Primate of the German lands. He did so by paying for the position, using massive loans from the infamous banker Jacob Fugger (whose wealth was comparable to people like Rockefeller and Carnegie). And to pay back both his loans and to help fund the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, Pope Leo X granted him the right to grant a plenary indulgence for financial assistance. And Albrecht’s theologians wrote up a few central claims about this Petrine Plenary Indulgence - stating that it could forgive even the most horrible sins for both the living and the dead.
Luther had no idea about this backroom dealing, but was instead struck by how strange it would seem to pay for freedom from purgatory. Shouldn’t that just be in God’s hands? If we had the ability to forgive the sins of the dead, shouldn’t we just always be praying for every dead person all the time forever to get them out of purgatory? And also - isn’t payment for remittance of time from purgatory putting faith in one’s own wallet as opposed to Christ’s greater sacrifice? We must keep in mind, this wasn’t merely an academic concern, he had parishioners coming to him showing him their letters of indulgence, paid for with life-savings for their deceased loved ones. How sinful it is to take advantage of the grieving - and to give them hope apart from the resurrection!
Luther wanted to talk about this in his office as professor and monk. He wanted to be a voice against this, and so, as an academic, he posted his 95 Theses to the wall of Castle Church in Wittenberg, to be publicly debated. While the debate Luther intended did not end up happening, the Theses spread like wildfire. And what happened next, I will talk about in my next article.
Peace and Grace,
Pastor Kaegler
September 2016 - Wisdom and Time
September is coming (or perhaps is already here as you read this). It’s often a time for new beginnings, and returns to routine, a time for the familiar smells of fall to start creeping into our morning - be it the very beginning of the trees turning, or the ubiquitous pumpkin spice invading our coffee cups. It’s time for the rushes of fall - harvest rush, school rush, work rush, home rush, even church rush.
And in the midst of all of the frantic rushing - I spend time with the Book of Ecclesiastes. No other book of the Bible gives me quite the same perspective. While we may reduce Ecclesiastes to its most simple quoted moments - the scathing critique of materialism and pride “Vanity of vanities!” or the funeral text “For everything there is a time under the sun,” - Ecclesiastes has a depth beyond them that beckons the reader to look critically at all aspects of life. Its weary author The Teacher - often ascribed as King Solomon- reflects on his failures, his successes and his experience. He talks about what has mattered and what has not. He doesn’t boast of high-mindedness or an excess of virtue, but values the simple and profound gifts - good meals, good company, good worship, and good toil for those around him. But staying up late with his own worries, working with indifference or with an indignant heart, taking pride in his accomplishments and buildings, and complaining about the generations who will benefit from all he’s done never did him any good.
The conclusion the Teacher really comes to is that we don’t get to enjoy our life later. We don’t get to find peace with God later. Life will always be frantic. Something will always try to distract you from the things that give you true life: your spiritual community, your prayer life, your closest friends, your families, and your most valuable and helpful labor. You are called to follow God and love the world now. And I tell you, the true way to do so is by God’s true and Holy Communion with you - freely given in Christ’s body and blood, bread and wine. In it, you will share in the vision of Ecclesiastes - your neighbor will be precious in your sight, the good will have more value, and the world will feel just a little more still amid the rush.
And so, as you continue in the rush and the struggles of the times you’ve been called into, I invite you to read Ecclesiastes once more, and to take heart in this prayer written by Roman Catholic theologian John Henry Newman, and shared in the eventide liturgies of Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion - “O Lord, support us all the day long of this troubled life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest, and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Peace be with you,
Rev. Kaegler
September is coming (or perhaps is already here as you read this). It’s often a time for new beginnings, and returns to routine, a time for the familiar smells of fall to start creeping into our morning - be it the very beginning of the trees turning, or the ubiquitous pumpkin spice invading our coffee cups. It’s time for the rushes of fall - harvest rush, school rush, work rush, home rush, even church rush.
And in the midst of all of the frantic rushing - I spend time with the Book of Ecclesiastes. No other book of the Bible gives me quite the same perspective. While we may reduce Ecclesiastes to its most simple quoted moments - the scathing critique of materialism and pride “Vanity of vanities!” or the funeral text “For everything there is a time under the sun,” - Ecclesiastes has a depth beyond them that beckons the reader to look critically at all aspects of life. Its weary author The Teacher - often ascribed as King Solomon- reflects on his failures, his successes and his experience. He talks about what has mattered and what has not. He doesn’t boast of high-mindedness or an excess of virtue, but values the simple and profound gifts - good meals, good company, good worship, and good toil for those around him. But staying up late with his own worries, working with indifference or with an indignant heart, taking pride in his accomplishments and buildings, and complaining about the generations who will benefit from all he’s done never did him any good.
The conclusion the Teacher really comes to is that we don’t get to enjoy our life later. We don’t get to find peace with God later. Life will always be frantic. Something will always try to distract you from the things that give you true life: your spiritual community, your prayer life, your closest friends, your families, and your most valuable and helpful labor. You are called to follow God and love the world now. And I tell you, the true way to do so is by God’s true and Holy Communion with you - freely given in Christ’s body and blood, bread and wine. In it, you will share in the vision of Ecclesiastes - your neighbor will be precious in your sight, the good will have more value, and the world will feel just a little more still amid the rush.
And so, as you continue in the rush and the struggles of the times you’ve been called into, I invite you to read Ecclesiastes once more, and to take heart in this prayer written by Roman Catholic theologian John Henry Newman, and shared in the eventide liturgies of Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion - “O Lord, support us all the day long of this troubled life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest, and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Peace be with you,
Rev. Kaegler
August 2016 - Questions
There’s no more important process in growing, learning, and becoming mature than learning to ask questions, and figuring out where to seek answers that last. Questioning is something that grows naturally. It’s in our very nature - babies and small children who cry out when nothing is wrong are often, perhaps unreflectively asking “Will my parents come to me?” And with good parents - sometimes the answer will be yes, but other times the answer will have to be no. We know that it might not be best for a child fussing about bedtime to be answered. Occasionally it’s best for them to learn that the world won’t end if Mom or Dad don’t drop everything to be with them - and not only that, but also that Mom and Dad still love them even if they don’t give into a child’s every beck and call.
This is what we might call a relational truth. The question is less “Will Mom or Dad come?,” and more “Can I trust them, do they love me?” It is no surprise that questions become characteristic of every aspect of our lives - including our faith. Questions of love and trust do not end in the child-parent relationship. They persist throughout life, and get more complicated. We grow to question people beyond our parents, but also our friends and wider family, our congregations, our nations, ourselves and our convictions, and our God.
A professor of mine, Dr. Tim Wengert, would often respond to his students’ questions with this presumption. If someone asked him a tricky question, he would ask “Why do you ask that question?” He developed this technique after many years of learning the hard way that there was more to the question than first met his ear. Under a question about baptism, there might be deep questions and presumptions about what sin is that don’t line up with our tradition and witness. Under a question about biblical history there might be another question about the reliability of the Gospel. Under a question of right and wrong might be a question about the nature of God. After hearing them, hearing their concern, we can proceed with both fact and conscience, and answer meaningfully.
One can do their best to answer people’s questions on the surface level, but the worst thing you can do to a question of those natures is to silence them. This is a struggle to those who are confident in what they know, and what they have experienced, but it is essential. The best you can do is to know the heart of the matter that concerns them. Cold facts don’t change hearts. This is perhaps why so many get so flustered in political discussions - people sometimes reject truth out of hand when it comes from the wrong side of the table - both sides can be convinced they have a monopoly on truth in the situation and cannot bear to open themselves up to another side. Questions are opportunities for the grace and love of God to shine in a way that is relevant to the one who is asking the question - not in abstractions or in foreign terms, but directly and with consonance.
The Church is a house not simply of divine answers from on high. It’s not a place of alien answers that are inaccessible. It’s a gathering of questioners who are drawn together. And together - around our shared books and songs we look for and share our glimpses at the answer that we look for, as “through a mirror darkly,” as St. Paul writes. But what a vision - what a gift - that we are loved by God, that the fire is quenched with the water of baptism, that Jesus’ resurrection is ours. We are living witnesses, to questions and to answers, and together we continue together always learning more - regardless of if we’re babies crying in worship, children running around, teens beginning to contemplate, adults trying to figure out what’s right in this world, or older folks who want their affairs to be in order when their time comes. We each have our shared questions, and we both live out God’s answer as best we can. Questioners are loved. Teachers are valued. God’s presence is sure.
This summer I’ll do my best to answer the questions you’ve given me - to see them in their heart and give you a word of truth you can rest in. Pray for me, and share your understanding with others.
Alleluia. Amen.
Pastor Kaegler
There’s no more important process in growing, learning, and becoming mature than learning to ask questions, and figuring out where to seek answers that last. Questioning is something that grows naturally. It’s in our very nature - babies and small children who cry out when nothing is wrong are often, perhaps unreflectively asking “Will my parents come to me?” And with good parents - sometimes the answer will be yes, but other times the answer will have to be no. We know that it might not be best for a child fussing about bedtime to be answered. Occasionally it’s best for them to learn that the world won’t end if Mom or Dad don’t drop everything to be with them - and not only that, but also that Mom and Dad still love them even if they don’t give into a child’s every beck and call.
This is what we might call a relational truth. The question is less “Will Mom or Dad come?,” and more “Can I trust them, do they love me?” It is no surprise that questions become characteristic of every aspect of our lives - including our faith. Questions of love and trust do not end in the child-parent relationship. They persist throughout life, and get more complicated. We grow to question people beyond our parents, but also our friends and wider family, our congregations, our nations, ourselves and our convictions, and our God.
A professor of mine, Dr. Tim Wengert, would often respond to his students’ questions with this presumption. If someone asked him a tricky question, he would ask “Why do you ask that question?” He developed this technique after many years of learning the hard way that there was more to the question than first met his ear. Under a question about baptism, there might be deep questions and presumptions about what sin is that don’t line up with our tradition and witness. Under a question about biblical history there might be another question about the reliability of the Gospel. Under a question of right and wrong might be a question about the nature of God. After hearing them, hearing their concern, we can proceed with both fact and conscience, and answer meaningfully.
One can do their best to answer people’s questions on the surface level, but the worst thing you can do to a question of those natures is to silence them. This is a struggle to those who are confident in what they know, and what they have experienced, but it is essential. The best you can do is to know the heart of the matter that concerns them. Cold facts don’t change hearts. This is perhaps why so many get so flustered in political discussions - people sometimes reject truth out of hand when it comes from the wrong side of the table - both sides can be convinced they have a monopoly on truth in the situation and cannot bear to open themselves up to another side. Questions are opportunities for the grace and love of God to shine in a way that is relevant to the one who is asking the question - not in abstractions or in foreign terms, but directly and with consonance.
The Church is a house not simply of divine answers from on high. It’s not a place of alien answers that are inaccessible. It’s a gathering of questioners who are drawn together. And together - around our shared books and songs we look for and share our glimpses at the answer that we look for, as “through a mirror darkly,” as St. Paul writes. But what a vision - what a gift - that we are loved by God, that the fire is quenched with the water of baptism, that Jesus’ resurrection is ours. We are living witnesses, to questions and to answers, and together we continue together always learning more - regardless of if we’re babies crying in worship, children running around, teens beginning to contemplate, adults trying to figure out what’s right in this world, or older folks who want their affairs to be in order when their time comes. We each have our shared questions, and we both live out God’s answer as best we can. Questioners are loved. Teachers are valued. God’s presence is sure.
This summer I’ll do my best to answer the questions you’ve given me - to see them in their heart and give you a word of truth you can rest in. Pray for me, and share your understanding with others.
Alleluia. Amen.
Pastor Kaegler