A call to live by faith

We are having quite a week. Tuesday the election, last Saturday Halloween. In both cases COVID has again proven quite disruptive. But then disruption is becoming the norm. But Halloween wasn't the only event of October 31st. Another quite disruptive event took place.

On that date in 1517, Martin Luther a mendicant Augustinian monk and university professor posted on the Wittenberg Castle Door 95 thesis for debate. The church door was where you posted public announcements so as those citizens who could read would be aware of public events. The posting took place on the Castle Church door for that is where the members of the university attended church. The town folks attended the parish church Saint Mary's.

Why on Oct. 31st? Because a very significant feast day was to occur the next day, Nov. 1, All Saints. Just like our communities make special arrangements for Nov. 3rd (the University of Montana does not have classes), so on All Saints, the community and the university was in church celebrating the important feast, celebrating and remembering those who went before as witnesses to the faith.

Luther was a bit naïve. He thought he was inviting the university to a typical scholastic debate. You know the things that university professors do. To our knowledge, nobody showed up. But . . . . the thesis was removed from the door, printed on the recently invented printing press and passed around Saxony. Oh boy, for those who could read, it created quite a stir. The rest as they say is history.

So, what was Luther's issue? In his lectures on the Bible he read "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" Romans 1:17. That seems pretty benign today but in 1517 it was a radical rediscovery.

Luther was quite dismayed when Pope Leo X authorized the selling of indulgences (the forgiveness of sins due to the merits of Christ and the saints) to be sold in Germany to raise money for the building of St. Peter's. Luther was beside himself, why pay for forgiveness when forgiveness is free by faith in Jesus?

As early as 13th century the church claimed that it had a "treasure" of indulgences. Luther's response to this practice was found in thesis 62: "The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God."

The Reformation was very disruptive, The Church has not been the same since. The call to live by faith trusting in the promises of God in Christ is as difficult to grasp today as it was in the 16th century. As humans we still want to have it our way. Our way is to claim a righteousness of our own - a righteousness which we "work" for a salvation which comes by "living the Christian life" by our own effort.

There is nothing more offensive than to live by faith. But that is the Gospel. It is a gift.