491 Years Ago Today

On October 31, 1517 a little-known Monk named Martin Luther tacked a piece of paper to the doors of The Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. This small act of courage changed the world. This was not an act of defiance as is usually thought. The church faced the main thoroughfare of the town and the church doors functioned as a public bulletin board, a logical place for posting notices and announcements about upcoming events.

Luther's "Ninety-five Theses" proposed a debate about the powerful Roman Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences. An Indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and been absolved of one’s sins. In Luther's Day Indulgences were being sold. Forgiveness was becoming a commercial transaction instead of a genuine change of heart.

Instead of granting an indulgence as a remission of the penalty for breaking church law, making a confession, and then restoring whatever had been damaged - property or human relationships or other serious sins - an indulgence could be purchased.

This was a gross violation of the original intention of confession and forgiveness. As Luther saw it, people were being lied to by church leaders and were being falsely told that they could find forgiveness of their sins, through the purchase of indulgences, rather than through the free gift of God's mercy offered in and through Jesus Christ.

This small act created a controversy between Luther and those allied with the Pope over a variety of doctrines and practices. The Protest-ant movement was born which would reform the Church. When Luther and his supporters were excommunicated in 1520, the Lutheran tradition was born. This in turn would later ease the creation of the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions as well.

So 491 years later the modern church (Catholic and Protestant traditions) is in need of a new Reformation. As Alan Hirsch said, "We've got to get to the place where we believe Jesus is absolutely right about absolutely everything." All reformation is Christ-centered. (Alan also said, "If you're not ticking off religious people you're not following Christ." Can't have a reformation without offending a few Pharisees along the way!)

We need a reformation of deeds more than creeds. A larger percentage of church budgets ought to go "to the least of these" instead of building larger buildings--less focus on personal kingdoms and more focus on the kingdom of God. The church needs to be less self-serving and focus more on serving the broken people among us. The Church needs to put our money where our mouth is, especially in nations like America where the church is consumed with consumerism and materialism.

Our level of biblical knowledge needs to grow, and our level of obedience needs to catch up with our level of biblical knowledge. We need to DO what we KNOW. George Barna recently observed that "Christianity has become a way of thought instead of a way of life." We've created a church culture where we know more and do less all the while thinking we're growing spiritually. A new reformation has begun--may it grow like Kudzu.